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Sayfo(Sword) protests in Sydney
On Monday 23rd April and Tuesday 24th Assyrian young people, supported by many of their elders, took to the streets in a rally cry against the oppression of the Christian population in Turkey during the Young Turk genocide in the years 1915-1923.
Waving placards, banging war drums, and spreading information (in the form of a leaflet campaign), the group of dedicated and passionate activists set towards the Turkish Consulate in Woollahra in Sydney to hold a peaceful protest demanding the recognition of the Turkish government of these heinous crimes.
The aims of the demonstration were not to incite hatred or misinform the general public. The Assyrian people present were not acting in any shape or form against the modern day Turkish government. They argued that for the sake of humankind, Turkey recognise the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians, 1 million Greeks and 750,000 Assyrians and Chaldeans.
Despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration, and despite friendly police liaison, the Turkish consul general Mr. Niyazi Adali refused to greet the crowd to discuss their aims and demands. This however did not dampen the spirit of those present.
The group was met with interest by several members of the press, including Turkish radio and television. We also had a member of the Kurdish community in Sydney come along and join the protest.
Primarily this demonstration was in solidarity with our brave brothers and sisters in Europe, Iran and the US. It was also an opportunity for the community in Sydney to join hands with the international Assyrian community to show that we are all in this fight for recognition of our people in our ancestral homeland together.
On 24 April 1915, the Young Turk regime issued an order to all governors and other Turkish authorities that all Christians residing within the Ottoman Empire be systematically exterminated.
This policy of pre-meditated massacre had already begun to be implemented on Christian communities both in Turkey and parts of Iran under Turkish occupation from mid-1914.
Though this policy of Genocide, millions perished in massacres and forced deportations to concentration camps in Turkey’s desert interior.
Women and children were raped, members of the clergy tortured, humiliated and hung, villages looted and razed to the ground.
The Turkish Government has still not recognised these killings as Genocide and continues to deny their occurrence outright. It also continues to employ a policy of ethnocide against its Christian minorities and refuses to recognise Assyrians as an ethnic minority within its borders.
The Assyrians of Sydney, in solidarity with Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks all over the world, call upon the Turkish Government to recognise the Christian Asia Minor Holocaust. Under Resolution 96 of the United Nations Convention Genocide is a Crime Against Humanity.
Assyrian young people do not promote a recycling of ancient hatreds or vengeful violence. They demand a healing of these still open wounds through international
recognition in order for these odious crimes to never be repeated on humanity again.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives