High-level conference on the current situation in Syria
The current situation in Syria is the focus of this year’s annual conference Initiative Christian Orient (ICO) on 19./20. September in Salzburg. The main lecture on Monday evening, September 19, will be given by the Armenian Apostolic Bishop of Damascus, Armash Nalbandian. P. Ibrahim Alsabagh, superior of the Franciscan monastery and the Roman Catholic parish in the northern Syrian metropolis, and P. Gerald Baumgartner will also come to Salzburg and report from Syria. The Jesuit from Upper Austria has been living and working in the Jesuit monastery in the central Syrian city of Homs for about a year.
Archbishop Franz Lackner from Salzburg and the Innsbruck Bishop Hermann Glettler. The German journalist and Syria expert Kristin Helberg and the Viennese Orient expert Gudrun Harrer will provide expert contributions. Austria’s Ambassador to Syria, Peter Krois, will also report on his experiences at the conference
“Syria drama never ends”
The conference in the St. Virgil educational center is entitled “Syria – Paths to Peace?!” “The drama surrounding Syria never ends. After Corona, the Ukraine war is now also having massive economic, political and humanitarian consequences for the country and its inhabitants,” said the ICO in an announcement for the conference. In Salzburg, personal experience reports and the analysis of the current situation should ideally lead to the development of concrete future perspectives, which of course cannot yet be identified.
Live connections to ICO project partners in the Middle East, insights into the ongoing work of the ICO and liturgical celebrations (including with the Salzburg Auxiliary Bishop Hansjörg Hofer) round off this year’s conference, which is organized by the ICO in cooperation with the Salzburger “Pro Oriente”section is organized.
Soup kitchen ensures survival
P. Ibrahim Alsabagh has been a project partner of the ICO in Aleppo for many years. The Franciscans run, among other things, a soup kitchen, which is kept by the ICO. By mid-June 2022, more than 200,000 meals had already been distributed to poor families, elderly people living alone, the sick and disabled, Christians and Muslims alike. 36,000 euros are needed every month to run the kitchen, the ICO informed and at the same time asked for donations.
Fr. Gerald Baumgartner reported on the situation in Homs in the religion podcast “He who believes will be saved” at the beginning of the year. Electricity is only available for a maximum of one hour a day, heating oil and petrol are in short supply and exorbitantly expensive, and you have to queue for a long time to get subsidized staple foods. Survival is only possible for the majority of people if a minimum has already made it to Europe and is sending money. Since the Ukraine war, the humanitarian situation in the country has deteriorated again.
In the podcast, Baumgartner also advocates rethinking Western economic sanctions. This would not hit the Syrian government, but the people. The religion podcast produced by the ecumenical radio agency Studio Omega can be accessed via the website www.studio-omega.at.
Situation is catastrophic
Nabil Antaki from the Syrian aid organization “Blue Marists” recently wrote to the ICO, complaining that the West has been paying even less attention to the suffering Syrian population since the Ukraine war. The situation on the ground is simply catastrophic. 82 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, 60 percent do not have enough food. Bread was now also rationed, not to mention electricity, petrol and heating oil. According to Antaki, the unemployment rate and inflation would quickly rise unabated, and the Syrian currency had lost 90 percent of its original value.
The Christian Orient Initiative has been supporting Christians in the Orient for more than 30 years. Numerous aid projects are implemented every year in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.
(Information and registration for the conference: www.christlicher-orient.at)
Source: catpress