Ignatius Aphrem II:

I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for having us. We appreciate this opportunity to tell our story and will try to be brief. We are here to tell the story of what is happening in our country. We truly appreciate the Irish experience of forging peace. We are mindful of the Irish efforts to bring peace to this island. I lived in Ireland for two years between 1989 and 1991. I was here when the peace treaty in the North was brokered and we thank God for the peace that prevails here. We are here to raise awareness of what is happening in Syria and tell the committee about the suffering of the Syrian people.

I am encouraged by what I see on the screen, the quotation of the former director of Louvre Museum, "Every person has two homelands, his own and Syria."

Syria was a homeland for humanity and we say that civilisation started in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The first alphabet was invented in Syria. We have lived together as Christians and Muslims for 15 centuries, not without certain difficulties but we came to know how to respect each other and how to accept each other. What is happening today has nothing to do with religion or religious wars although it is being waged in the name of religion. Those who are killing us are mainly Muslim fanatics who do not believe in co-existence or in accepting the other. We have heard from many people that there is nothing called a moderate opposition. Even President Obama has said this to us when we sat with him two years ago. He said that moderate opposition was a fantasy and that it does not exist. We are facing terrorism.

Of course, there was and always will be legitimate demand for reforms in Syria, which is part of the political process of every country and State. We support continuous review and reform of our political system where everyone should have the rights and obligations as a Syrian citizen. All of us should be treated equally in the eyes of the law. That is our hope for the new Syria to come. Changing regimes and bringing reforms, however, at such a high cost with the blood of so many Syrians should not be the case. We are here to ask Ireland to help us to bring peace back to Syria. Those who fight with us kill our people, and kidnap our bishops. Two archbishops of Aleppo have been kidnapped since April 2013 and we do not know anything about them. A prominent Muslim cleric, Dr. Mohammed al-Bouti was killed inside a mosque and many others have been hanged at the doors of the mosques. Churches and schools have been destroyed. These people are not the freedom fighters they claim to be. They want to force on Syrians, both Christian and Muslim, their way of life which is dangerous for all of us but also dangerous for Europe and the West.

These terrorists have sleeping dormant cells in Europe and they can be activated at any time. His Excellency, the Grand Mufti of Syria lost his son who was killed at the doors of Aleppo University because the terrorists wanted his father to change sides but he refused. They killed his son. The next day a delegation was visiting him from Lebanon and he told the delegation that he forgave my son's killers and that his son's murder should yield peace for Syria. He asked the killers to come forward, to sit and talk and to enter into a dialogue. They, however, sent him a text message the following day that said they were not interested in his forgiveness. This is the situation we are living in. The people are suffering on all sides. Civilians are being killed but millions are also going hungry today. The churches and the religious institutions are doing a great job in coming to the aid and fulfilling the needs of these people.

We are overwhelmed by these needs. Our plea to the great Irish people is to stand with us, to pray for us and to advocate on our behalf to have real serious Syrian dialogue, to encourage the national reconciliation movement currently happening in parts of Syria. As a result of this reconciliation movement many armed people are giving up their arms and coming back to society. This is what we would like to see. We do not want violence and we do not want anybody to be killed. We want real reconciliation and for peace to prevail in Syria. We feel that sometimes we are abandoned by the international community because all the talk is about the rebels and what the rebels are suffering, but nobody is talking about how much the real Syrian people living under Government control areas are suffering. One week or ten days ago a school in western Aleppo was targeted by the rebels and seven children and three adults were killed. On the same day the University of Aleppo was targeted by missiles.

There are also many atrocities being committed by pockets of rebels surrounding our cities in areas where the Government is in control. I live in old Damascus, the historic part, not far from the straight street where Saint Paul was led to be baptised. Occasionally bombs are dropped on us by rebels who live not too far from there, about 2 km, and who entered the Jobar district and other places. There is no safe place in Syria for anybody. All Syrians need peace and Syria should be a mother who brings back all her children again, especially those who are in third countries and those who are risking their lives to make it to Europe. We want them all to come back but to come back and live in peace the way Syrians have lived for many centuries. Nobody should accept killers among us who kill us in the name of freedom and human rights. It is unfortunate that the Western media is taking most of its stories from a one-man show in London called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Nobody knows who is paying this man and who is supplying him with stories. There are so many stories our friends in the West do not hear. We are here to tell some of these stories. I appreciate the opportunity and I thank the committee.