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Syriacs urge Turkey to recognize massacres
By Sibel Hurtas
April 23, 2015
The Ottoman policy of slaughter and deportations in 1915, associated
mainly with its Armenian victims, was actually much broader in its
scope. Along with more than one million Armenians killed, it crushed
also the Christian Syriac community, which counts its dead in the
hundreds of thousands.
Armenians call the slaughter `the Great Calamity,' while Syriacs
remember it as the `Seyfo Massacre' with `seyfo' meaning `sword.' On
the 100th anniversary this year, the Syriacs are for the first time
holding protests urging Turkey to recognize the Seyfo Massacre and to
apologize. On April 21, Syriacs launched a hunger strike in the
southeastern province of Mardin, where most of their ancestors
perished. The protest, scheduled to end April 24, will last 100 hours,
symbolizing the 100 years that have passed since the bloodshed. The
Syriacs are also planning to hold a big march in June.
Leading the events is the Mardin Syriac Unity Association, which a
Turkish court ordered closed earlier this month over several
provisions in its charter. According to its chairman, Yuhanna Aktas,
490,000 Syriacs perished in 1914-1915 in Mardin and its environs,
where the community was concentrated, with local Kurdish tribes and
the state-founded Hamidiye Corps leading the massacres.
Those who survived include people who fled to Syria as well as teenage
girls and children who were Islamized, Aktas told Al-Monitor, adding
that many people in the Mardin region today are the grandchildren of
those Islamized Syriac women. `They would call Syriacs `uncles.'
Hundreds are calling us `uncles' today,' said Aktas, himself a Mardin
resident.
Aktas' ancestors survived the massacres by hiding in a citadel along
with others from their native village of Alagoz, while Syriacs in
neighboring settlements were executed in village squares or in the
churches where they took shelter.
In one remarkable episode of resistance, Aktas recounted how Syriacs
in the village of Ivardo near the town of Midyat shut themselves
inside a high-walled church and held out against the soldiers for a
week. As the clashes continued, a group of Syriacs took the local
district governor and mayor hostage in the Midyat Government Office,
in a bid to stop the assault. A Muslim Kurdish elder by the name of
Sheikh Fetullah was called in to help. The man gave his son and nephew
as hostages to the Syriacs inside the government building and started
negotiations to stop the massacre. As a result, the people of Ivardo
were saved, but Syriacs in neighboring villages could not escape
death. Today, Fetullah's grandsons are Muslim clerics in Mardin and
his grave is frequently visited by Syriacs, Aktas said. `Sheikh
Fetullah's name is written with golden letters in our history,' he
added.
Tragic stories from the Seyfo Massacre are engraved deep in the memory
of many Syriacs in Mardin. One of them, Simon Poli, left Turkey for
Europe in the 1970s and is now back after 43 years to tell his
family's story and demand an apology.
The story he recounted to Al-Monitor is about Sara Poli, or `Mama
Sara' as he calls her, the wife of his grandfather's brother. Sara,
then in her twenties, witnessed the killing of her husband and other
relatives before she managed a short-lived escape with her three
children.
Here is what happened afterwards, in Poli's words: `Mama Sara had
three children, two of them twins. When their village was raided, the
children ran toward the granary. The eldest child collapsed, hit by a
bullet. Sara left the child there and took refuge in the Virgin Mary
Church [with the twins], hiding in the vineyard. Soon the soldiers
came to the church, yelling and shooting whomever they came across.
Then there was silence. Mama came out, thinking the soldiers were
gone, but they were waiting in ambush behind the walls. There were
seven of them ' two soldiers and five Kurds. They told Mama she must
convert to Islam. She refused and they killed one of the twins before
her eyes. Still, she refused to give in. Then they raped her and broke
one of her arms with a rifle butt before stabbing her with a dagger.
She lost consciousness and they left, believing she was dead. When she
came round, she found the other twin at her side. She had no idea how
the child survived. Sara had very long hair, which she used to bind
her [broken] arm. She took the child and ran into the mountains,
planning to reach the village of Ayvert, which was known to be holding
out. The Syriacs were helping the people who fled to the mountains and
that's how they found Mama. Her only surviving child died later of
sickness.'
According to the Mardin Syriac Unity Association, the Syriacs number
18,000 in Turkey and about 4 million around the world today. Some 80%
of the Syriac population abroad is estimated to have their roots in
Turkey, being the descendants of Syriacs who fled the Ottoman-era
killings.
Yet, unlike the Armenian tragedy, the Seyfo Massacre is little known
to the internationally community. Asked why, Aktas said Syriacs lacked
the diplomatic might of Armenians, with the remaining community in
Turkey intimidated into silence.
The recent court ruling to shut down the association is `a
continuation of Turkey's 100-year mentality,' Aktas said. Though he
believes nothing has changed over the years, Syriacs now appear
determined to speak out to bring about a change.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/turkey-syriacs-urge-turkey-to-recognize-massacres.html
By Sibel Hurtas
April 23, 2015
The Ottoman policy of slaughter and deportations in 1915, associated
mainly with its Armenian victims, was actually much broader in its
scope. Along with more than one million Armenians killed, it crushed
also the Christian Syriac community, which counts its dead in the
hundreds of thousands.
Armenians call the slaughter `the Great Calamity,' while Syriacs
remember it as the `Seyfo Massacre' with `seyfo' meaning `sword.' On
the 100th anniversary this year, the Syriacs are for the first time
holding protests urging Turkey to recognize the Seyfo Massacre and to
apologize. On April 21, Syriacs launched a hunger strike in the
southeastern province of Mardin, where most of their ancestors
perished. The protest, scheduled to end April 24, will last 100 hours,
symbolizing the 100 years that have passed since the bloodshed. The
Syriacs are also planning to hold a big march in June.
Leading the events is the Mardin Syriac Unity Association, which a
Turkish court ordered closed earlier this month over several
provisions in its charter. According to its chairman, Yuhanna Aktas,
490,000 Syriacs perished in 1914-1915 in Mardin and its environs,
where the community was concentrated, with local Kurdish tribes and
the state-founded Hamidiye Corps leading the massacres.
Those who survived include people who fled to Syria as well as teenage
girls and children who were Islamized, Aktas told Al-Monitor, adding
that many people in the Mardin region today are the grandchildren of
those Islamized Syriac women. `They would call Syriacs `uncles.'
Hundreds are calling us `uncles' today,' said Aktas, himself a Mardin
resident.
Aktas' ancestors survived the massacres by hiding in a citadel along
with others from their native village of Alagoz, while Syriacs in
neighboring settlements were executed in village squares or in the
churches where they took shelter.
In one remarkable episode of resistance, Aktas recounted how Syriacs
in the village of Ivardo near the town of Midyat shut themselves
inside a high-walled church and held out against the soldiers for a
week. As the clashes continued, a group of Syriacs took the local
district governor and mayor hostage in the Midyat Government Office,
in a bid to stop the assault. A Muslim Kurdish elder by the name of
Sheikh Fetullah was called in to help. The man gave his son and nephew
as hostages to the Syriacs inside the government building and started
negotiations to stop the massacre. As a result, the people of Ivardo
were saved, but Syriacs in neighboring villages could not escape
death. Today, Fetullah's grandsons are Muslim clerics in Mardin and
his grave is frequently visited by Syriacs, Aktas said. `Sheikh
Fetullah's name is written with golden letters in our history,' he
added.
Tragic stories from the Seyfo Massacre are engraved deep in the memory
of many Syriacs in Mardin. One of them, Simon Poli, left Turkey for
Europe in the 1970s and is now back after 43 years to tell his
family's story and demand an apology.
The story he recounted to Al-Monitor is about Sara Poli, or `Mama
Sara' as he calls her, the wife of his grandfather's brother. Sara,
then in her twenties, witnessed the killing of her husband and other
relatives before she managed a short-lived escape with her three
children.
Here is what happened afterwards, in Poli's words: `Mama Sara had
three children, two of them twins. When their village was raided, the
children ran toward the granary. The eldest child collapsed, hit by a
bullet. Sara left the child there and took refuge in the Virgin Mary
Church [with the twins], hiding in the vineyard. Soon the soldiers
came to the church, yelling and shooting whomever they came across.
Then there was silence. Mama came out, thinking the soldiers were
gone, but they were waiting in ambush behind the walls. There were
seven of them ' two soldiers and five Kurds. They told Mama she must
convert to Islam. She refused and they killed one of the twins before
her eyes. Still, she refused to give in. Then they raped her and broke
one of her arms with a rifle butt before stabbing her with a dagger.
She lost consciousness and they left, believing she was dead. When she
came round, she found the other twin at her side. She had no idea how
the child survived. Sara had very long hair, which she used to bind
her [broken] arm. She took the child and ran into the mountains,
planning to reach the village of Ayvert, which was known to be holding
out. The Syriacs were helping the people who fled to the mountains and
that's how they found Mama. Her only surviving child died later of
sickness.'
According to the Mardin Syriac Unity Association, the Syriacs number
18,000 in Turkey and about 4 million around the world today. Some 80%
of the Syriac population abroad is estimated to have their roots in
Turkey, being the descendants of Syriacs who fled the Ottoman-era
killings.
Yet, unlike the Armenian tragedy, the Seyfo Massacre is little known
to the internationally community. Asked why, Aktas said Syriacs lacked
the diplomatic might of Armenians, with the remaining community in
Turkey intimidated into silence.
The recent court ruling to shut down the association is `a
continuation of Turkey's 100-year mentality,' Aktas said. Though he
believes nothing has changed over the years, Syriacs now appear
determined to speak out to bring about a change.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/04/turkey-syriacs-urge-turkey-to-recognize-massacres.html