SWEDEN TO INVESTIGATE FINDING OF ASSYRIAN MASS GRAVES IN TURKEY
By Afram Barryakoub

Assyrian International News Agency
Nov 28 2006

(AINA) — The finding of a mass grave in south eastern Turkey,
believed to date from the 1915 genocide of Assyrians and Armenians,
and the Turkish government’s silence regarding the finding has prompted
a debate in the Swedish parliament on the matter.

It was on October 17 this year that villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru)
in south eastern Turkey came across a mass grave when digging a grave
for one of their deceased. The villagers took pictures of the skulls
and bones in the mass grave before Turkish military came and blocked
the site. The villagers were certain that they had found remains of
victims of the 1915 genocide. The military personnel forbade the
villagers to tell anyone about the site and then closed it. Some
of the villagers chose not to follow the orders of the military and
told the story to a local newspaper who followed up on the story. As
soon as the military learned that someone has leaked this information
to the press, they pressed the villagers to give the names of those
responsible for this. Since then journalists trying to get near the
mass grave have been denied access by the military.

Turkey still denies that its Christian population of Assyrians (also
called Chaldeans and Syriacs), Greeks and Armenians were subjected
to genocides. That could explain why the Turkish state and most of
the Turkish media has remained silent about the finding. But now one
of Turkey’s most popular weekly magazines, Nokta, has highlighted the
mass grave finding with a cover story in the latest issue with the main
heading "Again acting the three monkeys – a mass grave was found one
month ago in Nusaybin and the jurisdiction, execution and legislation
bodies as well as the media are silent." The writer, Talin Suciyan,
accuses the Turkish state of turning a deaf ear to the mass grave
finding. "None of the three ‘powers’ of our democracy, legislation,
jurisdiction or execution made a move to deal with the issue. And when
the fourth power – the media – swept the bones under the carpet (the
Turkish) public remained completely unaware of the issue." she writes.

In fact, the only Turkish group that has reacted to the finding is
the Turkish Human Rights Association who sent an open letter to the
ministry of interior calling for an investigation into the matter.

The mass grave finding has yet to enter Turkish politics but in
Sweden the matter has stirred up a debate on the highest levels,
much due to the efforts of the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Association
(ACSA). The news about the mass finding was distributed by Tidningarnas
Telegrambyrå (TT), Sweden’s top news agency and was thereafter
published in several Swedish media, including the two leading
morning papers Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Svenska Dagbladet (Svd). As
a result of the above the mass grave issue has now entered Swedish
politics as MP Hans Linde from the left party recently submitted an
interpellation to the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, asking
for an independent commission of scientists and historians to examine
the findings. The foreign minister must now ask the foreign ministry
to launch an investigation into the matter before he can respond to
MP Hans Linde. The response of the foreign minister on this issue is
due to be presented on the 12 of December before parliament.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress