Arab Spring Must Protect Native Minorities in the Middle East
- Post 28 September 2011
Geneva, Switzerland
The Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA) gave two rousing speeches at the 18th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 21 and 23 September 2011.
Both speeches focused on the plight of the Aramean (Syriac) people in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. However, it was the reference to the so-called “Arab Spring” and the lack of true opportunity, freedom or democracy for the Arameans and other minority groups, such as the Armenians, Copts and Greeks, which stirred up most interest.
The SUA’s UN representative, Mr. Basil Oezkaya (see photo), met with diplomats from several countries and attended meetings of the Human Rights Council where discussions were held on indigenous peoples and general human rights issues. In his Statements at the General Debates and in his governmental discussions, Mr Oezkayastressed that the Middle Eastern region has turned into a revolutionary corner and that the SUA asks world governments to take the native minorities with them on the journey towards a better and safer future. In this new world, it is no longer acceptable for nations to cry for freedom and democracy in their streets, while they dismiss the same rights of indigenous minority groups like the Aramean people. Among others, he noted:
“... while assisting the dominant majorities in this region, the world continues to ignore the remnants of minority groups like the native Aramean, Coptic, Armenian and Greek Christians who lack international support in their struggle for freedom, equality and justice in the Near East.”
In Turkey, the land theft has reached unfathomable proportions. More than 10 million square metres of land has been stolen from the native Arameans in recent years. Their basic human rights, including the freedom of religion and the teaching of their Aramaic language, are not wholly supported by the Turkish Government. Even the recent Turkish Decree on the return of property to Foundations seems to return astonishingly little of land historically and legally belonging to Arameans, Armenians and Greeks, as it focuses neither on pre-1936 land nor on property owned by individuals.
The situation in Iraq is not much better and with the Aramean population significantly dwindling in numbers, by more than half its pre-2003 number, it is the fear of the SUA that things may become worse. The Iraqi government has paid lip service to protecting the Aramean minority and little has been done to curb the terror that specifically targets the local Christians.
In Syria, the Arameans are supportive of democratic change but are also weary of the consequences. No one wants a repeat of Iraq where civil war has destroyed the country and largely turned the native minority groups into refugees, afraid of their lives and insecure about their future.
Mr. Daniel Gabriel, the SUA Human Rights and UN NGO Director, states:
“While the media focuses all its energy on the Palestinian search for Statehood and the ‘Arab Spring’, it is the reduced indigenous populations of the Middle East who continue to lose out. Time and time again, the world demands justice, democracy and freedom in the Middle East, but it fails in its obligation to demand the same for the minority groups like the Arameans. Today we barely survive in our homeland. But tomorrow we may silently vanish from existence. The SUA pleads with the global bodies such as the United Nations and the world community and media to prevent this imminent tragedy from happening.”
The SUA looks at the current cries of freedom heard across the Middle East and requests pragmatic solutions to the issues at hand. The Arameans are willing to cooperate with governments worldwide in order to bring about a real and all-encompassing “Middle Eastern Spring” that touches every ethnic and religious group across the region.
The SUA urgently calls upon the United Nations, the international community, media outlets and all those concerned with protecting human rights, to recognize the existence of the indigenous Aramean (Syriac) people in order to survive in the ancient land of their ancestors.
