Newly Elected Assyrian Patriarch Wants to Commemorate Genocide Centenn

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Assyrian International News Agency AINA
June 8 2014

Newly Elected Assyrian Patriarch Wants to Commemorate Genocide Centennial

Posted 2014-06-08 04:02 GMT


Assyrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II.Damascus (AINA) -- The
synod of the Assyrian Orthodox Church made a surprising decision on
May 30th to form a committee to prepare for the commemoration of the
centennial of the 1915 Turkish genocide of Assyrians. The decision
came as the newly elected Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II held his first
meeting with the bishops of the church in Damascus.

The decision marks a dramatic shift by the church on this sensitive
issue, putting the Assyrian Orthodox Church on a collision course with
Turkey, which continues to deny the genocide.

The decision is welcomed and even encouraged by the Syrian regime
given the current enmity between Turkey and Syria. Patriarch Aphrem II
has been vocal in his support for Bashar Al Assad's regime.

In the past the church refrained from any action which could have been
interpreted as support for the recognition movement among Assyrian
political organizations, fearing any such action would have
jeopardized its parishioners, monasteries and churches in Turkey.

The Turkish genocide of Assyrians occurred in World War One. It began
on April 24, 1915 and lasted to the end of 1918. The genocide claimed
750,000 (75%) Assyrian lives, as well as 1.5 million Armenians and
500,000 Pontic Greeks.

Sweden is the only country which has recognized the Assyrian genocide.
The International Genocide Scholars Association officially recognized
the Assyrian and Greek genocides in December, 2007.

http://www.aina.org/releases/20140607230210.htm