This park in the Old City commemorates the Syriac Genocide by the Muslim Ottoman (Turkish) army, together with other Muslim peoples. These included Kurds, Chechens and Circassians, between 1914 and 1920 during and after WWI.
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Eyewitness accounts and quotes
Statement of German Missionaries on Urmia.
There was absolutely no human power to protect these unhappy people from the savage onslaught of the invading hostile forces. It was an awful situation. At midnight the triple exodus began; a concourse of 25,000 men, women and children Assyrians and Armenians, leaving cattle in stables, all their household goods and all the supply of food for the winter, hurried, panic-stricken, on a long and painful journey to the Russian border, enduring the intense privations of a foot journey in the snow and mud, without any kind of preparation. … It was a dreadful sight … many of the old people and children died along the way. [1]
The latest news is that four thousand Assyrians and one hundred Armenians have died of disease alone, at the mission, within the last five months. All villages in the surrounding district with two or three exceptions have been plundered and burnt; twenty thousand Christians have been slaughtered in Armenia and its environs. In Haftewan, a village of Salmas, 750 corpses without heads have been recovered from the wells and cisterns alone. Why? Because the commanding officer had put a price on every Christian head … In Dlman crowds of Christians were thrown into prison and driven to accept Islam. [2]
The Armenian Genocide: Looking Back, Moving Forward
The Armenian Genocide is no longer a silent issue in Turkey. The Kurdish awakening over the last 30 years has led to major changes in the political landscape of that country. Kurdish leaders today, as well as millions of others, acknowledge the participation of Kurds in the genocide of Armenians and seek to make amends. (This film is largely based on materials from Diyarbakir between 2012-13).
Armenian-Arabian International Legal Council المجلس القانوني العربي الأرمني الأممي – President of the Armenian Central International Legal Council decided to award Ms. Gail Malone’s Peaceful Delegation to the member of the International Delegation to Ari’s appreciation for the support provided to our compatriots who emigrated to Kesabe and to the support of the Armenian cause and to the accomplishment of the goals for her service شهادة تقدير قررت هيئة رئاسة المجلس القانوني العربي رئيس المجلس khorhurdiglkharkartughar Council President Vahe Mahshikian Damascus 14:43 2014 Dr. Ainer Koushaji
[1] Yohannan, Abraham. The Death of a Nation: Or, The Ever Persecuted Nestorians or Assyrian Christians. London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916, pp. 119–120. ISBN 0-524-06235-8.
[2] Yohannan. The Death of a Nation, pp. 126–127