Peoples’ Democratic Party of Turkey demands recognition of Sayfo Genocide

ANKARA — On the 107th anniversary of the Sayfo Genocide, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi, HDP) in Turkey published a statement in which it commemorate the martyrs of Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people.

To this day, read the statement, the rights of the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people are violated and they remain marginalized in Turkey. For example, they are not allowed to open schools and are excluded and marginalized from property and endowment laws. Syriacs (Arameans–Assyrians–Chaldeans) who return to their homeland from abroad are subjected to kidnappings and murder.

The HDP added that it commemorates the painful Sayfo incidents that took place against the Syriac (Aramean-Assyrian–Chaldean) people and vowed not to forget the Sayfo and their duty to secure apologies from the perpetrators. The statement continued by highlighting the indigenousness of the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people to Beth Nahrin Mesopotamia and proclaimed that peace can not be achieved in the region without the freedom of culture, belief, and identity of all peoples.

HDP Co-Chair Tülay Hatim Ogulari said she published an explanation about the Sayfo Genocide and the tragedies that the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people have been subjected to.

Ogulari added that the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) and other Christian peoples have enriched the homeland, but the policies of violence and marginalization that target them have forced many to emigrate. The name of their regions and villages was changed, said Ogulari, and they have had great difficulty reclaiming their property.

To this day, the rights of the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people are easily and often disregarded, their property and lands are encroached upon or seized, their sons and daughters kidnapped and killed, read the statement. The time has come for Turkey to apologize to the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people and recognize the Sayfo Genocide, it concluded.