Oral Statement: Human Rights Council - Item 5: Indigenous Peoples

Oral Statement by the Syriac Universal Alliance on the theme of: Unrecognized Indigenous Peoples: The Case of the Aramean (Syriac) People of Turkey

Thank you, Mr. President.

Your Excellency,

Distinguished Delegates,

The Syriac Universal Alliance represents the indigenous Aramean (also known as Syriac) people of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. I would like to draw your attention to the situation in Turkey. 

The Republic of Turkey continues to withhold legal status and basic minority rights to the Aramean people which are given them by the Lausanne Treaty signed by Turkey in 1923. Turkey also fails to grant the Arameans recognition as an indigenous people, even though it has endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 and historical sources prove the continuous presence of the Aramean people in the region of Southeast-Turkey from the second millennium BC on. 

It is regrettable that the recent reform packages and constitutional change in Turkey do not include the problematic situation of the non-Turkish and non-Muslim minorities. Turkey thereby has missed the historic opportunity to align its law and practice with international human rights standards.

Due to the continuing denial of recognition and the lack of all rights belonging to minorities and indigenous peoples, the Arameans in Turkey are facing the extinction of their 3,000-year-old culture, language and identity. The Arameans are also involved in legal cases relating to their land and places of worship. Although the Resolution 1704 adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 2010 has condemned such human rights abuses by Turkey, the state continues to expropriate Aramean land in many cases.

It is a sad truth that the persistent denial by Turkey of the legal status of its indigenous people will lead to Aramean demise. The near-extinction of the Aramaic cultural heritage proves that this issue should be taken serious by the international community.

Therefore, the Syriac Universal Alliance recommends the following to the Human Rights Council:

 

To pay special attention to the unrecognized indigenous peoples and to establish a committee which focuses on recognition of indigenous peoples based on objective criteria in order to grant these indigenous groups formal international recognition.
To give indigenous peoples a stronger voice at the UN. This can be done, for example, by granting them a more active participation in the UPR process in order to set up a dialogue with the states they live in. This implies that indigenous peoples should be allowed and enabled to address their concerns and recommendations directly to the state under review.

We recommend that the UN gets more actively involved in supporting and facilitating dialogue between indigenous people(s) and the government of the country they inhabit.

 

Thank you, Mr. President.

Basil Oezkaya
UN NGO Alternative Representative
Syriac Universal Alliance