111 Years since Sayfo: Memory of genocide still demands recognition and Justice

June 16, 2026, marks the 111th anniversary of the Sayfo massacres. "Sayfo," a Syriac term meaning "the sword," refers to the methods of killing employed by the Ottoman authorities against Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean civilians, alongside Armenians, during the years 1915 and 1916.

This date was adopted by Assyrian and Syriac religious and human rights institutions as a unified day to honor the victims and remember the killings, displacement, and loss of the historical homelands endured by these communities.

From War to Genocide

The Sayfo massacres occurred during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. In June, large areas of Tur Abdin, Mardin, Urfa, Hakkari, Amed (Diyarbakir), and the broader Mesopotamian region witnessed mass killings and forced deportations targeting Christian populations.

Historical accounts and specialized studies indicate that this period coincided with widespread insecurity and policies aimed at reshaping the demographic reality of several regions.

Various historical sources estimate the number of Syriac, Assyrian, and Chaldean victims at between 250,000 and 500,000. These atrocities formed part of a broader wave of massacres that also targeted Armenians and Pontic Greeks, resulting in the deaths of more than 1.5 million people overall.

Nor were these massacres the first or the last. In 1850, in the Bab al-Nayrab district of Aleppo, Ottoman forces killed thousands of people, including the Assyrian priest Peter Jarweh, in a massacre that lasted for two days.

The Ottomans also carried out organized genocidal attacks against the Armenian people between 1894 and 1915, killing more than 80,000 Armenians and confiscating their homes and properties between 1894 and 1896 in Adana. These figures are excluded from the toll of the larger genocide committed in 1915.

This series of massacres, together with the Armenian genocide and population exchange operations involving Greece, reduced the Christian population in Turkey from approximately 33 percent before the war to around 0.1 percent today, while forcing hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and Syriacs to flee to neighboring countries.

The Sword, Fire, and Death Marches

The name "Sayfo," meaning "the sword," became associated with the methods of killing used during that era, as bladed weapons were among the most commonly employed tools of execution.

Testimonies from survivors, along with the memoirs of diplomats and foreign missionaries, document incidents of mass slaughter, summary executions, and the forced deportation of families along lengthy routes that later became known as the "death marches."

Historical accounts also describe the destruction of entire villages, the burning of homes and churches, and the displacement of populations from their ancestral lands, leading to the disintegration of communities that had lived in those regions for centuries.

The Birth of the Assyrian-Syriac Diaspora

The consequences of the massacres extended far beyond the number of victims. They fundamentally altered the demographic map of the region. Following the killings and deportations, hundreds of thousands sought refuge in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and other countries, while large diaspora communities later emerged across Europe, North America, and Australia.

Alongside the Armenian diaspora, Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean communities became the principal custodians of Sayfo’s memory. Every year, they organize marches, seminars, and memorial ceremonies in dozens of cities worldwide, calling for recognition of the massacres and the preservation of historical memory.

International Recognition Remains Incomplete

Recent decades have witnessed growing efforts toward recognition of the Sayfo massacres. In 2007, the International Association of Genocide Scholars called for recognition of the crimes committed against Assyrians, Syriacs, Chaldeans, Armenians, and Greeks as acts of genocide. In 2008, the Swedish Parliament recognized the massacres targeting Assyrians, Syriacs, and Chaldeans.

Turkey and Azerbaijan remain the only two states that continue to deny the massacres committed during the Ottoman era.

In 1985, sixty-nine American academics, including Bernard Lewis, signed a statement addressed to the U.S. Congress urging it not to recognize the Ottoman massacres against its Christian subjects. However, sixty-eight of them later withdrew their signatures after investigations revealed that most had received financial grants from Turkish authorities.

Despite these developments, the issue of international recognition remains unresolved. Political and legal disputes continue over how the events should be characterized, while human rights organizations and institutions representing these peoples maintain that recognition is an essential step toward historical justice and preventing the recurrence of such crimes.

At a time when the world—including Syria—is witnessing new conflicts and crises, the anniversary of Sayfo remains an occasion to reflect on the lessons of the past and to reaffirm the importance of protecting cultural and religious diversity and strengthening the principles of justice and accountability, ensuring that historical tragedies do not become repeatable realities in the future.

ANHA