Seyfo {genocide on Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans 1915} Memorial Day

By Izla
“No people in the warring states 1914-1918 could escape the horrors of the World War, but there was no nation which, like the Assyrians lost two-thirds of its people. ”
– Sir Henry Dobbs.

Today, 24th of April, it’s 97 years ago that the genocide on Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans took place in
South East Turkey. The genocide is locally called Seyfo, which means “sword”. According to some researchers, about 750 000 civilians died due to the systematic killings, which were ordered and carried out by the Ottoman state. According to historians, the genocide known as the Assyrian/Syriac/Chaldean genocide was executed resembling its types, the Armenian and Pontic Greek genocides. The contextually related mass murder ”Seyfo” with its twin Armenian genocide is regarded by Scholars to be of similar category. The horror is remembered by history that about three million Christians of Syriac, Armenian or Greek Orthodox religion followers were sloughtered by then the newly rising Turks Regime.

I grown up hearing my parents, grandparents and their parents telling me stories from the genocide.
Even if I didn’t experience the genocide, it is part of who I am. Today my thoughts go to the victims and all the Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans that carry the pain with them.

Hands of an old Assyrian/Syriac lady in TurAbdin

http://www.izlaphotography.com/2012/04/24/seyfo-genocide-on-assyrianssyriacschaldeans-1915-memorial-day/