Congressman Sherman Joins with Colleagues to Commemorate Simele Massacre

Washington, DC – Congressman Sherman, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joined with his colleagues to commemorate the Simele Massacre and announce a resolution to protect religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.

"Assyrians and Armenians, along with other minorities in Iraq and Syria, have been persecuted for generations because of their faith and ethnicity," said Sherman. "The recent violence in the Nineveh Plains, Khabor, Aleppo, and Kobane underscore the need for a more robust US and international policy to protect these communities and support them in their struggle for self-preservation. That is I am joining with Rep. David Trott (R-MI) to introduce a resolution that not only expresses our concern for the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac and Armenians in Iraq and Syria, but formally recognizes the Simele massacre of 1933, and calls on the President and international community to put an end to the suffering of these innocent people and allow them to live peacefully in their ancestral homeland."

The resolution, which will be introduced when legislative business resumes in the House, already has the support of additional Members, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE).

"With our friends at the Armenian National Committee of America and A Demand for Action we have crafted a resolution that does justice to the gravity of the violence which has befallen the Assyrian and Armenian people in Iraq and Syria," Sherman continued. "While no resolution can ever fully grasp the barbarity of the violence, or extent of the suffering, it does not mean the US Congress should remain silent while the Christian people of Iraq and Syria suffer. We encourage our friends in Congress to join this important resolution, and will be working with the leadership in Congress to ensure it is adopted without delay."

August 7th marks a tragic day for the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people. In 1933, in the northern Iraqi town of Simele, over 3,000 Assyrian Christians were massacred in cold blood, being forced to flee their homes in droves. Many of the surviving victims of Simele were relocated along the Khabor River in Syria, which this year experienced a series of brutal attacks, and saw the descendants of the massacre displaced once again, this time due to the brutality of ISIS.

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