The Assyrian Democratic Organization
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And so this is how the Val d’Oise daily paper, Le Parisien, presented the commemorative activities of the 89th anniversary of the Genocide of 1915, committed by the Young Turk government and executed by the tri, Dj?mal Pasha, Enver Pasha and Talat Pasha. It was a conference animated by the great Assyro-Chaldean genocide specialist, Sabri Atman, who specially came from Netherlands to this occasion. For a long time, our people in France have adopted the date of April 24th, the date in which in 1915 hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and personalities were arrested to be massacred during their forced exile, to commemorate with their Armenian and Greek brothers, the tragedy of 1915. The members of our people commemorate the martyrs by various activities organized in this period of the year.
On the occasion of the 89th commemorative year of the first genocide of the 20th century, the Assyro-Chaldean Youth and the Association of Assyro-Chaldeans of France organized various activities. The Assyro-Chaldean Youth reserved the number 15 of April, 2004 of its successful bulletin, Les Lions de Babylone (Lions of Babylone), for the genocide of 1915. Indeed, the special number dedicated to this first genocide of the last century made in the shadow of the First World War, contained 32 pages and brought in great specialists like S?bastien de Courtois, Joseph Yacoub and Sabri Atman. The special number of the Lions of Babylon, edited for the release of 1000 copies, includes testimonies of the victims of the genocide and testimonies of their descendants. S?bastien de Courtois tells the beginnings of the genocide, which started with the massacres in 1895. Sabri Atman remembers the genocide itself and requires from Turkey to recognize this crime against the humanity, the purpose of which was to eliminate all the obstacles blocking the way from the turkofication. Joseph Yacoub speaks about the peace treaties signed after the war and deals with the abandonment of the Assyro-Chaldeans, the smallest allies of the powers like France or the United Kingdom. The Lions of Babylon are trying by this mean to inform the readers on this black page of the Turkish and human history and to make them aware of these issues.
The Association of the Assyro-Chaldeans of France started the commemorative celebrations of the 1915?s martyrs, by placing a wreath in front of the monument of the Unknown Soldier under the Triumphal Arch in Paris on Friday, April 23rd, 2004. The representatives of the Armenian, Assyro-Chaldean and Greek people followed suite and revived the flame of the Unknown Soldier in the presence of the media and political, civil and religious personalities, and an large crowd. Sabri Atman, the special guest of the AACF, as well as his friends came from the Netherlands, took part in this ceremony with Naman Adlun, the president of the Association of the Assyro-Chaldeans of France and many other members of the board of directors of our association, who never miss these occasions, before coming back in Sarcelles.
Sarcelles is the city where the large majority of our community in France is concentrated, with nearly 4,000 people. The other sites are the Paris region, Lyon, Marseilles and Toulouse, where resides Khodeda Ellof, son of the Assyro-Chaldean hero of the First World War, General Agha Petros, in a castle offered by France to his father in the commune of St Jory to thank him for the help given to France during the war. Our association organizes most of its cultural, social and commemorative activities in Sarcelles.
To commemorate the sad anniversary of 1915, the Association of Assyro-Chaldeans of France had asked the Assyro-Chaldean researcher and writer Sabri Atman from the Netherlands, to mediate a conference titled ?Turkey must recognize the genocide of 1915?, on Friday April 23rd, 2004. So far, the AACF and its various branches have organized many commemorative activities, in particular conferences to which they invite specialists of international fame like Yves Ternon, Joseph Yacoub, S?bastien de Courtois or Sabri Atman. Our association also takes part in the demonstrations and activities organized by the other communities, in particular the Armenians. Thus, our people are sensitized on the genocide and our young people waked up with the protection and the safeguard of their history and identity.
We welcome this time the great specialist of this dark period of our history, Sabri Atman, who is polyglot (he knows 9 languages), author of several literary works on the Assyro-Chaldean exodus and genocide, and who works relentlessly since years for the recognition of this imperceptible crime. The participants in this conference were very numerous. The Turkish press was also present, not missing such an event during which it was question of a genocide completely forgotten by the international public opinion and completely ignored by the Turkish authorities: the Assyro-Chaldean genocide, during which our people lost two-third of his population. The young people, who are the inheritors of this heritage, were extremely numerous. Sabri Atman, speaking following Naman Adlun, president of the AACF who welcomed him, started by greeting the audience and saying that this genocide was deliberately planned, organized and carried out by the Ottoman central power of that time. Underlining the similarities and the reasons of the genocides of last century, Atman specified that among the political, economic, religious and racial factors, the religious factor weighed heavy in the genocide of the Armenian, Assyro-Chaldean and Greek people.
(L to R: Antoni Yalap, Sabri Atman and Naman Adlun)
Photo by Naures Atto
Sabri Atman, who addressed to his own people in Turkish, by the means of a translation in French, calling upon his own memories, pointed out the tragedies and the sad events lived. The Assyro-Chaldean researcher did not hesitate to affirm that modern Turkey was founded on the sacrificed blood of the Armenians, the Assyro-Chaldeans and the Greeks, and noted that current Turkey had significant profits due to the genocide. Still today, many Turkish and Kurdish families and companies owe their considerable wealth to the massacres of the Christians by their grandparents. The 10,000 Assyro-Chaldean survivors of the genocide who are living today in Turkey cannot represent any more a danger to the government and the Turkish population: that is why the government must be sorry for the crime committed in 1915.
Dealing with the role of the Powers in war, in particular of Germany, and Kurdish populations, Sabri Atman indicated that the Kurdish tribes and leaders were used like a “scapegoat”. In addition, the Kurds did not have a central power, which could have decided to organize the elimination of the Armenians and the Assyro-Chaldeans who lived among them. If that were the case, no Christian would have survived. The Ottoman power used them against the Armenians and the Assyro-Chaldeans, playing with the religious unity and by provoking them by false rumors. Finally, as recalled it a participant, some religious leaders and heads of tribes had a significant role in the protection of some Assyro-Chaldean villages. In spite of the threats of the central Ottoman power to punish those, which helped the Armenian and Assyro-Chaldean traitors, with the price of their lives, they saved lives. Lastly, many Kurdish organizations and the Kurds in general asked for forgiveness to our people for the significant participation of their ancestors in the genocide decided by Young Turkish government. It is the only thing Turkey should do without any fear. The Assyro-Chaldeans do not have any hatred neither towards the Kurds nor towards the Turks, they just want the justice to be made and that their martyrs be recognized.
The sword, this tool that is called Saypa or Sayfo in the two Aramaic dialects, was not used against us only in 1915. The massacres had started quite before. The declaration of Jihad in 1914 was only the top of hatred. At the beginning of the 20th century, a third of the Turkish population was Christian. Today, this rate is 0.01%. The Christians represent nothing but only a tiny community of 150,000 people, in decline, in a Turkey which considers itself as respectful of its minorities and which wants to integrate the European Union, pleading that it is the cradle of Christianity. The Armenians lost 1 500 000 of their brothers and sisters, men, women, children, old men, religious or civil leaders, passed to the sword, killed at the time of the deportations, died of diseases resulting from the bad treatments inflicted by the executioners. Our people lost more than 250,000 people. The Turkish young government wanted at that time to turkofy our whole population, one way or another, and any obstacle against of this new objective was to be eliminated. Stressing that the common point of the genocides is their not-recognition by their instigators, Sabri Atman noted that the words “so-called genocide” are never missing in the mouth of the Turkish leading class and certain pseudo-intellectuals like Dogu Perin?ek or Emin ??lasan.
Referring to the deficiencies of our people on this subject, the Assyro-Chaldean writer Sabri Atman affirmed that the intellectuals of our people were liquidated during the genocide and that we must content ourselves with the testimonies arrived until our days, in an oral way. The European children grow by listening to tales, he said, whereas the children of my people grow by listening to true tragic stories. The young people of the Assyro-Chaldean Diaspora, who start to make higher studies and to form a certain elite, must turn towards the study of this genocide perpetrated by the Turkish young government. The Armenians have tens of specialists of the genocide and take advantage of tens of thousands of literary works written on their genocide; the Assyro-Chaldeans can only rely on five or six specialists and some literary works. However, essential actions were carried out, if we take into account the fact that the Armenian Diaspora is much more ancient than the Assyro-Chaldean Diaspora. The exodus of the Assyro-Chaldean people started in Europe, thirty years ago. It is thus difficult for us, currently, to reach the same results as the Armenian Diaspora.
Sabri Atman answered at the end of its intervention to the questions, which were asked to him. These concerned rather the question of the number of Assyro-Chaldean victims and tried to know why the Armenians appropriate so much the genocide. The reasons of this situation are of psychological and political nature. As for the number of the victims, we do not know exactly how many people were victims of the genocide. The writer estimates this number at more than 250,000 martyrs; the figures vary from one source to another. In addition, given that the religious and political Assyro-Chaldean leaders of that time, with an aim of subtracting our population from the special taxes, they declared a population much less than that real. The conference finished late in the evening.
(L to R: Naman Adlun, Sabri Atman & Zayya Yakan; Paris, 24 April)
Photo by Naures Atto
This year, the commemorations of the 89th year of the genocide took place during three days. The representatives of our community, Naman Adlun, president of the AACF and Sabri Atman, took part in the demonstration organized on Saturday April 24th, 2004, in the direction of the embassy of Turkey. Mr. Adlun spoke in the name of the community and reminded the losses of the Assyro-Chaldeans during the genocide, beside their Armenian and Greek brothers. Naman Adlun had also taken part in the morning in the commemorative ceremony organized by the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delano? (Socialist Party) in the presence of the General Consul of Armenia.
Sabri Atman and Naman Adlun, placing a wreath for the Assyro-Chaldean Martyrs
Photo by Naures Atto
The most significant commemorative ceremony for our people took place in Sarcelles on April 25th 2004, in the presence of the mayor of the city, Fran?ois Pupponi (Socialist Party), the representatives of the community and many other people. Naman Adlun and Sabri Atman placed, in the name of the Assyro-Chaldean community, a wreath of flowers in front of the monument commemorating the Armenian genocide. The event took place on the recently baptized street ?rue du 24 avril 1915: 1er g?nocide du 20e si?cle? (?street of April 24, 1915: 1st genocide of the 20th century?). A commemorative monument of the Assyro-Chaldean genocide will be placed very soon beside the Armenian stele. One minute of silence preceded the speech of the mayor of Sarcelles, Fran?ois Pupponi, who reminded that the municipality has always worked for the recognition of the genocide. Underlining the fact that the Assyro-Chaldean martyrs, who experienced the same fate, should not be forgotten, Pupponi said that the town of Sarcelles will commemorate every year this sad anniversary which ended the lives of two thirds of our people.
