ishtartv.com-
DIHA
STOCKHOLM
(DİHA) - The Syriac and Assyrian people living in Sweden have started a hunger
strike, after they took to the streets yesterday in some cities to protest the
attacks of the ISIS on Assyrian villages in Til Temir and Hasekê.
In Stockholm, where around 25 thousand Assyrians live, a group of people has
started hunger strike in a tent they set up in Storatorget Square of Södertälje
neighbourhood of the city. 10 Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean people are holding
the strike in condemnation of the attacks of the ISIS gangs in Til Temir,
Hesekê and Nineveh Plain and to draw attention of the public on the massacre
threat that the Assyrian people are facing. The protestors called on the
Swedish government, the UN and the EU to stop the massacre of the Assyrian and
Syrian people and to take action for the release of those held captive by ISIS.
Local counsellor in Södertälje, Metin Rhawi, who leads the strike action, said
the UN and the Swedish government are well informed about what happened in
Khabour and added that they are staging the strike to push these agents to take
action. Rhawi stressed that although the Swedish government condemned the
attacks, more action has to be taken to stop the massacre of the Assyrian and
Syrian people by the ISIS gangs. Rhawi asked how long the international
community could remain silent while thousands of people are being massacred and
300 people have been abducted. Rhawi drew attention to the resolution of the EU
to establish a safe haven in Nineveh Plain and said they wanted the same to be
established in Til Temir. Rhawi added that the joint operations of the YPG/YPJ
forces, Khabour fighters and Syriac Military Units in the area to protect the
people must be supported through the air strikes of the coalition forces just
like what was the case in Kobanê.
Chaldean federation spokesperson Bahnam Jabou (67), who also takes part in the hunger
strike, said their aim is to show to the whole world that the Syriac, Assyrian
and Chaldean people in Til Temir, Heseke and Nineveh Plain are not alone, and
that they need help as they have limited capacities to protect themselves.
Jabou also called on the UN, EU and Arab Unity to stand against the attacks of
ISIS and to take urgent action to stop the killings. Jabou said the UN must
take urgent decisions and apply them in order to protect the Christian
community in the region.
Kenan Kerimo (67), an executive of Mesopotamia Culture Association, said the
Syriac and Assyrian people in the Middle East are facing a threat of extinction
today and added that it is only the Kurdish Liberation Movement that protects
them against the attacks of the inhumane gangs. Kerimo also criticized the
silence of the international community about the matter and called on the EU to
take urgent action to protect the Assyrian and Syriac community in the region
and to provide humanitarian aid. The protestors said a march and a rally will
take place in Södertälje on 29 March, Sunday to protest the ISIS gangs and to
support those resisting in Til Temir and Heseke, and called on all the Turkish,
Kurdish, Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean people living in Sweden to join the
rally to protest the ISIS.
In the meantime, Robert Halef, deputy from Christian Democrats, carried the
attacks of the ISIS gangs in Til Temir and Heseke to Swedish parliament by
submitting a parliamentary question and said the resolution of the EU to
establish a safe haven in the region must urgently be put into practice. Halef
drew attention to the fact that the Assyrian-Syriac- Chaldean community had to
flee away from their lands since the beginning of the occupation of Iraq in
2003, and that the number of those who had to leave the Middle East has reached
500 thousand since the start of the civil war in Syria.
Halef further recalled that 250 thousand Assyrians took refuge in Federal
Kurdistan Region in the last year after fleeing away from the attacks of the
ISIS gangs, and added that he saw in the meetings he held with the KRG
authorities that the KRG is positive about the establishment of safe zone in
the region as well as the ambassadors of many countries of the region in
Stockholm. The Christian Democrats MP said he visited the refugee camps in Iraq
together with the EP MEP Lars Adukson and added that the Assyrian and Syriac
people in the camps were desperate as the Baghdad government has taken no
military measures to protect them.
Halef further stressed that the attacks of the ISIS gangs on the Christian
communities in the Middle East must be recognised as “genocide” by the UN,
adding that the UN, the EU and the Swedish government must take urgent actions
to stop this ongoing genocide and to ensure the security of the oppressed
peoples in Iraq and Syria.?
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