A post submitted by CGI member Morgan.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJg81ntjTU

It seems impossible that we would forget genocides of entire people, but events like the Assyrian genocide show us how fickle human memory can be. Also called the Sayfo, meaning ‘the sword’, the Assyrian genocide was one of three mass campaigns of extermination waged by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Alongside the more famous Armenian genocide and that of the Greeks, hundreds of thousands of Assyrians lost their lives in racially and religiously motivated atrocities at the command of the Ottoman government between 1914 and 1918.

The struggle of the Assyrians is easily overlooked, but it contains tales of incredible brutality and of admirable resistance. Today, on this Day In History, we look at how the atrocities of the Sayfo unfolded, the deplorable ways that the Ottomans deceived their victims, and the stories of the men who took up arms to defend themselves from those who would exterminate them.

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If you watched the video, sound familiar?