The Syrian Armenians commemorate this year the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest, systematic massacres committed by the Ottoman Empire against Armenian Syriacs in the 20th century. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East in Damascus held a memorial prayer presided by Patriarch of Antioch His Holiness Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, with the participation of numerous heads and representatives of Christian denominations in Damascus as well as a number of Syrian state officials. Meanwhile, Patriarch Aphrem II signed the longest petition ever written demanding the recognition of the Armenian massacres. The petition is expected to get from 133,000 to 333,000 signatures, seeking to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. During the period between 1892 and 1894, the Armenians suffered a series of massacres instigated by the reigning Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in which between 80,000 and 300,000 lost their lives. With the outbreak of World War I, the Ottomans devised a plan to eliminate the Armenians from their territory. This was followed by the forced evacuation of thousands of Armenians from their homeland to a desert area known today as Syria. It is estimated that between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives during this period.
