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Hovik Shehirian, correspondent of Aleppo-based Kantsasar paper, took photos of Armenian-populated village Ghnemie. The photos show the current state of the village after it has been liberated from militants, and the damage done to the Surb Grigor Armenian Church.

Surb Grigor Church in Ghnemie was built by local residents in 1875. The elderly of the village say that the church was repaired in 1875, but at the time it was already 300-year-old. 

In 1959 Archbishop Ghevond Chepeyan initiated the dilapidated church’s reconstruction. The new church was consecrated by Archbishop on July 31, 1960. Its dome was repaired by Berio Armenian Diocese in 1997.

The source says that prior to the Syrian war, the picturesque village of Ghmenie hosted annual camps and trips of Syrian Armenian unions. Pilgrimages were also organized each year to Surb Grigor Church on the Sunday before the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.