Assyrian Archives

Assyrian, Yazidi Issues Raised At Annual Human Rights Conference in Warsaw

September 25, 2018 by administrator

Uzay Bulut Presentation on Assyrians at the 2018 OSCE conference in Warsaw.

Warsaw (AINA) — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held its annual conference from September 20 to 21 in Warsaw, Poland. Europe’s largest annual human rights and democracy conference, it is organized every year by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) as a platform for the 57 OSCE participating States, civil society, international organizations and other relevant actors.

Uzay Bulut, a writer for Gatestone Institute, also joined the conference, addressing diverse issues such as the Assyrian plight in Turkey and the Yazidi persecution in Turkey and the rest of the Middle East.

Assyrians

In her presentation on Assyrians, Ms. Bulut called attention to the Turkish genocide of Assyrians between 1915 and 1918, which claimed the lives of 750,000 Assyrians (75%) and the continuing denial of civil rights for Assyrians in Turkey to this day. Examples included illegal seizures of Assyrian lands and forced conversions to Islam through rape and forced marriage.

Yazidis

In her presentation on Yazidis, Ms. Bulut called attention to the ISIS invasion of Sinjar, Iraq in 2014 and the subsequent genocide against Yazidis and Assyrians, where “hundreds of defenseless Yazidi men and elderly women were murdered.” Ms. Bulut called attention to Turkey’s failure to grant migrant rights to Yazidis.

Assyrians Commemorate Martyrs Day Amid Strife and Exodus From Middle East

August 7, 2018 by administrator

Assyrian Remembering the Fallen.

August 7 is Assyrian Martyrs Day. It is commemorated worldwide by Assyrians to remember their fallen, including the 3,000 who were killed by the Iraqi army in Iraq between August 7 and 11, 1933 in the town of Simmele, North Iraq, and its surroundings. It was carried out by the Iraqi Army, led by General Bakir Sidqi, a Kurd, and Kurdish and Arab irregulars.

On August 7 Assyrians will commemorate Assyrians Martyrs Day world wide, but the situation for Assyrians in the Middle East is bleak, with an unstoppable exodus to the West.

Historic Assyrian church in Turkey given to Islamic school foundation

January 19, 2017 by administrator

Yet another example of intolerance has taken place in the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa (Urfa)—the historic Assyrian Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the city is now being used as a municipality-owned cultural center and the foundation of the Islamic school of Harran University, The Armenian Weekly reports.

According to sources, the church was used actively until 1924, when Assyrians (Syriac Christians) left for Aleppo.

Locals call the church “the Regie Church”, because Tekel, the Turkish tobacco and alcoholic beverage company, had once used it as a tobacco factory. This tobacco factory had been known as the Regie Tobacco Company in Ottoman times, and was nationalized in 1925.

It was also used as a grape storehouse for decades. After its restoration in 1998, it hosted a carpet-making class. In 2002, it became the “Kemalettin Gazezoglu Cultural Center,” named after the governor of the city. Today, a part of it has been given to a foundation that runs the Islamic school at the city’s university.

Turkey has used the historic church for many different purposes—except for its intended purpose: a church.

Called Edessa in ancient times, Urfa has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The modern city was founded in 304 B.C by Seleucus I Nicator.

In the late 2nd century, as the Seleucid dynasty disintegrated, it successively became a Parthian, Armenian, and Roman state, and eventually an Eastern Roman (Byzantine) province. It was frequently conquered during periods when the Byzantine central government was weak, due to its location on the eastern frontier of the Empire. It fell to the Muslim conquest in 639 but was briefly retaken by Byzantium in 1031. It then fell to the Turkic Zengid dynasty in 1144, and was eventually absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in 1517.

Edessa was an important early center of Syriac Christianity. For Armenians, too, the city is significant since it is believed that the Armenian alphabet was invented there.

But the traces of Assyrian, Armenian, and Greek Christians have been systematically erased from the city by Muslim governments and residents throughout centuries.

Historic Assyrian church in Turkey given to Islamic school foundation

December 24, 2016 by administrator

Authentic Turkish Crime

According to sources, the church was used actively until 1924, when Assyrians (Syriac Christians) left for Aleppo.

Turkey has used the historic church for many different purposes—except for its intended purpose: a church.

Called Edessa in ancient times, Urfa has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The modern city was founded in 304 B.C by Seleucus I Nicator.

Edessa was an important early center of Syriac Christianity. For Armenians, too, the city is significant since it is believed that the Armenian alphabet was invented there.

But the traces of Assyrian, Armenian, and Greek Christians have been systematically erased from the city by Muslim governments and residents throughout centuries.

Turkey: Armenian, Assyrian Writing Removed from Sur Municipality Building in Diyarbakir

December 9, 2016 by administrator

The Armenian and Assyrian writing on the Sur municipality building in Diyarbakir was recently removed and replaced by a Turkish flag.

Armenian and Assyrian Writing Replaced by Turkish Flag

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.)—The Armenian and Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) writing on the Sur municipality building in Diyarbakir was recently removed and replaced by a Turkish flag. Istanbul-based Armenian bilingual newspaper Agos reported on Dec. 8 that the sign, which was placed in 2012 and was written in four languages (Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, and Assyrian), was ordered to change by a state-appointed monitor.

The four-language sign was the initiative of then Sur Mayor Abdullah Demirbaş—a longtime advocate for Armenian rights. Demirbaş worked tirelessly for the Surp Giragos Church reconstruction in 2011. On the occasion of the re-opening of the church, he addressed the Armenians who had gathered there: “Welcome, my brothers and sisters! We are very glad to see you in your own country, your own city!”

He presided over the official inauguration of the Monument of Common Conscience on Sept. 12, 2013, that was erected in Diyarbakir. During those ceremonies, in the name of the Kurdish people, he apologized for the atrocities committed against the Armenians and Assyrians. While visiting Providence, R.I., in 2013, he addressed the Armenian community at Sts. Vartanantz Church, and laid flowers at the Armenian Genocide Monument there.

On Aug. 9, 2015, Demirbaş was arrested by Turkish authorities in Diyarbakir on trumped-up charged. He was imprisoned until October 2015 and was only released due to health concerns, as he suffered from deep vein thrombosis, a serious condition where blood clots form in a vein deep inside the body.

Demirbaş has been continually targeted by the ruling authorities. His latest arrest was part of a larger wave of charges filed against a number of Kurdish politicians following the June 2015 general elections in Turkey, when the ruling Justice and Democracy Party (AKP) won a majority in parliament, but failed to secure a supermajority. Those elections brought the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) into parliament, with 13 percent of the vote. Failing to form a government following the June elections, the government scheduled a snap election on Nov. 1, 2015; the months leading up to the elections saw a number of terror attacks (such as in Suruc and Ankara), a renewed war against the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), and the targeting of Kurdish-dominated areas in the southeast of the country, where the HDP had fared especially well during the elections. Diyarbakir’s Sur district suffered tremendously during this campaign of violence, which transformed the streets into a war zone.

“It is my duty as a human to wish for those with whom I live whatever I wish for myself, and it is worth doing so. This is why I am wishing freedom for the Kurds and I will also wish freedom for the Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yezidis, and Alevis, no matter what I might face as a result. I know that even if I sleep in a jail cell for a thousand years, I will keep on believing that,” Demirbaş said in an interview with former Armenian Weekly editor Nanore Barsoumian back in March.

Source: http://armenianweekly.com/2016/12/09/armenian-assyrian-writing-removed/

Book Release: The Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians massacred by the Turks Joseph Naayem

September 10, 2016 by administrator

by Editions Cercle d’Writings Caucasians

Publishing Circle Writings Caucasians just published the book-testimony “the Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians massacred by the Turks” Naayem Joseph (1888-1964), a key eyewitness to the Assyrian-Chaldean and Armenian Genocide.

The Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians massacred by the Turks Joseph Naayem

Below editors note: “Of the three oldest indigenous Christian peoples of Asia Minor, Armenian, Greek and Assyrian-Chaldean, who, during the First World War, suffered a genocide in the true sense of the term, hatched and executed by the young Turk regime in the Ottoman empire, completed by their ideological heirs Kemalists in 1919-1923 and endorsed by the infamous Treaty of Lausanne of 1924, the Assyrian-Chaldean, the less numerous and less protected is one whose tragedy remains the most misunderstood.

Yet the rare testimony of Joseph Naayem should, by 1920, raise the indignation of the victorious powers, countless existing evidence of commitment on the Allied side of this small nation isolated, defenseless and surrounded by enemies secular jurors . The same enemies who, taking advantage of the chaos in Iraq and Syria since the 1990s, got down to the elimination of this people, once again under the eyes of the civilized world, who consider him a Christian minority that can be transplanted in Europe or North America, to save and ensure its sustainability. As was done for the Armenian and Greek survivors of Asia Minor … Oblivious to his cultural roots, the West has much wrong to believe, as the recent bloody events on the ground prove it, away from the savage monsters which itself has tolerated the existence and nurtured ambitions in Iraq and Syria, as he had tolerated the existence of the Young Turks in the early 20th century, who thanked him with a World war which commemorates the centenary, which contained the seeds of the second … This reissue includes -in addition the foreword of Joseph Yacoub, Professor Emeritus of the Catholic University of Lyon, specializing in the world’s minorities and Christians in East, author of “Who will remember? “And” Forgotten all »Editions du Cerf -those of Lord Bryce, RP Gabriel Oussani and two additional chapters translated from English absent from the 1920 edition.”

The book will be presented by the editor Hrach Petrosian in many cities in France, on November 18 in Valence (Drôme) by the association “Arménia”.

“The Assyrian-Chaldeans and Armenians massacred by the Turks” Joseph Naayem. Editions Cercle d’Writings Caucasians, 300 pages, 22 €. http://lecercledecritscaucasiens.over-blog.com/

ISIS terrorist attack targets Armenian and Assyrian Genocide commemoration ceremony

June 20, 2016 by administrator

A terrorist attack occurred in Syria’s Qamishli during a religious ceremony commemorating the 101 anniversary of the Ottoman genocide against Armenians and Assyrians.

A suicide bomber from the Islamic State blew off his explosive belt, killing at least 3 guards and injuring dozens of civilians, Horizonweekly reported quoting Almasdar News.

Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, was holding a special ceremony commemorating the 101 anniversary of Ottoman genocide against Armenians and Assyrians of Qamishli.

Los Angeles: Assyrians and Greeks rally with Armenians to commemorate #ArmenianGenocide 101

April 25, 2016 by administrator

The Assyrian genocide refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the Ottoman … The Assyrian genocide took place in the same context as the Armenian and ….. According to Los Angeles Times, in Urmia alone, 800 Assyrians were … The executioners began by cutting first the fingers of their victims, join by …

Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks have an historical bond, unique to us. Our past has been connected, our present is connected and our future is going to be connected. We are always and always will be in solidarity with each other against oppression. Our ancestors did not spill their blood for no purpose. The genocide that took place has forever connected us. Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks are and going to be always united for justice.

!915 Turkish Gov't deliberate & systematically destroyed the entire christian populations #Armenian #Greek #Assyrian pic.twitter.com/EayUDT6yvm

— Wally Sarkeesian (@gagrulenet) April 25, 2016

Assyrians tell Presidential Candidates Europe Attacks Reminiscent of Armenian Genocide

April 13, 2016 by administrator

A priest gives communion to an Iraqi Christian woman, during mass at Mar George Chaldean Church in Baghdad, March 1, 2015. Iraqi Christians say they have no intention of leaving the country despite the recent abduction of over 100 Assyrian Christians by the Islamic State. Picture taken March 1, 2015. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ – Tags: RELIGION CIVIL UNREST) – RTR4RQVD

WASHINGTON (Christian Post)—Leading Assyrian Christian organizations have collectively penned an open letter to the five remaining U.S. presidential candidates, urging them to fight against radical terror groups and to recognize the past genocide that Christians have suffered under the Ottoman Empire.

The letter, addressed to Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, states that Assyrian Christians are being “tortured, kidnapped, raped and murdered by radical terrorist organizations such as ISIS.” Assyrians – also known as Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Arameans – are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East who trace their ancestral homeland to today’s northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. Assyrian people are almost entirely Christians.

Yazidi Activist Describes Horrors of Islamic State Persecution to Congress: ‘We Are Being Burned Alive’

“We have seen this terror in Paris, Brussels, and other cities around the world, committed in the name of Islam by radical Islamic organizations. For Assyrians it feels like 1915 all over again,” the groups write, referencing the ethnic and religious cleansing carried out by the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey, between 1915-1924, when 750,000 Assyrians, 500,000 Greeks and 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives.

“One hundred years have passed since the era of World War I when no one heard the cries of our ancestors, the Assyrian people, in their suffering in that genocide that is known as the Armenian Genocide,” the letter reads.

“26 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide. 12 countries, governments and institutions have recognized the Assyrian genocide. Turkey, however, continues to deny the genocide,” the Assyrian organizations pointed out.

Assyrian organizations that are listed as signers of the letter are: Assyrian Genocide and Research, Federation des Assyriens de Belgique, Institut Syriaque de Belgique, Sefyo Center Belgium, Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter, Restore Nineveh Now Foundation, American Mesopotamian Organization, Institut Assyrien de Belgique, Central Union of Assyrian Associations in Germany and European sections, Assyrian Democratic Organization, and Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union of Canada.

The mass genocide of Christians marked its 100th year anniversary on April 24, 2015, bringing together world leaders to Yerevan, Armenia, to pay their respects to the dead.

“I bow down in memory of the victims and I come to tell my Armenian friends that we will never forget the tragedies that your people has endured,” said French President Francois Hollande.

President Barack Obama faced criticism from Armenian-American activists, however, when he failed to refer to the 1915 massacre as a genocide last year.

“The president’s surrender represents a national disgrace,” said Aram S. Hamparian, executive director of the Washington-based Armenian National Committee of America, at the time. “It is a betrayal of the truth, and it is a betrayal of trust.”

Although Obama had promised during his election campaign in 2008 that he would use the word, the White House later clarified that it does not want to sour its relations with Turkey, a NATO-partner.

In their letter, the Assyrian leaders reminded the presidential candidates that Secretary of State John Kerry has designated the ongoing massacre of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria as a genocide.

“As President of the United States, would you do everything in your power to end these atrocities, bring the perpetrators to justice, and aid the survivors?” the Assyrian groups asked in the letter.

“As President of the United States, would you acknowledge the Ottoman Genocide against Christians – Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks – during World War I and support reparations for the victims?” they added.

“It is our hope that as President you would aid the victims of genocide, both past and present, and bring relief to their suffering.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/assyrian-christians-cruz-clinton-trump-kasich-sanders-paris-terror-attacks-armenian-genocide-161589/

US to Decide Soon Whether to Call Mideast Killings of Christians ‘Genocide’

February 24, 2016 by administrator

The United States will soon make a decision on whether to call the mass killings of Christian by Islamist extremists in the Middle East a genocide, US Secretary of State John Kerry told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Kerry added that so far, he has been given initial recommendations on how the Obama administration should label the atrocities, and noted has since asked for “further evaluation.”

“We are currently doing what I have to do, which is review very carefully the legal standards and precedence for whatever judgement is made,” Kerry explained when urged by a US lawmaker to use his authority to call the killings a genocide.

“I will make a decision on this and I will make a decision on it as soon as I have that additional evaluation and we will proceed forward from there.”

Kerry added he has been given initial recommendations on how the Obama administration should label the atrocities, and noted he has since asked for “further evaluation.”

Earlier this month, Russian Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis called on the international community to prevent the killing and expulsion of Christians from the Middle East and end the violence in the region. The two religious leaders also discussed the possibility of forming jointly a political association to counter the genocide of Christians.