Armenian residents of the old city have expressed concern about the repeated attacks by Jewish extremists against them. The latest incident on the evening of January 28th included an attack on two Armenians returning from work followed by an attempt to tear down the Armenian flag and a false accusation of a terror act.

Armenia expressed on Monday serious concern at the latest reports of attacks on the Armenian community in Jerusalem blamed on Jewish extremists.

“We are deeply concerned by recent acts of violence and vandalism targeting Christian religious institutions in Jerusalem, including the Armenian Patriarchate, and Armenian residents of the Old City,” tweeted the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vahan Hunanian.

Below is the full text of a statement issued by the chancellor of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem Father Aghan:

On the 28th of January 2023, late at night, two Jewish Israeli extremists on their way towards the Wailing Wall proceeded to attack a vehicle carrying two Armenian passengers returning home from work. The two Armenians exited their vehicle and respectfully asked the assailants: “Why do you attack us? This is our neighborhood; we are only coming back home from work. We have always respected the Jewish community, why do you act this way toward us? What have we ever done to you?”

One of the extremists started shouting: “You do not have a neighborhood over here! This is our country! Leave our country!”

The young Armenian men cordially replied: “This is also our country! This is our home! We were born here, we have nowhere else to go!”

The other extremist then suddenly pepper-sprayed one of the Armenians at point-blank range and fled the scene. The two Armenians chased the aggressors in order to hand them over to the local authorities, however, due to the injuries sustained from the attack; they were not successful and subsequently went to the hospital to get treatment.

On their way back from the hospital, the aggressed Armenians immediately filed a complaint to the police, who then detained the two Israeli-Jewish extremists responsible for the attack. At dawn, they released one of the attackers. The one who was responsible for the pepper spray attack was detained.

An hour after this unprovoked aggression, another group of extremists, as they were crossing the Armenian Patriarchate Road, climbed the walls of the Armenian Patriarchate and tried to remove the flags of the Armenian Patriarchate (which bears a cross) and of the Republic of Armenia. The Armenian youth on the premises, noticing this, prevented them from climbing the walls. They fled the scene and returned with a smaller masked group. They tried to instigate a fight as they pepper-sprayed the youth again and ran towards the police station. The young Armenian men chased the Jewish extremists, and when they noticed that they were being chased, started screaming: “Terrorist attack! Terrorist attack!.”

The police had presumed that the threats were valid, pointed their guns toward the Armenians, blocked their path, and started beating the Armenian victims. They arrested George Kahkejian for having allegedly assaulted a police officer, which was categorically false and differed from what had really transpired. They detained George at the police station for the night, and the following day on the 29th of January, His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manougian swiftly acted and with the approval of the courts, freed George Kahkejian who was put on a 20-day house arrest pending a trial.

Due to the fact that George had sustained physical injuries, the police granted him permission to undergo a medical examination in order to determine the extent of the injuries.

Dimitri Diliani the head of the National Christian Forum in the holy land said that the repeated Israeli attacks are aimed at weakening the Christian presence in Jerusalem and especially in the old city. “They aim to remove the Christians from the Muslim-Christian Palestinian identity,” he said in a statement distributed to the press. “Anyone who is not a Jew is a target.”

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The attack against the Armenians is not an isolated incident,”

Dimitri Diliani”

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Diliani said that the attack on the Armenians is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of attacks against Christians. He said that an earlier attack occurred at the New Gate against local Palestinian Christians by these Jewish extremists. Diliani praised the heads of Churches for their public exposure of the actions of Jewish terrorist groups against Jerusalemites and their holy places. Diliani also noted the destruction of thirty headstones at the Protestant cemetery and the destruction of crosses that belong to the Lutheran Church.

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