Kurdistan Continues to Neglect Gravesite of Massacre That Inspired the Term "Genocide"
Sunday, May 27, 2018 By Taiyo 'Siraj' Davis, Truthout | Photo Essay
On August 7, 1933, a horrific event occurred in Duhok, Northern Iraq, which is now administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The Iraqi government of Baghdad sent Kurdish Iraqi Gen. Bakr Sidqi to Northern Iraq, buttressed with Kurdish militias, to squash a small force of British-trained Assyrian Christians. The Indigenous Assyrians had applied for independence in 1932 after Iraq had just become its own nation in 1920. General Sidqi and his men succeeded in eliminating the Assyrian fighters, but it wasn't enough. They continued to destroy 63 Assyrian villages between Zakho and Duhok, though some Assyrians in Northern Iraq today claim 125 villages. Sidqi's military force marched villagers to Simele by bayonet, and ruthlessly massacred approximately 5,000 innocent non-combatants, including pregnant women, infant children and helpless elderly.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44563-kurdistan-continues-to-neglect-gravesite-of-massacre-that-inspired-the-term-genocide
