ICC Note: The small number of Christians still living in the historic Christian town of Mardin mark Christmas with a sense of fear and uncertainty. The population has grown in recent years only as a result of refugees coming across the border from Syria, driven out by the conflict there. The existing community is struggling just to hang on and is able to offer little support for the refugees.

12/28/2015 Turkey (Irish Times) The sound of spoken Arabic rings out in the December morning air along the narrow alley behind Mardin’s Saint Shmuni Church. In a quaint home, metres from the church, two families of Assyrian Christians from Syria lay out matter-of-factly how their lives have fallen apart over the past four years.

“Myriam”, from Hassakeh in northeast Syria, moved to the ancient town of Mardin in south Turkey six years before the outbreak of revolt in 2011. A Syriac Orthodox Christian, she says all her family members remain in Hassakeh, where the kidnapping of well-to-do Christians has become commonplace.

“My cousin, in his 50s, was beaten badly and given only dry bread to eat for two months,” she said. He was released after the kidnappers were given 12 million Syrian lira (€30,000). The constant, menacing threat from Islamic State jihadists, who prize Christian girls, lingers above the entire community, she says.

Her cousin “Kinda” fled Hassakeh last March and spent the summer in Lebanon. Today, Myriam and Kinda – who have asked me not to use their real names for fear of reprisals against their families – share this spartan if cosy home in Mardin’s historic old town with their two children. Kinda’s husband is in Sweden, unable to work or to send remittances to his wife and child.

They say the local Syriac church gives them 25 Turkish lira (€8) per person every month but in the past they received 100 lira (€31). “Other than the church, no one is helping,” said Myriam.

The Syriac families of Hassakeh and northeast Syria make up one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Today, their faith and way of life face destruction by Islamic State, also known as Isis, and a host of other extremist groups, and also by the promise of a new life and safety in Europe.

…