16/06/2020

Turkey’s Democratic Peoples’ Party: Confrontation with Syriac Genocide needed as soon as possible

ANKARA – The Democratic Peoples’ Party (HDP) commemorated the Sayfo Genocide of 1915 targeting the Syriac (Assyrian, Aramean, Chaldean) people by issuing a written statement calling for a social and political confrontation with the Sayfo. The statement, entitled “15th June 1915: We respectfully remember the Syriacs who lost their lives in the 1915 Genocide”, is signed by the co-chair of HDP’s Commission for Peoples and Beliefs, Tülay Hatimoğulları.

The HDP statement does not refer to the direct perpetrators of the Sayfo but states that “the destruction caused by hate, discrimination, and monist policies in this country are well known. To ensure equal citizenship, to build a future free of hate and discrimination and to ensure social peace it is necessary to confront past destructions as soon as possible.”

Below is an English translation of the statement. The original Turkish statement can be found here.

********** STATEMENT **********

Genocide is one of the most important instruments of the policy of eliminating Christian societies living in this region. The 15th June 1915 the is designated and accepted day of the beginning of the genocide on Syriacs.

Before 1915, over 500,000 Syriacs — Assyrians, Arameans, Chaldeans — lived within the current borders of Turkey. Now, the number of Syriacs within the borders of Turkey has decreased to 20,000. Tur Abdin, i.e. Mardin and environs, is their most important region of worship. The number there is now only 2,000.

We respectfully remember the Syriacs who lost their lives in the 1915 Genocide.

The policy of repression against Syriacs and other Christian societies has never ceased. For many years, as state policy, even the name of the Syriac people was not mentioned or publicly acknowledged. No collective rights were recognized and demands for opening schools and places of worship were denied and foundation properties were systematically confiscate.

All these experiences are accompanied by constant and increasing hate speech and attacks.

Even this year, we see the arrest of a Syriac monk and the loss of the Diril family who after many years returned to their village. These events caused great uneasiness in the Syriac community.

Such practices invalidate the idea of ​​equal citizenship and create great concern in Syriac and other Christian communities.

The heavy destruction caused by hate, discrimination, and monist policies in this country is well known. To ensure equal citizenship, to build a future free of hate and discrimination and to ensure social peace it is necessary to confront past destructions as soon as possible.