World Council of Arameans [Syriacs]

A Blessed Easter from WCA to you!

“I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME, THOUGH HE WERE DEAD, YET SHALL HE LIVE; AND WHOSOEVER LIVETH AND BELIEVETH IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE. BELIEVEST THOU THIS?” – JOHN 11:25-26

Saturday, 7 April 2018

In 2017, the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”) and its Member Federations celebrated the Year of the Aramean Identity. This year, we mark the Year of the Aramean People. While wishing all WCA Members a Blessed Easter, we also take the opportunity to highlight the importance of this year’s theme that will introduce fantastic projects and activities to help strengthen our sense of peoplehood.

WCA to UNESCO: Help Aramaic on International Mother Language Day

On the occasion of International Mother Language Day 2018, WCA President, Mr. Johny Messo, addressed UNESCO’s Director-General H.E. Ms. Audrey Azoulay. In the following letter, WCA calls upon UNESCO to help preserve the endangered Aramaic language.

5 NGOs Ask Dutch Minister to put ISIS question on UNSC Agenda Next Month

Addressing Critical Question of ISIS Perpetrators and Victims as UNSC Chair

On 22 February 2018, five (international) NGOs presented a joint statement to the Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Sigrid Kaag, on the issue of ISIS. As one of the 2018 UN Security Council Members, and President of the Council in March, the Netherlands has expressed that it would actively combat ISIS and bring its fighters to justice. 

Please Vote tomorrow for Resolution on Genocide of ethno-religious minorities by ISIS

See below for the WCA's appeal to the Members of the European Parliament, requesting them to vote tomorrow, 4 February 2016, in favor of the Motion for the European Parliament resolution on the systematic mass murder of religious minorities by ISIS. When ISIS emptied the Aramean people from the Nineveh plains in north Iraq, on 6/7 August 2014, the WCA published this press release and sent this letter to the UN Security Council that includes five recommendations.

Distinguished Member of the European Parliament,

The World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) urgently appeals to you and requests you to vote tomorrow, 4 February 2016, in favor of the Motion for the European Parliament resolution on the systematic mass murder of religious minorities by ISIS (2016/2529(RSP), which was debated on 20 January 2016.

After the Holocaust and since the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the world vowed “Never again” to allow crimes against humanity to occur. Ever since, this vow would be broken again and again, notably in Rwanda, Srebrenica and Cambodia. This also holds true for the ongoing genocide committed since 2014 by ISIS against the vulnerable ethno-religious minorities of Iraq and Syria, including hundreds of thousands of Aramean Christians.

In addition to many political and religious leaders, scholars equally condemn ISIS’ crimes as ‘genocide’. If there still exists any doubt about ISIS continuing the extermination of Christian, Yezidi and other ethno-religious groups from their millennia-old homelands in Syria and Iraq, the abundant evidence provided by ISIS itself and which can be seen with our own eyes today on YouTube, speaks volumes.

These communities continue to ask where the outcry, responsibility and action of the world leaders is. Tomorrow you have the chance to break this silence. You can give a hopeful response to these victims, a clear message to ISIS and to potentially new masterminds of genocide who will undoubtedly emerge if they keep witnessing that the “Never again” vow in the end was only mere words and empty rhetoric.

Tomorrow you can set the example for parliaments around the world and the United Nations Security Council. Let us, therefore, together speak up and speak out against ISIS and its ongoing genocide. Let us call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide. Not to speak is to speak and not to act is to act.

The World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) is a worldwide umbrella organization and a UN NGO that represents the voice of the indigenous Aramean people of Iraq and Syria. Since 2014, this Semitic people and its cultural heritage also fell victim to the ongoing acts of genocide committed by ISIS.

Thank you for your understanding and support,

Johny Messo
President
World Council of Arameans (Syriacs)

Download, print and read this letter here in PDF: English | French