Bethnahrin National Council on Sayfo Remembrance Day: “Our Struggle to Raise Awareness of the Sayfo Genocide Continues”

BETH NAHRIN – Under the banner “Our Struggle to Raise Awareness of the Sayfo Genocide Continues,” the Presidency of the Bethnahrin National Council (Mawtbo Umthoyo d’Bethnahrin, MUB), today released a formal statement commemorating 110 years since the Sayfo massacres of 1915. The MUB asserts that, by embracing the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic must also assume responsibility—and render justice—for the genocide carried out against indigenous Christian peoples. 

The statement emphasizes that the tragedy and destruction inflicted upon one the ancient Christian peoples of Bethnahrin and Anatolia, the Syriac-Assyrian-Chaldean-Aramean people. In the summer of 1915, the Syriac people was singled out for extermination on the basis of their identity, faith, and cultural heritage. Villages across Tur Abdin, Garzan, Omid, and other historic centers were depopulated; churches, schools and archives were razed; and irreplaceable cultural, economic, and scientific treasures were lost. This catastrophe cannot—and must not—be buried beneath official denials or state rhetoric. 

The MUB denounces any effort to erase the millennia-long imprint of these civilizations as among the gravest crimes against humanity. It warns that as long as Turkey continues to deny the genocide perpetrated in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, neither the wounds nor their underlying causes will be healed. By preserving and glorifying the Ottoman heritage without acknowledging its crimes, the Republic of Turkey perpetuates injustice. True reconciliation demands full accountability for the 1915 atrocities.   

Rejecting policies rooted in “one nation, one religion,” the MUB insists that no real healing can occur under doctrines of ethnic or religious exclusivity. Between spring and autumn of 1915, more than half a million Syriacs were brutally slaughtered; tens of thousands were compelled to renounce their faith, adopt a new identity, and abandon their language; and hundreds of thousands were expelled in a campaign of demographic cleansing. Over the ensuing decades, our people’s numbers dwindled, and survivors were subjected to systemic discrimination that denied them the right to live freely on their ancestral soil. 

Because the Turkish Republic has refused to confront its own history, the Sayfo Genocide has moved onto the international stage. The public opinion, dozens of national parliaments, scholarly bodies, and many human-rights organizations now recognize the Sayfo genocide, acknowledging that historical truth is the foundation of justice. 

Since 2015, under the guidance of our national movement and of some of our church leaders, June 15 has been observed worldwide as Syriac Genocide Remembrance Day. It was during that month in 1915 that the genocide reached its darkest peak—hence the profound significance of paying tribute to our martyrs each year in the month of June. Our national movement’s decades-long campaign to raise awareness of the Sayfo genocide has had a profound impact and yielded consciousness about the Sayfo in many countries. Yet the MUB warns that no conscience should remain indifferent to this still-open wound.   

In closing, the Presidency of the MUB calls on every member of our nation—at home and in the diaspora—to join commemorative events and renew demands for accountability. We urge the international community to apply sustained political, legal and economic pressure on the Republic of Turkey to accept the reality of the crime against humanity that is the Sayfo Genocide of 1915. On this 110th anniversary, we solemnly honor our martyrs and condemn those responsible for their suffering.