ISHTAR: DOCUMENTING THE CRISIS IN THE ASSYRIAN IRANIAN COMMUNITY By Eden Naby*

The dwindling of the ’s non-Muslim population is nowhere more clearly observable than among Assyrians, the last substantive speaking population of the world. With the establishment of ’s Islamic Revolution, the Assyrian population dropped within a decade from 100,000 to 20,000. This article examines the establishment and the demise of the periodical Ishtar, which illustrates the Assyrians’ attempt to accommodate themselves to the new Iran in the hope that a workable solution to living within an Islamist legal, political, and social framework was possible. Should Islamist Iran become a model for Iraq, what will be the fate of Iraq’s Assyrians?

The publication of the weekly Ishtar1 due to the obscurity of the minority press, (1981-1983) marks a critical attempt by the its limited circulation outside the circles of Assyrian community in Iran to find a means the ethnic group, and the inaccessibility of of living within the cultural and political the language of this press. In the case of the confines of the then newly established , the other ethnic Christian Islamic Republic (February 1979). community of Iran, knowledge is more Introduced during the tumultuous years of widespread than that of the indigenous radical change in the socio-cultural Assyrians. institutions of an Islamicizing Iran and The Assyrians, the last Aramaic during the onslaught of the Iraq-Iran War speakers in the world, are a transnational (1980-1989), the position of this Assyrian group with their largest Middle East publication mirrors the fate of other population located in Iraq. Evidence periodicals and cultural personages in Iran. pointing to the use of Aramaic in northwest Therefore, how Ishtar came to be Iran goes back to the pre-Achaemenid established, published, distributed, and then period.4 It is the second Semitic language terminated after 45 issues is instructive on of Iran after Arabic. Those who speak how the Islamic Revolution affected Iranian Assyrian live along the border with Iraq in culture in general, and minority cultures in northwest Iran. The Mandaeans of Iran and particular. Iraq originally spoke Aramaic as well, English language analysis of religious however, they have adapted to Arabic. Prior freedom in Iran during the 25 years of to its destruction in , the main Iranian theocracy has generally included Assyrian cultural base lay in northwest Iran little information about the Assyrians, one and around the towns of Urmiyah/Riza’iyeh of the quickly disappearing Christian ethnic and Salamas/Shapur.5 Like the publishers groups in the country.2 Rarely, however, is of Varliq (1979-1997),6 the voice of Azeri the minority language press analyzed for Turkish intellectuals, some Assyrians saw content. It is rather the main Iranian press— in the heady early months of the 1979 whether conservative or liberal—that the hope for a more provides the basis for most data.3 This is egalitarian cultural and political framework

92 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) Ishtar: Documenting the Crisis in the Assyrian Iranian Community for the country—one that would allow them to emigration. Families with female a cultural presence. Soon, however, with children in particular found themselves Saddam Hussein’s unilateral attack on under constant strain. Restrictions on dress Iran’s oil-rich Khuzistan province, Iranian and association, in place for Muslims, authority consolidated around an extremist extended further into the social fabric of the Shi’a core, and it was no longer safe to non-Muslim population. express dissent. Ishtar’s failure stemmed not from The Ishtar project was started by men internal Assyrian factors, but rather from (and some young women) from among two realities of media control in Iran at least those Assyrian families who had stayed in throughout the past century: the system’s Iran despite the terrible assault on their wide policy of licensing and censoring of community during the First World War. media, and the heavy-handed means of However, their efforts largely failed. By dealing with politically suspect groups in 1989, the very families that had the Iran of the 1980s. During the first spearheaded Ishtar had left Iran for Western decade of the Iranian Revolution, countries. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 particularly during the years when the ended up having as profound an effect on fundamentalists were eliminating all the Assyrian presence in Iran as did the opposition (first from the liberal democrats, killings of World War I. Once more Iran then from the left, and finally from its own lost a major portion of its Assyrian dissidents), the control of media became population—this time to rapid emigration. especially severe. During the period of Thus, while Iran’s general population terror following the revolution, not even the increased by about 150 percent between the voice of Ayatollah Khomeini could rein in 1956 and 1986 censuses, the Assyrian zealous extremism. population shrank from about 100,000 to The position of sanctioned religious 20,000, or by 80 percent. Had the Assyrian minorities (aqliyatha-ye rasmi) protected in population grown uninterrupted from 1914 the constitution came under attack. Ishtar to 1956 and at the rate of Iran’s general recorded many attempts throughout 1981- population, it should have reached some 1982 to protect the rights of the community 180,000 by the time of the first official by pointing to the constitution of the census (1956), and 450,000 by 1986.7 Yet Islamic Republic. Lead articles, as if at the start of the twenty-first century, it is anticipating the crackdown on minority no more than 15,000. rights and trying to ingratiate themselves to The Assyrian population of prevent the attack, intoned, “Today underwent such humiliating changes in law throughout Iran, different people, , and government behavior so as to test the Azerbaijanis, , Lur, Baluch, and determination of some of the most ardent smaller others live equally next to each members of this community to the breaking other. And cooperatively, in their Islamic point. During the 1980s, many more joined homeland, they stand against world their extended families and co-ethnics in hegemony led by America.”8 In fact, during Europe, Australia, the United States, and this period, the Kurds were in rebellion, Canada. The already weakened institutions Arabs in Khuzistan were agitating for a of church and secular organizations were greater share of the oil revenue to remain in still further weakened as a result of the loss their province, and the landless Turkoman of educated and dedicated men and women had become emboldened to take the

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) 93 Eden Naby properties of major landlords. On the Assyrian abandoned efforts to publish Tehran political front, the struggle of the works of poetry and textbooks due to the Mojahidin-e Khalq against the Iranian unpredictable and tedious bureaucratic Revolutionary Party (IRP) resulted in the process involved. Such harassment of bombing of the IRP headquarters, in which Assyrian institutions meant that literary some 100 party members were killed. works (poems and short stories) had to be Ishtar’s pages do not reflect the political translated from Assyrian neo-Aramaic into struggles within Iran. Persian and then taken to the censors. At The first crisis recorded in Ishtar was times the censors would only request that that of directive #62123 of Aban 20, 1360 part of the book be translated, but once that (October 13, 1981) from the Tehran part had been translated would decide they provincial office of education, which “sent wanted another part or even the entire book alarm throughout the Assyrian translated. The number of publications community.”9 The strict enforcement of decreased, and eventually very little was such directives from the Ministry of published. Publication was resumed in 1991 Education and Training—and especially following some leniencies in publication from the Ministry of Culture and Religious conditions after Khomeini’s death in 1989. Guidance—led to eventual disintegration of However, by then, most Assyrian Assyrian schools. Assyrian schools were publications appeared in Persian. Though forced to accept Muslim principals to Aramaic was still the dominant spoken conform to the law forbidding non-Muslims language in the Assyrian community, to serve as head administrators of any Persian had become the more widely read organization. Clearly this decision affected language. Persian was also used to avoid other minorities as well, including the Jews, problems with censors. Zoroastrians, and Armenians. Moreover, After the collapse of the strong Assyrian Assyrian schoolgirls were obligated to wear periodical press following the destruction of the hijab (veil) in accordance with Muslim the Assyrians in northwest Iran in 1918, Shari’a law. The schools were also forced only one Assyrian periodical had been to introduce Koranic instruction into the published in the country. The periodical curriculum, as they accepted Muslim was bilingual, published in both Persian and students. The hardest blow, however, was Assyrian neo-Aramaic. In part, this the ban on the teaching of Assyrian neo- reflected diminished literacy among the Aramaic in the public schools run by the Assyrian community in their mother community; such instruction thus became tongue. Censorship during the Islamic confined to churches and clubs.10 Even period in particular had added on many appeals to the constitution and to the extra hours of work in translating the principle of the equal treatment of materials into Persian—time the volunteer minorities could not withstand such activists could ill afford. Though the determination to control education. materials were translated into Persian, other Assyrians were recruited by the government WHO STOOD BEHIND ISHTAR? to examine the original text in Aramaic—as the censors themselves were unable to read The licensing process for periodicals and Aramaic—to check for any objectionable the publication of books in Iran was fraught content. Understandably, Assyrian writers with obstacles. Many a less persistent and editors assiduously avoided content that

94 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) Ishtar: Documenting the Crisis in the Assyrian Iranian Community would provoke the censors’ ire (i.e., love, Iranian delegation to the 68th Inter- wine, Assyrian national sentiment, or parliamentary Union Conference in anything concerning foreign countries). In Havana, Cuba.13 As the Assyrian Majlis order to avoid treason charges (such as representative, he traveled often to Urmiyah those that led to the dismissal and flight of and its villages. He wrote many of the men like President Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr political articles in Persian that appeared in (1980-1981)), Ishtar printed anti-American Ishtar, and his image appears on many of material in its headlines and included its pages. In his writings, he sometimes pictures of leading Islamic religious approved certain questionable government politicians in the paper. actions. One such example is the Dr. Sargon Bet Oshana (1927-1988), imprisonment and eventual execution of elected as the Assyrian (and Chaldean) Sadegh Qotbzadeh (1936-1982), a representative to the first legislature Khomeini aid and former foreign minister (Majlis) under the Islamic Republic, was who had been tried for his involvement in a responsible for obtaining Ishtar’s plot that resulted in the sidelining of the publication license. Though Assyrians were leading liberal cleric Ayatollah guaranteed representation in the monarchial Shariatmadari. Dr. Bet Oshana maintained a period constitution and were allowed the trust in Iran’s Islamic constitution as a same right under the Islamic constitution, means of protecting Assyrians, which, in they had only begun to exercise this right light of the repression between 1981 and since the 1958 elections. Bet Oshana 1983, appear rather desperate. He saw to it became the fourth Assyrian to hold that that pictures of Khomeini, Khamene’i, and office. Rafsanjani—all prominently turbaned Oshana was a medical doctor who came icons—appeared in the Persian section of from a respected and accomplished family. the newspaper. Yet the articles His elder brother, General Philip Bet accompanying the pictures did not display Oshana (1921-1976), was the highest the same fawning and ingratiating attitude. ranking Assyrian in the Iranian military at Indeed, throughout the first several issues, the time of his service. The family came the words “Islamic Republic” were rarely from Goegtapa. Goetapa was a small town used. The term “Revolutionary Republic” that lay to the southeast of Urmiyah and appeared instead. In February 1983, in the historically had been one of the most general round-up of Communists (Tudeh)— important Assyrian cultural centers in the which followed the crushing of the Urmiyah region. It had been the locale of Mojahidin-e Khalq—Dr. Bet Oshana too good Assyrian schools before World War was arrested.14 I.11 These Christian schools (1835) Assyrian leadership in Tehran was preceded the establishment of the Alliance concerned that it had lost its only legislative Israelite Universal schools (1898), which, representative. A delegation consisting of a like the Christian missionary schools, bishop, several priests and pastors, and the initially served only Iranian Jews but Editor in Chief of Ishtar Rabi Issa quickly saw the benefit of admitting Benyamin, met with Speaker of the Majlis Muslims and Christians as well.12 Hashem Rafsanjani to discuss the matter. Dr. Bet Oshana had been politically According to Rabi Issa, Rafsanjani had the active as well. His profile was high enough Assyrian delegation led into a room with a to have been included in the 1981 15-man tape recorder on the table. When the

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) 95 Eden Naby machine was turned on, they heard Dr. Bet 1843,17 an Assyrian by the name of Mirza Oshana’s voice repeating the confession Aurahim, son of Qasha (Reverend) Odisho extracted from him that he had been a of Golpashan, had brought a lithograph member of the Tudeh Party. machine to Urmiyah around 1900.18 Eventually Oshana was released, but The Assyrian articles in Ishtar carried was forced to leave Tehran for the eastern less political content than those in Persian provinces. He never completed his term of and concentrated more on Assyrian matters. office. For over a year, the Assyrians of These included obituaries of those lost in Iran were unrepresented in the Majlis. In the Iran-Iraq War, the passing of 1984, Atur Khnanisho was elected and community stalwarts, and cultural news. served two consecutive four-year terms Rabi Issa’s strong political views—if they (1984-1992).15 Following Dr. Oshana’s could be labeled leftist—grew not out of arrest, only two more issues of Ishtar were ideology, but rather like most Assyrians and published. Publication ceased as the minorities, out of the belief that a socialist periodical had lost its license and the man system, exemplified by the Soviet Union, who might have fought for its renewal. promised more reliable protection of Rabi Issa Benyamin (“Rabi” meaning minority rights. In many respects, the teacher) was editor of the Assyrian section existence of an Assyrian diaspora of Ishtar and the main force behind the community in Soviet Armenia and Georgia publication. Rabi Issa, whose family was for nearly 200 years (with language, from Salamas (north of Urmiyah), has history, and folkloric content) gave many become best known for his imaginative Assyrians in Iran faith in the Soviet calligraphy and his creation of several new nationality policy.19 and artistic fonts for the Aramaic alphabet. In 1948, Rabi Issa published a The Ishtar articles he wrote used the handwritten and lithographed issue of vernacular Assyrian neo-Aramaic, the main Surgada Umtanaya (Patriotic Calendar). written language of the Assyrians of Iran He was thus the first person to succeed in (as opposed to classical Syriac, the extinct reviving Assyrian publishing since the First spoken language of church liturgy).16 World War. He enjoyed the trust of many in Many of Rabi Issa’s calligraphic the community. A group of young Assyrian creations appeared in Ishtar. All Aramaic university students (including his own son headlines were written by Issa, as at the Ramsin) helped with the paper. They time there was no printing capacity to contributed columns, for example to the produce bold-faced and enlarged headings. sports section (in Persian). They also visited Eventually his daughter, Ramica, learned to the five Assyrian churches of Tehran every type the articles on a manual Olivetti Sunday to sell the paper for 25 rials per typewriter, one of a dozen or more that had issue (then $40). been specially ordered from the Italian Ishtar was the product of volunteer manufacturer by the Assyrian American labor. The volunteers all had other National Federation. This was not the first vocational responsibilities. Rabi Issa, for time that an Assyrian writing product had example, worked as the director of Human made its way to Iran from the West. In Resources at the Iranian Ministry of addition to the modified eastern Aramaic Environment. In fact, throughout the long fonts produced by the American history of Assyrian publication in Iran, missionaries and used in Urmiyah since Assyrian publications have been run by

96 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) Ishtar: Documenting the Crisis in the Assyrian Iranian Community both men and women whose main claim relative independence from profession was not in media. The Assyrian missionary denominational interest was press has thus been a labor of devotion, not Kokhva (1906-1918).21 financial gain. In 1918, the Assyrian cultural Ishtar’s annual subscription rate of renaissance in Iran was put to an end. By 1,000 rials brought little revenue and the that summer, the Christians in Iran situated project only broke even. It also received closest to the still ill-defined Turkish border donations from other parts of Iran as well as fled from the Kurdish and Ottoman forces. from Tehran. The publication did not cease and its Christians were little affected for financial reasons or due to lack of by this turmoil, as the Armenians in Tabriz volunteer labor, but rather as the result of were protected by the local Muslim political repression. population. Having lost two-thirds of their population as well as most of their LANGUAGE AND THE ASSYRIAN intellectuals and clergy, the Assyrians who PERIODICAL PRESS IN IRAN managed to stay in Iran never recovered their cultural strength. Prior to World War I and the destruction The political instability of the 1940s in of Iran’s Assyrian community, all Assyrian Iran allowed little space for the minority periodicals appeared in Assyrian neo- language press. During the Mossadegh Aramaic. Moreover, Assyrian periodicals— period (prime minister of Iran from 1951- with the rare exception of the Tiflis-based 1953), there were a few failed attempts to Kokhva d Madinkha (Star of the East) of the revive the periodical press, with the literary early Soviet-era—have only published monthly Gilgamesh (1952-1959) the first to Assyrian neo-Aramaic in the Aramaic succeed.22 This publication accomplished alphabet. When the Assyrian press was the important task of preserving Aramaic finally revived in Iran during the years poetry written by those who had managed following World War II, most newspapers to acquire a solid Aramaic education— became bilingual, appearing both in despite the closing of many Assyrian Assyrian and in Persian. language schools with Reza Shah’s Long before the publication of Ishtar, introduction of universal, strictly Persian, the Assyrians of Iran had attempted several language education. Kerkha Yerkhana times to resuscitate their periodical press. In (Monthly Paper, 1962-1969), Ator (1968- Urmiyah in 1849, under the supervision of 1979), and Shvila (1977-1979) were the American missionaries, the monthly other titles that emerged. There exists no Zahrira d-Bahra (Rays of Light, 1849- record of any other Assyrian periodicals in 1918) was established and became the first Iran. All of these periodicals were periodical published in Iran in any published in Tehran, though all of the language.20 By 1914, with the start of editors, publishers, and writers had come Kurdish raids into Assyrian villages in the from northwest Iran. On the eve of the Urmiyah- area (just prior to and in Islamic Revolution, two Assyrian conjunction with Ottoman entry into World periodicals were circulating in Tehran. The War I), there were already four Assyrian first was Ator and the second was Shvila. periodicals based in Urmiyah. This was However, the chaos of the revolution more than in any other language in the area. brought an end to these and at least a hiatus However, the only publication that could

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4 (December 2006) 97 Eden Naby to many far more firmly based Iranian however, even after the acquisition of a newspapers and magazines. printing press from India in 1948, the The 1960s and 1970s also saw a revival number of Assyrian language books of and society in Teheran. (including poetry, history, and essays) This included the institution of clubs, a declined due to lack of readership. Thus the school (Shoshan/Susan), theater groups, history of the community, when preserved, musical performances, and the publication turned increasingly to materials written in of books and periodicals. In addition the Persian or translated into Persian, by instrumental Assyrian Youth Educational intellectuals whose knowledge of Persian Committee of Tehran (Sita Sapreta Atureta literature and culture had begun to exceed d-Tehran) was formed along with other that of their own culture. It is true that groups, such as the Graduate Assyrian during the 1950s increased interest in Association of Tehran, which initiated and ancient Assyrian literature led to ran cultural affairs in a distinctly secular but adaptations of this material into the strongly ethnic direction. The Tehran-based vernacular. Adday Alkhas (1897-1959), for periodicals circulated in other towns as well example, put Gilgamesh into vernacular including Abadan (where a large and Assyrian. William Daniel (1903-1988) also wealthy Assyrian community worked in introduced a modern epic, The Great petroleum related professions) Urmiyah, Kateena, in vernacular verse. Yet the latter Kermanshah, and Tabriz. Assyrian neo- was made available on audiotape to Aramaic, which had been developed and accommodate reduced Aramaic literacy strengthened in Urmiyah, had become the among the potential audience. standard language of intellectual activity. The second factor that reduced This was true despite the fact that Persian opportunity for the propagation of Assyrian was becoming more and more popular neo-Aramaic was the emptying out of among the youth after the institution of Assyrian villages, the main venue for universal education since language preservation and teaching. The 1934. emptying of the villages together with rapid An important factor working against the urbanization of an educated and retention of Assyrian neo-Aramaic was the educationally appreciative population, led difficulty in maintaining language schools. to the breakdown of compact population The Iranian government saw no centers. Constant insecurity for Christians, responsibility toward minority languages. It especially from Kurdish marauders, drove only allowed private instruction in select many people to the city of Urmiyah. languages that formed the basis of separate Families then moved to Tehran, and officially tolerated religions (Assyrians, although they made attempts to live near Armenians, Jews, and Zoroastrians). Since each other or close to their churches, all the government did not provide any neighborhoods contained a majority of financial support for language study, the Persian speakers. Children who grew up chief burden fell on each community. The speaking their mother tongue at home communities ran part-time schools at gained greater proficiency and vocabulary churches or clubs. Had there been any in Persian once in school. They mixed in encouragement of Aramaic at any period at Persian words when speaking Assyrian, the university level, perhaps the language especially for technical terms that did not might have progressed. Year after year, exist in Assyrian (i.e. radio, television, etc.).

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The Assyrian Youth Educational worldwide have been the work of one man, Committee of Tehran made a strong effort sometimes together with a group of to create such new vocabulary as technical friends.23 Once the individual passes away advancement required, but with limited or ceases publishing due to emigration, the effect. periodical frequently comes to an end as Such factors led to the adoption of well. Such was the case with Naoum Faik’s bilingual periodicals after World War II. widely read Beth Nahrain (The Assyrian With the exception of the literary magazine Paper) (1916-1930), which ended with his Gilgamesh, all others contained both death. Assyrian and Persian sections. Ator, edited This phenomenon of the fate of by Dr. Wilson Bet Mansour, also included newspapers and magazines being tied to the an English section after the collapse of fate of their editors and publishers is not Urmiyah’s Assyrian base and the growth of confined to the Assyrians and has also been a large Assyrian diaspora in Europe and the seen in other institutionally weak United States. Ator slowly began to environments (i.e., pre-Soviet Central Asia, circulate internationally and, as the Iran, and Afghanistan). Indeed, as with any Assyrians of Iran created an international periodical press, the publisher and/or Assyrian organization in 1968 (the Assyrian editor’s political point of view can also Universal Alliance), Ator acted in part as serve as a catalyst for a political party or the voice of that international organization. inclination. In more politically and economically mature environments, the THE SHORT PUBLICATION LIFE OF equation between a political party and a THE ASSYRIAN PRESS periodical is less direct and more flexible. The explanation for short-lived The longest continuously published periodicals, however, does not lie simply in Assyrian periodical continues to be Zahrira weak institutions. In Iran it is also tied to d-Bahra (Sixty-Nine Years), a monthly the legal framework underlying the entire backed by the American missionary effort picture of the press as well as the financial based in Urmiyah. The secular Assyrian underpinnings of periodical publication. Star (1952 to present), the second longest Since there is no financial gain in the continuous publication, serves as the publication of many minority newspapers, official publication of the Assyrian there is that much less incentive to continue American National Federation. In both publication in the absence of personal cases, the periodicals outlasted the lifetimes devotion, especially in light of legal of their original editors and publishers. The hurdles. other serial publications that have been The case of Ishtar is instructive, published continuously and under different especially because much information is editors are the church publications. available about its legal and financial Institutional support, therefore, is critical framework, its rise, production, and fall. Dr. for passing a publication on to succeeding Sargon Bet Oshana, Ishtar’s publisher and editorial staff. Yet, among Middle East one of the two men critical to its success, minorities in general, religious institutions has passed away. The other man critical to are the only ones that enjoy the legal the publication’s success, editor Rabi Issa protections necessary for continuity. With Benyamin is still available for interviews. few exceptions, other Assyrian periodicals He has participated in almost every effort of

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Assyrian Iranians to advance culturally Christians in general and Assyrians in since World War II. Benyamin has also particular have come under heavy attack in generously handed over his complete set of Iraq since 2004. While some of the the periodical (presented to him when he barbarity, such as kidnappings for ransom, left Iran) to the Harvard College Library for is criminally motivated, the attacks on preservation. churches and priests as well as the beheadings and crucifixions are the result of CONCLUSIONS rabid Islamist zeal. With Iranian inspired Shi’as rising to power in Basra and Ishtar’s publication history allows for a Baghdad, Assyrians are increasingly being summary examination of Assyrian hopes forced into patterns similar to Iran (i.e., the that Iran would emerge from the 1979 forced practice of hijab, restrictions on revolution to grant minorities cultural rights employment, and intimidation of that might even be supported by the state, immigration). If Iraq witnesses the same as was the case in the former Soviet Union. rate of decrease that has occurred among Assyrians in the USSR survived despite the Assyrian population in Iran, then the purges and restrictions, because they were a fate of is sealed. The recognized Soviet nationality. However, as largest and most compact Assyrian the grip of the Shi’a establishment grew population of the Middle East—the last more oppressive, religious minorities began speakers of the oldest continuously written to lose even the communal cultural rights and spoken language of the region—may be that they had enjoyed under the Pahlavi no more. Regime. The ascendance of the Islamic Revolution has proven near fatal to the *Dr. Eden Naby is an independent scholar Assyrians, who—unlike Armenians and who specializes in religious and ethnic Jews—have never benefited from a level of minorities of the Middle East from East outside support and recognition that would Turkestan to the Mediterranean. An draw attention to the problems they face in Assyrian by Iranian birth, she is co-author Muslim-dominant states. (with Michael E. Hopper) of The Assyrian The situation of the Assyrians in Iran Experience (Cambridge: Harvard College during the early 1980s has an eerie Library, 1999). She also co-authored (with resemblance with that of the Assyrians in Ralph Magnus) Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx Iraq since 2003. Opposed to Saddam and Mujahid (Westview Press, reprint, Hussein’s Ba’athist regime, yet also 2002), in addition to some two dozen allowed to conduct their religiously based articles. She is currently writing a general institutions in an apolitical manner, book about the modern Assyrians.

NOTES (Winona Lake, 1 The word ishtar comes from the name of Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2002). an ancient Assyro-Babylonian goddess of 2 Eliz Sanasarian, Religious Minorities in light, fertility, and rebirth. See especially Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Riches Hidden in Secret Places: Ancient Press, 2000). Near Eastern Studies in Memory of 3 Ali Granmayer, “Minorities and Press in Thorkild Jacobsen / edited by Tzvi Abusch Post-Revolutionary Iran,” in Tudor Parfitt

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and Yulia Egorova (eds.), Jews, Muslims 8 Ishtar, No. 1, 1 Tishrin II (October 3, and Mass Media: Mediating the 'Other' 1981), p. 2. (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 55- 9 This directive affected the several 67. minority language schools run by 4 For a discussion of this newspaper as the Assyrians, Jews, and Armenians and community became a victim of Stalinist signaled the end of their independently-run purges, see Eden Naby, “Les Assyriens community existence by regulating d'Union sovietique,” Cahiers du Monde personnel and introducing Muslim russe et sovietique, Vol. 16, No. 3-4 principals; Ishtar, No. 3, 29 Tishrin II (Oct (1975).. For a summary of the Assyrian 31, 1981), p. 1. periodical press world wide, see Gabriele 10 For details on the comparative Yonan, Journalismus bei den Assyrern: ein repercussions of such action in the minority Überblick von seinen Anfängen bis zur communities, see Sanasarian, Religious Gegenwart (Augsburg: Zentralverband der Minorities in Iran, pp. 76-84. Sanasarian’s Assyrischen Vereinigungen in Deutschland greater familiarity with Armenian Iranians und Mitteleuropa, 1985). and her consultation of Armenian written 5 Eden Naby, “World War I and the sources allows her to understand the Displacement of Iranian Assyrians in Armenian situation in greater detail than Azerbaijan” (forthcoming). that of other minorities. 6 Varliq, published in Tehran by a group 11 One of the worst massacres of WWI took calling itself Afkari-e Goruh-e place in Goegtapa. By the late 1940s, Farhang/Adabi Anjuman- e Azarbaijan Goegtapa already had a substantial Shi’a (The Ideas of the Group of Culture and and Sunni population with only a few Literature Committee of Azarbaijan), was a Christian households remaining. Following monthly established directly after the fall of the Islamic Revolution, the town’s Christian the monarchy. It then became a quarterly population was lost. For demographic and was published irregularly until at least information in the late 1940s, see Farhang- 1997. It soon became a “one man show,” e joghrafiyai-ye iran, Vol. 4 (1330/1951- and it is not clear whether its publication 1952) p. 470. continues. Like other Assyrian periodicals, 12 For a discussion of the impetus and result it was not published from Tabriz, the Azeri of the establishment of these schools for the cultural base in Iran, but rather from Jews of Iran, see Faryar Nikbakht, “As with Tehran. Like many of the Assyrian Moses in Egypt: Alliance Israelite periodicals, it was bilingual, written both in Universelle Schools in Iran,” in Houman Azeri Turkic and in Persian. Sarshar (ed.), Esther’s Children: A Portrait 7 Dominique Carnoy, “Chrétientés de la of Iranian Jews (Beverly Hills, CA: Center République islamique,” Les cahiers de for Iranian Jewish Oral History, 2002), pp. l’Orient, No. 48 (1997), pp. 85-91. 200-12. Estimates of Iran’s population prior to the 13 The author is grateful to Houchang 1956 census are available at the Utrecht Chahabi for identifying this reference; University Library’s Iran website, Preliminary documents: agenda, draft http://www.library.uu.nl/wesp/populstat/Asi resolutions, and reports of the Inter- a/iranc.htm. Parliamentary Union's 68th Conference,

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Havana, Cuba (Geneva: Secretariat of the 22 In 1946, the first “periodic” circulation of Union, September 1981). an Assyrian publication since 1918 14 In the Assyrian communities throughout appeared in Tehran. It was a calendar and the Middle East—especially in Iran and almanac called Surgada Umtanaya. See Iraq—the attraction of the Soviet Union lay Yonan, Journalismus bei den Assyrern, p. in the promise of minority rights as 61, who suggests a later date (1954) for the represented by Soviet nationality policy. commencement of this effort. Within the Soviet Union, Assyrians— although scattered from Leningrad/St. Petersburg to Samarkand—enjoyed recognition as one of the 100 nationality languages. 15 For a summary of Assyrian representation in the Majlis, see Homer Ashurian, “Iraniyan-e Ashuri: Mardomi ke bayad as now shenakht,” Javanan, No. 901 (2004), p. 58-59. 16 http://www.calligram.com/New/new.html. 17 Rudolf Macuch, Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1976), p. 123. 18 Private communication from Mirza Aurahim’s grand-nephew, March, 26, 2005. 19 For a discussion on Assyrians in the former Soviet Union, see Naby, “Les Assyriens d'Union sovietique.” 20 Browne affirms this statement but makes other mistakes, as discussed in Naby, “World War I and the Displacement of Iranian Assyrians in Azarbaijan.” Jan Rypka describes both the early periodical press and confirms 1851 as the date of the establishment of the Persian language periodical press, two years after the Assyrian publication History of Iranian Literature. (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1968), p. 338. 21 For a discussion of this period and the Assyrian press, see Naby “The Assyrians of Iran: Reunification of a ‘Millat,’ 1906- 1914,” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 8 (1977), pp. 237-49.

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