While mainstream media spends countless hours covering story after story of fictitious chemical weapons allegations against the Syrian Arab Army and tries to demonize the democratically elected President Dr. Bashar Al Assad and his wife they spend little to no time covering important stories that should receive at least some airtime. One such issue is the Christian genocide currently taking place in the Middle East and particularly in Syria during this imposed war and invasion.

Picture was taken by Sarah Abed in Al Tala in Wadi Al Nasara (The Christian Villages) of St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Summer of 2008

We have been bombarded with lies and propaganda in mainstream and social media which have fueled this 6+ year war. Tomorrow marks the 6 year anniversary of this war which was planned as early as 1949 by the US. The CIA admits orchestrating Syrian Coup of March 1949 HERE. This was just the first attempt of many to destabilize Syria by the USA.

In order to fully understand an important aspect of this war that affects religious minorities in Syria, it’s best to hear directly from those who have been persecuted based on their faith. One particular religious minority will be the focus of this article. This minority, in particular, has not faired well and has been subjected to heinous crimes against humanity and persecution throughout this war is Christianity. Christians are being targeted based solely on their faith. Effectively, a Christian Genocide is currently taking place in Syria by the various armed terrorist groups, it’s best to hear directly from Christians in Syria that have been living this reality for over six years now. This is not to imply that Christians are the only minority that have been targeted, other minorities have been covered in other articles.

Alawites, Yezidis, Shia, have also dealt with their fair share of turmoil one such example was the Adra Massacre where victims were thrown into the local bakery ovens and burnt alive. Sunni’s have been massacred as well. The anti-Islamic terrorist factions have terrorized everyone at some point but the false allegation that Sunni’s have been targeted more so than the minorities is one without merit and meant to demonize the Shi’a dominated military factions especially those from Iran and Hezbollah from Lebanon.

Original article was published on Mint Press on 3/15/17, News of the Greek Diaspora on 3/18/17, Fort Russ on 3/18/2017, Friends of Syria on 3/27/2017 written by Sarah Abed

St. Elian monastery in Qaryatain, Syria, which is near Homs, was destroyed by ISIS after it captured Qaryatain on August 6 (AINA 2015-08-20)

An ISIS fighter stands in the rubble of St. Elian monastery, an Assyrian monastery from the 5th century after it has been destroyed.

Here is an example of how so called “activists” have been reporting lies to feed this media campaign meant to demonize the Syrian government. In this video Abu Mazen (which means the father of Mazen) reports that the “regime” destroyed this church in Harasta. Another baseless claim where information has been drastically distorted to demonize the Syrian government.

In order to fully understand the Christian Genocide currently taking place in Syria by the various armed terrorist groups, it’s best to hear directly from Christians in Syria that have been living this reality for over six years now. One can only imagine what life must be like for all Syrians at this time and specifically those that are targeted based on their faith. Yasmine agreed to do an interview where she shares her insights on this topic, from Damascus where she has resided most of her life. She is one of the Syrian voices that are part of the “Syrians Speak Out” series that will take us on a journey to discover the truth during the war in Syria, that I wrote for Mint Press News.

Yasmine is an engineer who then went on to get her Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and resides in Damascus the oldest city to be continuously inhabited in the world.

Yasmine is Aramean Syriac Orthodox originally from Al Qamishly in the North East of Syria but grew up in Damascus. Damascus is nicknamed the City of Jasmine (Yasmin in Arabic). Yasmine contacted me on Facebook recently after reading my articles and posts. We discussed the situation there and her frustration with the lies being reported. I asked if she would want to tell her story, she eagerly agreed. Shortly after our talk, her Facebook account was blocked and she hasn’t been able to come back on Facebook since then. Also, oddly enough only my messages are visible from our conversation.

A few days ago her friend reached out to me and asked for my email and she sent me “Memoir of a Syrian girl” detailing her experience living in Damascus before and during the war. I will be putting that in a separate article. I asked her since she is a Christian in Syria if she would be willing to answer some questions and she agreed. The questions were created in collaboration with my friend Mark Taliano a retired teacher who contributes to Global Research and visited Syria in 2016. Mark is also passionate about spreading the truth about Syria and we have worked on previous articles for Global Research. He wrote about his experience in Voices from Syria an e-book.

Yasmine’s answers have not been modified except that she did send me a follow-up email asking if she could add more information to her previous answers. Her answers have been updated in this article, to reflect these additions. What a pleasure it is to hear from real people who are not paid to spread propaganda like Lina AlShamy, Bana Alabed, Bilal Abdul Kareem who were the cast of actors that put on quite a show during Aleppo’s liberation which they turned 180 degrees into #Aleppocaust.

Interview with Yasmine regarding the Christian genocide in Syria: