History Record: We are the Syriacs, the proud people of Mesopotamia

By Anonymous

We are the people who from past to present have suffered hundreds of thousands of righteous Martyrs, slaughtered and persecuted because they were the owners of truth and ancient land. The Martyrs were wronged and massacred at a time when the rule of law was absent as the brightness of the Martyrs’ civilized faces would have blinded the eyes of their killers. The brightness would else have wiped the killers from history books.

Know that our people were always present in their homeland, never refugees and never absent. Our people constituted 30% of the Ottoman empire’s population at the time they were subjected to genocide. Our people were massacred without differentiation to sectarian or national affiliations, only because of our ethnicity and under the umbrella of religion. They dealt with our people as if they were onions, and that there is no difference between red or white onions. They mastered killing using various types of tools until humanity stopped them as those monsters had hunted without upholding any human values or moral standards.

That is why, dear reader, you need to know the truth, the truth about history and the fact that truth and history are twins. In history a person can meet and enter the arenas of conscious, perception, and truth.

Truth exists in our revival and our national awakening. Our national awakening was seen at the time as a grave danger and threatening the state of the “sick man”, i.e. the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire began issuing unfair decisions against all non-Turkish national groups by directing serious political accusations to them ranging from endangering the empire to division, secession, and betrayal by dealing with the empire’s enemies. All intended to use the events during the first World War in 1914-1918 as the appropriate opportunity to grind their monstrous teeth against our people. The result were barbaric attacks in which the sounds of canons and guns were loud, women cried hard, and children wailed harder. Our good and blessed land turned into a battleground upon which all the evil forces gathered to decimate our defenseless people.

We paid a heavy price with nearly half a million Martyrs. The Turkish state must recognize the Sayfo Genocide. Turkey must give back our legitimate rights according to internationally recognized human rights standards and laws.

And let the Turks know that our people will remain fighting until they obtain all of their rights in their homeland and country.

The number of Syriacs who lived in the Ottoman states and Iran prior to the 1915 Sayfo Genocide:

Below a list of the numbers of members of the Syriac Orthodox Church who were martyred between 1914-1918. The list was sent to the Prime Minister of England by Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Mor Aphrem Barsoum.

The number of martyrs of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people who were killed between 1914-1918, according to the report presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyrian-Chaldean delegation.

Above lists do not include those who were martyred on the roads during their displacement, forced conversion of religion or marriage – canceling their cultural and religious identity – or as a result of hunger death and other crimes. This number reaches more than 300.000 people.

The countries that have recognized the Sayfo Genocide on the Syriac people so far are: Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Australia, Armenia, Netherlands, Vatican, Czechia.

Disclaimer: translated from the original Arabic. See the original here