Assyrian Democratic Organization ADO
Syria – February 24, 2015
Today, Monday, February 23, 2015, at dawn, ISIS terrorists began an armed attack on the Assyrian villages on the southern bank of the Khabour River in Hasakah province, Syria. ISIS has invaded the villages and kidnapped scores of civilian Assyrian Christian women, children and elderly from their homes and took them to an unknown location. Additional news surfacing from the Khabour Region, indicate that many of the innocent Assyrian Christian civilians remain hostage in their homes under the control of ISIS.
This has caused a new wave of displacement of hundreds of families from the Khabour villages towards the cities of Hasakah and Qamishli, due to fears that the entire region would fall under the control of ISIS who would commit horrific massacres and atrocities against the civilian population.
We, in the Assyrian Democratic Organization, strongly condemn these terrorist attacks and are deeply concerned for the safety of the civilians held hostage by ISIS who could be killed and the women enslaved.
We appeal to the International Community for urgent action with all possible means to prevent an imminent massacre, and demand the International Community to uphold its legal and humanitarian responsibilities to save the Assyrian Christian civilians, as well as provide the necessary protection for their villages and towns in order to prevent future massacres and displacement scenarios that befell upon our Assyrian Chaldean Syriac people and other indigenous ethnic groups in Mosul, Sinjar, and the Nineveh Plain in the Fall of 2014 at the hands of ISIS.
We emphasize that to eliminate the escalating terrorism in Syria, and to stop the cycle of violence and bloodshed of Syrians, and the return of stability and security, remains dependent on the readiness of the international and regional powers to reach an effective solution on the basis of the Geneva Accord of June 30, 2012, and related UN Security Council resolutions. It is only then that the international and regional efforts can be beneficial through a binding settlement agreement, under which all Syrians are united to remove the tyranny that has brought the country to this disastrous situation, and to defeat terrorism in all its forms such as ISIS and other groups that enforce ideals against the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom and democracy
We ask for Mercy for the martyrs, health for the wounded, and freedom for the detainees.
For a free and democratic Syria
Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO)
Media Office
