By Jean Eckian
PARIS—On Saturday, Aug. 23, around 600 people demonstrated in Paris to show their support to Kurds and Yazidis—victims of massacres committed by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraqi Kurdistan—and to advocate for humanitarian aid for those who were forced to flee.
The group included representatives from the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF) and the Armenian Institute of France. Pastor René Leonian in a message of support to the Kurdish and Yazidi communities, said, “We want to say emphatically to our Yazidi brothers, Kurdish brothers, Alevi brothers, and Christian brothers of all faiths—whether Assyrian-Chaldeans, Armenians and others—we denounce these crimes against humanity; we denounce this genocide.”
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yeah thats a good one, Armenians voicing support for Kurds. Kurds helped kill plenty of us in Mus, Diyarbakir, Tatvan, Siirt, Van, Divrigi, Hafik, Zara, etc. We want to voice our support for Kurds?
It is right to condemn injustice against Kurds and Yazidis. It doesn’t erase the history between Armenians and Kurds, but it recognizes the undeniable, pressing reality of the day—we have common enemies, similar struggles, and similar goals. Armenians, as victims of the unpunished genocide, should speak against injustice everywhere, even if it means speaking up for those who once carried out injustice against us. Truth is truth.
The Yazidis, including those around Mt. Sinjar,protected us in 1915.
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21613350-their-desperate-search-sanctuary-iraqs-yazidis-ask-turkey
My heart bleeds looking at images of the defenseless Yazidis, those innocent children… But, at the same time, I implore you not to forget the other minorities in Mosul who have suffered unspeakable violence. The world conscious should not forget the voiceless hundreds of thousands of Christian Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriacs of Iraq who are facing a Genocide at the hands of the ISIS militants for no reason other than their faith. The 1915 history of Genocide never repeated itself for the Armenians-Thanks be to God, but for Assyrians it is a bitter deja vu! An Estimated 750,000 Assyrian Christians and thousands of Pontic Greeks were massacred alongside Armenians by the Ottoman thugs while the world looked on quietly. You vowed “Never Again”, so please don’t stay silent or idle. We need your advocacy and your support to fight the evil of ISIS and to rise in support of humanity and all the innocent minorities in Iraq.
With all due respect to Armenian Weekly, why would the title of this article make reference to Yazidi and Kurds, but not to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Assyrians, your brothers in faith and the forgotten victims of the ISIS terror. Over 150,000 Christian Assyrian and Chaldeans have been uprooted from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain, their daughters and sisters kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery. Our children and elders have died on the road to safety and those who survived are now living on the streets inside the Iraqi Kurdistan like animals — homeless and hopeless! You need to be their voice–do not repeat how the world reacted to the 1915 Genocide by silently watching the annihilation of these indigenous people. Be their voice.
Why are the Assyrians left out of this article when the Assyrian population being persecuted by ISIS is four times larger than the Yezidis? What is YOUR agenda?
What AGENDA ?
this is the first time I am hearing that Assyrians in Iraq are being specifically targeted by ISIL.
I have no doubt they are, just like _all_ Christians in Iraq, including Armenians.
However, you need to give the author a break: every piece of news from Iraq past few weeks has been screaming about the dire situation of Yezidis/Yazidis in Iraq. Nothing specifically about Assyrians (or Armenians).
From the article above:
{“We want to say emphatically to our Yazidi brothers, Kurdish brothers, Alevi brothers, and Christian brothers of all faiths—whether Assyrian-Chaldeans, Armenians and others—we denounce these crimes against humanity; we denounce this genocide.”}
“…..whether Assyrian-Chaldeans….”: OK ?
btw: don’t know if this is accurate or not, but various web sources have these numbers for Iraq:
Yazdidis: 600K-650K.
Assyrians: 300K.
I am an Assyrain Christian/American citizen who is very disturbed and deeply hurt by what is going on in Middle East which is causing my people die in that region of the world. These are my brothers, my sisters, my parents and my children who are being beheaded, raped, crucified, homeless, dying of thirst, hunger, heat and poor weather conditions. I am pleading with you to help them. They are innocent victims of ignorance, ugliness and cruelty of ISIS group. This evil can not reign on Earth against any human being no matter what religion they believe, what color hey are, what language they speak, etc.. Assyrians have resided in that region of the world over 6000 years. This is absolutely unbelievable and outrageous. These type of evil and destructive actions should not be tolerated by anyone. Failing to mention the Assyrians is not acceptable.
{Pastor René Leonian in a message of support to the Kurdish and Yazidi communities, said, “We want to say emphatically to our Yazidi brothers, Kurdish brothers, Alevi brothers, and Christian brothers of all faiths—whether Assyrian-Chaldeans, Armenians and others—we denounce these crimes against humanity; we denounce this genocide.”}
“Assyrian-Chaldeans,”
“Assyrian-Chaldeans,”
“Assyrian-Chaldeans,”