Nearly 12,000 Armenians remain in Aleppo, official says
Around 10-12,000 Armenians remain in Aleppo, Syria, which was captured by Islamist rebels in a lightning assault last week.
They mostly reside in the Nor Gyugh, Azizieh and Suleymaniye districts, Diaspora Commissioner’s Office representative Hovhannes Aleksanyan said on Thursday.
He revealed that the first group of Aleppo Armenians will arrive in Armenia via a Damascus-Yerevan flight on December 14.
The official recalled that a local Armenian, identified as Yervant Arslanian, was hit by sniper fire while attempting to leave the city and died in hospital on Sunday.
"So, organizing an evacuation at the moment is extremely difficult. There are no guarantees for safe evacuation of a large number of people," Aleksanyan added.