AN EXPLORATION of THEIR RELATIONSHIP and the RISE of ASSYRIAN NATIONALISM, from the WORLD WARS to 1980 Andrea Irene Laing-Marsha
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MODERN ASSYRIAN IDENTITY AND THE CHURCH OF THE EAST: AN EXPLORATION OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND THE RISE OF ASSYRIAN NATIONALISM, FROM THE WORLD WARS TO 1980 by Andrea Irene Laing-Marshall A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Theology of WycWe College and the Department of History of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fblfiient of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in TheoIogy awarded by the University of St. MichaeI's College. Toronto 20L O Andrea Irene Laing-Marshall National Library Biblioth4que nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services sewices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. me Wellington OtOlwaON KlAON4 OttawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'autew a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant B la National Libraty of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distrr'bute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic fonnats. la forme de microfiche/fih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique . The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrernent reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Modern Assyrian Identity and the Church of the East: An Exploration of Their Relationship and the Rise of Assyrian Nationalism, From the World Wars to 1980 Andrea Irene Laing-Marshall Master of Arcs, 200 1 Department of History, University of St. Michael's College, Toronto School of Theology At the be@nnin_eof the twentieth century, the boundaries of the modern Assyrian community were determined primarily by religious adherence, that is. affiliation with the Church of the East, sometimes called the "Nestorian" Church. But experiences and changes in orientation undergone by rhe Assyrians during the twentieth century -including encounters with other manifestations of nationalism the coming togethex of Assyrians across regional divides and of Syriac-speakers of all denominations, and the rise of an active Assyrian diaspora-- worked to promote a shift in Assyrian communal self- conception that emphasized the "ethnic" qualities of language and ancestry, rather than religious adherence. Nevertheless. the Church of the East continued to play an important role in the new secularized Assyrian identity, one that both made it a natural '"ally" of the nationalist movement and also a stumbling block to the realization of nationalistic goals. Table of Contents Introduction Cha~terOne Definitions Cha~terTwo A Brief History of the East Syrian Christians Through the Nineteenth Century Cha~terThree Movements of the Early Twentieth Century: Revolutions and World War I Chapter Four Between the Wars: The Mandate Period in Iraq and the Rise of "Nation-States" Cha~ter Five Re-settlement, Emigration, Diaspora Conclusion Introduction The elements at the root of human identities and the processes by which they combine and configure are complex and diverse. These elements may incfude particulars such as language, culture, perceived ethnicity or blood ancestry, religion, and common myths and historical memories. The constellations into which these elements are grouped by human collectives may incorporate some or aLl of them, each with a diffaent degree of emphasis, in comections that form a "wholeT*,thereby determining the parameters of a community's identity. Not only are the elements that comprise an identity varied, but the co~gurationswithin an identity may also change over time -including new elements, discarding others, or simply shifting the "hierarchy" of existing elements-, showing identities themselves to be variable fkom age to age, despite their appearance of rigidity or immutability. Moreover. with the rise of nationalism as an ideology and its dissemination as a low-level mass consciousness. many communaI identities have mutated in order to meet the requirements of a nationaI identity, though maintaining and usually being dependent upon established and recognized elements of pre-existing identities. In fact, national identities have capitalized upon their use of communaI b'touchstones"to promote their image as the 'he" articulations of communal identities and as having old, even ancient, pedigrees. This type of nationalistic transformation of previous self-understandings has occurred with counfless communities, including in the identity of the modem Assyrians, the people at the centre of this paper. The Assyrians are an indigenous community to the MiddIe East, whose homelands have been traditionally centred in the region of Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, now largely contained in the modem state of Iraq) and extended into present-day southeastern Turkey and western Iran. The Assyrian community was a Chris tian minority that received a patdeal of attention &om the Western powers during the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (and so were included in the Western records of that perid), but that then seemed to fade fiom view. The gradual "disappearance" of the Assyrian people was due to the changing interests of the Western powers in the Middle East, who initialIy used the existence of non-Muslim minorities as one of the justifications for their invoIvement in the activities of native governments, but who, after being awarded territories in the region as mandate 1 2 powers folIowing World War I, then sought stable and cohesive populations (an orientation that sidelined various minority questions)- As suck from the time prior to World War II to the present day, the community has been Iittle known in Western circles (scholar1y or popular), though this is now changing, as the Assyrians have established themselves across the globe, including in the West, and have begun to write their own histoties and to agitate more vocally fix cuIhiraI and political recognition, In the various accounts of the Assyrian peopIe, whether in the records of nineteenth-century foreign missionaries or in current Assyrian political arguments, there exists a strong propensity to categorize the Assyrians as a "nation". This categorization, however, has been symptomatic of the general popularization and dissemination of nationalistic thinking and the acceptance of the theories regarding the division of human communities into nations- As these modes of thinking were not always the lines along which populations ordered themselves, it is clear that the rise of the Assyrian "nation" has been the result of a process of change regarding Assyrian self-understanding, For, in the nineteenth century, though there existed articuIations of a more secuIarized and inclusive understanding of the Assyrian community among certain elites, the vast majority of Assyrians thought of their peupfe as a millet, a self-governing body defined by its particular religious and theological stance. As such, the Assyrian Church of the East, the population's primary leadership, played the role of "identity broker", as adherence to the church determined inclusion in the Assyrian community, But, over the course of the following decades, the situation of the Assyrians underwent many changes, such as exposure to European theories of nationalism and forms of education an increase in hostilities between them and their neighbours, and physical dislocation and dispersion. These experiences, combined with their own entrenched sense of communal particularism, promoted a sense of "nation-ness" among many Assyrians, which for some translated into calls for national political autonomy in their homelands. The rise of a more national (or "ethnic" based) sense of Assyrian identity, however, did not abandon the community's commitment to Christianity, nor to the Church of the East, as the church continued to be esteemed as a pillar representing Assyrian culture and vitality. NevertheIess, the difference in orientation and priorities between the secularly-conceived nationalistic movement and the church meant that the two became involved in an ambiguous relationship, 3 in which each offered some means of support to the other, but also challenges. Therefme, as the Assyrian self-conception developed over the twentieth century fiom a millet identity to one having its basis in secuIar and "ethnic" elements, the Church of the East, formerly the primary boundary of the community, came to hold a subordinated role in Assyrian identity, but one that remained very significant and visible, though probIematic fathe acceptance of the nationalistic movement among most Assyrians. It is this relationship between the identity of the Assyrian community and the Church of the East that will be explored in this paper. tracing it as the Assyrian identity developed from a millet conception to one capable of supporting a nationalistic movement, In an exploration of the development of a nationalistic Assyrian identity, the task has been made more complex by the confusion and difference of interpretation surrounding two key ideas: what constitutes a "nation" and who is designated by the term "Assyrian". Over the course of the history of discussion on nations and national theories, many diverse understandings of what &fines a nation have been proposed; sirniIarIy, the name "Assyrian" has been