SuroyoTV correspondent interviews residents of Tel Tamr in North and East Syria about the Sayfo

TEL TAMR, Syria — The Sayfo Genocide of 1915 constitutes one of the one of the most brutal and bloody instances of genocide in recent history.

The Sayfo Genocide was committed by the Ottoman Empire and allied Kurdish, Arab, and Circassian forces in the early 20th century against the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people and occurred parallel to the genocides of Armenians, Greeks, and Yezidis. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians, more than 300,000 Greeks, 300,000 Yezidis, and upwards of 300,000 of the regions estimated 700,000 Syriacs (Arameans–Assyrians–Chaldeans) were massacred. More than 200,000 were forcefully displaced or deported south.

On the 106th anniversary of the Sayfo, SuroyoTV correspondent Ahmed Samila conducted an opinion poll of the people of Tel Tamr in the Khabur River Valley in North and East Syria to see how much the people of the town know about the genocide.

Many of those interviewed said they knew of or heard about the events of 1915, while others said they had not heard anything about the Sayfo.

Some citizens pointed out that history is written for the interest of certain parties and policies and is considered unfair because it did not record many events, including the massacres and displacement of the Sayfo.

Kurdish and Arab residents of the town said they had heard from their parents and grandparents about the Sayfo and wanted to know more about what had happened in the brutal history of the Ottoman Empire.

Some Syriac–Assyrian residents demanded that their voices be heard by international platforms and called for official recognition of the Sayfo as genocide.

Many who knew of the Sayfo and the scale of the massacres said that history will not be forgotten and the world’s governments must condemn what took place in 1915.