‘Sarı’s death is reminiscent of systematic attacks on Syriac community in 1990s’

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

The Federation of Syriac Associations (SÜDEF) has released a written statement about the killing of Gevriye Sarı in the Badıbe (Dibek) village in Mardin's Nusaybin district on August 8, 2021. The Federation has called on the authorities to find the perpetrators of the murder.

The SÜDEF has raised concerns that the death of Gevriye Sarı is reminiscent of the murders committed by counterinsurgency groups in Turkey in the 1990s. Underlining that "most of the murders committed in Turkey in the period have remained unsolved", the Federation has said:

"With these murders that were not brought to account and whose perpetrators were not found, dozens of Syriac villages were evacuated and thousands of families had to migrate from their homeland."

Referring to the recent murder of Gevriye Sarı as well as the abduction of Şimuni and Hurmüz Diril couple in Beytüşşebap and the massacre of Yusuf Kurt in Mount İzlo (Bagok), the Federation has underlined that these murders and abductions are "reminiscent of the systematic and premediated attacks targeting the Syriac people in the 1990s."

'Ensure safety of life and property'

Further in the statement, the SÜDEF has raised concerns that some powers are trying to prevent the Syriac people from returning to their homeland, claiming and building their own villages and monasteries.

The Federation has demanded that the ones who massacred Gevriye Sarı be found and brought before the law and the safety of life and property of Syriac people be ensured. It has also called on the Syriac people's institutions and organizations "to raise their voices in the face of ugly games played in the Mount İzlo (Rayıte) region and to fulfil their responsibility."

What happened?

Gevriye Sarı was shot to death in his house in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin at around 10 pm on August 8, 2021.His neighbors said that around the time when the incident happened, they heard a brief sound of music coming from the house of the deceased.

The autopsy at the Mardin Public Hospital has shown that Sarı was killed with three bullets. He was laid to rest on August 12. (RT/SD)