This is another drama, that of the Armenians of Haut-Karabakh, victims on the part of Azerbaijan of ethnic purification of a genocidal nature, which convinced the author of the urgency of an overall text on his martyred Christian brothers. Litany of abuses and atrocities, attempt to eradicate until the memory of an ancestral presence, barely polished indifference of France, any resemblance to the events that occurred in northwestern Syria would be far from fortuitous.
A growing danger
Especially since, to use the title of a chapter of the work, it was already necessary well before that to speak of “The abandonment of Christians from Syria”. They tried to keep a strict neutrality between the power of the dictator Bashar al-Assad and the Islamist rebellion, but such a message issued in 2013 by the regional minister of the Franciscans of Syria already announced what happens today: “I would like everyone to know that by supporting the revolutionaries, the West supports religious extremists and helps to kill Christians. At this rate, there will no longer be a single Christian in these areas. »»
There will no longer be a single Christian in these areas
The regional minister of the Franciscans of Syria
And the heart tightens to the story of the Calvary of Frans van der Lugt, beaten and murdered in 2014 by Al-Nosra, a movement whose founder is none other than Abou Mohammed al-Joulani, the current master of the country: “For Christians, but also for many Muslim families welcomed in the monastery, Father Frans was a figure rooted in their reality. Yet very aware of the dangers incurred, the Jesuit father therefore wanted absolutely to stay in Syria, his second homeland since 1966. In the monastery, he occupied a small room, cluttered with books, and was sleeping on a mattress placed on the ground. »»
Out of breath
Throughout this saga of Eastern Christians dominates the evidence of a reflux. Reflux of French influence in these areas, when the protection granted only to Maronites by Saint Louis had extended to all Christianity with François I. Reflux of oriental Christianity as such, of which Jean-François Colosimo wonders in his preface if it would not be “Desperately promised to engulf”all recalling that his disappearance “Would mean a universal disaster”.
These shadows extend to the admirable work of Carine Marret and create a striking contrast in these pages with the influence of a rich civilization near dying and which requires our help. As Easter approaches, celebrated this year on the same date by Catholics and Orthodox, it is more than ever to believe in signs and above all know how to hear this call for help.
Eastern Christians and France. Milles years of a tormented passionCarine Marret, Balland, 458 pages, 26 euros.
