Burj Hammoud, Lebanon--For thousands of Syrian Armenian refugees in Lebanon, the slaughter and expulsion of their ancestors a century ago is less a historical event than an ongoing trauma.
Though their community is just one of many caught up in Syria's brutal conflict, Syrian Armenians say their fate has been particularly painful because it echoes the tragedy often termed the Armenian genocide.
Maggie Melkonian fights back tears as she describes fleeing to Lebanon from her home in the Sulamaniyeh district of Syria's Aleppo city more than two years ago.
"Just as our ancestors had to leave without anything, we had to do the same," she says.
"We're living a second genocide now, our houses are all gone... Our people are dying again," she adds, her voice breaking.
Melkonian is safe now, living in the Armenian district of Burj Hammoud with her daughter and son-in-law, and her grandchildren.
But her husband remains in Aleppo, reluctant to leave everything behind, like so many Armenians who fled their homes in 1915.
The facts of the tragedy that began 100 years ago this month remain bitterly disputed.
Armenia and Armenians in the diaspora say 1.5 million of their forefathers were killed by Ottoman forces in a targeted campaign.
They say the campaign was ordered by the military leadership of the Ottoman empire to eradicate the Armenian people from Anatolia in what is now eastern Turkey.
But Turkey takes a sharply different view, saying that hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians lost their lives as Ottoman forces battled the Russian Empire for control of eastern Anatolia during World War I.
AFP
