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Assyrian International News Agency AINA
April 12 2015
Assyrians Commemorate Genocide
By Susanne Gusten
AL Monitor
Posted 2015-04-12 19:10 GMT
Syriac Christian monks attend a service at the ancient monastery of
Mor Gabriel, near the town of Midyat, in Mardin province of southeast
Turkey, Jan. 13, 2009 (REUTERS/Umit Bektas).Perched on a hilltop
overlooking the plateau of Tur Abdin in southeastern Anatolia, the
ancient Syriac village of Aynwardo commands an excellent defensive
position. In its heavily fortified fourth-century church, a clutch of
desperate Syriacs held out against Ottoman troops and Kurdish
irregulars for 60 days in the summer of 1915, while the Syriac
population throughout the region was being put to the sword. Although
many of the defenders were shot after the siege ended, the resistance
mounted in Aynwardo is proudly remembered by Syriacs as a glimmer of
light in the darkness of their near annihilation. It is therefore to
Aynwardo that local and diaspora Syriacs will march from the market
town of Midyat this summer in what local organizers call the "first
public commemoration of the Syriac genocide" in their homeland of Tur
Abdin.
The Syriacs, also known as Assyrians or Arameans, are an ancient
Mesopotamian people who were among the first to adopt Christianity and
are perhaps best known today for retaining their Aramaic language, a
variant of which was the language of Jesus Christ. Never very
populous, they were decimated by about half in the massacres of
Anatolian Christians that began in 1915. Although these killings
officially targeted Armenians, neither Ottoman authorities nor local
Kurds made a distinction between the Christian peoples in southeastern
Anatolia, famously arguing that "an onion is an onion, no matter what
its color." Scholars estimate that up to 300,000 Syriacs were killed.
Emigration of the survivors from the region continued for the rest of
the century. The vast majority are dispersed around the globe today
with the events of 1915 seared into their collective memory as the
Year of the Seyfo, or Year of the Sword.
While the world prepares to commemorate what has become known as the
Armenian genocide, however, the Syriacs are still struggling for
international recognition of their ancestors' fate. "The Assyrian
genocide has remained somewhat in the shadow of the Armenian
genocide," Sabri Atman, director of the Swedish-based Seyfo Center for
Assyrian Genocide Research, told Al-Monitor. "Historians and
politicians have not been sensitive enough to the issue."
The campaign for recognition can sometimes be frustrating, activists
say. When the World Council of Arameans, one of several Syriac
diaspora associations, recently petitioned Germany for recognition of
the "Aramean genocide," the German Foreign Ministry responded with a
pre-formulated letter on the Armenian issue that did not even mention
the Arameans beyond a salutary sentence. The association's president,
Johny Messo, told Al-Monitor, "Needless to say, we are not content
with this approach."
The tragedy of the Syriacs has long occupied a blind spot in the
public perception of the 1915 massacres. Even as the slaughter of the
Anatolian Christians was happening, the killing of Syriacs was
underreported by international observers chronicling the fate of the
Armenians. As Atman explains, this was partly because most Assyrians
were killed in the remote villages where they lived and not under the
eyes of foreign observers in cities or on forced deportation marches
like the Armenians.
Later, eyewitness reports on the Syriac dimension of the massacres,
assembled by the British historian Arnold Toynbee, were omitted in the
publication of his papers, the title of which, according to German
historian Gabriele Yonan, was changed from "The Treatment of the
Armenians and the Assyrian Christians in the Ottoman Empire" to "The
Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."
Internal factors have also worked against the Syriacs. As Atman points
out, Armenian survivors were better organized than other Ottoman
minorities and more confident in their identity. They were also better
educated and more worldly, rising quickly in the societies of their
diaspora host countries as writers, politicians and artists who could
influence public opinion. While Armenians had developed a sense of
nationhood long before the end of the Ottoman Empire, for the Syriacs
the flight into exile was only the beginning of a search for identity
that continues today. At present, they remain bitterly divided between
those who identify themselves as Assyrians and those who call
themselves Arameans, furthering the confusion of observers and
hindering their common cause of recognition.
"Naturally it saddens us that our tragedy is not known and not
recognized," said Atman. Beyond sorrow, the lack of recognition has
also brought disadvantages to the Syriacs in real ways. Unlike the
Armenians, Greeks and Jews, the Syriacs have never been accepted by
the Turkish republic as a non-Muslim minority under the Treaty of
Lausanne, a clear breach of the treaty that has never been challenged
by the co-signatories. As a result, they do not even enjoy the limited
minority rights accorded to other minorities, such as their own
schools and the right to safeguard their language and culture.
Subjected to decades of assimilation and Turkification policies, most
remaining Syriacs have fled the region, where only a couple of
thousand remain today.
All the more poignant are the plans for the first genocide
commemoration in Tur Abdin. Events are being led by the Syriac Unity
Association, a local organization that was closed by authorities this
month for technical irregularities in its bylaws. Association
President Yuhanna Aktas told Al-Monitor that having lodged an appeal,
the group remains active pending the decision of the appeals court and
is continuing with its preparations for the commemoration.
Although June was selected for the march to Aynwardo, the organizers
have also decided to hold a symbolic hunger strike in Midyat to
commemorate April 24, the date of the first deportation of Armenian
intellectuals in Constantinople. "It was in June 1915 that the killing
of the Syriacs began in Tur Abdin," Aktas said. "But since it is the
April date that people now associate with the genocide, that is what
we will do."
http://www.aina.org/news/20150412151030.htm
From: A. Papazian
April 12 2015
Assyrians Commemorate Genocide
By Susanne Gusten
AL Monitor
Posted 2015-04-12 19:10 GMT
Syriac Christian monks attend a service at the ancient monastery of
Mor Gabriel, near the town of Midyat, in Mardin province of southeast
Turkey, Jan. 13, 2009 (REUTERS/Umit Bektas).Perched on a hilltop
overlooking the plateau of Tur Abdin in southeastern Anatolia, the
ancient Syriac village of Aynwardo commands an excellent defensive
position. In its heavily fortified fourth-century church, a clutch of
desperate Syriacs held out against Ottoman troops and Kurdish
irregulars for 60 days in the summer of 1915, while the Syriac
population throughout the region was being put to the sword. Although
many of the defenders were shot after the siege ended, the resistance
mounted in Aynwardo is proudly remembered by Syriacs as a glimmer of
light in the darkness of their near annihilation. It is therefore to
Aynwardo that local and diaspora Syriacs will march from the market
town of Midyat this summer in what local organizers call the "first
public commemoration of the Syriac genocide" in their homeland of Tur
Abdin.
The Syriacs, also known as Assyrians or Arameans, are an ancient
Mesopotamian people who were among the first to adopt Christianity and
are perhaps best known today for retaining their Aramaic language, a
variant of which was the language of Jesus Christ. Never very
populous, they were decimated by about half in the massacres of
Anatolian Christians that began in 1915. Although these killings
officially targeted Armenians, neither Ottoman authorities nor local
Kurds made a distinction between the Christian peoples in southeastern
Anatolia, famously arguing that "an onion is an onion, no matter what
its color." Scholars estimate that up to 300,000 Syriacs were killed.
Emigration of the survivors from the region continued for the rest of
the century. The vast majority are dispersed around the globe today
with the events of 1915 seared into their collective memory as the
Year of the Seyfo, or Year of the Sword.
While the world prepares to commemorate what has become known as the
Armenian genocide, however, the Syriacs are still struggling for
international recognition of their ancestors' fate. "The Assyrian
genocide has remained somewhat in the shadow of the Armenian
genocide," Sabri Atman, director of the Swedish-based Seyfo Center for
Assyrian Genocide Research, told Al-Monitor. "Historians and
politicians have not been sensitive enough to the issue."
The campaign for recognition can sometimes be frustrating, activists
say. When the World Council of Arameans, one of several Syriac
diaspora associations, recently petitioned Germany for recognition of
the "Aramean genocide," the German Foreign Ministry responded with a
pre-formulated letter on the Armenian issue that did not even mention
the Arameans beyond a salutary sentence. The association's president,
Johny Messo, told Al-Monitor, "Needless to say, we are not content
with this approach."
The tragedy of the Syriacs has long occupied a blind spot in the
public perception of the 1915 massacres. Even as the slaughter of the
Anatolian Christians was happening, the killing of Syriacs was
underreported by international observers chronicling the fate of the
Armenians. As Atman explains, this was partly because most Assyrians
were killed in the remote villages where they lived and not under the
eyes of foreign observers in cities or on forced deportation marches
like the Armenians.
Later, eyewitness reports on the Syriac dimension of the massacres,
assembled by the British historian Arnold Toynbee, were omitted in the
publication of his papers, the title of which, according to German
historian Gabriele Yonan, was changed from "The Treatment of the
Armenians and the Assyrian Christians in the Ottoman Empire" to "The
Treatment of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire."
Internal factors have also worked against the Syriacs. As Atman points
out, Armenian survivors were better organized than other Ottoman
minorities and more confident in their identity. They were also better
educated and more worldly, rising quickly in the societies of their
diaspora host countries as writers, politicians and artists who could
influence public opinion. While Armenians had developed a sense of
nationhood long before the end of the Ottoman Empire, for the Syriacs
the flight into exile was only the beginning of a search for identity
that continues today. At present, they remain bitterly divided between
those who identify themselves as Assyrians and those who call
themselves Arameans, furthering the confusion of observers and
hindering their common cause of recognition.
"Naturally it saddens us that our tragedy is not known and not
recognized," said Atman. Beyond sorrow, the lack of recognition has
also brought disadvantages to the Syriacs in real ways. Unlike the
Armenians, Greeks and Jews, the Syriacs have never been accepted by
the Turkish republic as a non-Muslim minority under the Treaty of
Lausanne, a clear breach of the treaty that has never been challenged
by the co-signatories. As a result, they do not even enjoy the limited
minority rights accorded to other minorities, such as their own
schools and the right to safeguard their language and culture.
Subjected to decades of assimilation and Turkification policies, most
remaining Syriacs have fled the region, where only a couple of
thousand remain today.
All the more poignant are the plans for the first genocide
commemoration in Tur Abdin. Events are being led by the Syriac Unity
Association, a local organization that was closed by authorities this
month for technical irregularities in its bylaws. Association
President Yuhanna Aktas told Al-Monitor that having lodged an appeal,
the group remains active pending the decision of the appeals court and
is continuing with its preparations for the commemoration.
Although June was selected for the march to Aynwardo, the organizers
have also decided to hold a symbolic hunger strike in Midyat to
commemorate April 24, the date of the first deportation of Armenian
intellectuals in Constantinople. "It was in June 1915 that the killing
of the Syriacs began in Tur Abdin," Aktas said. "But since it is the
April date that people now associate with the genocide, that is what
we will do."
http://www.aina.org/news/20150412151030.htm
From: A. Papazian