Syria
The Sayfo 1915 monument in Qamishli, northeast Syria was vandalized on February 25, 2023. Photo: Handout/Syriac Military Council
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A monument commemorating the massacre of Christians a century ago has been vandalized in northeast Syria, an attack condemned by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander as trying to stoke tensions.
The “Sayfo 1915 Syriac genocide monument… has been vandalized” Saturday morning, the Syriac Military Council (MFS) announced on Twitter, condemning the attack “against our memory, history and remembrance.”
The monument was unveiled in June 2016 by Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church. It was built to commemorate atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire against Syriac Christians a hundred years earlier, known as the Sayfo massacre.
Photos published by the MSF show a plaque on the monument had been smashed and a cross appears to have been damaged.
The General Commander of the SDF Mazloum Abdi condemned the act, calling it “unacceptable.”
“It is considered an attack on Syriac martyrs to create regional tensions. We condemn such hateful attacks and affirm the friendship and solidarity of the people of our region,” he tweeted.
On the day of the monument’s inauguration in 2016, a suicide bomber killed three members of a Christian militia at an event in Qamishli commemorating the massacre.
The “Sayfo 1915 Syriac genocide monument… has been vandalized” Saturday morning, the Syriac Military Council (MFS) announced on Twitter, condemning the attack “against our memory, history and remembrance.”
The monument was unveiled in June 2016 by Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church. It was built to commemorate atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire against Syriac Christians a hundred years earlier, known as the Sayfo massacre.
Photos published by the MSF show a plaque on the monument had been smashed and a cross appears to have been damaged.
The General Commander of the SDF Mazloum Abdi condemned the act, calling it “unacceptable.”
“It is considered an attack on Syriac martyrs to create regional tensions. We condemn such hateful attacks and affirm the friendship and solidarity of the people of our region,” he tweeted.
On the day of the monument’s inauguration in 2016, a suicide bomber killed three members of a Christian militia at an event in Qamishli commemorating the massacre.
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