KNK: “There must be recognition for the Armenian Genocide”

KNK issued a written statement on the 103rd anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and issued the call, “There must be international recognition for the Armenian Genocide.”

The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) issued a written statement on the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of April 24, 1915 and said they respectfully commemorate the victims of the massacres once more.

The KNK statement is as follows:

“The Ottoman Empire has enacted a genocide against the Armenian, Christian, Syriac, Nestorian, Êzidî, Chaldean and Greek peoples of the Mesopotamian lands.

The Ittihat Terakki, the Teskilati Mahsusa, the Hamidiye Regiments and Ottoman soldiers carried out this genocide, committing a crime against humanity. They attempted to erase the Armenian and Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean culture and history from the face of the earth. These are crimes committed agains humanity, and that is an undeniable fact. According to documents made public, close to 1.5 million people were murdered. These numbers are confirmed by Ottoman sources as well.

The Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean peoples lost 500.000 people while the Armenian people lost one million.

On top of the deaths, the genocide also forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of people with the Deportation Act. Tens of thousands of women, children and young people were forced to convert to Islam and women and girls were forcibly married off. Churches, schools, institutions and libraries were looted. Houses and properties of the Asyrian-Syriac-Chaldean and Armenian peoples were confiscated. It has been 103 years since the Armenian Genocide, but the wounds of these people have yet to be healed.

As the KNK, we condemn the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and state that all international institutions should recognize the Armenian Genocide.”