TURKEY: Syriac MP Tuma Çelik (HDP) highlights decades of assassinations and cover-ups targeting Syriac people in Tur Abdin

ANKARA – On Friday, Syriac member of Turkish Parliament Tuma Çelik (Democratic Peoples’ Party, HDP) addressed the legislative body about the crimes committed against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in Turkey in the 1980s.

“A number of Syriac people have been assassinated, and there is nothing new about these cases so far, the criminal is unknown, and the cases have been registered in the courts against an unknown person,” Çelik said.

“Therefore, in the Democratic Peoples’ Party view, we have marched to denounce those crimes and crimes that are being committed now,” Çelik continued. “The authorities in Turkey want to silence our people, but they must be sure that we will never stop our struggle.”

Çelik criticized Turkey’s ruling authorities, adding that, “Your actions are in one way or another similar to what Kenan Evren was doing when he was arresting our elite.”

“That’s exactly what you’re doing now, and you’ve also done it in the past with the mayor of Azekh Shukri Tutus who was assassinated and closed his case against an unknown person.”

Çelik went on wondering what the Turkish authorities had done with regard to the crime of kidnapping and killing of Diril family, “I say it honestly, [you] have done nothing at all, but [you] will include this file with the rest of the files without revealing the identity of the perpetrators.”