These Christians are what’s left of those that were tortured and killed as they were driven out of Armenia at the beginning of the last Century. Britain and the U.S. were as complacent then as they are now.
Japanese actually plucked the people out of the water and carried them to safety. We didn’t want to upset the Turks.
The heads they cut off the Armenians in that genocide were so thick that American ships could not leave the harbor because the hair was entangling their propellers.
There are Arenian Christian Communities in Syria, but Syria itself is among the very first places to be Christianized, and the Syrian Churches, both those in communion with Rome, and Orthodox are truly ancient.