Year of the Sword
Subtitle: The Assyrian Christian Genocide, A History
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: November 1, 2016
Place of publication: Oxford, United Kingdom
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780190633462
Description: The Armenian genocide of 1915 has been well documented. Much less known is the Turkish genocide of the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac peoples, which occurred simultaneously in their ancient homelands in and around ancient Mesopotamia - now Turkey, Iran and Iraq. The advent of the First World War gave the Young Turks and the Ottoman government the opportunity to exterminate the Assyrians in a series of massacres and atrocities inflicted on a people whose culture dates back millennia and whose language, Aramaic, was spoken by Jesus. Systematic killings, looting, rape, kidnapping and deportations destroyed countless communities and created a vast refugee diaspora. As many as 300,000 Assyro-Chaldean- Syriac people were murdered and a larger number forced into exile. The "Year of the Sword" (Seyfo) in 1915 was preceded over millennia by other attacks on the Assyrians and has been mirrored by recent events, not least the abuses committed by Islamic State. 
Joseph Yacoub, whose family was murdered and dispersed, has gathered together a compelling range of eye-witness accounts and reports which cast light on this 'hidden genocide.' Passionate and yet authoritative in its research, his book reveals a little-known human and cultural tragedy. A century after the Assyrian genocide, the fate of this Christian minority hangs in the balance.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Author's Note; label: Introduction:
title: A Forgotten Genocide?; title: Nation, people and churches; title: On the eve of the massacre; title: The genocide of 1915; title: Contemporary documentation; title: Ethnocide and extermination; title: Oblivion and its causes; title: An international issue; title: Renewal and memory; label: 1.
title: Witnesses to Genocide; title: A terra incognita?; title: Reporting the genocide; title: The range of witnesses; title: The Paris Peace Conference, 1919; title: International solidarity; title: The national and international press: an essential intermediary; title: Humanitarian aid; label: 2.
title: The Scenes and Acts of the Tragedy; title: A centuries-old persecution; title: The first centuries; title: Ottoman antecedents to the 1915 massacres; title: 1915: historic Mesopotamia; title: Overview of the massacres; title: The invasion of Hakkari by Turco-Kurdish forces; title: The Syriacs; title: Extermination and deportation: the children of the Desert; label: 3.
title: Strategy and Methodology of Eradication; title: Genocide and ethnocide; title: Lamenting a tragedy; title: The massacres and the United Nations; label: 4.
title: After 1915: The Tragedy Continues; title: 1918: from Salmas and Urmia towards Hamadan and Iraq; title: Assyrians at arms; title: The Assyrian Levies; title: The Turkey-Iraq frontier (1925); label: Conclusion:
title: Returning to the Stage of History; title: The impact of the diaspora; title: Preserving memory; title: Iraq: homeland or safe haven?; title: Notes; title: Bibliography; title: Index