Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide Against the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire(26 War and Genocide)

The mass killing of Ottoman Armenians is today widely recognized, both within and outside scholarly circles, as an act of genocide. What is less well known, however, is that it took place within a broader context of Ottoman violence against minority groups during and after the First World War. Among those populations decimated were the indigenous Christian Assyrians (also known as Syriacs or Chaldeans) who lived in the borderlands of present-day Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. This volume is the first scholarly edited collection focused on the Assyrian genocide, or “Sayfo” (literally, “sword” in Aramaic), presenting historical, psychological, anthropological, and political perspectives that shed much-needed light on a neglected historical atrocity.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Contextualizing the Sayfo in the First World War David Gaunt, Naures Atto and Soner O. Barthoma Chapter 1. How Armenian was the 1915 Genocide? Ugur Ümit Üngör Chapter 2. Sayfo Genocide: The Culmination of an Anatolian Culture of Violence David Gaunt Chapter 3. The Resistance of Urmia Assyrians to Violence at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Florence Hellot-Bellier Chapter 4. Mor Dionysios ‘Abd an-Nur Aslan: Church Leader during a Genocide Jan J. van Ginkel Chapter 5. Syriac Orthodox Leadership in the Post-Genocide Period (1918–26) and the Removal of the Patriarchate from Turkey Naures Atto and Soner O. Barthoma Chapter 6. Sayfo, Firman, Qafle: The First World War from the Perspective of Syriac Christians Shabo Talay Chapter 7. A Historical Note of October 1915 Written in Dayro D-Zafaran (Deyrulzafaran) Sebastian Brock Chapter 8. Interpretation of the ‘Sayfo’ in Gallo Shabo’s Poem Simon Birol Chapter 9. The Psychological Legacy of the Sayfo: An Inter-generational Transmission of Fear and Distrust Önver A. Cetrez Chapter 10. Sayfo and Denialism: A New Field of Activity for Agents of the Turkish Republic Racho Donef Chapter 11. Turkey’s Key Arguments in Denying the Assyrian Genocide Abdulmesih BarAbraham Chapter 12. Who Killed Whom? A Comparison of Political Discussions in France and Sweden about the Genocide of 1915 Christophe Premat Index

About the Author :
David Gaunt is Professor of History at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University, and a member of the European Academy. He has written extensively on mass violence and genocide in Eastern Europe and in the Ottoman Empire. His Massacres, Resistors, Protectors (2006) is considered the seminal work on the Assyrian, Syriac, and Chaldean genocide.

Review :
“This reviewer is more than impressed with the effort and care required to produce what amounts to a syllabus of cogent explorations of one of the most shameful chapters known to man…Let Them Not Return is an invaluable publication providing a great deal of information in support of what promises to be a long and arduous campaign to obtain Turkish confirmation of the genocide of its Christian minorities, particularly that of the lesser publicized Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. With its abundant notes and a rich bibliography accompanying each chapter, this book deserves to grace the shelf of every caring Assyrian.” • Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies “The book is an excellent contribution in presenting new ideas through its 12 chapters, to study the case of Sayfo by dedicated researches, especially concerning the trauma effect of the post-genocide survivors. Indeed, this is an important book and necessary to be consulted to understand various aspects concerning many themes regarding Christians in the Middle East.” • Syriac Orthodox Patriarchal Journal “This volume does not try to arrive at a conclusive evaluation. But it provides three well thought-out steps for future research in… completely unknown topic in Osman history during the First World War.” • H-Soz-Kult “With a list of top-notch contributors, this is an excellent addition to what little is currently available on this under-researched genocide. The organization of the contributions and the volume’s breadth of scope are particularly impressive.” • Mark Levene, University of Southampton