Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information he holds on the number of Christians in Aleppo.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

There is a lack of reliable information on the number of Christians in Aleppo. At a press conference at the UN in Geneva in March 2016 the Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo (also President of Caritas Syria), estimated that the population of Christians in Aleppo had fallen from 160,000 pre-conflict to only 40,000 in 2016. My noble friend, the Rt Hon. Baroness Anelay of St Johns recently met with Armenian Church leaders, including one from Aleppo, who stated his congregation had fallen by 50%.

Overall, prior to the conflict, Christians numbered about 2.2 million — 10% of Syria’s population. 40% of the Christian population have now left Syria. Many of the Christians left because of the widespread perception they supported the regime. Those remaining vehemently reject the claim.