By Vestnik Kavkaza
“Due to two non-governmental organizations – the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (IPPO) and the Paris Institute of Democracy and Cooperation – we manage to alter clichés imposed on the international society by the Western mass media which implement an order on Syria,” the president of the Paris Institute of Democracy and Cooperation and the member of the IPPO Council, Natalya Narochnitskaya.
The IPPO, which began its work in the mid 19th century, is the oldest in Russia international, beneficial, scientific, and humanitarian organization which contributes to Orthodox pilgrimage to the Holy Land and develops scientific Palestine studies, Oriental studies, and humanitarian cooperation with people of the Middle East.
“The Syrian drama is lugging away the whole region which is threatened by complete collapse of the ethnic and religious balance, if we don’t reconsider the fundamentals of the current policy,” Narochnitskaya says. “It concerns not only Syria, but also Lebanon and Jordan. In the postwar period France had done a lot to establish pro-Western and pro-French elite in these countries. The cases of Libya and Egypt showed that this pro-Western elite can be swept away by radicals who succeed in these conflicts. It is Europe that will suffer as the closest neighbor of the Middle East. America is remote. It is difficult to understand what geopolitical benefits from the coming catastrophic consequences can force France and Western Europe to provide such a thoughtless policy against their own interests. Europe is in crisis. If the balance in the Middle East collapses, a war of everybody against everybody will begin. The middle class didn’t support the opposition in Syria. They understood that preventive elements of the political, inter-ethnic, and inter-religious balance would be ruined. The opposition has no support because it consists of many different forces – these are militants, hirelings from various places. Moreover, armed clashes between them have begun. They are aimed at destruction of Christians. Genocide threatens 32% of the Syrian population – 10-11% of Christians, Kurds, and Alawis.”
The deputy chairwoman of the IPPO, Yelena Aganova, called Syria “a cradle of Christianity” and “a crossroad of ancient cultures and civilizations.” She thinks that “not only buildings are being destroyed there, but also an atmosphere of religious tolerance and neighborly cooperation between various ethnic and religious communities which exist there for centuries. It is obviously not in interests of ethnic peacemaking, but in favor of overthrowing the ruling regime. It is a pity that the Western countries are trying to impose their values on people of Syria. The Western world actually supports the growth of religious fanaticism and violence in Syria today. People who belong to a different religion become a target for Islamic extremists. Watching a mass outflow of Christians from Syria where the number of Christians has recently been 10%, we say that the international society, powerful international institutes, including the UN, have to work out an effective global mechanism of resistance to religious discrimination. Our society will spread this idea through the UN structures for our coreligionists would be secured by the mechanism.”
