Swedish Christian Democrat MP Pia Steensland called on the Swedish government to fulfil its responsibilities regarding the Seyfo massacre, which parliament recognised in 2010.
She reminded parliament that in 1915 there was a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians-Syriac-Chaldeans and Pontus Greeks. More than 1.5 million Christians were deliberately murdered for ethnic and religious reasons, she added.
Explaining that the genocide is called Seyfo (Sayfo in the Assyriac language) among Assyrians, Steensland said that in the massacre people were forced to migrate, massacres and executions took place and women and children were raped. On 11 March 2010 the Swedish Parliament recognised Seyfo as a genocide, but Steensland asked the Swedish government to push for the recognition of Seyfo internationally, and for it to be officially accepted by the United Nations and the European Union. She demanded that Turkey should be pressured to accept the genocide that was committed against Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldeans and Armenians.
The Seyfo genocide was the mass slaughter and deportation of Syriac Christians in eastern regions of the Ottoman Empire, and neighbouring regions of Persia. Seyfo is also known as the Assyrian genocide and is recognised as a genocide by some states. It occurred concurrently with the Armenian and Greek genocides during World War I and was led by Ottoman troops and some Kurdish tribes.