Last Armenian families from Kobane fleeing Syria do not intend to return

Just like their ancestors forced from their homes in Eastern Anatolia in 1915-16, the last Armenian families living in the embattled northern Syrian town of Kobane have fled after the repeated jihadist attacks - and they do not intend to go back. 

Agop Tomasyon, an Armenian from Kobane close to the Turkish border, who fled his hometown for Turkey around nine months ago when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an attack, said the last eight Armenian families had left Syria for good and would not return.

"There were only eight families left before the ISIL attack [in October 2014]. All of these families left Kobane after the attack," said Tomasyon. 

Syrian Kurdish forces expelled ISIL fighters from Kobane on June 27 and retook full control after three days under siege, after a group of ISIL militants stormed into the border town. ISIL had also failed to capture Kobane at the start of 2015 after four months of deadly clashes.

Three Armenian families are currently living at the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) refugee camp in the Suruç district of ?anl?urfa province. 

Tomasyan, who belongs to one of the three families in the Suruç refugee camp, said they had to leave their hometown after ISIL's attack because they knew that the jihadists would kill them once they learned that they were Christians. 

"We understood that it was time for us to go. We decided to come to Turkey after a discussion between the last Armenians left. Eventually we came to Suruç," he said. From Suruç, the eight families had spread to various other places. 

"One family settled in ?anl?urfa, another in Hatay, and another in Aleppo. Two of the families who had passports went to...