Christians in Syria’s northeast remember Sayfo Genocide, call for reparations
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – On Tuesday, Christian communities across northeast Syria commemorated the 106th anniversary of the Sayfo Genocide, the Syriac-Assyrian name for the genocide of the Assyrian – Syriac peoples by the Ottoman Empire, carried out concurrently with the Armenian Genocide.
A remembrance ceremony organized by the Syriac Youth Union was held in the Nasra neighborhood of Hasakah, northeast Syria, with the attendance of many Christian political parties and military forces including the Syriac Union Party, the Syriac civil defense militia Sotoro, the Syriac Military Council and its female wing the Bethnahrain Women’s Protection Forces, the Armenian Social Council, and the Armenian military unit known as the Martyr Nubar Ozanyan Brigade.
Manuel Demir, commander of the Martyr Nubar Brigade, told North Press, “We, as an Armenian military force, are here today to say that we are the children of the victims of the massacre carried out by the Ottoman Empire against Syriacs, Armenians, and other communities.”
While there are no officially verified numbers for the victims of the genocide, which took place from 1914 to 1918, historians estimate the death toll at over 200,000, with some Assyrian communities in modern-day Turkey losing over 90% of their population.
Gabriel Shamoun, member of the Executive Committee of the Syriac Union Party, called for the UN to officially recognize the genocide and pay reparations to the descendants of the genocide’s victims.
“We also call on the governments of the Middle East to stop denying the rights of the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac people and the peoples of the region in general,” he stated, “because if we continue like this, devastation and ignorance will prevail in the Middle East.”