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Newly Elected Assyrian Patriarch Wants to Commemorate Genocide Cente

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  • Newly Elected Assyrian Patriarch Wants to Commemorate Genocide Cente

    Assyrian International News Agency AINA
    June 8 2014

    Newly Elected Assyrian Patriarch Wants to Commemorate Genocide Centennial

    Posted 2014-06-08 04:02 GMT


    Assyrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II.Damascus (AINA) -- The
    synod of the Assyrian Orthodox Church made a surprising decision on
    May 30th to form a committee to prepare for the commemoration of the
    centennial of the 1915 Turkish genocide of Assyrians. The decision
    came as the newly elected Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II held his first
    meeting with the bishops of the church in Damascus.

    The decision marks a dramatic shift by the church on this sensitive
    issue, putting the Assyrian Orthodox Church on a collision course with
    Turkey, which continues to deny the genocide.

    The decision is welcomed and even encouraged by the Syrian regime
    given the current enmity between Turkey and Syria. Patriarch Aphrem II
    has been vocal in his support for Bashar Al Assad's regime.

    In the past the church refrained from any action which could have been
    interpreted as support for the recognition movement among Assyrian
    political organizations, fearing any such action would have
    jeopardized its parishioners, monasteries and churches in Turkey.

    The Turkish genocide of Assyrians occurred in World War One. It began
    on April 24, 1915 and lasted to the end of 1918. The genocide claimed
    750,000 (75%) Assyrian lives, as well as 1.5 million Armenians and
    500,000 Pontic Greeks.

    Sweden is the only country which has recognized the Assyrian genocide.
    The International Genocide Scholars Association officially recognized
    the Assyrian and Greek genocides in December, 2007.

    http://www.aina.org/releases/20140607230210.htm

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