The offense has been widely compared to the Hamidian massacres and Armenian Genocide , as over 70 % of Kessab 's population is Armenian and is one of the last Armenian settlements in the Cilicia region , where the Armenian population had been massacred twice by Turkey . President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan stated , “ All of us perfectly remember the history of Kessab , which was unfortunately full of hellish realities of deportations in the last 100 years " , referring to both events . On 2 April , during a hearing before the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee and in response to a question by Congressman Schiff , US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power , said that Kessab " is an issue of huge concern " . Congressman Schiff noted that many of the residents were descendants of victims of the Armenian Genocide and that " there is a particular poignancy to their being targeted in this manner . " On 3 April Armenia 's Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan said that 38 of Kessab 's Armenian inhabitants had been captured when the town fell to the rebels , 24 of them were later released , 3 had been forcefully taken into Turkey and were now in the village of Vaqif , and that 670 Armenian families had been displaced after the attack on Kessab , with about 400 of the families , at least 2,000 ethnic Armenian civilians , sought refuge in Latakia and other neighboring hills . The minister also said that in Kessab , Armenian churches had been defaced , crosses on the churches had been removed , Armenian shops and homes had been looted . Also on 3 April , Ruben Melkonyan , deputy dean of the Oriental Studies department at Yerevan State University , said that the Armenian community of Kessab was unlikely to recover and that what had happened were " crimes that make a genocide "
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
2014 Latakia offensive