08.01.2018, Moscow.
Russian military aid did not only stop terrorism but also prevented a genocide of Christians in the Middle East, said Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ Kirill, RIA Novosti news agency reported on January 7.
The message of the Orthodox community of 2013 to Russian President Vladimir Putin with request to help Christians in the Middle East was heard, the Patriarch said in his interview to the Rossiya 1 channel. And now, we can say that the genocide of Christians was prevented thanks to the participation of Russia, noted the Patriarch.
According to the Patriarch, radical forces, which are provoking conflicts in Syria are not interested in preserving Christianity, and the first thing they will do if they come to power will be liquidating it.
The Patriarch said that for this reason, Christians supported Assad and his government actively, because of a balance of forces, and because people felt safe.
And not only in Syria but also in nearby Iraq, 85% Christians were either killed or expelled from this country, according to the Patriarch.
Fast decrease in the number of Christians in the Middle East continues for the last several years. The main reason for this is drastic radicalization of political Islamism.
In 2016, the Primate of the Syriac Catholic Church Ignatius Joseph III in his interview to the Ogoniok magazine accused the West of mass deaths of Christians in the Middle East, he noted that the Christian community was one of the most numerous in the country — 19% (of the total number of Christians in the world), and now there are less than 5%. This is a disaster not only for the Middle East, but also for all of the civilization.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
