Scholars Call For Israeli Knesset To Recognize Assyrian And Greek Ge

SCHOLARS CALL FOR ISRAELI KNESSET TO RECOGNIZE ASSYRIAN AND GREEK GENOCIDE
By Stella Tsolakidou

Greek Reporter
Feb 4 2012

In a significant milestone for efforts towards the worldwide
recognition of the Assyrian genocide, nearly thirty internationally
renowned holocaust and genocide scholars, and Assyrian and Greek
social, cultural and religious groups, have written to the Israeli
Knesset calling for the inclusion of Assyrians and Greeks in the
Knesset’s forthcoming legislation on remembrance of the Armenian
genocide.

The letter, sent on January 27 by the Assyrian Genocide Research Center
to numerous members of the Knesset of the State of Israel, noted that
hundreds of thousands of innocent Assyrians and Greeks “faced targeted
killings, rape, abuse, destruction of home and villages and the razing
of churches at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies”
during the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire
between 1914 and 1923.

While the better-known genocide of Armenians has garnered more
international attention, Assyrians and Greeks worldwide have campaigned
passionately for the recognition of their genocides alongside that of
the Armenians. “Many do not know”, the letter notes, “that genocide
was also committed against other ethnic groups, namely the Assyrians
and Greeks, who were living from time immemorial on their ancestral
lands, which were within the borders of the Ottoman Empire in 1914.”

Despite the extensive corpus of academic research and archival material
proving the reality of the genocide, the Turkish Republic has until
now refused to formally recognize the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians
and Greeks. Numerous governments, parliaments and international bodies
have recognized the genocide. Most recently, the Parliament of Sweden
endorsed a resolution to officially recognize the Assyrian genocide,
alongside those of the Armenians and Greeks.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress