 The Armenians, according to the Economist, lived in a safe haven in Syria which made Armenians more sympathetic for Assad during the Syrian Civil War.According to the Ministry of Diaspora of Armenia, the estimated number of Armenians in Syria is 100,000, with more than 60,000 of them centralized in Aleppo, with other estimates by Armenian foundations in Syria putting the number of Armenians in Syria around 70–80,000.However, Since the start of the Syrian Civil War, 16,623 Syrian citizens of ethnic Armenian background have arrived in Armenia, of whom about 13,000 displaced persons remained and found protection in Armenia as of July 2015.