Genocide Awareness is an important mandate in the ACSSU agenda. Our Assyrian community has only set-up an awareness day for the Simele Massacres of 1933. The martyrs of this Genocide are commemorated on August 7th every year, but we do not have a date set aside for the 1915 Genocide that included the Assyrians (Also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs), Armenians, and Pontic Greeks. ACSSU at McMaster decided to change this and raise awareness of that Genocide, and many others, including the on-going persecution of our indigenous people in the homelands. We called this the Forgotten Genocide.

Starting on the 19th of March, ACSSU created an Awareness banner that dropped from the balconies of the student centre, over-looking the food court. The banner read 'Assyrian Genocide Awareness Day' and included information such as the date of our event, and the URL of the official Assyrian Genocide research organization, the Seyfo Center. The banner was up for the week, which included the day of our event. On that day, many students, professors, and workers came up to our table and asked us what we were doing. Some individuals had never even heard of the word Genocide, and did not know that the 1915 Seyfo massacres, translated to Sword in English, were committed against Assyrians as well. It is mostly known as the Armenian Genocide. ACSSU educated a lot of people that day, including us. We handed out pamphlets that included a Genocide timeline, and made our new Genocide books, entitled 'The Assyrian Genocide: Seyfo: When, Where, How.' available for purchase. These Genocide Books, written by Dr. David Gaunt and published by the Seyfo Center in Sweden, were given to us this year after ACSSU donated $1000.00 CDN to help get them published. If you would like to purchase a book, please e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or come out to any of our events throughout the year.

Hard work and dedication led to us learning more about the plight of the Assyrians, and reminded us why we are a part of ACSSU in the first place. ACSSU at McMaster will always continue to spread awareness of this cause, and make Genocide Awareness an on-going event here at McMaster.

Sherly Kyorkis

ACSSU McMaster Branch, President