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Sie befinden sich hier:
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A letter written from Seyfo Centre to President Barack Obama |
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 The Director of Seyfo Centre Mr. Sabri Atman and Prof. David Gaunt of Södertorn University wrote a letter to President Barack Obama and to United States House of Representatives Committee voting on the recognition of the Genocide.
Seyfo Center
Letter to President Barack Obama and United States’
House of Representatives Committee
The Director of the Assyrian Genocide and Research Center, namely the Seyfo Center, Mr Sabri Atman together with Professor David Gaunt of Södertörn University / Sweden have jointly wrote to the President of the United States of America and United States’ House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, urging both the President and honorable members of the House Committee when voting on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to consider at the same time the simultaneous Seyfo Genocide committed against the Assyrian people during World War I as one same issue.
They have expressed the importance of the recognition of the Genocide and requested the Administration serve to force Turkey to recognize its past acts. Further they have expressed their fear that without the persistence of this Administration, the Assyrian Genocide issue will remain unattended to and unanswered. As a result Assyrians will become extinct to the extent that future generations will see them as a reference only in ancient history books.
1 March 2010
His Excellency President Barack H. Obama
President of the United States of America
Honorable Members
United States House of Representatives
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Dear President Obama and Members of the House Committee,
On behalf of the Assyrian Genocide and Research (Seyfo) Center and its worldwide affiliates, we extend to you our warmest greetings.
At the same time we would like to take this opportunity to extend the thanks of the Seyfo Center to you on the efforts of the President and US congressional leaders with regard to the current plight of the Assyrian people around the world.
The Seyfo Center (Assyrian Genocide Research Center) comprises Assyrians and non-Assyrians from around the world who share a passion and a deter-mination for the recognition of the Assyrian Genocide as well as that com- mitted against the Armenian and Greek peoples during the same period in Ottoman Turkey. Our Board of Directors comprises many noteworthy Assyrian and non-Assyrian scholars and academics and is an international center
of research.
We would like to bring to your attention a matter of great important to the Assyrian people worldwide; the recognition of the Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks against the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontian Greek peoples of Asia Minor between 1914-1918.
You may be familiar with the widely-known and recognized Armenian geno- cide. What is less familiar to most individuals is the simultaneous genocide committed against the Assyrian people residing in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. During this period hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Assyrians faced genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and Kurds. This number equates over 50 per cent of the Assyrian population
at the time.
There is in existence an extensive body of academic research and material which has found beyond the shadow of a doubt that what can easily be termed ‘genocide’ did take place from between 1914 and until 1923 in what was previously known as the Ottoman Empire. Taking the form of massacres, death marches and forced deportations, the Young Turk government syste-matically initiated a policy of riding the Ottoman Empire of its Christian inha- bitants. The resulting policies resulted in the death and murder of millions of Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks.
Similarly, countless books, studies, doctoral thesis and articles in addition to archival materials attest to the irrefutable fact that this genocide, arguably the first major genocide of the twentieth century, did indeed take place within the geographical parameters of the former Ottoman Empire. In fact, in December 2007, the world’s foremost group of genocide academics and scholars, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, formally recognized both the Assyrian and Greek genocides (following its 1997 recognition of the Arme- nian Genocide), announcing 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 ack- nowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apo- logy, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."
Within the above excerpt from the International Association of Genocide Scholars’ wider report on the Assyrian Genocide is the affirmation that the Genocide committed within the Ottoman Empire during the previously noted period was not one simply against the venerable Armenian peoples but against all Christians more broadly and in particular, against the Assyrian people.
Until this very day Turkey bullies the small number of Christian minorities living in the country through various legal and land disputes (Refer to the ongoing case of the St. Gabriel Assyrian Monastery in Midyat) and threatens and puts on trial those who dare to voice an opinion which does not follow the state view of history or offends ‘Turkishness’ (Refer to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code). Despite this, our communities hold no ill-feelings
towards the Republic of Turkey.
We only hope that as Turkey modernizes and aims to enter the European Union, that its past policies with regard the Christian populations of the Otto- man Empire are not ignored or denied but that it does what the majority of academics and scholars in the genocide field as well as numerous gover- nments have already done; recognize the Assyrian, Armenian and Pontian Greek Genocide.
Mr. President and honorable members of the House Committee, we would like to take this opportunity to urge you to not overlook the Assyrian people in the vote on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We ask that, as countless universities and scholars have done, to include ample reference to the Assyrian Genocide within the resolution to be debated and voted on by your committee.
President Obama, we understand that with your recent victory and assump- tion of the leadership of the United States, you have already pressing matters, both domestic and foreign with which the Administration must contend.
Turkey without regret has refused to recognize or acknowledge the Assyrian Genocide and as you may be aware has placed heavy fines and burdens on those who do proclaim the fact to be evident, both in and out of Turkey. With its
horrific track record in human rights violations, we fear that without the persistence of this Administration, the Assyrian Genocide issue will remain unanswered. In no uncertain terms, the diplomatic actions of the United States must serve to force Turkey to recognize their acts of Genocide against the Assyrians. The repercussions of the Assyrian Genocide are real and
are felt today in Iraq by the Assyrian people. History is, no doubt, repeating itself in the current war in Iraq.
Even today, as a community of 3.5 million Assyrians living worldwide, the atrocities committed against the Assyrian people since the Genocide of 1915 has had profound cultural, political and economic ramifications on the Assy- rian people. The Assyrian people, since the fall of the Assyrian empire, have been targets of countless acts of Genocide, resulting in the dwindling of its people. We fear that future generations will only be able to look to ancient
history books for signs that an Assyrian people once existed if concrete and effective action is not taken.
Under your watchful eye and guidance, we urge you to hold Turkey accoun- table for its actions and crimes against humanity.
In this respect, we urge you, President Obama, to make right what history could not.
Sincerely Yours,
Sabri Atman Professor David Gaunt
Director Södertörn University / Sweden
Assyrian Genocide and Research Center
SEYFO CENTER
e-mail
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Internet
www.seyfocenter.com
Many thanks for the permission of publishing on our webside!
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Letzte Aktualisierung ( Freitag, 5. März 2010 )
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