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Open Letter From 19,000 Assyrians To Turkey: Do Not Touch St. Gabrie

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  • Open Letter From 19,000 Assyrians To Turkey: Do Not Touch St. Gabrie

    OPEN LETTER FROM 19,000 ASSYRIANS TO TURKEY: DO NOT TOUCH ST. GABRIEL MONASTERY

    Assyrian International News Agency
    http://www.aina.org/news/20090204175247.htm
    Feb 5 2009

    The group "Aktion Mor Gabriel" in Germany, held a protest demonstration
    in Berlin (AINA 1-27-2009) against Turkey's attempts to confiscate
    the Mor Gabriel Monastery. According to official figures from the
    Berlin police, more than 19 000 people gathered. It is undoubtedly
    the largest Assyrians demonstration ever in Europe.

    Buses filled with young, old, men and women from Belgium, Holland,
    Switzerland, Austria, and from several cities in Germany emptied
    outside the magnificent cathedral, the Berliner Dom. In an hour the
    cathedral's park area turned to a meeting place for Assyrians from
    all over Europe.

    Just a stone's throw from the gathering is the Pergamon Museum. Inside
    the museum you can watch the impressive Babylonian procession street,
    built by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC). Lions in
    the relief walking along the procession street's blue and ocher colored
    glazed walls towards the mighty gate of Ishtar. They are witnesses of
    a great past and have seen many generations of Assyrians come and go.

    The contrast in Berlin

    Inside the Pergamon Museum, you can watch the Babylonian procession
    street and the gate of Ishtar, one of ancient history's most unique
    remains from the great Assyrian empire, while outside, a stone's
    throw from the museum you are met by today's brutal truth, where the
    remains of the Assyrian empire protest against Turkey's attempt to
    confiscate the Mor Gabriel Monastery, which has become a symbol of
    the Christian Assyrians since it was built in 397 A.D.

    Before the protest march was moving towards its final destination,
    the Syriac Orthodox Church Archbishop of Germany, Julio Hanna Aydin,
    made a short speech.

    - I am extremely pleased to see so many young people involved in
    the Mor Gabriel issue. I am overwhelmed with joy to see all of our
    organizations, regardless of name, flags and colors. It is the day
    of unity, said Bishop Hanna Aydin.

    Under the leadership of Bishop Hanna Aydin the crowd prayed the
    lord's prayer, after that the demonstrators began to move towards the
    Brandenburg Tor, the arch of triumph that has become the symbol of
    a free, democratic and reunited Germany, where several demonstration
    speeches would be held.

    Berlin's main avenue, Unter den Linden, was closed for car traffic
    for the demonstration. This avenue which is Berlin's cultural and
    political center is heavily visited by tourists. Some curious tourists
    asked the organizers in yellow vests what it is about.

    The demonstration took the march from the Berliner Dom at Pariser Platz
    to the Brandenburg Gate in one hour. "Do not touch the Mor Gabriel"
    the crowd scanted all the way.

    The list of speakers consisted of representatives from various
    organizations, Assyrian, Armenian, German Evangelical Church
    representatives, other coreligionists and human rights activists. Also
    the authors Yelda Ozcan and Recep Marasli showed their solidarity
    and gave speeches during the demonstration.

    The line of argument in the speakers' message was that Turkey should
    stop harassing the Assyrians. Most speakers noted that the feudal
    system is a problem and the village guards armed with government
    weapons are raging freely and terrorizing the Assyrians in the
    area. The Turkish State which has started this systematic state terror
    by using Kurdish clans and village guards has to immediately stop it
    if they want to belong to the civilized world, emphasized the majority
    of speakers.

    History is present

    A few hundred meters south of the Brandenburg Gate, where 19 000
    Assyrians were assembled, the Holocaust Mahnmal, a monument to the
    Holocaust, which covers a 19 000 m2 area in the middle of Berlin's
    most central neighborhoods. The monument was built as an unforgettable
    symbol of the crime that Nazi Germany had committed against the city's
    once flourishing Jewish community.

    Turkey, however, does the contrary, and responds to its dark history in
    an entirely different way. Just a few kilometers from the demonstration
    site is Hardenberg Strasse, the street where the genocide architect
    of Seyfo, Talat Pasha, was killed in March 15, 1921 by an Armenian
    survivor of the genocide. Seyfo-genocide was staged by the young
    Turks under the direction of among others Talat Pasha. The current
    Turkish government continues its policies in the same spirit. With its
    aggression and its harassment of the Assyrians and other Christians
    in the country, the Turkish state shows that even today they follow
    in Talat Pashas footsteps.

    Turkey seems to have difficulties to put up with the fact that there
    are a couple of thousand Assyrians left in Turabdin, the origin area
    of the Assyrians, and that they have a monastery in the area, although
    they already have eradicated several hundred thousand of them during
    the Seyfo genocide. Turkey wants to erase the last remains and to
    complete the genocide that Talat Pasha and the young Turks began in
    the shadow of the First World War. A country which does not recognize
    its crimes and apologize for them is always prone to commit the same
    crimes against humanity. Learn from Germany, Turkey! Dare to face
    your dark history and make up with it!
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