WORLD COUNCIL Of ARAMEANS I S Y R I A C S ) KLOCKARVAGEN 104, 151 61 SODERT AL)E, SWEDEN NON-GOVERNMENT AL ORGANIZAT ION IN SP ECIAL CONSULT AT IVE ST AT US WIT H T HE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL OF T HE UNIT ED NAT IONS rel.ii4 1 2 1 rea.3 4 ).3 RECOGNIZE ARAME.AN PEOPLE AND CRIMES AGAINST THIS SEMITIC PEOPLE Wednesday, 26 November 2014 Geneva, United Nations 7'1 Session of the Minority I sues Forum. ' Shiomo ahay w-ahwotho myacire, My name is Shadi Khaloul, I am an Aramean Christian from Israel. I am a member of the Syriac Maronite Church, but the Aramean people also consist of the Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean, Nestorian' and Melkite churches. On behalf of the Aramean people, who are the natives of Southeast Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, our NGO comes once again to this distinguished forum to ask the United Nations and its Member States for recognition in three significant ways. 1. Recognition of violence and crimes of the last 100 years Allow me to remind the world of some chilling facts regarding the Aramean Christians: In Turkey, more than 500,000 were murdered and expelled since 1895. From Lebanon, more than 1,5 million were killed and expelled since 1860. In Iraq, more than 1 million were forced to leave since 2003.  In Syria, almost a million have escaped their homeland since 2011. All this happened largely at the hands of Turldsh, Kurdish and Arab armed forces. This resulted in the near total destruction of the Aramean people and its rich cultural heritage. 2. Recognition and action in relation to ongoing crimes