(AINA) -- Joseph Zaya was born in 1906 in a village in the Hakkary mountains (presently South-Eastern Turkey). The Ottoman empire was something he lived in until the age of nine, when, in the face of genocide, he and his family was forced to flee. He remembers it distinctly: long marches, hunger, starvation, butchery, impalement, burning.

"I lost my brother and his wife and four kids right in front of my eyes. Three Kurds and two Turks dragged my brother out and cut off his arms, right in front of me and his wife and kids. They then proceeded to rape his wife and eleven year old daughter, all the while looking at him and taunting him. After which they shot all of them. But they spared me. I don't know why."

For Assyrians, the loss amounted to 75% of their
population, and they came perilously close to annihilation.

The Turkish Holocaust of Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks began on April 24, 1915. By the time it was over 750,000 Assyrians, 1.5 million Armenians and 400,000 Greeks would have lost there lives. What they had in common was their Christian faith.

For Assyrians, the loss amounted to 75% of their population, and they came perilously close to annihilation.

"During our escape through the mountains," states Joseph, "I remember the bodies strewn on both sides of the path. Most women and children were crying but would not dare stop to care for the sick and dead because they knew the Turkish and Kurdish armies were behind them. I remember a child on the side of the road suckling on his already dead mother who had died with her arms around him. That image has haunted me all my life. This is something that we Assyrians should never forget, and the world should not forget it, either."

Assyrian hunger strikers in Södertälje, Sweden

On April 24, 2001, Assyrians throughout the world commemorated that great Holocaust with a series of hunger strikes, rallies and demonstrations; these included the following:

Hunger strikes

Gütersloh, Germany: April 21-28, 2001
Hague, Netherlands: April 23-25, 2001
Paris, France: April 17-24, 2001
Södertälje, Sweden: April 21-28, 2001
Tehran, Iran: April 24-28, 2001

Demonstrations

Berlin, Germany: April 28, 2001
Sydney, Australia: April 23-24, 2001, in front of the Turkish Consulate

Meetings

Stockholm, Sweden: April 24, 2001, In front of Parliament
Paris, France: April 24, 2001

Conferences

Netherlands: Genocide Conference, April 23, 2001 (organized by ACSU, the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Union)
Yerevan, Armenia: Genocide Conference, April 24, 2001 (organized by the Armenian Academy of Science)

In addition, the Assyrian internet media established several web sites dedicated to this year's Genocide commemoration (Seyfo, Free Assyria, Assyrian Genocide).

During last year's hunger strikes, Turkish students attacked Assyrian hunger strikers in Enschede, Holland. The attacks and provocations continued this year in the Hague. Turkey denies the genocide ever occurred, and as recently as last December arrested an Assyrian priest, Father Yusuf Akbulut, for affirming the genocide; he was subsequently acquitted.