Hunger Strike Planned to Mark Centenary of Assyrian Genocide

Fides News Agency – April 2015

To commemorate the genocide of their ancestors in 1915, members of the Syriac [Assyrian] community in the city of Midyat will begin a collective hunger strike on 20 April, also to draw the attention of the Turkish public and International opinion to the massacre of Christians that took place in Anatolia.

Not only the Armenian, but also Christian Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs were killed or deported in their thousands by the Ottoman ‘Young Turk’ government in 1915.

Sources in Turkey say the hunger strike will last 100 hours – to represent the 100 years since the massacres, which the Syrian Christians call ‘Seyfo’ – a Syriac word meaning the Sword. The fast will end on April 24, to coincide with initiatives planned around the world to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.

The Turkish government has always strongly denied that any genocide took place.

Yuhanna Aktas, president of the Union of Mardin Assyrian Christians said in a television interview that Turkey must deal with its past and recognize the Armenian Genocide.

In addition to the hunger strike, there will also be a march to commemorate the Assyrian Genocide, which will be convened during the month of June.

The town of Midyat in the southeast of Turkey has been for centuries the centre of a Christian-Syriac enclave.