TURKEY: Iwardo residents honor Sayfo Genocide victims in memorial ceremony

IWARDO, Turkey — Residents of Iwardo village in Tur Abdin, southeastern Turkey, gathered at the historic Virgin Mary Church to commemorate the victims of the 1915 Sayfo Genocide. The ceremony reflected on the atrocities committed against the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) community during that period. 

The Virgin Mary Church, once a strategic lookout point where villagers stood guard before the genocide, served as the venue for the solemn event. Among those remembered were 12 residents of Kfarzo who were brutally killed, emblematic of the widespread violence against the Syriac people. 

Speaker Yohanon provided historical context, explaining how Ottoman policies initially targeted Armenians before expanding to include Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean), Greek, and other Christian communities. He stressed the importance of documenting the number of victims and preserving the collective memory of these atrocities. 

One attendee shared a harrowing account of resistance during the genocide, recounting how a villager defended a Syriac man by killing a Kurdish militiaman who had attempted to murder him in the village fortress. 

The ceremony emphasized the critical role of oral histories and fragmented narratives in exposing the systematic violence that aimed to erase the indigenous Christian presence in Tur Abdin. Through these stories, the memory of the Sayfo Genocide lives on, reinforcing the call for recognition and justice.