KD politician Aday Bethkinne: Swedish government should stop the denial and officially recognize the Sayfo Genocide of 1915

STOCKHOLM – Aday Bethkinne, Syriac politician in the Stockholm suburb of Botkyrka, has called on the Swedish government to finally recognize the atrocities of 1915 against the Armenians, Syriacs/Assyrians/Chaldeans, and Greeks and call it by its bloody name: genocide.

In an op-ed in the Swedish newspaper Expressen, Bethkinne says that there is no justifiable reason for the Swedish government not to officially recognize the Sayfo Genocide. The academic world has done its factual research work. The Swedish parliament has done its legislative job and recognized the Sayfo in 2010. And, although long overdue, it is now up to the government to truly follow up on this academic research and the recognition by the Swedish Parliament.

“No Swedish government has dared to ratify this Riksdag decision. We therefore hope that the next government will dare to recognize the genocide and that it will also be a day of remembrance in Sweden,” says the Christian Democrat. Bethkinne also makes an appeal, in order for history not to be forgotten, that the Sayfo Genocide be taught in Swedish schools, like the Holocaust is taught in Swedish schools.

The Swedish government should “stop denying and recognize the Sayfo Genocide of 1915”  If the Swedish government would officially recognize the Sayfo Genocide – which means “Year of the Sword” in the Syriac language – it would then follow in the footsteps of about thirty countries around the world. In France, the Armenian Genocide has even been a national memorial day since 2019.

För att historien inte ska glömmas bort bör det undervisas om #Seyfo i svenska skolor. #Folkmordet1915 bör även bli en minnesdag i Sverige. Forskarvärlden och Sveriges riksdag har gjort sitt, nu är det upp till regeringen att göra sitt.

Läs hela: https://t.co/JSRVGUdrSY pic.twitter.com/fJmqcNDFiP

— Aday Bethkinne (@AdayBethkinne) April 26, 2022