Assyrian Genocide

[Joseph]

Assyrian International News Agency
The Four Faces of the Turkish Genocide of Assyrians
Posted GMT 11-13-2007 17:31:3
On April 1, the Assyrians will celebrate their traditional New Year and remember the 1915-1918 Ottoman Genocide in which half a million of their forebearers lost their lives. This should remind us that the "Armenian genocide" also affected other Christian minorities such as the Assyrians, the Chaldeans and Greek Orthodox.

The title of this press service " Four Faces of the 1915-1918 Genocide " is a reference to the shared atrocities suffered by four Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire--the Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greek Orthodox--whose genocide at the hands of the rulers of war-time Turkey resulted in the annihilation of over two-thirds of their population.

The four stories which follow tell of mass shootings, torture, forced migration for the survivors and the suffering of a people displaced or destroyed simply for reasons of their faith.

Katherine Magarian saw her father and dozens of other family members brutally slain by the invading Turks in the Armenian massacres that began in 1915.

The Reverend John Eshoo and Kerime Cercis described the suffering of the Assyrians and Chaldeans at the hands of the Ottomans in details available only >from an eye-witness or a survivor. Maria Katsidou-Symeonidou told of the exodus >from her home village during Orthodox Easter of 1920.

As the last of the remaining survivors and now first and second-generation descendents of the victims of the 1915-1918 genocide remember and respect the memory of those lost, Human Rights Without Frontiers Int. welcomes the recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" by some countries and supports the collective campaign for further recognition to include the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greek Orthodox. Human Rights Without Frontiers Int. also encourages Turkey to sign and ratify the Framework Convention on National Minorities of the Council of Europe.

The Armenian Face: Katherine Magarian's Testimony

I saw my father killed when I was nine years old. We lived in Palou, in the mountains. My father was a businessman. He would go into the countryside, selling pots and pans, butter and dairy products. The Turks, they rode in one day and got all the men together, bringing them to a church. Every man came back outside, their hands tied behind them. Then they slaughtered them all, like sheep, with long knives.

They all died, 25 people in my family died. You can't walk, they kill you. You walk, they kill you. They did not care who they killed. My husband, who was a boy in my village but I did not know him then, saw his mother's head cut off. The Turks, they would see a pregnant woman and cut the baby out of her and hold it up on their knife to show those around.

My mother and I, we started running. They got one of my sisters and then one of my other sisters, she was four, but she ran away. My mother was hit by the Turks, she was bleeding as we went. We walked and walked, and I was saying "Ma, wait, I want to look for my little sister,"' but my mother slapped me, saying "No! Too dangerous, we keep walking." It got darker and darker, but we walked. Still, I did not know where. The Turks had taken over our city.

Two, three days we walked, with little to eat. Finally, we found my sister who had run away. Then we walked to Harput and I see the Turks and I want to run, but they are friendly Turks, my mother told me. She said, "You go live with them now, you'll be safe," and I was. I worked there, waiting on them, cleaning, but I was alive and safe. But I did not see my mother for five years. She was taken to the mountains to live, and she saw hundreds of dead Armenians, hundreds of them, who had been killed by the Turks, the bodies were all over.

Years later, my mother said to the Turks, "I want to see my child," and they let her come back. She came to the house at night. She did not know me, but I knew it was her. Her voice was the same as I remembered it. I told her who I was, and she said, "You are my daughter!" and we kissed, hugged, and cried and cried.

My mother later heard of an orphanage in Beirut for Armenians, and we went there after the Turks kicked us out of our country. I spent four years there, and again, I didn't see my mother until a priest got us together. In 1924, she came to this country to meet family who left before the genocide. Three times now, I have lost my mother.

Sometimes, near the anniversary of the slaughter, my mind goes back there. You know, when I was 14, maybe 15, I have a dream, Jesus comes to me and says "Give me your hand," and I want to get up and go with him but I cannot get up. Then I am in the mountains, where all the dead were that my mother would later tell me about, and I see flowers, every kind of flowers, no bodies, and it is beautiful. Then I see the ocean and a boat, the boat that would take me to Cuba years later. I think this was God saying to me that I would be fine. I was lucky to live, I guess. God made me lucky (1).

The Assyrian Face: Reverend John Eshoo's Testimony

You have undoubtedly heard of the Assyrian massacre of Khoi, but I am certain you do not know the details. A large part of our people had migrated here and one fourth of our refugees were stationed in Sardavar (Khoi). These Assyrians were assembled into one caravan and all shot to death by guns and revolvers. Blood literally flowed in little streams and the entire open space within the caravan became a pool of crimson liquid.

The place was too small to hold all the living victims for the work of execution. They were brought in groups, and each new group was compelled to stand up over the heap of the still bleeding bodies and shot to death in the same manner. The fearful place became literally a human slaughterhouse, receiving its speechless victims for execution in groups of ten and twenty at a time. At the same time, the Assyrians, who were residing in the suburb of the city, were brought together and driven into the spacious courtyard of a house. The Assyrian refugees were kept under guard for eight days, without anything to eat except a handful of popcorn served daily to each individual. This consideration was by no means intended as a humanitarian act but merely to keep the victims alive for the infliction upon them of the most revolting tortures at a convenient time set for their execution.

Finally they were removed from their place of confinement and taken to a spot prepared for their brutal killing. These helpless Assyrians marched like lambs to their slaughter, opening their mouths only to say "Lord, into thy hands we commit our spirits." The procession of the victims was led by two green turbaned Sayids [the highest religious order in Islam], one with an open book in his hand, reading aloud the passages pertaining to the holy war whilst the other carried a large-bladed knife, the emblem of execution.

When the procession arrived at the appointed place, the executioners began by cutting first the fingers of their victims, join by joint, till the two hands were entirely amputated. Then they were stretched on the ground, after the manner of the animals that are slain in the Fast, but these with their faces turned upward and their heads resting upon the stones or blocks of wood. Then their throats were half in cut so as to prolong their torture of dying and whilst struggling in the agony of death, the victims were kicked and clubbed by heavy poles. Many of them, still labouring under the pain of death, were thrown into ditches and buried before their souls had expired.

The young and able-bodied men were separated from among the very young and the old. They were taken some distance from the city and used as targets by the shooters. They all fell, a few not mortally wounded. One of the leaders went close to the heaps of the fallen and shouted aloud, swearing by the names of Islam's prophets that those who had not received mortal wounds should rise and depart, as they would not be harmed any more. A few, thus deceived, stood up but only to tall this time dead by another volley from the guns of the murderers. Some of the younger and beautiful women, together with a few little girls, who pleaded to be killed, were forced into the harems of Islam against their will. Others were subjected to such fiendish insults that I cannot possibly even describe. Death, however, came to their rescue and saved them from the vile passions of the demons. The Assyrian victims of this massacre totalled 2,770 men, women and children (2).

The Chaldean Face: Kerime Cercis's Testimony

I was thirteen years old when the massacre began. My father worked for the customs authorities in Siirt. I lived together with my parents, Cercis and Hane, my three brothers, Kerim, Yusuf and Latif, and my grandfather. Our house in the quarter of Ayn Saliba was raided in the spring of 1915 by twenty bandits. Within this raid, my father and my grandfather were stabbed to death. My mother, my brothers and I were taken to a strange village. After the city went through a big massacre, where all my relatives had been killed and thrown into a big hole, the Kurds brought me to the other Chaldean girls in the village of Zevida where I spent one year. Every night the Kurds abused me.

A year later I went back to Siirt in the company of a Muslim woman. This woman brought me to Abdul-Ferid, the new owner of our former home. She believed Abdul-Ferid would feel sorry for me and, therefore, help me but this was quite the contrary. He threw me out of the house. One Chaldean, who was serving as a nanny for a Turk, helped me. I should carry water for the family and care for the garden. One day when I wanted to take water from the source a soldier came my way.

His name was Abdullah and was carrying water for the hospital of Siirt. He kidnapped and brought me to his mother, Fatum Hanum. She showed me the hole where all the killed Christians been thrown in and said: "The same will happen to you if you don't follow our rules!" It was a terrible sight, all the bones and the hair of people lying down there. When we returned to the house she told me: "Did you get what I told you, little heretic?" I was so frightened that I even could not answer.

Abdullah was abusing me sexually and in many other ways. For three years I had to undergo this terrible treatment, I served for the old witch and followed everything she ordered. Then the famine began to reign in the village and everyone was suffering from hunger except the slave driver Abdulriza. His depot was full of food which he had stolen from the Christian's houses. Abdullah could not look after his family any longer. Therefore, he told his mother to take his children and go begging for money but she had decided for the voyage to Istanbul. The voyage lasted three months and what Fatum and the children did to me in the meantime is too unbelievable to even describe. When we reached Istanbul she sold me to a Muslim woman, who knew one of my relatives. I begged her to bring me there and finally she did. Now I am living in my relative's house, which called Zeki Hirize and works as a shoemaker.

These are the names of my killed relatives: My parents Cercis and Hane, my brothers Latif, Yusuf, Kerim (killed by Abdul-Ferid who inhabits our former house), my grandparents on both sides, my uncles Pitiyon, Tevfik, Bulos and my aunts Hatun and Helena. All of our possessions, the house, furniture, gold, jewels, everything belongs now to Abdul-Ferid, who has taken everything (3).

The Hellenic Face: Maria Katsidou-Symeonidou's Testimony

I was born in Mourasoul village, Sevasteia/Sivas district, on 15 August 1914. I remember the deportations well. In 1918, I was about four years old, when one day I saw my father in the village square. I ran to him and asked him for the pie he brought me every day from the family-owned mill. He replied: "Oh, my child! The Turks are going to kill me and you will not see me again." He told me to tell my mother to prepare his clothes and some food for him. That was the last time we saw him. They killed him along with another ten men.

I remember another time when a Turk warned our village, saying that all the young men should leave. This because the next day, Topal Osman, would be coming. Indeed, those that left, were saved. They still killed fifteen men, including the teacher, the village president and the priest. Topal Osman had caught three hundred and fifty men from neighbouring villages. He had them bound, murdered and thrown into the river that ran through our village. I still remember the echo of the shots. They were hauling the bodies by ox-cart for nine days to bury them. Most of them were unrecognisable, as their heads had been cut off.

In 1920, around Easter, the Turkish Army came and told us to take with us everything we could. We loaded up the animals, but the saddle-bags tore open and most of us were left without food. On the deportation march, the Turkish guards would rape the women, one of whom became pregnant. In the Teloukta area, about half our group was lost in a snow storm. From there, they took us to a place without water, Sous-Yiazousou, where many died of thirst. Soon afterwards, as we passed a river, all of us threw ourselves at the water, people fell over each other in the rush and many drowned. We reached Phiratrima, which was a Kurdish area and they left us at a village near a bridge. It was here that the pregnant girl gave birth to twins. The Turks cut the new-borns in two and tossed them in the river. On the riverbank, they killed many more of the group.

The killings ended only with the agreement for the Exchange of Populations (1923). This is how we were saved. I came to Hellas in 1923. As I was an orphan, I arrived with the American Mission, at Volos (Thessaly). From there, we went to Aedipsos, to Larissa and finally to Aetorrahi village, Elassona district, where I settled (4).

(1) Katherine Magarian's story was originally published in the Boston Globe on 19 April 1998.
(2) Excerpted from The Flickering Light of Asia, Reverend Joel Werda, Chicago, 1990, P. 156-58.
(3) Kerime Cercis was interviewed in 1918 in Istanbul.
(4) Maria Katsidou-Symeonidou died in November 1997.

Human Rights Without Frontiers International

[priji]

The 7th of August has been designated as a Memorial Day for Assyrian Martyrs. Although this observance is of a comparatively recent date, it has gained widespread acceptance among the Assyrian people. And this is justly so. Every nation needs to have a day set aside for the remembrance of those who gave their lives for the preservation of their cultural and ethnic identity. This is especially important for the Assyrian Nation; for no other people (as the following pages will show) have given so many martyrs in the defense of their national and ethnic rights.

Throughout our long history, each time an Assyrian man, woman, or child stood up against their oppressors and refused to give up their religion, language, or national existence, our nation as a whole was pulled one step back from the abyss of extinction! Yes! This is true, even if the immediate consequences of such actions were destruction and death. Our martyrs form the core of our history. They are the one who bravely and selflessly defended our existence, even to the point of giving up their own lives, so that we could continuously have before us examples of self-sacrifice which would serve to encourage us to preserve ourselves and our culture for future generations.

[Gavur]

Please keep us posted with any events associated with the Assryian/Christian Genocide.

[Joseph]

Assyrian Genocide Part 1

Assyrian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey and Adjacent Turkish Territories
[December 10, 2007]

Throughout the history of the world, namely the 20th century, there have been numerous wars and much genocide to go along with them. So, the 20th century has entered into history as a century of genocides. In the history of mankind it had never occurred before that so many nations be subjected to physical extermination or the danger of it. The reality of the genocide has been one of the worst acts throughout the history of mankind.

The word “genocide” originally comes from the combination of the ancient Greek word “genos”, meaning people or folk, and the Latin word “caedere”, meaning slaughtering or destroying. The term “genocide” first appeared in scientific literature and political lexicon in 1944, with the right of authorship pertaining to Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent. This invention of Lemkin’s is mainly due to two tragedies of the 20th century: the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey during World War I, and the holocaust of Jews in Fascist Germany during World War II1. As Lemkin has truly noticed, those were not the ordinary carnages or slaughters, but, qualitatively, a new phenomenon, which required a fundamentally new approach and assessment, and a new scientific definition. As a term and definition of crime, genocide was accepted by various international organizations, and first and foremost - by the United Nations, the most authoritative international body of today. On December 9, 1948 the General Assembly of UN adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which is an international document of historical significance.

The International Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on December 9, 1948 set the United Nations definition of genocide

General Assembly Resolution 260A (III) Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Today it is very well-known sad fact that the first genocide of the history, which took place ninety two years ago was the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey. But during the same period together with Armenians, some non-Turkish nations were subjected to or faced the risk of genocide, also. Let’s particularly mention the Assyrians. Who are they?

The Assyrians are one of the most ancient nation of the world, whose ancestors stood at the cradle of the world civilization and made a great contribution to the development of world culture. More than two and a half thousand years have passed since the fall of the Assyrian kingdom (605 B.C.). The descendants of Assyrians, continuing to live on their historical land in ancient Betnahrain, which occupies the territory between the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, Lake Urmia and the deserts of Mesopotamia, were consistently oppressed by Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Ottoman Turks and Kurds. Now this long-suffering people have refuged on the boundaries of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria - on a limited territory of the Upper Mesopotamia.

During their centuries-old history the Assyrian nation passed a severe way of struggle for existence and went through quite a few fateful moments. In the second half of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century they were subjected to the oppressions carried out by Turkish authorities and fought against the Ottoman dictatorship. But the terrible ordeals that this nation underwent during World War I were unprecedented throughout the history of mankind. In 1914-1918, during World War I unleashed by the Great Powers, the traditional Turkish destructive policy reached its zenith. The Assyrians subjected to the severe Turkish yoke were murdered and died on the ways of deportation in the deserts of the Middle East.

What were the causes of the Assyrian genocide and was it possible to avoid it? In order to understand this we need to have some knowledge about the era of the late Ottoman Empire. Let’s see why and how the genocide of the Assyrians happened in this area?

At the end of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was a multinational state, in which along with Turks lived Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Albanians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Bosnians, Jews, Serbs, Kurds, and other nations. All the political, military and spiritual power belonged to the Turks and only served toward their interests. Under the circumstances, the Turks only managed to maintain the authority by violence. It was not accidental that the policy of slaughters, which scope increased in the 20th century and rose to the level of state policy, presented the most critical feature of the internal political and national life of the Ottoman Empire and the principal weapon in solving the national problems. Hence, the history of the Ottoman Empire of the 19th and early 20th centuries appears an infinite series of slaughters, tortures and demeaning the dignity of the Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and the other non-Turkish peoples of the Empire.

At the end of the 19th century a number of Assyrian villages could be found in the Eastern parts of the Ottoman Turkey: in the Hakkari sanjak of the vilayet (region) of Van, in the vilayets of Erzerum, Diyarbekir, Bitlis, Kharberd (Harput) and Sebastia (Sivas) in Western Armenia, as well as on the territory of Lake Urmia in Iran, Mosul in Iraq and in the north-western regions of Syria. More than one million Assyrians with common language, culture and national traditions lived there. By their social and religious characteristics they were divided into several groups. In terms of religion Assyrians were divided into Nestorians, Chaldeans, Jacobites and Orthodox believers. Socially they were divided into two large castes: Ashirets (independent tribes) and Rayas (the subordinate people), who were mainly engaged in farming and cattle breeding. Ashirets paid only nominal taxes to the Turkish government, but Rayas constantly suffered from its pillages and lived in extremely poor conditions: they were almost starving, exposed to Kurdish forays and often were forced to serve in the Turkish army.

Many Assyrians studied in Turkish educational institutions, but getting the corresponding certificates could not fill public positions. They did not even have an opportunity to economically develop their regions. Turkish authorities dissolved the Assyrians among other nations in order to deprive them of the possibility of joining and putting up a united front. Eventually, as the subsequent historical events showed, the Assyrians suffered the same cruel fate as the Armenians and other minorities living under the control of the Ottoman Turkey.

In 1876, Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918) rose to the Ottoman throne, who governed with iron hand for 33 years, up until 1909. He kept in fear and horror everyone, both his advocates and opponents, all the peoples, even the Turks. The years of his reign went down in the history of the Ottoman Empire as years of “zulum” - horror and autocratic dictatorship. He introduced individual and mass murders into the Ottoman political “culture”, as the best method to settle the problems the Empire faced. Mass murders of the non-Turkish peoples in the Empire a component of the new political “culture” by Abdul Hamid. It is known that the pivotal idea of Abdul Hamid’s external and internal policies was Pan-Islamism, which aimed at joining together around Turkey all the countries and territories populated with Mohammedans, by no means excepting the oppressions of non-Turkish nations and repression of national liberation movements. Military and political authorities, Kurdish Hamidiye cavalry units, and Muslim mobs all participated in the crime. In this period along with hundreds of thousands of Armenians, tens of thousands of Assyrians also fell a victim to the mass slaughters, which were organized based upon this very political intentions.

In October 1895 the mass massacres of Assyrians started in Diyarbekir and, afterwards, spread everywhere in the Empire. The Assyrian slaughters reached unprecedented levels: horrible events happened in many places, during which a great number of people emigrated, were forcedly converted to Islam or murdered. About 100 thousand Assyrians from 245 Christian villages were Islamized2. Thousands of Assyrian young girls and women were forced into Turkish and Kurdish harems.

On October 20, 1895 in Amid (Diyarbekir) slaughters of Christians were perpetrated by Turkish and Kurdish rabble. The Assyrian Church of The Blessed Virgin gave refuge to many Christians: Assyrians, Armenians, and Greeks. Fortunately, this church was not exposed to aggressions which can hardly be said about the Assyrian villages most of which were ruined and plundered by Kurds. During those dire days several Assyrians went to their clerical leader suggesting making Armenians go out of The Blessed Virgin Church in order not to draw down Turk’s anger. In response to this request the Assyrian priest answered to his people: “The people who cross themselves will stay in church to the end. Should we be killed, we will be killed together”3. 119 villages in Diyarbekir region were scorched out and ruined. 6 thousand Christian families, about 30 thousand people were killed4.

The massacres of the Assyrians were continuing in every region of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the 19th century as a result of the massacres organized by Sultan Abdul Hamid II in the Ottoman Empire along with 300 thousand Armenians 55 thousand Assyrians also fell a victim to the Turkish dictatorship5. During the Armenian slaughters these brutalities perpetrated towards the Assyrians added new pages to the bloody history of the Ottoman Empire. These were the total massacres, genocidal by nature. In fact the 19th century and especially the dreadful events of its last decade had baneful consequences for the Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire paving the way for even greater disasters.

So, the Ottoman Empire entered the 20th century as a backward dictatorial state, which organized mass slaughters of the nations inhabiting the Empire. The crisis, which involved the political, economic and social systems, still deepened. The massacres exacerbated the situation and bared the vices of the Ottoman state. In the eyes of all the peoples of the Empire, even in the eyes of the Turkish people, Sultan Abdul Hamid was an odious person, the symbol of their misfortunes, violence and torture. The idea of riddance of the bloodthirsty sultan was growing and maturing. The Young Turks were the ones to effect it. On July 23, 1908 the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki) organized a coup. Sultan Abdul Hamid was deprived of power; in 1909 he was dethroned.

The Young Turks came onto Turkish arena under the slogans of the French Revolution: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. All the nations in the Empire, Moslems or Christians, welcomed the overthrow of the “red sultan” with enthusiasm. The people believed in that a new era in the history of the Ottoman Empire had dawned. Yes, shortly after, it turned out, that the Young Turks were well disguised ardent nationalists, who continued the policy of oppressions and slaughters, carried out by the preceding sultans. They were advocates of the idea of assimilation of all the nations of the Empire to create a pure Turkish nation, never even stopping before mass slaughters in order to achieve that goal.

As Henry Morgenthau, the American Ambassador to Turkey 1913-1916, says: "The Young Turks were not a government; they were really an irresponsible party, a kind of secret society, which by intrigue, intimidation, and assassination, had obtained most of the state"6.

It was stated in the Young Turks’ party program: “Sooner or later all the nations under Turkish control will be turned into Turks. It is clear that they will not convert voluntarily and we will have to use force”7. During one of the secret meetings a Young Turkish ideologist Dr. Nazeem said: “The massacre is necessary. All the non-Turkish elements, whatever nation they belong to, should be exterminated”8.

So, as we can see, the figures changed, new rulers came, the policy persisted. And the problem of minorities, racial and religious, had been to a large extent solved by the simple method of extermination9.

On August 1, 1914 World War I broke out. World War I was a most tragic episode in the history of mankind, which, certainly, didn’t go past the Assyrian nation. The Ottoman Turkey officially joined in the war on October 29, 1914. Turks thought that participation in the war will considerably raise Turkey’s authority, satisfy their vanity and dignity. In fact this war was a good opportunity for Young Turks to test the viability of the all-Turkish ideas in practice, to realize their aggressive and wild plans, which met with support among the military-feudal, bourgeois, ittihatic-chauvinistic elite. Talaat Pasha, Turkish Minister of Interior, in a conversation with Dr. Mordtman, the dragoman of the German Embassy in Instanbul, said: “Turkey is intent on taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention”10. A central committee member Union and Progress Bahaeddin Shakir told almost the same: “We are in war, there is no threat of intervention by Europe and the Great Powers, and the world press either will not be able to voice a protest. Even if we do not succeed, the problem will become an accomplished fact, the voices will calm down, and no one will dare to express a protest. We should make use of this exceptional situation as much as possible. This kind of opportunity is not always available …”11.

The subsequent events showed that Turks really were not afraid of the Great Powers’ intervention and perpetrated massacres of a number of nations in the Ottoman territory. The Assyrians also did not elude the mass slaughters and forced emigration. The genocide of the Assyrians was perpetrated with unspeakable brutality. From May, 1915 mass murders and deportation of the Armenians and Assyrians began in the regions of Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Erzerum, Kharberd, Sivas and Van. The expelled Assyrians, attended by armed detachments of Turks, were exiled to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia.

The American Ambassador H. Morgenthau says: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact”12.

[Joseph]

Assyrian Genocide Part 2

The extermination of the Christians in Diyarbekir was controlled by the head of that region Reshid Bey. The Assyrians of Mardin, Midyat and Jezire regions were especially badly hit by the Turkish massacres. The priest of local Chaldean Assyrians Joseph Naayem reported that “since April 8, 1915 horrible massacres had taken place: Turks gathered men above 16, beat, tortured, killed them, and afterwards put turbans on their heads and photographed them in order to prove the world in future that Christians oppressed Mohammedans13.

In September 1916 the American periodical “Martyred Armenia” translated from the “Original Arabic” an article by an Arab eyewitness of massacres, Fayez El Ghosein, where the author adverted to the slaughters of the Assyrians in Diyarbekir: “In Midyat and Mardin an order was issued to murder only Armenians, and not to disturb the members of all the other communities. Learning about the misfortune of their brothers (the Armenians) the Assyrians immediately took a position in three villages close to Midyat and rebuffed the Turkish army exhibiting bright examples of valour. …The Assyrians fully recognized that they were dealing with a deceitful state, which will tomorrow withdraw the promise of not disturbing them and will strike more badly those whom it had granted a pardon yesterday”14.

Jevded Bey, the governor of the region of Van, a person with a number of negative characteristics, who was a master of misdeeds, conspiratorial plans and at the same time was specialized in lying and shamming, had a “butchers’ battalion” comprised of 8,000 soldiers. Jevded organized horrible massacres of the Assyrians in this region never seen before. One of the striking examples of this was the terrible slaughter organized in Hakkari region in spring 1915, where Turks murdered about 60 thousand Assyrians. Then during the following years about 70 thousand Assyrians were annihilated: some of them were murdered, others starved to death or were killed in the battles against Mohammedans.

In early June 1915 mass slaughters of Assyrians took place also in the northern part of region of Van. The village Qochanis, which was considered the Assyrians’ clerical leader Mar-Shimoun’s residence, was totally destroyed. The patriarchy building was scorched out.

On June 30, 1915 Leslie A. Davis, the American Consul in Harput 1914-1917, wrote to US Ambassador H. Morgenthau: “Turks have found another way of exterminating the Christians - forced emigration. On June 18 it was publicly announced that all the Armenians and Assyrians should leave Harput within five days”15.

Hundreds of children were bayoneted by the Turks and thrown into the Euphrates, and how men and women were striped naked, tied together in hundreds, shot, and then hurled into the river. In a loop of the river near Erzinghan, ...the thousand of dead bodies created such a barrage that the Euphrates changed its course for about a hundred yards16.

Unfortunately, during the World War I the Assyrian massacres were carried out also on the territory of Iran, which had proclaimed itself a neutral country on November 2, 1914. On the Iranian side of the border a catastrophe took place during five months of Ottoman occupation in 1915 (January to May). Kurdish tribes and Ottoman troops moved in to an area characterized by anarchy. The Ottoman occupation of the Urmia was very bloody and the atrocities grew in violence once it became clear that the Russian army along with its Assyrians volunteers were returning. The first major massacre committed by Ottoman troop in Iran on defenceless civilians took place at the village of Haftevan at the end of February 1915. Assyrian males from the area between Dilman and Khosrowa were assembled allegedly for registration, but instead were slaughtered in very primitive fashion. In the town of Urmia Ottoman officials entered the French mission compound on February 12 and seized more than 150 persons. Sixty of these men were kept in jail. Some were hanged just outside the city gates and the rest were shot at Jewish Hill cemetery on February 23. The inhabitants of the outlying village of Gulpashan were massacred and plundered despite having paid “protection” money to authorities17. The actual number of deaths during this time has never been calculated, but they must have been enormous.

R. Stafford, an Englishman who was the former administrative inspector of Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, fairly observed: “It would be a great progress for Turks if they could show that regardless of what happened to the Armenians, another Christian community in Turkey (the Assyrians) is quite satisfied with its fortune”18. And what was their fortune?

The strategy of the slaughters, the way they were organized and carried out served as an irrefutable evidence of the slaughterers’ decision to totally exterminate a nation whose striving for unity, the desire to be loyal to its national identity and the Christian religion was impossible to destroy or shatter for a long time. Doomed to a total extermination, this outcast nation could rely only on its desperate bravery. The Assyrians really did not let that villainous crime be committed in obscurity. Even though unarmed, they fought to the very end without a slightest hope of victory.

As it can be seen, the Assyrians, being a national and religious minority, were in a dependent position in the society they lived. This means that in the existing Ottoman regime, this nation had to suffer oppression and different forms of deprivation of rights. The antichristian oppressions became more acute especially because of the existing religious hostility towards this nation.

André Mandelstam, the first dragoman of the Russian Embassy at Constantinople wrote: “The Young Turk government was able to only partly carry out its plan to establish a radically turkified Ottoman Empire by way of profiting from the opportunities afforded by the Great War. Nevertheless, it succeeded in destroying approximately one million Armenians, and hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Lebanese, Assyro-Caldeans”19. In reality, as we know today 1,5 million Armenians20 and 750,000 Assyrians were subjected to genocide during World War I.

In November, 1916 the New York Times published Dr. W. Rockwell’s (Professor in Union Theological Seminary and member of American Committee for Armenian and Syrian relief) article entitled “The Total of Armenian and Syrian Dead”, where telling about the Armenian massacres in Turkey the author wrote: “How many Armenians and Syrian non-combatants have died of disease, hardship, or violence during the last two years? ...The Armenians are not the only unfortunates; the Syrians (Assyrians) also have been decimated. Great numbers of them have perished, but no one knows how many”21.

Another American periodical, newspaper the Atlantic Monthly wrote: “In six months the Young Turks succeeded in doing what the Old Turks were unable to accomplish in six centuries. The extermination of the Armenians is well under way. Thousands of Assyrians have vanished from the face of the earth”22.

Thus, during the World War I in the Ottoman Turkey and the adjacent Turkish territories a real genocide was implemented according to the criteria of international law. The Ottoman Turkey and the Great Powers are guilty of the bloody massacres of both Armenians and Assyrians. With the criminal connivance of the Great Powers and taking the opportunity presented by the martial law Turkey committed the gravest crime against mankind - genocide. The criminal policy of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the Young Turks against the Armenians and Assyrians permits us to conclude that at the end of the 19th - early 20th century the Ottoman state developed into a genocidal state and became the cradle of genocide.

But the tragedy of Assyrians did not come to the end with this. Both during the World War I and after it the Assyrian nation bled both from the Europe’s incitements and from the slaughters and oppressions organized by Turkish, Kurdish, Iranian and Arabic tyrants.

So, as we could see

The Assyrian Genocide was an alleged genocide against the Assyrian population of the former Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Turkey. Those supporting the genocide theses claim that the Assyrian population of the Eastern parts of Ottoman Turkey were forcibly relocated and massacred by Turkish and Kurdish forces during the years 1895-1896 under the regime of Sulat Abdul Hamid II and during WWI (1914-1918) under the regime of the Young Turks.

Reasons for the genocide vary. Since Armenians and Greeks also claim they were the subject of forced relocations and barbaric executions, some cite religious persecution against the Christian community of Anatolia as the cause. Others, including the Turkish government, claim that the Assyrians and Armenians sought autonomy from the Ottoman Turkey and joined the invading Russian army in the east. The Assyrian and Armenian communities, as Turkey claims, were seen as a threat and as a result were relocated to the Syrian Desert. Many deaths occurred on the "Death Marches" from starvation and dehydration, which Turkey claims was an accident.

The total death toll of Assyrians is unknown, but some estimates claim that 500,000-750,000 of them were killed.

The Assyrian question needs an international solution. This problem has so far been out of the limelight of the world community. For the reestablishment of justice, recognition of the national identities and cultural development it is essential that Turkey be condemned, as:

Since the proclamation of the Turkish Republic international laws have been ignored in this country.

A member of the UNO, Turkey implements decisions incompatible with the criteria it had accepted.

Turkey does not fulfill the obligations placed on it by international agreements.
Not recognizing the principle of “equality of rights and freedom of self-determination of nations and peoples” Turkey violates the rights of local Assyrians.
“Genocide” considered the greatest crime against the humanity by the UNO, is even now consistently implemented by Turkey towards the Assyrians.
Exiling Assyrians, qualified as a crime by the UNO, Is still the case in Turkey.
The UNO condemns national discrimination. Turkey continues the policy of assimilation adopted by its forerunners under the slogan “One nation, one language, on religion, one flag and one country”.
The UNO condemns terrorism, but Turkey still continues to carry out a policy of terror against Assyrians destroying their spiritual and material values.
The Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly do not reach the territory of Turkey.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. In 1933 Dr. Lemkin was deeply disturbed by the massacre of Christian Assyrians in Iraq.http://www.europaworld.org/issue40/r...emkin22601.htm

2. Sargizov L., A Friendship Coming from the Ancient Times (The Assyrians in Armenia), Atra, N 4, St. Petersburg, 1992, p. 71. (Rus.)

3. Mkund T., Amita’s Echoes, New York, 1950, p. 234. (Arm.)

4. The Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, A collection of documents and materials under the editorship of Prof. M. G. Nersisyan, Yerevan, 1966, p. 120. (Arm.)

5. Khosroeva A., The Assyrian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey and the Adjacent Turkish Territories (late 19th and the first quarter of the 20th centuries), Yerevan, 2004, p. 44. (Arm.)

6. Morgenthau H., Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, New York, 1918, p. 11. (Eng.)

7. Lepsius J., Bericht über die Lage des Armenischer Volkes in Türkei, Potsdam, 1916, p. 220. (Germ.)

8. Rifat Mevlan Zade, The Dark Pages of the Ottoman Revolution and Ittihat’s Plans of Extirpating Armenians, Yerevan, 1990, pp. 98-99. (Arm.)

9. Marriott J.A.R., The Eastern Question, An Historical Study in European Diplomacy, 4th ed., Oxford, Clarendon, 1958, p. 536.(Eng.)

10. Dadrian V., Documentation of the Armenian Genocide in Turkish Sources, London-New York, 1991, p. 112. (Eng.)

11. Der Zor, Paris, 1955, p. 258. (Arm.)

12. Morgenthau H., op. cit., p. 309.

13. Alichoran J., Du génocide à la diaspora: les Assyro-chaldéens au XX siècle, Paris, 1994, p. 370. (French)

14. Ghosein El Fayez, The Slaughters in Armenia, Cairo, 1960, pp. 19-20.(Arm.)

15. Leslie A. Davis, The Slaughterhouse Province. An American diplomat’s report on the Armenian Genocide 1915-1917, New-Rochelle, NY, 1989, p.144.(Eng.)

16. Morgenthau H., op. cit., p. 318.

17. Gaunt D., The Assyrian SEYFO in Hakkari and Urmia, Assyrian Star, vol. LVIII, Number 2, pp.14-15. (Eng.)

18. Stafford R. S., The Tragedy of the Assyrians, London, 1935, p. 27. (Eng.)

19. Mandelstam A., La Société des Nations et les Puissances devant le probléme Arménien, Paris, 1926, p. 23. (French)

20. Kherlopian K., Genocidology, A Study of the Armenian Genocide, Beirut, 2006, p. 398.(Eng.)

21. Kloian R. D., The Armenian Genocide, News Accounts from the American Press (1915-1922), California, 1985, p. 188-189. (Eng.)

22. Ibid., p. 193.

[Joseph]

Good

Assyrian International News Agency
International Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides
Posted GMT 12-15-2007 19:19:49
In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923.

The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."

In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide, there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire." Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods, including mass executions, death marches, and starvation.

IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to publicize and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had made Asia Minor their home for millennia. The umbrella term "Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs, Aramaens, Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites.

"The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December 15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities."

The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq, for example, remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since 2003, Iraqi Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and "ethnic cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian population has fled the country.

Extensive supporting documentation for the Assyrian and Greek genocides was circulated to IAGS members in the months prior to the vote, and is available at http://www.genocidetext.net/iags_res...umentation.htm. IAGS President Gregory Stanton may be contacted at [email protected].

Full Text Of The Iags Resolution:
WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;
WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;

BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.

By Adam Jones, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Political Science
University of British Columbia Okanagan
December 15, 2007

[Joseph]

Assyrian International News Agency
Sweden Grants Funds for Research on Turkish Genocide of Assyrians
Posted GMT 12-11-2007 16:35:25
Stockholm (AINA) -- The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, established by the Swedish government, has granted funding for research on the Turkish genocide of Assyrians in World War One, called Seyfo in Assyrian. This enables Swedish Prof. David Gaunt and his Assyrian colleague Jan Betsawoce to continue their research for the coming three years at the University college of Södertörn in Stockholm.

"It is probably the first time a foundation grants funding for research on the genocide against Assyrians and I interpret it as recognition that we have been able to establish modern Assyrian issues as subjects of research," says Prof. Gaunt.

Prof. David Gaunts book, Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I, was critically acclaimed by historians because of its meticulous description of how the Seyfo genocide was planned and executed.

The Assyrian Federation of Sweden to underwrite the book's translation to Turkish and its publication in Turkey.

New historical material is collected continuously by Prof. Gaunt and Mr. Jan Betsawoce from archives worldwide. Their goal is to present the new findings in a new book and shed more light on Assyrians and events relating to them from 1890 to 1925.

[Steph]

Last Updated: Friday, 28 December 2007, 00:20 GMT

Assyrian revival stirs in Turkey
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

In a corner of 21st Century Turkey, a congregation still worships in the language of Christ.



At an early morning Sunday church service, chanting in Aramaic fills the air together with the sweet scent of incense.

Men pray standing, their palms open to heaven. Most of the women are behind a wooden lattice at the back, their heads covered in scarves.

These people are Assyrians and the region they know as Tur Abdin was once the heartland of their ancient Christian church.

At the turn of the last century an estimated 200,000 Assyrians still lived here. Today there are fewer than 3,000 left.

But recently, there have been signs of a possible revival.

Homecoming

In the nearby village of Elbeyendi, Aziz Demir contemplates what remains of his home - just the walls and a jumble of loose rocks.

Two decades ago, the Assyrians were caught up in the Kurdish conflict here.

graffiti left by Turkish soldiers in the church in Elbeyendi
The church in Elbeyendi is covered in graffiti left by Turkish soldiers

Unwilling to side with the insurgents or Turkish troops, Aziz, his neighbours and thousands like them fled to Europe.

Their abandoned homes crumbled to ruin.

It was just the latest Assyrian exodus from the region. Many had fled nationalist oppression before or left to seek economic opportunity.

But now Aziz and 10 other families have come back.

"It was our dream to return to the land of our ancestors. We had so many comforts in Europe but something was always missing," Aziz says.

"We also want to prove to other Assyrians that it is possible to return and be settled here."

Reconstruction

What the families found in Elbeyendi though was utter destruction.

Just behind Aziz's old house is the village church, thought to date to the 4th Century.

It is still standing, just, but unsafe.

Inside, the walls are covered in graffiti left by soldiers who fought here: pictures of snakes and daggers, and a skull and crossed-bones.

Outside, family graves have been opened over the years and robbed.

the ruins of Aziz Demir's home
Aziz return to find his home had been reduced to ruins

"It is hard to express our feelings when we arrived from Europe and saw what had happened. We just asked, 'Why?'," says Aziz's wife, Semso, standing in front of the ruins of the house where she got married.

"But the situation is better now. We are trying to look forward without forgetting what happened in the past," she adds.

On the edge of the old village, the beginnings of a new one has sprung up.

The community has built 17 enormous stone villas so far and a new church will open next year.

The Kurdish conflict has not ended but this area is safe now.

Looking ahead

The Assyrians say Turkey's accession talks with the EU also convinced them to return.

"We lived through many difficulties here but Turkey is more concerned with human rights now - it is more democratic," believes Yakup Demir.

new villas in Elbeyendi
The community in Elbeyendi has built 17 new villas

"That is why we came back, because we believe the future here will be better."

But if this return is to prove enduring, the next generation has to be equally convinced - and they have spent their entire lives until now in Europe.

"There is nothing here, just a pile of rocks," complains 17-year-old Ishok, who was brought up in Switzerland and speaks no Turkish.

He has no plans to stay here.

"There is no internet here, I have no real friends. It is boring," he shrugs.

A short drive from Elbeyendi though, there are further tentative signs of renewal.

Dayrul Zafaran monastery, the Saffron Monastery, was the seat of the Syriac Orthodox church in the days when tens of thousands of Assyrians lived here.

evening prayer at Dayrul Zafaran monastery
It is hoped the younger generation will stay and carry on traditions

Today, EU cash is helping fund restoration work on the 5th Century, honey-coloured brickwork and a new archbishop has re-invigorated the spiritual side of life.

Twenty local boys are being schooled in the monastery in the hope some may become the next generation of much-needed Syriac priests.

There is a constant flow of visitors through the gates, many of them curious Turks.

Optimism

Christians have recently become the targets of a surge of nationalist feeling in Turkey.

Three missionaries were murdered this year, two priests were attacked and one Syriac monk was even kidnapped.

Dayrul Zafaran monastery
Many hope the EU project will bring tolerance

But the mood at the monastery is determinedly optimistic.

"We believe the project of the EU means democracy, human rights and tolerance," says Archbishop Saliba Ozmen.

"We believe that through this project our community too will be more tolerated. We will be happier people as Turkish citizens," he says.

With such a turbulent history, the relative stability in this region now has encouraged the Assyrians' positive outlook.

It has also prompted some community members living abroad to send money to help protect what's left of their heritage here.

For now though, only a handful have chosen to return to Turkey themselves.

The hope of those pioneers is that - eventually - others may follow.

[Joseph]

2/24/2008 15:15:00
By Khatchig Mouradian
AztagDaily.com

"Memory is the only way home", says the American author, Terry Tempest Williams. And memory was Sano Halo's only guide, as she embarked, with her daughter, Thea, on a journey to Turkey in search of Sano's home, 70 years after her exile. It also seems that home is the only way to memory; it is only there, in modern-day Turkey, that Thea "fully embraced" herself. "It was the first time I felt connected to my heritage", she says in this interview. "I didn't have a heritage until I stood on my mother's land and then on my father's land. For the first time in my life I felt connected to these people, who were finally my people", she adds.

A journey is incomplete, I believe, if it does not pave way for another trek. After Thea Halo had visited her Pontic Greek mother's and Assyrian father's lands, she embarked on another pilgrimage, that of the mind and the soul, to discover and help preserve a history much forgotten and a genocide barely remembered. The culmination of this pilgrimage was Not Even My Name, a book that recounts, through Sano Halo's survival story, the genocides of the Armenians, Pontic Greeks and Assyrians that took place in Ottoman Turkey during and in the immediate aftermath of World War I.

However, Not Even My Name is also a book about the beautiful things in life. “I wanted to show the beauty of the Pontic Greek culture, at least in these three villages, and what they actually lost, because it is only by seeing the beauty of what was that you can you understand more fully the tragedy and injustice of what has been taken away”, says Thea Halo.

“Praising what is lost makes the remembrance dear”, says Shakespeare.

I dedicate this interview to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks that perished in Turkey almost a century ago, just about the same time that a million and a half Armenians were marching to their deaths.


Aztag- You often speak about "the exclusivity of suffering." In an interview you say, “It's truly unfortunate that many late 20th Century activists, who work so hard to make the Armenian genocide known to the world, fail to include their fellow sufferers.” In your opinion, what is the reason for this “failure”?

Thea Halo- I have many contacts with Armenians and great affection and love for them.

It was an Armenian family who rescued my mother when she found herself destitute and alone in Diyarbekir, and they took her to safety as their daughter. My aunt was also Armenian. So I feel a very great affinity for the Armenian people. That's why I found it truly disturbing when I discovered that the failure to mention the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks and Assyrians by many Armenian historians and activists was not just an oversight, but an actual agenda of exclusion and denial. The Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor are referred to as "an exchange of population", even though these historians know that by the time of the exchange in 1923, at least one million Asia Minor and Pontic Greeks had already been slaughtered. The Assyrians are never mention at all. Someone once explained this behavior by telling me, "I'm sure you understand that these Armenian historians feel so personally tied to this history because it was a Genocide of their own families and people." And of course I do understand, because it is the story of the Genocide of my family and my people, which makes their exclusion even more painful when the exclusion comes from those who should know better. It also makes it more reprehensible, and it should stop. The inclusion of the Greeks and Assyrians does not diminish the horror of what happened to the Armenians. Even my mother, who lost her own family and people, always describes the slaughter of the Armenians as truly horrific.

I've come to realize that there is a kind of tribalism in the world that is the cause of almost all the world's misery. When one thinks of tribalism, one thinks of underdeveloped or backward nations. But I use this word "tribal" even for the United States. There is the greater tribe that makes up the country, and then the sub tribes, which are the various ethnicities. And there is another tribe, and that's the handful of elite who are ruling the world, almost all of whom do so from behind the scenes, behind the presidency. The differences of the peoples of the world: language, look, customs, food, dress, dance, etc., has been something quite exquisite to me throughout my life. But on the other side of that coin, we have this drive by the more powerful tribes who think nothing of obliterating others for their own greed or ideologies. Then we have Genocide. That's what happened in Turkey in the first part of the 20th century during and after WWI. It's what happened during WWII. It's what's happening today.

I do think what happened in Turkey was a Christian Genocide. But I don't think one can simply use that term without differentiating who the Christians were, because although the Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians lived in the same land for thousands of years, their languages, cultures and histories were unique. It's important to acknowledge that there was an Armenian, Assyrian, and a Greek Genocide, but overall it was a Genocide of the Christian of Asia Minor. I even differentiate between the Asia Minor Greeks: the Ionians, Pontians, and Cappadoccians, first because the Pontians had their own empire, and second, because I think it's important that we remember their distinctive historical names and regions in Asia Minor.

One of the reasons I think the Armenians do themselves a great disservice by failing to mention the Genocides of the Pontic Greeks and Assyrians is because there was a small faction of Armenians in Turkey who were fighting for an independent state for Armenians... obviously for very good reasons. These so-called "trouble makers" gave the Turks and their supporters, then and now, the excuse to blame the victims for their own Genocide, even though the vast majority of Armenians were simply trying to live their lives. It's only when one looks at the scope of the Genocides that the Young Turk regime perpetrated, and Mustafa Kemal "Attaturk" continued, against the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, that we see it was not because some Armenians were causing troubles. Rather, it was a plan to rid Turkey of the Christian population to fulfill the edict of "Turkey for the Turks."

Aztag- Why is it that few people have heard about the Genocide of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks?

Thea Halo- In Greece there are a lot of Pontic Greeks and a number of books about the Pontic Greek Genocide. They have been working for recognition for at least 35 years, even here in America. Assyrians have also worked for many years to get this issue on the table without much success. I blame this failure mainly on two factors: One, there were no viable books that told the story of what happened to the Greeks and Assyrians, until my book, Not Even My Name was published. But perhaps equally or more important, those with the strongest voices in our society, have traditionally had this tribal mentality I speak of. They have wanted to portray their own people as being exclusive in their suffering, and therefore, have failed to even make mention of the Genocide of other ethnic peoples. Until quite recently, Jewish historians and activists only focused on what happened to the Jews during WWII. There was a doctrine that the Holocaust is the definitive Genocide and therefore one need not look further to understand the phenomena of Genocide. The study of the Holocaust became a mandatory part of the curriculum in many, if not all, schools in the US. But the other ethnic, religious, or social groups slaughtered by the Nazis were not mentioned, and other Genocides were overshadowed or ignored, even the Armenian Genocide.

Now many Jewish Historians have recognized the Armenian Genocide and Armenians have finally gained a voice. But in turn the Armenian historians and activists fail to mention the Genocides of their fellow sufferers: the Assyrians, the Pontic Greeks, and the other Asia Minor Greeks, even while including other Genocides, such as those in Rwanda and Cambodia, in so-called "comparative studies" programs.

Fortunately, not all Armenians believe that the exclusive approach is the right one.

Aztag- In an interview, you say: “To remember does not mean stirring up hatred within or without. Hatred destroys what was good and pure in the past and the present. It simply means to embrace what is ours.” It is not easy to overcome feelings of hatred, especially for the very victims of genocide and their immediate descendants, is it?

Thea Halo- My mother lived through this Genocide; she lost everybody and everything by the age of ten. She had lived side by side with the Turks. Turkish villages surrounded the Greek villages. My mother said they bartered together and had no problems. One can't say that no Turk ever attacked a Greek, Armenian, or Assyrian. Of course some did, for various reasons. But overall, they lived together peacefully. I've heard countless stories from Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, of how Turks saved the lives of their families. My mother says that you must put blame where blame belongs, on the Turkish government. If you begin to single out the people of a country, and forget that whatever they did was instigated or sanctioned by the government, you will then never get rid of the hatred. This tribal mentality takes over and goes on and on until we're all gone, because there are hatreds that go back thousands of years between almost every tribe on earth. We must learn to acknowledge the past without living in the past.

We don't understand how the past has affected us. Because I was born and raised in New York City, I can say it hasn't affected me, but that's not true. My parents went through this Genocide. They raised me, and we don't know all the subtle ways that their lives and experiences have affected us. We are the product of our parents. If we don't acknowledge their past, and embrace it as part of ours, we never fully embrace ourselves. Only if we try to understand where we come from, can we really understand who we are.

Aztag- And when did you yourself come to this understanding?

Thea Halo- It was first when I visited Turkey. It was the first time I felt connected to my heritage. Here in America, nobody knew who the Pontic Greeks are. And everybody told me that I couldn't be Assyrian, because the Assyrians don't exist anymore. “How I can be something that doesn't exist?” I used to think. Consequently, I didn't have a heritage until I stood on my mother's land and then on my father's land. For the first time in my life I felt connected to these people, who were finally my people. And after writing my mother's part of the story, which included the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians, I began to research the general history for the book, and I realized how important their story really is.

The thought that people who had lived in a land for 3 thousand years and more, could just be wiped from the face of that land and all memory of them seizes to exist, not only there, but from the face of the earth, was a powerful testament. That certainly makes the Genocide complete, when no one has even heard of your people. People ask me sometimes why I titled the book "Not Even My Name." The reason was that my mother lost everything, family, home, language, and country, even her name. But many Pontic Greeks and the Assyrians tell me that for them the title also has a bigger meaning. It means that even the names, Pontic Greek and Assyrian, was lost to the world. It was an interesting revelation for me.

Aztag- Many Armenians attach great importance to the land they lost. For them the genocide isn't “simply” the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, it is also the expulsion of an entire people from its land and the wiping out of a culture. When you speak about your "father's land" and your "mother's land", do you have similar feelings?

[Joseph]

2. Interview

Thea Halo- Almost every ancient culture has this attachment to the land. What else is there without a place to call home? When I stood on that land, for the first time in my life I could actually feel my ancestors, my grandparents. They became real to me for the first time. They were as much a part of that land as the trees, the rocks, the grasses. Their blood and sweat is mingled with the earth for thousands of years. How can one walk away from that without feeling that a part of oneself is somehow left behind, somehow missing, like an amputated leg or arm that continues sending out sensations to the brain, even though it's gone? Just the other day my mother said to me, "you know, when you are born in a country, there is a part of you that always feels that that country is your true home."

Aztag- Do you think the recognition of these genocides should be a prerequisite to Turkey's accession to the EU?

Thea Halo- I don't think that only the recognition of the Genocides is important, I think many factors are important for Turkey's inclusion into the EU. But by recognizing the Genocides they would resolve some of the other important issues as well. For instance, journalists, publishers, and teachers are still being jailed for talking about the Genocides. If you recognize the Genocides, then you don't have to keep jailing your teachers, publishers, and journalists on this issue. As my father used to say, you kill 2 birds with one stone. And there are other human rights issues that Turkey has to deal with. I must tell you, when I went to Turkey I found a very beautiful land visually, and I found the people to be exceptionally sweet and hospitable. It's a shame that they can't speak freely and learn what happened in their own country without fear.

The sad thing is that they lost so much, because the Greeks, Armenians, and
Assyrians had so much culture there. They brought so much vibrancy to the country that was lost. They were wonderful artisans, intellectuals, teachers, and musicians. At the time, there were Europeans who were saying, "What in the world will Turkey do without the Christians?" After all, it was the Christians who were the intellectuals and business people, who had the education to help Turkey progress into the 20th century. When Turkey got rid of the Christian populations, they set themselves back, way-way back. The general Turkish population was not well educated at that time, because the Turkish government didn't bother to educate them the way the Christian missionaries educated the Christian populations. For the most part, the government wouldn't allow Muslims to attend the Christian schools, for fear of conversion, so most Turks of the time remained peasants and farmers. Consequently, the Turks did themselves a great disservice, because the removal of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians left a great vacuum in Turkey.

Aztag- What was the impact of your book? To what extent did it help raise greater awareness about the genocides of the Pontic Greeks, the Assyrians, and the Armenians?

Thea halo- One of the first emails I got when the book was published was from a young Pontic Greek girl living in Holland. She said, the Pontic Greeks lived in Asia Minor for 3 thousand years and I go to school and no one in Holland knows we ever existed. It really touched my heart. I knew what she was talking about because no one knew that we exist in New York. So, of course, it makes a difference. They could then start to teach this history in schools. My book was picked up by UCLA and they began to teach high school teachers how to teach Not Even My Name to their students.

Aztag- "Not Even My Name" is already translated to Greek and Dutch. Are there any plans to translate it to other languages, including Armenian?

Thea Halo- I think it would be important and I would love to see “Not Even
My Name” translated into Armenian. A Turkish publisher also wanted to publish it and an Icelandic publisher recently contacted me for the rights.

Aztag- You are one of the very few who are speaking out about the Genocides of the Pontic Greeks and Assyrians; with this comes great responsibility. A Scholar or an author, who deals with the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide for instance, might be under less pressure, because there are many others in the field. How do you deal with this pressure?

Thea Halo- I do feel very responsible and when I'm asked to give a lecture, I do feel
I should go, but I also enjoy going out there. I usually bring my mother with me. She loves doing this because it's something very important to her. It's nice to see her with some of the older people who have lived through this. They hug and kiss each other; because my mother's memory helped put this history on the map. She became a very important person and a symbol, and she feels this importance. There's an immediate connection between them when they meet, even with the younger generations, that's just so wonderful to see. One young Pontic Greek girl in one of our audiences in New York stood up and said to my mother, "you are our history; our history alive." It was very moving. So I do enjoy doing this, but I also feel a great responsibility, and will continue to feel that way, until there is proper recognition of the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks and Assyrians.

Aztag- What about your mother? She is very much involved in this as well, isn't she?

Thea Halo- My mother is 94. I was amazed the first time we had a radio interview on NPR. My mom was on the phone and I was in the studio in Boston. During the interview she laughed and she cried. Then I found Lisa Mullin’s website on the internet for "The World." Mullins said her favorite interviewees were Thea and Sano Halo. I was surprised, but I could understand why. My mother was perfect. Her answers were very sweet and natural. When I read the passage from the book about her mother giving her away to save her, my mother began to cry. She had to take a moment to collect herself. Then she said she never saw her mother again. Soon after she told a funny story about how people would ask her husband if she was his daughter, and then she laughed. She had a natural instinct not to allow the interview to become morbid. When I asked her about it later she said, "a little bit of laughter and a little bit of tears." I again realized how much there was about her I didn't know. She always loved to sing, and when we go on our events, she sings old Greek and Turkish songs for the audience that she learned as a child. She even sings an old Armenian love song she learned when living with Zohra and Hagop.

Aztag- During a lecture, speaking about your book you said, “The story is my mother's but the sunsets are mine.” Can you elaborate on this?

Thea Halo- Well, of course she doesn't remember when the sun came up and when the sun went down, when it was raining, etc. But I wanted to help people be there, really experience the story. All the facts are hers; the story of the village, what happened to the people, the couple who ran away and married, that's all true. But the part where they stare into the puddle of water as they stand before their parents, of course, that's part of the things I added to help the reader enter the story. From what people tell me, it does help them be there. They feel they were actually walking with my mother on that harrowing death march to exile.

Aztag- Any plans for another book?

Thea Halo- I do think of many other books. The book that I would like to write is a collection of interviews with people who have experienced Genocide, because in that way we will see how similar the suffering really is. Maybe in this way some of the tribalism will be put away. But it's impossible to get rid of all the tribalism. Unfortunately, Genocide has become big business. It's not simply a moral issue anymore, and this is what I find the most objectionable. Some Armenians have told me that certain survivors have passed away but they have already been interviewed, and they'll turn over the tapes to me. Same goes for Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. So I am hoping that for the ones I can't interview directly, I can at least access the tapes of their interviews.

I guess my focus in life has always been both the beauty of the world and the injustices. I think that those two things often go together. If you look at the various cultures that once inhabited Turkey, for instance, they are all unique and very beautiful. They created great works of art and architecture and they developed communities that allowed them to survive and prosper for thousands of years, at least in the periods when they weren't being slaughtered and oppressed. And that's why I wrote the book the way I did. I wanted to show the beauty of the Pontic Greek culture, at least in these three villages, and what they actually lost. Because only by seeing the beauty of what was, can you more fully understand the tragedy and injustice of what has been taken away.