Afram Ishaq: Turkish attacks on Syrian territory continuation of Ottoman methods of displacement

DAYRIK (AL-MALIKIYAH), Syria – A special lecture on the Sayfo Genocide was held at the headquarters of the Syriac Women’s Union in Dayrik (Al-Malikiyah) by member of the Executive Committee of the Syriac Union Party (SUP) Afram Ishaq.

Ishaq spoke about those painful massacres that took place against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian, Armenian, and Pontic Greek peoples in 1915 during which the Ottoman Empire and its allies killed millions of Christian men, women, children, and the elderly.

Ishaq also spoke about the contemporary Turkish violations in Syrian territory which, he argued, are an attempt by the modern Turkish state to restore the glories of the Ottoman Empire, often employing the same inhuman methods.

Last October, the Turkish-led invasion of North and East Syria caused the displacement of many Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people from the areas of Rish Ayno (Ras al-Ayn), Tel Abyad, and the Christian villages of the Khabur Valley north of Tel Tamr. The current attacks continue the displacement that began in Turkey in 1915 when the massacres of the Sayfo Genocide caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians from Turkish villages to Syria and Iraq.

The lecture was concluded with a speech by the official of the Syriac Women’s Union in Dayrik, Georget Abdulahad.