Assyrian Genocide

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Genocide

The Assyrian Genocide (Aramaic: ܩܛܠܐ ܕܥܡܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ or ܣܝܦܐ, Turkish: Süryani Soykırımı) was committed against the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire near the end of the First World War by the Young Turks.^[1] The Assyrian population of northern Mesopotamia (Tur Abdin, Hakkari, Van, Siirt region in modern-day southeastern Turkey and Urmia region in northwestern Iran) was forcibly relocated and massacred by Ottoman (Turkish and Kurdish) forces between 1914 and 1920 under the regime of the Young Turks.^[2]

The Syriac name Qeṭlā ḏ-‘Amā Āṯûrāyā (ܩܛܠܐ ܕܥܡܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ), which literally means "killing of the Assyrian people", is used by some groups to describe these events. Other groups, especially those that do not wish to use the ethnic identifier Assyrian, refer to the genocide as Saypā (ܣܝܦܐ), pronounced Sayfo in the West Syriac dialect, meaning "sword". In total, 750,000 Assyrians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, aided by the Kurds.

The genocide of Assyrians has yet to be officially recognized by any country. This is in contrast to the Armenian Genocide, which has been recognized by many countries and international organizations. Assyrian historians state the primary reason for this lack of recognition is that Assyria has been deprived of real political power throughout the 20th century. In addition, the massacre of Christians in Asia Minor is usually linked solely to the Armenian Genocide (and less to the Greek genocide and the Assyrian genocide). On April 24, 2001, Governor of the US state of New York, George Pataki, proclaimed that "killings of civilians and food and water deprivation during forced marches across harsh, arid terrain proved successful for the perpetrators of genocide, who harbored a prejudice against ... Assyrian Christians."