Assyrian International News Agency AINA
April 24 2010
Seyfo and Aghet: Commemorating the 1915 Assyrian, Armenian, Greek Genocide
(AINA) — All over the world, Assyrians, Armenians and Pontic Greeks
are remembering the victims of the genocide perpetrated during World
War One, where the Christian population of Asia minor was annihilated
systematically by the so-called Young Turk government. While Assyrians
call the genocide Seyfo (Sword), Armenians refer to the events as
Aghet (Catastrophe).
In worldwide initiatives, Assyrians too work for the recognition of
the genocide that Turkey still denies. Most recently, the Swedish
Parliament recognized the genocide (AINA 3-12-2010), calling on Turkey
to acknowledge it. Turkey as the legal and political successor state
of the Ottoman Empire vehemently rejects calling the killing genocide
according to the U.N. definition adopted in 1948, insisting that those
killed were victims of war and uprising.
In a statement issued by White House on the 95th anniversary of the
genocide, U.S. president Barack Obama marked the WWI era massacre by
Turkish forces, calling it one of the worst atrocities of the 20th
century, but avoided any mention of "genocide." He said: "On this
solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of
the worst atrocities of the 20th century began. In that dark moment of
history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their
death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire".
Triggered by an adopted resolution H. Res. 252 of the U.S. House of
Representatives committee in March 2010 to call the 1915 killings a
genocide in accordance to the U.N. definition, most media attention
and political debates, like in previous years and decades, are
doubtless on the Armenians. This is legitimate in view of the tireless
efforts of the Armenian lobby working for the recognition of the
Armenian genocide. Sadly, for decades the fact that Assyrian as well
as other Christian groups fell victims has been unknown or ignored,
even though the historical record on the Assyrian suffering in the
same manner as the Armenians did is clear and documented by
overwhelming evidence. They are proven by foreign office records of
the United States, France, Great Britain, Russia, and of Turkey’s
World War I allies, Germany.
Such important evidence is for example included in the collection of
Arnold Toynbee, "On the Treatment of Armenians and Assyrian Christians
by the Turks, 1915-1916, in the Ottoman Empire and in North-West
Persia." This became a part of the "British Blue Book" which was
presented to the English public by the English State Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, Viscount James Bryce. However, the book appeared as
The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, London 1916, and
failed to name the Assyrians in the title.
According the German historian Dr. Gabriele Yonan, of the 684 pages in
this book, 104 pages refer to the massacres of Assyrians in Azerbaijan
and Hakkari (Chapter IV). Chapter IV was left out in the French
translation published in 1917. "It apparently seemed opportune at the
time to restrict the documentation to the persecution of the
Armenians, just as the title suggested," states Yonan in her book (Ein
vergessener Holocaust: Die Vernichtung der christlichen Assyrer in der
Türkei., Society for Endangered People, Göttingen, 1989). In a second
edition which was published in 1972 in Beirut, Chapter IV was once
again included, as in the English original edition. In 1989 these
documents were published for the first time in German translation in
Ein vergessener Holocaust.
In Early April the German state television broadcast a 90 minutes
documentary dedicated to the Armenian Genocide (Aghet) and based on
contributions of eyewitness, diplomats, missionaries and played by top
actors. The documentary showed what motivated the murderers and why
Germany, and other countries, remained silent. Despite the excellent
research and quality of the documentary, non-Armenian victims were
unfortunately not mentioned at all.
Until today, the Assyrian genocide remains in the shadow of the
Armenian genocide, even though the Assyrians existence was similarly
threatened and their population was decimated. Estimates are that
750,000 Assyrians of different denominations became victims of the
planned killings.
Meanwhile, ample scholarly written material on the Assyrian genocide
has appeared and in 2007 the International Association of Genocide
Scholars (IAGS), which has recognized the 1915 Armenian genocide,
extended the recognition to also include the Assyrians and Pontic
Greeks (AINA 12-15-2007).
By Abdulmesih BarAbrahem
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