TURKEY

MARMARA, Turkey — A delegation from Turkey’s opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) met with nine detained politicians in Silivri Prison on Sunday, including prominent figures such as Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu (Republican People’s Party, CHP), former Van Mayor Bekir Kaya (Democratic Regions…

ANKARA — In a speech yesterday before Turkish Parliament, Syriac MP for the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Halkların Eşitlik ve Demokrasi Partisi, DEM Party) George Aryo called for the erection of a memorial for Christians who were brutally murdered and exiled and whose property was usurped by the Ottoman Empire…

ANKARA — In the wake of Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s renewed peace initiative, President of the Federation of Syriac Associations in Turkey (Süryani Dernekler Federasyonu, SÜDEF) Evgil Türker urged the Turkish government to take concrete steps toward resolving the country’s long-standing conflicts. In an interview with the Yeni Özgür Politika,…

BATMAN, Turkey — After centuries of neglect, the historic Mor Quryaqos (St. Cyriacus) Monastery in the Bishiri Quarter of Batman, Turkey, reopened to the public on 15 June following a five-year restoration funded by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The reopening was marked by a dedication service led by…

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.…

MIDYAT, TUR ABDIN — Evgil Türker, President of the Federation of Syriac Associations in Turkey (Süryani Dernekler Federasyonu, SÜDEF), asserted that the Sayfo Genocide mark a historic turning point and forms a core part of the identity of the Syriac  (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people. He urged the Turkish state to stop evading…