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</p><div class=""><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/">Home</a> > Armenia Builds a New Aleppo</div>
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<h1 class="">Armenia Builds a New Aleppo</h1>
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<span class="">June 11, 2013 - 8:16am</span>, by <span class=""><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/2399">Giorgi Lomsadze</a> <span class="">[1]</span></span> </div>
<div class=""><ul class=""><li class=""><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/voices/tamadatales" rel="tag" title="A daily feast of news from the South Caucasus">Tamada Tales</a> <span class="">[2]</span></li>
<li class=""><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/3213" rel="tag" title="">Armenia Diaspora</a> <span class="">[3]</span></li><li class=""><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/taxonomy/term/3829" rel="tag" title="">Syria</a> <span class="">[4]</span></li>
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<p>To make sure exiles from Syria feel at home in Armenia, the
government has commissioned the construction of an entire settlement
called <a target="_blank" title="" href="http://armenia.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/225404/">New Aleppo</a> <span class="">[6]</span>.<br>
<br><br>Located 20 kilometers shy of the capital, Yerevan, the residential project will accommodate some of <a target="" title="" href="http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65669">the thousands of Syrians of Armenian descent,</a> <span class="">[7]</span> who escaped the war in Syria.<br>
New Aleppo, named in honor of the wartorn northern Syrian city that
houses most of Syria's ethnic Armenian population, will sit on 4.8
hectares (some 11 acres) of land in the industrial town of Ashtarak. <br><br>Armenia's <a target="_blank" title="" href="http://news.am/eng/news/156864.html">Ministry of Diaspora Affairs</a> <span class="">[8]</span>
reports that some 600 families have expressed willingness to move into
the development's apartments. They will be expected to pay half the cost
of the flats; the authorities and charity groups are expected to pick
up the rest of the tab. <br><br>With some 7,000 Syrian-Armenians now
seeking residency in Armenia, the government says that more Syrian
quarters will be popping up across the country as well.<br>
<br><br>The Syrian Diaspora, estimated to be over 100,000-strong,
descends from ethnic Armenians who fled World-War-I-era massacres in
Ottoman Turkey. Now, a century later, the bloody rebellion in Syria has
driven the community back to what is considered their ancestral
homeland. <br>
<br><br>Some commentators say that preserving the Armenian community in
Syria should be the main priority for Yerevan. Fears exist that the
Diaspora exodus could reduce Armenia’s ability to exert any influence in
the Middle East, long seen as an important Diaspora outpost. </p>
<p><br><br>But as long as <a target="_blank" title="" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22840728">Aleppo is not safe</a> <span class="">[9]</span>,
the Armenian government is likely to continue building New
Aleppos. The Armenian Diasporas are considered part of a larger
Armenian family, even if they have been continents and centuries away
from the Armenian state. </p>
<p><br><br>Yerevan has been fast-tracking <a target="" title="" href="http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65728">visas and residency permits</a> <span class="">[10]</span>, facilitating <a target="_blank" title="" href="http://armenpress.am/eng/news/721570/syrian-armenians%E2%80%99-employment-program-launched.html">employment and social adaptation</a> <span class="">[11]</span>
for the arrivals from Syria, often described as returnees. The projects
pose a financial burden for the cash-strapped country, but the
authorities hope that the influx of ethnic Armenians will help boost
Armenia's shrinking population and contribute fresh entrepreneurial
ideas to its economy. </p>
<p><br><br>After all, in Armenia, as elsewhere in the South Caucasus, blood ties are everything.<br>
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