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GENOCIDE, 100 YEARS AGO, STILL GOES ON?
AINA - Assyrian International News Agency
Jan 26 2015
By Nuri Kino
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Posted 2015-01-26 09:25 GMT
Assyrians in Stockholm march for genocide recognition.Today, on the
25th of January, thousands of people in Sweden and other countries
around the world will light their torches and walk the streets of
European cities to remind the world of the genocide that happened
in the shadow of World War I. An attempt to wipe out our nation,
which has not stopped till todays date.
Every time I leave Turkey, I get a knot in my stomach. It was here
that I was born and maybe where I should have been raised. I have
many friends here; I love the food, the music, the language and the
culture. But my parents didn't want their children to live in a country
where we would be treated like second-class citizens; therefore they
took us to Europe when I was a little child. As I reminisce, I fall
asleep on the floor of Istanbul's airport.
A stewardess that didn't want me to miss my flight woke me up. She
asked where I was from. "Sweden", I spontaneously answered. "But you
don't look like a Swiss?" I responded that I'm Swedish, not Swiss,
and that there is a difference. She looked ashamed. I felt bad,
so I told her that I was born in Midyat in Southeast Turkey. "Well,
why don't you speak better Turkish then?" she reacted.
I'm Assyrian, a nation that is also called Syriac or Chaldean, and I
speak my mother tongue at home, also most of the people where I was
born nowadays speak either Kurdish or Arabic. She raised her eyebrows.
"I don't understand, are you a Kurd? Or an Arab?"
This was on the January 3. The same morning, Turkish newspaper
published reports that Turkey would allow a church to be built in
the country for the first time in more then one hundred years.
Meanwhile, it has been exactly one hundred years since the decision was
made to annihilate my nation. "Not a stone over the other" was said,
so to destroy everything that came in their way, including churches,
in the Jihad (Islamic war) against non-Muslims of that time.
Another slogan was "no heads should remain on bodies."
It's been 15 years since I produced my first documentary film, A Cry
Unheard; it was about "Seyfo," the word for sword in Assyrian, which
the genocide of 1915 is called. We interviewed about 30 survivors.
Many of them died shortly after that, two of them told us that they
felt relieved, now they could leave this life. Now, when they were
nearly one hundred years old, they had the chance to give their
testimonies. At last, someone was ready to listen to and document
what they had experienced.
Over two million Armenians, Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs, Pontic Greeks
and Yazidis were slaughtered. Those who survived were deported.
"Stupid media in the west, Turkey has succeeded with another PR-coupe
worth millions of dollars. Of course they come up with a bluff like
allowing a church to be built, everything to steal attention from the
hundred years memory of Seyfo. The press ran the Turkish government's
errands, continuously or not. They gave it free advertisings by
publishing the news about the church, but we who fight for recognition
of the genocide will probably not be given one written line," said
an upset friend while we were having breakfast in Taksim in central
Istanbul.
Turkish intellectuals, like author and Nobel Prize winner, Orhan
Pamuk, have shown great courage and mentioned the genocide and asked
Turkey for recognition. Some Kurdish tribes were also involved in
the massacres and many Kurds, like the prominent politician, Osman
Baydemir, have publicly asked for forgiveness for the atrocities
committed by their ancestors. But Turkey, the government, still goes
on with it's revision of history.
Another friend, a Kurdish freedom fighter, who also was with us
at breakfast that morning, linked Seyfo with the ethno religious
cleansing that has been going on in Iraq the last decade.
"It's important not to forget that Turkey is involved in today's Jihad,
Islamic terrorist's genocide against non-Muslims like Assyrians and
Yazidis in Iraq. Turkey has been a transit land for many of those
thugs that are fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, there
is even evidence that the Turkish secret service has helped them with
equipment. The same awful mentality as in 1915."
My Kurdish friend also reminded me about IS trying to take over Kobane,
a city in northern Syria.
"Islamic State, the brutal terrorists, also kills moderate Muslims
like Kurds, for example in Syria, and Turkey is involved in that, too.
When Kobane was attacked by IS we begged the Turkish government to
help us stop massacres of the city's Kurdish inhabitants, but the
Turkish president, Erdogan, refused to help. Hundreds of thousand
of Kurds demonstrated their disappointment in southeast Turkey, more
than ten people were killed in the clashes between the Turkish police
and the Kurdish demonstrators."
Every time a Turk tells me they have not heard of Assyrians it feels
like a punch in my stomach, like if the perpetrators succeeded with
Sefyo, at least with some of it. Part of the plan was to wipe us out of
the history books so that people would never know about our existence.
But we will also succeed. That's a promise to my grandmother, Meyyo,
who was found alive in a well, together with the lifeless bodies of
her family member who were murdered. And to you my great-grandfather,
Sha'e: I bow my head, you saved hundreds of people and gave your life
for strangers.
Today, I light my torch so that one day history books will tell your
stories and no one in Turkey will say they have not heard of my people.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150126042516.htm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
AINA - Assyrian International News Agency
Jan 26 2015
By Nuri Kino
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Posted 2015-01-26 09:25 GMT
Assyrians in Stockholm march for genocide recognition.Today, on the
25th of January, thousands of people in Sweden and other countries
around the world will light their torches and walk the streets of
European cities to remind the world of the genocide that happened
in the shadow of World War I. An attempt to wipe out our nation,
which has not stopped till todays date.
Every time I leave Turkey, I get a knot in my stomach. It was here
that I was born and maybe where I should have been raised. I have
many friends here; I love the food, the music, the language and the
culture. But my parents didn't want their children to live in a country
where we would be treated like second-class citizens; therefore they
took us to Europe when I was a little child. As I reminisce, I fall
asleep on the floor of Istanbul's airport.
A stewardess that didn't want me to miss my flight woke me up. She
asked where I was from. "Sweden", I spontaneously answered. "But you
don't look like a Swiss?" I responded that I'm Swedish, not Swiss,
and that there is a difference. She looked ashamed. I felt bad,
so I told her that I was born in Midyat in Southeast Turkey. "Well,
why don't you speak better Turkish then?" she reacted.
I'm Assyrian, a nation that is also called Syriac or Chaldean, and I
speak my mother tongue at home, also most of the people where I was
born nowadays speak either Kurdish or Arabic. She raised her eyebrows.
"I don't understand, are you a Kurd? Or an Arab?"
This was on the January 3. The same morning, Turkish newspaper
published reports that Turkey would allow a church to be built in
the country for the first time in more then one hundred years.
Meanwhile, it has been exactly one hundred years since the decision was
made to annihilate my nation. "Not a stone over the other" was said,
so to destroy everything that came in their way, including churches,
in the Jihad (Islamic war) against non-Muslims of that time.
Another slogan was "no heads should remain on bodies."
It's been 15 years since I produced my first documentary film, A Cry
Unheard; it was about "Seyfo," the word for sword in Assyrian, which
the genocide of 1915 is called. We interviewed about 30 survivors.
Many of them died shortly after that, two of them told us that they
felt relieved, now they could leave this life. Now, when they were
nearly one hundred years old, they had the chance to give their
testimonies. At last, someone was ready to listen to and document
what they had experienced.
Over two million Armenians, Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs, Pontic Greeks
and Yazidis were slaughtered. Those who survived were deported.
"Stupid media in the west, Turkey has succeeded with another PR-coupe
worth millions of dollars. Of course they come up with a bluff like
allowing a church to be built, everything to steal attention from the
hundred years memory of Seyfo. The press ran the Turkish government's
errands, continuously or not. They gave it free advertisings by
publishing the news about the church, but we who fight for recognition
of the genocide will probably not be given one written line," said
an upset friend while we were having breakfast in Taksim in central
Istanbul.
Turkish intellectuals, like author and Nobel Prize winner, Orhan
Pamuk, have shown great courage and mentioned the genocide and asked
Turkey for recognition. Some Kurdish tribes were also involved in
the massacres and many Kurds, like the prominent politician, Osman
Baydemir, have publicly asked for forgiveness for the atrocities
committed by their ancestors. But Turkey, the government, still goes
on with it's revision of history.
Another friend, a Kurdish freedom fighter, who also was with us
at breakfast that morning, linked Seyfo with the ethno religious
cleansing that has been going on in Iraq the last decade.
"It's important not to forget that Turkey is involved in today's Jihad,
Islamic terrorist's genocide against non-Muslims like Assyrians and
Yazidis in Iraq. Turkey has been a transit land for many of those
thugs that are fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, there
is even evidence that the Turkish secret service has helped them with
equipment. The same awful mentality as in 1915."
My Kurdish friend also reminded me about IS trying to take over Kobane,
a city in northern Syria.
"Islamic State, the brutal terrorists, also kills moderate Muslims
like Kurds, for example in Syria, and Turkey is involved in that, too.
When Kobane was attacked by IS we begged the Turkish government to
help us stop massacres of the city's Kurdish inhabitants, but the
Turkish president, Erdogan, refused to help. Hundreds of thousand
of Kurds demonstrated their disappointment in southeast Turkey, more
than ten people were killed in the clashes between the Turkish police
and the Kurdish demonstrators."
Every time a Turk tells me they have not heard of Assyrians it feels
like a punch in my stomach, like if the perpetrators succeeded with
Sefyo, at least with some of it. Part of the plan was to wipe us out of
the history books so that people would never know about our existence.
But we will also succeed. That's a promise to my grandmother, Meyyo,
who was found alive in a well, together with the lifeless bodies of
her family member who were murdered. And to you my great-grandfather,
Sha'e: I bow my head, you saved hundreds of people and gave your life
for strangers.
Today, I light my torch so that one day history books will tell your
stories and no one in Turkey will say they have not heard of my people.
http://www.aina.org/news/20150126042516.htm
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress