4-25-2005,  
www.aina.org

Brussels (AINA) -- On Saturday 23rd April 2005 Assyrians from world
wide gathered to commemorate the ancestors that were killed during the
genocide of 1915 in Turkey. Two thousand people walked first their
demonstration through Brussels to the Ambriorix Square in front of the
European Parliament in Brussels. The people who gathered there are the
grandchildren of the Seyfo, the genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkish
government. And they still feel: there is still no justice in this case.
The grandchildren of the survivors and those that did not survive the
genocide gathered and felt the pain: young and old, members of different
churches of our people. Bishop Julius Jesuh who is leading the Syriac
Orthodox congregation of Middle Europe, preceeded in the commemoration.
Together with the Chorbishop Abdo and the priest Sabri from Belgium,
they started with a prayer for the lost souls.

Ablahhad Stayfo from Belgium hosted the programme for the day. Bishop
Julius Jesuh started the first speech to the big crowd and mentioned
first that the Synod of the Syriac Orthodox church had decided in 1998 to
commemorate the martyrs of our people of 1915 each year from now on.
'Ninety years after 1915 we have gathered here to commemorate our people
that became martyrs for Jesus Christ', he said. They had to die because
they were Christians. When the bishop mentioned this, his tears came
down. The tears of a leader that felt sorry for the lost souls: 'these
souls were not guilty but thrown into the rivers, the wells and killed
with swords' he said with a broken voice.

Malham Ishak said in his speech that although only his grandfather in
his family had survived the genocide, and although all the villages in
mount Judi have been wiped out by the Turkish authorities, he would like
to see a Turkey that wants to develop a democracy in the future. And if
Turkey is not prepared to do that, including admitting the genocide it
had committed, then our wish is that the European Union does not allow
Turkey as a future member of the EU. 'If Turkey does not want us and
accept our requests, then we do not want Turkey either', he said. After
all, does the European want to accept a member state that denies its
past and the requests of its citizens?

Sabri Atman, expressed in his speech that on 23rd April 1923 the Young
Turks celebrate the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. For them it
symbolises a day of happiness, one day before the start of genocide on
the Christians. Naturally, one could not observe a nation celebrating
the start of the genocide annually and at the same time eager to become a
future member of the European Union. Mr. Atman spoke part of his speech
in Turkish. He said: 'The Turkish media are here, and since they do not
understand our language, and are not interested in learning it, I will
have to talk their language to make them understand my story'. He did
this courageously. After that black balloons were thrown into the air.
They looked like the black grapes in our parents' vineyards, cut from
their plants and lost in search of their soul. They went high and
remained dark, while the crowd shouted with one voice: 'We will not forget the
Seyfo, martyrs do not die'! Next year I want to see balloons that will
not express the sadness in my people's hearts any more. I want to see
balloons which our future children will like; colours that humanity
likes. Mr. Atman ended his speech with the story of an Assyrian mother
whose family members were all killed and she was sent with her four years
old daughter on a death march. This march into exile ended sad for her
too: her last family member, her daughter, was taken from her and
kidnapped by Ahmed Pasha to become his future wife. The Assyrian mother did
not see her girl after that any more. Sabri Atman ended his speech
saying: 'the question of the Seyfo is the question of all our people; we all
suffer and therefore it is not the question of a few individuals only.
This year, the bishop is here with us. Next year I want our Patriarch
and many more of our priests to precede in the commemoration of genocide
victims'.

August Thiry from Belgium read a short story from the Armenian William
Saroyan's book 'Seventy Thousand Assyrians', which he wrote in 1923. It
is the story of the Assyrian Badal who ends up in Los Angeles and works
as a barber after having escaped the genocide. The author Saroyan, who
assumes that the Assyrian is an Armenian finds out later that he is
not, but that their story is similar: both their people are decimated to a
degree that Turkey can deny today that there are and there were
Assyrians or any other people except Turks in Turkey. The sad tone in which
the barber tells his story to the Armenian author is striking: 'once my
people were a great people and had a great civilization in Mesopotamia,
and today I am just a barber in Los Angeles'.

The young singer Ninorta Coban from Germany sang two songs in which she
expressed love and unity. The first song she sang was Gabriel Assad's
song'Moth Beth Nahrin , lo nethe lech hdamo lmauto' (Mesopotamia my
motherland, I will never forget yout). The bishop and the people were
impressed by the performance of the eleven years old girl.

Willy Fautre, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers hold a speech
in three languages. One of the elements he mentioned was that the names
of the Assyrian victims need to be inscribed on a black wall in the
city of Brussels where the European Union is based.

Elias Hanna from America represented the Assyrian American National
Federation and expressed their support to the stand of their people in
Europe regarding the Seyfo in Turkey.

George Farag (also known by his artists name Holo Melke) poet, actor
and director of plays and films, read from his poem 'On the Night of 1st
April I saw a dream'. In his dream he saw the atrocities committed to
the Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire. He ended his poem questioning why
the Mesopotamian heroes had not come to save his people.

Today, seventeen organizations and churches of our people from all over
the world gathered to commemorate the victims of the genocide. It got
attention from different media, such as two Belgian TV channels, Ashur
TV and Beth Nahrin TV. Beautiful, colourful souls shared with each other
the sorrows of the last ninety years which they had brought with them
in the diaspora. The media recorded their requests: Turkey should
recognize the genocide it committed in WW I and allow the rights of our
people from today. The Assyrian eyewitnesses that survived this genocide
could not be with their grandchildren on this day in Brussels. They stayed
home to spare their energy and to keep the memories alive, until
justice is done to them and to humanity.