Assyrian genocide The Assyrian Genocide ( also known as Sayfo or Seyfo , or ) refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s and the First World War , in conjunction with the Armenian and Greek genocide s . The Assyrian civilian population of upper Mesopotamia ( the Tur Abdin region , the Hakkâri , Van , and Siirt provinces of present - day southeastern Turkey , and the Urmia region of northwestern Iran ) was forcibly relocated and massacred by the Muslim Ottoman ( Turkish ) army , together with other armed and allied Muslim peoples , including Kurds , Chechens and Circassians , between 1914 and 1920 , with further attacks on unarmed fleeing civilians conducted by local Arab militias . Estimates on the overall death toll have varied . Providing detailed statistics of the various estimates of the Churches ' population after the genocide , David Gaunt accepts the figure of 275 , 000 deaths as reported at the Treaty of Lausanne and ventures that the death toll would be around 300 , 000 because of uncounted Assyrian - inhabited areas , leading to the elimination of half of the Assyrian nation . The Assyrian genocide took place in the same context as the Armenian and Pontic Greek genocides . In these events , close to three million Christians of Syriac , Armenian or Greek Orthodox denomination were murdered by the Young Turks regime . Since the " Assyrian genocide " took place within the context of the much more widespread Armenian genocide , scholarship treating it as a separate event is scarce , with the exceptions of the works of David Gaunt and Hannibal Travis . In 2007 , the International Association of Genocide Scholars ( IAGS ) reached a consensus that " the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians , Assyrians , and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks . The IAGS referred to the work of Gaunt and Travis in passing this resolution . Gregory Stanton , the President of the IAGS in 2007 – 2008 and the founder of Genocide Watch , endorsed the " repudiation by the world ' s leading genocide scholars of the Turkish government ' s ninety - year denial of the Ottoman Empire ' s genocides against its Christian populations , including Assyrians , Greeks , and Armenians . " Terminology . The Assyrian genocide is sometimes also referred to as " Sayfo " or " Seyfo " in English language sources , based on the modern Assyrian ( Mesopotamian neo - Aramaic ) designation " Saypā " ( ) , " sword " , pronounced as " Seyfo " , and as " Sayfo " in the Western dialect ( the term abbreviates " shato d ' sayfo " " year of the sword " ) . The Assyrian name " " ( ) , which literally means " killing of the Assyrian people " , is used by some groups to describe these events . The word " Qṭolcamo " ( ) which means " Genocide " is also used in Assyrian diaspora media . The term used in Turkish media is " Süryani Soykırımı " . In countries where significant Assyrian diaspora communities exist , the designation " Assyrian " has become controversial , notably in Germany and Sweden , alternative terms such as " Assyriska / syrianska / kaldeiska folkmordet " " Assyrian / Syriac / Chaldean genocide " are employed . Nestorians , Syrians , Syriacs , and Chaldeans were names imposed by Western missionaries such as the Catholics and Protestants on the Ottoman and Persian Assyrians . The Greek , Persian , and Arab rulers of occupied Assyria , as well as Chaldean and Syrian Orthodox patriarchs , priests , and monks , and Armenian , British , and French laypeople , called them all Assyrians . Background . The Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire numbered about one million at the turn of the twentieth century and was largely concentrated in what is now Iran , Iraq and Turkey . However , researchers such as David Gaunt have noted that the Assyrian population was around 600 , 000 prior to World War I . There were also hundreds of thousands of Maronite Christians in Lebanon , with some Assyrian heritage but which are less often called Assyrians . There were significantly larger communities located in the regions near Lake Urmia in Persia , Lake Van ( specifically the Hakkari region ) and Mesopotamia , as well as the eastern Ottoman vilayet s of Diyarbekir , Erzurum and Bitlis . Like other Christians residing in the empire , they were treated as second - class citizens and denied public positions of power . Violence directed against them prior to the First World War was not new . Many Assyrians were subjected to Kurdish brigandage and even outright massacre and forced conversion to Islam , as was the case of the Assyrians of Hakkari during the massacres of Badr Khan in the 1840s and the Massacres of Diyarbakır during the 1895 – 96 Hamidian Massacres . The Hamidiye received assurances from the Ottoman Sultan that they could kill Assyrians and Armenians with impunity , and were particularly active in Urhoy and Diyarbakir . Outbreak of war . The Ottoman Empire began massacring Assyrians in the nineteenth century , a time of friendly relations between the Ottomans and the British , who were defending the Ottomans from the Russian Empire ' s efforts to include under its protection the communities of Ottoman Orthodox Christians . In October 1914 , the Ottoman Empire began deporting and massacring Assyrians and Armenians in Van . After attacking Russian cities and declaring war on Britain and France , the Empire declared a holy war on Christians . The German Kaiser and the German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire directed and orchestrated the holy war , and financed the Ottomans ' war against the Russian Empire . Massacres . Diyarbekir . The earliest programs of extermination took place in the southern province of Diyarbekir , under the leadership of Reshid Bey . The commander of Ottoman Army Group East declared in his memoirs that his forces accounted for 300 , 000 Armenian deaths in Diyarbakır and elsewhere . A German Vice - Consul reported in July 1915 that Assyrians were being massacred in Diyarbekir Vilayet . A German Consul reported in September 1915 that the adult Christians of Diyarbakır , Harput , Mardin , and Viranşehir , and an Ottoman reign of terror in Urhoy . The German ambassador reported that the Ottoman Empire was being " clear [ ed ] " of its indigenous Christians by " eliminat [ ion ] " . In July 1915 , he confirmed that the Assyrians of Midyat , Nisibis , and Jazirah were also slain . Van . Jevdet Pasha the governor of Van , is reported to have held a meeting in February 1915 at which he said , " We have cleansed the Armenians and Syriac [ Christian ] s from Azerbaijan , and we will do the same in Van . " In late 1915 , Jevdet Bey , Military Governor of Van Vilayet , upon entering Siirt ( or Seert ) with 8 , 000 soldiers whom he himself called " The Butchers ' Battalion " ( ) , ordered the massacre of almost 20 , 000 Assyrian civilians in at least 30 villages . The following is a list documenting the villages that were attacked by Cevdet ' s soldiers and the estimated number of Assyrian deaths : The village of Sa ' irt / Seert , was populated by Assyrians and Armenians . Seert was the seat of a Chaldean Archbishop Addai Scher who was murdered by the Kurds . The eyewitness Hyacinthe Simon wrote that 4 , 000 Christians died in Seert . Assyrian resistance in upper Mesopotamia . On March 3 , 1918 , the Ottoman army led by Kurdish soldiers assassinated one of the most important Assyrian leaders at the time . This resulted in the retaliation of the Assyrians . Malik Yosip Khoshaba of the Bit Tiyari tribe led a successful attack against the Ottomans . Assyrian forces in the region also attacked the Kurdish fortress of Simko Shikak , the leader who had assassinated Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin , they successfully stormed it , defeating the Kurds , however Simko escaped and fled . Assyrians were involved in a number of clashes in Turkey with Ottoman forces , including Kurds and Circassians loyal to the empire . When armed and in sufficient numbers they were able to defend themselves successfully . However , they were often cut off in small pockets , vastly outnumbered and surrounded , and unarmed villagers made easy targets for Ottoman and Kurdish forces . Assyrian military retaliation in Iran . The Assyrians in Persia armed themselves under the command of General Agha Petros , who had been approached by the Allies to help fight the Ottomans . The Assyrians proved to be excellent soldiers , and Agha Petros ' volunteer army had quite a few successes over the Ottoman forces and their Kurdish allies , notably at Suldouze where 1 , 500 Assyrian horsemen overcame the far larger Ottoman force of over 8 , 000 , commanded by Kheiri Bey . Agha Petros also defeated the Ottoman Turks in a major engagement at Sauj Bulak and drove them back to Rowanduz . Assyrian forces in Persia were greatly affected by the withdrawal of Russia from the war and the collapse of Armenia n armed resistance in the region . They were left cut off , with no supplies , vastly outnumbered and surrounded . In 1918 , the Assyrian population of Urmia was nearly wiped out , 1 , 000 killed in the French and American mission buildings , 200 surrounding villages destroyed , and thousands perished of famine , disease , and forced marches . Khoi , Iran . In early 1918 , many Assyrians started to flee present - day Turkey . Mar Shimun Benyamin had arranged for some 3 , 500 Assyrians to reside in the district of Khoi . Not long after settling in , Kurdish troops of the Ottoman Army massacred the population almost entirely . One of the few that survived was Reverend John Eshoo . After escaping , he stated : Iranian villages . The Ottoman Empire invaded northwestern Persia in 1914 . Before the end of 1914 , Turkish and Kurdish troops had successfully entered the villages in and around Urmia . On February 21 , 1915 the Turkish army in Urmia seized 61 leading Assyrians from the French missions as hostages , demanding large ransoms . The mission had enough money to convince the Ottomans to let 20 of the men go . However , on February 22 the remaining 41 were executed , having their heads cut off at the stairs of the Charbachsh Gate . The dead included bishop Mar Denkha . Most of the Assyrian villages were unarmed . The only protection they had was when the Russian army finally took control of the area , years after the presence of the Ottoman army had been removed . On February 25 , 1915 , Ottoman troops stormed their way into the villages of Gulpashan and Salamas . Almost the entire village of Golpashan , of a population of 2 , 500 , were massacred . In Salamas about 750 Armenian and Assyrian refugees were protected by Iranian civilians in the village . The commander of the Ottoman division stormed the houses despite the fact that Iranians lived in them , and roped all the men together in large groups and forced them to march in the fields between Khusrawa and Haftevan . The men were shot or killed in other ways . The protection of Christians by local Persian / Iranian civilians is also confirmed in the 1915 British report : " Many Moslems tried to save their Christian neighbours and offered them shelter in their houses , but the Turkish authorities were implacable . " During the winter of 1915 , 4 , 000 Assyrians died from disease , hunger , and exposure , and about 1000 were killed in the villages of Urmia . Baquba camps . By mid - 1918 , the British army had convinced the Ottomans to let them have access to about 30 , 000 Assyrians from various parts of Persia . The British decided to deport all 30 , 000 from Persia to Baquba , Iraq . The transferring took just 25 days , but at least 7 , 000 of them had died during the trip . Some died of exposure , hunger or disease , other civilians fell prey to attacks from armed bands of Kurds and Arabs . At Baquba , Assyrians were forced to defend themselves from further Arab raids . A memorandum from American Presbyterian Missionaries at Urmia During the Great War 16 to British Minister Sir Percy Cox had this to say : Capt . Gracey doubtless talked rather big in the hopes of putting heart into the Syrians and holding up this front against the Turks . [ Consequently , ] We have met all the orders issued by the late Dr . Shedd which have been presented to us and a very large number of Assyrian refugees are being maintained at Baquba , chiefly at H . M . G . ' s expense . In 1920 , the British decided to close down the Baquba camps . The majority of Assyrians of the camp decided to go back to the Hakkari mountains , while the rest were dispersed throughout Iraq , where there was already an ancient Assyrian community established over 5000 years . In 1933 a massacre of thousands of unarmed Assyrians took place at Simele and other areas in Iraq at the hands of the Iraqi Army and Kurdish irregulars . In 1961 many Assyrian villages were razed in Iraq , and further widespread destruction was wrought during the Al Anfal Campaign by Saddam Hussein in 1988 . To this day Assyrians in Iraq make up an important Iraqi minority group . Death toll . Scholars have summarized events as follows : specific massacres included 25 , 000 Assyrians in Midyat , 21 , 000 in Jezira - ibn - Omar , 7 , 000 in Nisibis , 7 , 000 in Urfa , 7 , 000 in the Qudshanis region , 6 , 000 in Mardin , 5 , 000 in Diyarbekir , 4 , 000 in Adana , 4 , 000 in Brahimie , and 3 , 500 in Harput . In its December 4 , 1922 , memorandum , the Assyro - Chaldean National Council stated that the total death toll was unknown . It estimated that about 275 , 000 " Assyro - Chaldeans " died between 1914 and 1918 . The population of the Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire and Persia was about 650 , 000 before the genocide , and was reduced by 250 , 000 , with very few survivors in 1930s Turkey or Iran . Massacres in the late Ottoman Empire . The Assyrians were not going to be an easy group to deport , as they had always been armed and were as ferocious as their Kurdish neighbors . Documented accounts of the genocide . Assyrians in what is now Turkey primarily lived in the provinces of Hakkari , Şırnak , and Mardin . These areas also had a sizable Kurdish population . The following newspaper articles documented the Assyrian genocide as it occurred : Hannibal Travis , Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University , wrote in the peer - reviewed journal " Genocide Studies and Prevention : An International Journal " that : In April 1915 , after a number of failed Kurdish attempts , Ottoman Troops invaded Gawar , a region of Hakkari , and massacred the entire population . Prior to this , in October 1914 , 71 Assyrian men of Gawar were arrested and taken to the local government center in Bashkala and killed . Eyewitness accounts and quotes . Statement of German Missionaries on Urmia . Recognition . On 11 March 2010 , the Genocide of the Assyrians was officially recognized by the Parliament of Sweden , alongside that of the Armenians and Pontic Greeks . The Assyrian genocide is recognised by the New South Wales ( NSW ) Local Government in Australia . The Assyrian Genocide is officially recognised by the South Australia State Parliament . The Assyrian Genocide has also been recognized by the last three governors of the state of New York . This is in contrast to the Armenian Genocide , which has also been recognized by other countries and international organizations . Assyrian historians attribute the limited recognition to the smaller number of Assyrian survivors , whose leader Mar Shimun XIX Benjamin was killed in 1918 . For example , there are one million Armenians living in the United States alone , but even they were unable to persuade Congress to pass a United States resolution on Armenian genocide . In addition , the widespread massacres of all Ottoman Christians in Asia Minor is sometimes referred to by Armenian authors as an " Armenian 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 . " In December 2007 , the International Association of Genocide Scholars , the world ' s leading genocide scholars organization , overwhelmingly passed a resolution officially recognizing the Assyrian genocide , along with the genocide against Ottoman Greeks . The vote in favor was 83 % . The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy ( I . A . O . ) , passed a resolution officially recognizing the Assyrian genocide on June 2011 . Monuments . The only governments that have allowed Assyrians to establish monuments commemorating the victims of the Assyrian genocide are France , Australia , Sweden , Armenia , Belgium , and the United States . Sweden ' s government has pledged to pay for all the expenses of a future monument , after strong lobbying from the large Assyrian community there , led by Konstantin Sabo . There are three monuments in the U . S . , one in Chicago , one in Columbia and the newest in Los Angeles , California . There have been recent reports indicating that Armenia is ready to create a monument dedicated to the Assyrian genocide , placed in the capital next to the Armenian genocide monument . A monument to the victims of the Assyrian genocide has been built in Fairfield in Australia , a suburb of Sydney where one in ten of the population is of Assyrian descent . The statue is designed as a hand of a martyr draped in an Assyrian flag and 4 . 5 meters tall . It was designed by Lewis Batros . The memorial is placed in a reserve to be named the Garden of Nineveh . The memorial statue and the name for the reserve were proposed in August 2009 by the Assyrian Universal Alliance . After consultation with the community , Fairfield Council received more than 100 submissions for the memorial , including some from overseas , and two petitions . The proposal has been condemned by the Australian Turkish community . The Assyrian Genocide has been recognised by the NSW Local Government and South Australia state . On the 30th of August 2010 , twenty - three days after it was unveiled , the Australian monument was vandalised . In 2013 , an Assyrian Genocide monument opened in Belgium . The monument depicts a dove , representing peace . There are also Assyrian genocide monuments in France , Russia , and Armenia . School institutions . In Canada , the Assyrian Genocide , along with the Armenian Genocide , are included in a course covering historical genocides . Turkish organizations , along with other non - Turkish Muslim organizations , have reacted to this and protested .