Culture and Positionality
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According to Harley, Jolivette, McCormick, and Tice's (2002) definition of culture and positionality, I am a Syrian Armenian middle-class woman, I can speak English and Arabic fluently and belong to Orthodox Christian Minority, educated through university with a specialty in banking. In particular, I identify more with Orthodox Christian Minority in Syria with an assessment of the vulnerability of Syria's Christians. I consider this grouping as a minority and marginalized since it forms only 10 percent of Syria’s population. However, I believe I have a culture in this grouping.
One feature that helps to describe the position of Syria’s Orthodox Christian Minority is their geographical concentrations in strategic areas in Syria, which are hot spots in the current and future conflicts my membership is facing. The places are Aleppo, Homs, and around Damascus, Latakia, and the outskirts of coastal regions, which attract much interest from both the government and the opposition Syrians. Our numerical presence in these areas translates into our economic and political relevance, particularly in the understanding of our position as an orthodox Christian Minority in the context of prevailing civil wars. Concerning the risks and threats we face as an Orthodox Christian minority, the current Syrian civil wars have placed significant stress on us with massive communities having abandoned their indigenous homes, experiencing internal displacements, or gone to seeks refuge in Turkey or Lebanon. A good example is a Christian community occupying the Southeastern governorate in Deir Ez-Zor, whom Salafist groups forced threatened and forced them to leave.
Another feature of my religious grouping in Syria is its combined ethnic and religious identity, which creates confusion and makes the grouping lack cohesion and become more vulnerable since the diversity influences our ethnic identities and ethnic boundaries across our generations. Therefore, religion, coupled with ethnicity, defines this minority group.
Adding to the list of challenges Orthodox Christian Minority are facing and making the grouping more vulnerable is being double-sided. When one compares my Christian minority membership with other religious minorities like the Kurds, it is easy to observe that the other religious minorities are generally wary as regards the Syrian Opposition groupings. However, our situation is more complicated because not all of us align politically with Al-Assad Leadership. For example, many orthodox-Christian Minorities like George Sabra became members of the opposition like the Syrian National Coalition. In reality, the Orthodox Christian minority lend a hand in political demo opposing the al-Assad government before the outbreak of fighting throughout Syria. Concurrently, other Christian sections were in active support of the Syrian leadership and received training as well as weapons to defend their villages from the opposition, some going to the extent of collaborating with the Pro Assad Shabiha militias or rallying in the village-popular committees. I estimate that perhaps tens of thousands of my membership are playing an active role in pro-government.
Another ambiguity with my membership is disproportionate suffering because of our vulnerability. There is much evidence that conflicts have affected my grouping. That is despite the absence of a clear indication that someone targeted the Conflicts to us just because we are Christians. Nonetheless, fears among my membership are high with intimidations, threats, and kidnapping by Salafists grouping like the al-Qaeda being the primary cause of such worries. Diverse minority groups have experienced 'disproportionate' sufferings, but Christians have suffered most. Aleppo and Homs particularly are going through isolated sufferings and are risking a war. Of 200,000 Christians in Aleppo, about 25,000 have fled the city because of the fighting and uncertainty for their future. Such Christians running from Aleppo might not return to their original homes and investments, or regain their civil order in the area or even enjoy minority rights that they enjoyed before the war.
Concerning the mentioned challenges, there is a medium outlook trend for orthodox Christian Minorities in Syria. First, our community will continue experiencing fear of attacks by sectarians and will observe extra caution while displaying our Christian traditions in the public domain. There is a likelihood of "Islamization" of the Syrian opposition with the civil war assuming the shape of a "Jihad" in opposition to the Syrian government. The third outlook trend will be the "militarization" of our membership in these regions, which will be a privilege to us. That is a systematic process and is already in its incipient stage. However, the National Defense army is already mobilizing and encouraging such "militarization" of Christian Syrians through the al-Assad government. Fourthly, Syrian Christian communities in ethnically and diverse regions will continue undergoing Militarization and becoming a notable trend in the future. Last yet importantly, although the Syrian National Coalition includes prominent Christian dissidents like President George Sabra, my membership in Syria might not have an added advantage or empowerment vocally to call for the elimination of the al-Assad government and might not even make such attempts any time soon.
Other threats that we continue facing in my minority membership, which will affect my life and experiences are environmental security, confiscation of our lands, lack of food security, especially in the regions that the opposition dominates, and severe health insecurity.