Ashur Giwargis: genocides didn’t mysteriously appear out of nowhere

PanARMENIAN.Net - The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation released an article by Assyrian politician Ashur Giwargis, covering Genocides of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians by the Ottoman authorities.

“The massacres of World War I against the Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians, in what's known today as Turkey, did not suddenly and mysteriously appear out of nowhere,” the author says.

“History tells us that the Turks themselves were the ones who first allowed foreigners in, through the Treaty of the Capitulations in 1535 between the French King Francis the 1st and Sultan Suleiman the 1st; according to this treaty the French enjoyed the right to protect Christians living in the Ottoman territories, this is how a part of the Armenians became Roman Catholics, and a part of the Assyrians became Roman Catholics under the Ottoman starvation policy and the Vatican exploitation, the Catholic Assyrians have been called “Chaldeans” by the Vatican in 1552. Hence, based on this historical fact, the Ottoman Empire is the one who collaborated with the foreigners and consented to their presence in that territory,” he says.

“The international community’s neglect of this issue is in essence a second Genocide, not to mention disrespectful towards the concepts of humanity. This silence and indifference is dangerous as it is perceived as a green signal by those who would perpetrate more genocides,” Giwargis concludes.