SAYFO

SÖDERTÄLJE, Sweden / ENSCHEDE, The Netherlands — On a balmy summer evening last June, the Södertälje municipal council voted unanimously to erect Sweden’s first national monument to the 1915 Sayfo Genocide, a long-awaited tribute to the more than two million Syriacs (Arameans–Assyrians–Chaldeans), Armenians, and Greeks massacred by Ottoman Empire and…

On 15 June, Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) communities around the world solemnly remembered the Sayfo Genocide, marking 110 years since the coordinated massacres carried out by the Ottoman Empire and its Kurdish tribal allies in 1915. From Europe to Australia, public ceremonies, liturgies, and educational forums underscored a unified call for official…

BETH ZALIN and DAYRIK, North and East Syria — As part of the 110th anniversary commemoration of the Sayfo Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire against the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people in 1915, the Syriac Union Party (Gabo d’Ḥuyodo Suryoyo, SUP) organized memorial events in Beth Zalin (Qamishli) and Dayrik (Derik /…

ISTANBUL — Two of Turkey’s pro-democracy and leftist political movements, the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (Turkish: Halkların Demokratik Kongresi, HDK) and the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Partisi, ESP), issued statements this week commemorating the 110th anniversary of the Sayfo genocide, a series of mass killings carried out by…

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…

MEDYAD, Turkey — On the 110th anniversary of the Sayfo Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire and its Kurdish tribal allies against the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) and the Democratic Regions Party (Demokratik Bölgeler Partisi, DBP) organized a…

ANKARA – The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Parti) today 15 June 2025, commemorated the Sayfo Genocide of 1915 with, among others, a written statement calling for a social and political confrontation within Turkey with the Sayfo. The statement, entitled “We share the pain…

By Muzaffer İris | Writer and academic The word Sayfo, meaning “sword” in Syriac, is rarely heard in and around the city of Adiyaman, Turkey. The events of Sayfo are not widely known here, largely because the Syriac language is scarcely used in the towns and villages where Syriacs reside.…

BRUSSELS — The European Syriac Union (ESU) on Sunday issued a solemn statement commemorating the 110th anniversary of the Sayfo Genocide, the mass killings of Christian Syriacs in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. In its communique, the ESU described Sayfo as “an act of systematic extermination” carried out…

QABRE HEWORE (Qahtaniyah), North and East Syria — On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the Sayfo Genocide, perpetrated against the the Syriac people by the Ottoman Empire and allied Kurdish tribes, the foundation stone for the Sayfo Martyrs’ Memorial was laid in the town of Qabre Hewore (Qahtaniyah),…