Sayfo, Justice, and Memory
From the Perspective of the Middle East Council of Churches
Professor Michel Abs
The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
The Middle East Council of Churches views the Sayfo massacres as a profound wound in the memory of the churches of the East. It is not a tragedy that concerns only one community, but one that touches the Christian and human conscience of this region. Syriacs, Assyrians, and Chaldeans have carried in their collective memory the pain of the sword, displacement, and uprooting. Yet this suffering transcends ecclesial and ethnic boundaries, for it strikes at the very heart of human dignity.
For this reason, we do not regard Sayfo as a closed chapter of history, but as a living memory that invites us to reflect on the meaning of the Christian presence in the East, on the meaning of justice, and on the responsibility of the churches toward truth. Preserving this memory does not mean remaining prisoners of the past; rather, it means protecting humanity from the repetition of such tragedies and transforming suffering into witness, and witness into a moral and ecclesial commitment.
Memory, if it remains only a source of pain, can become silent sorrow or a closed wound. Yet when it becomes a testimony, it turns into a spiritual and moral force that safeguards truth and resists oblivion. Therefore, it is the duty of the churches to transmit the memory of Sayfo to younger generations, not as a call to fear or isolation, but as an invitation to steadfastness, hope, and responsibility.
The Christian presence in the East is preserved not only through buildings and institutions, but also through memory, language, witness, and the ability to transform suffering into a commitment to life. Sayfo reminds us that the Church that suffered endured, and that the communities subjected to massacre and displacement continue to bear witness to their faith, culture, and mission in this region.
True reconciliation cannot be built upon forgetting or ignoring wounds, but upon acknowledging the truth and honoring the memory of the victims. No society can genuinely reconcile with its past if its major tragedies remain denied or marginalized. Recognition is not an act of revenge; it is a moral and human step that restores dignity to victims and opens the way toward more honest relationships among peoples.
Justice and recognition are therefore not opposed to reconciliation; they are among its essential conditions. Christian forgiveness does not mean erasing the truth, and hope does not require abandoning memory. We call for a reconciliation founded upon truth rather than denial, upon dignity rather than the suppression of pain, and upon building the future rather than repeating injustice.
A major responsibility entrusted to the churches today is to pass on this memory to younger generations through educational and spiritual language that does not reduce history to suffering nor transform wounds into isolation. We must teach our children that learning about Sayfo is not an invitation to hatred but to awareness. Those who know their history are better able to protect their identity and better able to respect the identity of others.
This can be achieved through educational curricula, youth encounters, documentaries, conferences, exhibitions, and digital archives. Memory must also be linked to the values of hope, perseverance, and dignity. We must tell young people: We suffered, yet we were not destroyed; we were displaced, yet we did not lose our mission; we were targeted, yet we remained witnesses to life in this region.
Preserving historical memory is an essential part of safeguarding the Christian presence. A person whose memory is erased becomes more vulnerable to uprooting, and a community that loses its narrative risks losing its identity and mission. Preserving the memory of Sayfo is therefore not an exercise in nostalgia, but an act of protecting both the present and the future.
In the Antiochian Levant, the Christian presence continues to face major challenges: emigration, fear, demographic decline, economic crises, and diminishing confidence in the future. In this context, memory becomes a source of stability, reminding younger generations that their presence in this land is not accidental but deeply rooted, a presence that has paid a heavy price and remains called to witness and participate in building just societies.
Today, more than ever, we need a shared ecumenical approach. The sufferings experienced by the churches of the East in the early twentieth century were not entirely separate tragedies; they formed part of a broader regional wound that affected various Christian and non-Christian communities. Each church has its own particularity, and each community its own narrative and memory, yet shared suffering calls us to a common witness.
An ecumenical approach does not erase the uniqueness of any community; rather, it preserves that uniqueness within a broader horizon. When the Syriac remembers its suffering, the Assyrian remembers its suffering, the Chaldean remembers its suffering, the Armenian remembers its suffering, and the Greek Orthodox of Anatolia remember their suffering, we do not gather these wounds in order to compare them. We do so to affirm that human dignity is one, and that Christian witness in the East is one in its deepest spiritual and human dimensions.
In the same spirit, the commemoration of Sayfo should become a space of encounter through common prayers, conferences, and initiatives that bring together the churches concerned—not to erase the uniqueness of each memory, but to build a shared ecclesial memory. A wound carried alone becomes heavier; a wound carried together becomes a shared testimony.
The Middle East Council of Churches can facilitate this encounter through documentation initiatives, academic forums, youth gatherings, and joint archival exhibitions. Most importantly, memory must move from being confined within a single community to becoming a source of openness toward other churches, transforming private grief into a shared commitment to protecting the Christian presence and human dignity in the East.
The role of the Middle East Council of Churches in this regard is not new. Since its establishment, and continuing through the work of its current Secretary General—who has engaged with these issues since his academic research years—the MECC has documented the presence and the massacres that affected our people in the northern Antiochian Levant and has placed this work at the service of ecumenical solidarity.
The memory of Sayfo is not disconnected from our contemporary reality. The logic that leads to genocide or massacre often begins with hate speech, the demonization of the other, and the denial of their humanity before eventually leading to violence, displacement, and exclusion. For this reason, remembering Sayfo should serve as a call to vigilance against all forms of hatred, extremism, and violence directed against religious or human communities.
The Council can connect this memory to its programs on human dignity, dialogue, social cohesion, and the fight against hate speech. Churches are not only guardians of memory; they are also witnesses for humanity and defenders of the right to life, freedom, and dignity. Thus, commemorating Sayfo becomes a commitment to protecting every person who is threatened today, regardless of identity or religious affiliation.
Furthermore, the Middle East Council of Churches can contribute to preserving the memory of Sayfo by launching a joint documentation initiative among the concerned churches. Such an effort would collect testimonies, documents, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, and historical studies. Memory that remains scattered among families, monasteries, or private archives is vulnerable to loss; memory preserved within an institutional framework becomes part of the shared ecclesial heritage.
The Council can also encourage cooperation among churches, universities, and research centers to move Sayfo beyond the realm of emotional remembrance into the sphere of scholarly research. It is essential that this work be carried out in a spirit of truth and dignity, free from political manipulation or ideological exploitation, for the victims deserve to have their story told faithfully and respectfully.
The cornerstone for such a task is already in place.
In conclusion, our first message to the people of the martyred northern Antiochian Levant is one of fidelity and solidarity. To the faithful of the Syriac, Assyrian, and Chaldean churches, as well as to the Greek Orthodox of Anatolia, we say: your pain is our pain, and your memory is part of the memory of all the churches of the Middle East. The blood of the victims, the tears of the displaced, and the resilience of the survivors, are not forgotten pages of history; they are a living testimony to a deeply rooted faith and an enduring human dignity.
We also affirm that preserving memory must lead us toward greater unity rather than deeper division; toward a stronger presence rather than surrender to the notion of disappearance; toward greater commitment to justice and peace rather than retreat into fear. Christians in the East are not remnants of history but partners in shaping the future. Sayfo, in all its pain, calls us to preserve the truth, honor the martyrs, and remain witnesses to human dignity and to life itself.