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THE ASSYRIAN GENOCIDE BY OTTOMAN TURKEY
Assyrian International News Agency AINA
http://www.aina.org/news/20120726191659.htm
July 26 2012
Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and
Lebanon. , who have a history that spans over 7000 years. Today's
Assyrians are the descendants of the ancient Assyrian Empire that
was one of the earliest civilizations to emerge in Mesopotamia.
The Assyrian language is classical Syriac, an offshoot of Aramaic,
the language Jesus Christ spoke. The Christian Assyrian nation has
five apostolic churches; the three major being the Assyrian Church
of the East, the Chaldean Church and the Syrian Orthodox Church.
Following the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Assyrians were
one of the first nations to convert to Christianity, tracing its
roots to the first and oldest Church, the Holy Apostolic Catholic
Assyrian Church of the East which was founded by Saint Thomas the
Apostle as well as Saints Mari and Addai, The Church of the East had
been an active evangelical church, spreading the teaching of Christ
peacefully further east to Asia.
Since the collapse of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, colonisation
of their lands by various powers has been a common occurrence, with
each wave of such colonisation causing more land losses, more human
losses and more tragedies for the Assyrians.
However, the twentieth century was to be the darkest chapter in the
history of the Assyrians. Those few millions who had withstood the
melting process of the millennia, and had remained homogeneous in their
ancestral homeland, became the victims of one of the worst Assyrian
genocides in the early part of the 20th century by the Ottomans Empire
that dominated most of the Middle East from fifteenth century to the
first part of the twentieth century, which completely reshaped the
destiny of the Assyrian people.
In 1842 Assyrians living in the mountains of Hakkari South East of
Turkey faced a massive attack by a Kurdish Leader advancing from East,
which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Christian Assyrians
and occupying their lands.
1895-1896, witnessed the Assyrian massacres in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyef,
Sivas and other parts of Anatolia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. These
attacks caused the
death of over 55,000 Assyrians and the forced Ottomanisation of a
further 100,000 Assyrians - the inhabitants of 245 villages. A further
100,000 Assyrian women and children were forced into Turkish harems.
The Turkish troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements.
Assyrians were raped, tortured and murdered.
In 1911, the Young Turk "Committee for Unity and Progress" declared
its goal to "Turkify" all Ottoman subjects. This implementation of
the Pan-Turkic program and ideology can be described as the "Dark
Period" of ethnic and religious "cleansing" of the Assyrians, Greeks
and Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, without fear of international
condemnation and political reprisals.
Prior to WWI Assyrians lived as one nation numbering a million and
half, and inhabiting about 750 villages across the Taurus mountains,
Tur Abdin, Hakkari, Botan and Tigris areas. Assyrians also lived in the
larger towns of Urhai, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus.
When Turkey entered the war in November 1914, the Assyrians were
filled with hope. Those that lived in Turkish Mesopotamia and Persia
thought that liberation was imminent. It was a time of promises for an
independent statehood in the sacred soil of their ancestors. To that
end, Assyrians subjected to hundreds of years of continuous persecution
and massacres, sided with the allies for protection, first with the
Russians from May 1915 to October 1917, then with the British forces
following the Bolshevik Revolution. Instead of liberation they were
subjected to the genocide of their people, and the loss of more than
two-thirds of their then estimated 1.5 million populations.
Documents, historical materials and diaries of eye witness accounts
convey of the beating of little children with stones, dismembered
bodies of women and girls who refused to be raped, the beheading
of men, those who refused to convert to Islam and the burning and
skinning alive of priests, nuns and deacons.
As WWI came to an end, preparations began to settle all disputes
between the winning Allied Powers and the losing Central Powers. At the
1919 Paris Peace Conference, under Article 22 of the League of Nations
Covenant, Iraq was formally made a Class "A" mandate country entrusted
to Britain. Here the British continued to show the Assyrians that
they were going to keep their promise they have made to the Assyrians,
who served the Allies throughout the Great War, including the issue of
a homeland. the thought of a betrayal did not trigger the Assyrians'
mind. But it would become clear in 1932 when the mandate was terminated
and Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations that the policy of the
Colonial Britain has been anything but honorable, as admitted by many
British officials.
By Hermiz Shahen Family World News
Assyrian International News Agency AINA
http://www.aina.org/news/20120726191659.htm
July 26 2012
Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria and
Lebanon. , who have a history that spans over 7000 years. Today's
Assyrians are the descendants of the ancient Assyrian Empire that
was one of the earliest civilizations to emerge in Mesopotamia.
The Assyrian language is classical Syriac, an offshoot of Aramaic,
the language Jesus Christ spoke. The Christian Assyrian nation has
five apostolic churches; the three major being the Assyrian Church
of the East, the Chaldean Church and the Syrian Orthodox Church.
Following the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Assyrians were
one of the first nations to convert to Christianity, tracing its
roots to the first and oldest Church, the Holy Apostolic Catholic
Assyrian Church of the East which was founded by Saint Thomas the
Apostle as well as Saints Mari and Addai, The Church of the East had
been an active evangelical church, spreading the teaching of Christ
peacefully further east to Asia.
Since the collapse of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, colonisation
of their lands by various powers has been a common occurrence, with
each wave of such colonisation causing more land losses, more human
losses and more tragedies for the Assyrians.
However, the twentieth century was to be the darkest chapter in the
history of the Assyrians. Those few millions who had withstood the
melting process of the millennia, and had remained homogeneous in their
ancestral homeland, became the victims of one of the worst Assyrian
genocides in the early part of the 20th century by the Ottomans Empire
that dominated most of the Middle East from fifteenth century to the
first part of the twentieth century, which completely reshaped the
destiny of the Assyrian people.
In 1842 Assyrians living in the mountains of Hakkari South East of
Turkey faced a massive attack by a Kurdish Leader advancing from East,
which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Christian Assyrians
and occupying their lands.
1895-1896, witnessed the Assyrian massacres in Diyarbakir, Hasankeyef,
Sivas and other parts of Anatolia, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. These
attacks caused the
death of over 55,000 Assyrians and the forced Ottomanisation of a
further 100,000 Assyrians - the inhabitants of 245 villages. A further
100,000 Assyrian women and children were forced into Turkish harems.
The Turkish troops looted the remains of the Assyrian settlements.
Assyrians were raped, tortured and murdered.
In 1911, the Young Turk "Committee for Unity and Progress" declared
its goal to "Turkify" all Ottoman subjects. This implementation of
the Pan-Turkic program and ideology can be described as the "Dark
Period" of ethnic and religious "cleansing" of the Assyrians, Greeks
and Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, without fear of international
condemnation and political reprisals.
Prior to WWI Assyrians lived as one nation numbering a million and
half, and inhabiting about 750 villages across the Taurus mountains,
Tur Abdin, Hakkari, Botan and Tigris areas. Assyrians also lived in the
larger towns of Urhai, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus.
When Turkey entered the war in November 1914, the Assyrians were
filled with hope. Those that lived in Turkish Mesopotamia and Persia
thought that liberation was imminent. It was a time of promises for an
independent statehood in the sacred soil of their ancestors. To that
end, Assyrians subjected to hundreds of years of continuous persecution
and massacres, sided with the allies for protection, first with the
Russians from May 1915 to October 1917, then with the British forces
following the Bolshevik Revolution. Instead of liberation they were
subjected to the genocide of their people, and the loss of more than
two-thirds of their then estimated 1.5 million populations.
Documents, historical materials and diaries of eye witness accounts
convey of the beating of little children with stones, dismembered
bodies of women and girls who refused to be raped, the beheading
of men, those who refused to convert to Islam and the burning and
skinning alive of priests, nuns and deacons.
As WWI came to an end, preparations began to settle all disputes
between the winning Allied Powers and the losing Central Powers. At the
1919 Paris Peace Conference, under Article 22 of the League of Nations
Covenant, Iraq was formally made a Class "A" mandate country entrusted
to Britain. Here the British continued to show the Assyrians that
they were going to keep their promise they have made to the Assyrians,
who served the Allies throughout the Great War, including the issue of
a homeland. the thought of a betrayal did not trigger the Assyrians'
mind. But it would become clear in 1932 when the mandate was terminated
and Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations that the policy of the
Colonial Britain has been anything but honorable, as admitted by many
British officials.
By Hermiz Shahen Family World News