The Armenian Apostolic Church is an Eastern Orthodox Church and the second largest Orthodox tradition in Syria. The Church was founded in Armenia where Christianity was established as the state religion in the year 301 CE. With the fall of the Armenian kingdoms in the 11th century and the rise of the Safavids in Iran in the 16th century, Armenians immigrated to cities throughout Anatolia and the Levant. In 1742, Rome officially recognized a separate Armenian Catholic Church and over the next two centuries, Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries proselytized among members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This led to the official recognition of separate categories for Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, and Armenian Protestant Christians in the Ottoman millet system. The Armenian Apostolic Church remains the national church of Armenia.
Armenians have had a long presence in Syria; the community was concentrated in Aleppo where Armenians excelled in arts, crafts, and trade. The 1915 Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey brought around 100,000 refugees into Syria, mostly to Aleppo, and shifted the Catholicosate to Aleppo and then to Lebanon (a second Catholicosate is based in Etchmiadzin, Armenia). The rise of the Ba’ath party in Syria undermined traditional hierarchies within the Syrian Armenian community, which was part of a wider transnational community closely linked to Armenians in Lebanon. With the recent Syrian conflict, thousands of Syrian-born Armenians have fled to Armenia.
Sources
Theo Maarten van Lint, "Armenian Apostolic Church," The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, Vol. I, ed. George T. Kurian, (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 114-120.
Alia Malek, "Syrian Armenians Seek Shelter in Armenia," The New York Times, December 11, 2012, accessed June 6, 2013.
Nicolas Migliorino, (Re)Constructing Armenia in in Lebanon and Syria: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and the State in the Aftermath of a Refugee Crisis (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008).