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Reforging a Forgotten History

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Reforging a Forgotten History reforging forgotten history ‘Sargon Donabed provides a comprehensive overview of the modern Assyrian story, merging emic and etic perspectives of their struggle to attain sovereignty over the past century and beyond. His work offers both an informative source for Assyrian ethnic history and an alternative reading for Mesopotamian regional history as a whole.’ Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington The Scottish ‘In telling the story of modern Assyrian responses to a history of displacement and exclusion, Sargon Donabed helps us understand them as actors in their own right. He thereby rewrites Iraqi history from the perspective of the marginalized.’ Paul S. Rowe, Trinity Western University Who are the Assyrians and what role did they play in shaping Diaspora modern Iraq? Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in its history? Furthermore, how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq’s state-building processes? This book details a narrative of Iraq in the 20th century and refashions the Assyrian experience as an integral part of Iraq’s broader contemporary historiography. It is the rst comprehensive account to contextualise a native Hinson Bueltmann, Andrew Tanja experience alongside the emerging state. Using primary and secondary data, this book offers a nuanced exploration of the dynamics that have affected and determined the trajectory of the Assyrians’ experience in 20th-century Iraq. and Graeme Morton Graeme Sargon george donabed Key Features • Includes oral history and ethnographic research on the Assyrians • Presents comprehensive and in-depth data pertaining to Iraqi Assyrian villages as well as ancient churches, monasteries, schools and other material culture edi ces • Utilizes Assyrian-Aramaic/Syriac as well as Arabic primary sources to illuminate and corroborate the Assyrian narrative of Iraqi history Sargon George Donabed is Assistant Professor of History at the Department of History and American Studies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. ISBN 978-0-7486-4349-3 ISBN 978-0-7486-8602-5 9780748 686025 Cover image: © Javarman/Shutterstock 9 780748 643493 Cover design: Kit Foster Reforging a Forgotten History Reforging a Forgotten History Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century Sargon George Donabed © Sargon George Donabed, 2015 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ www.euppublishing.com Typeset in 11/15 Adobe Garamond by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 8602 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 8603 2 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 0 7486 8605 6 (epub) The right of Sargon George Donabed to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Published with the support of the Edinburgh University Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund. Contents List of Figures viii List of Tables x Abbreviations xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 The Assyrians 3 A New Approach to Meaning 12 Moving Forward with Purpose 15 Chapter Analysis 19 Notes 21 1 Integrating the Assyrian Question 27 A Historiography of Historiography and a Theoretical Framework 30 Key Sources: Mapping Iraqi Assyrians and Sectarianisation 42 Notes 49 2 Framing the Assyrian Narrative: Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century 54 Assyrian Demography: Between Deteriorating Empires and Colonial Expansion 54 Modern Roots of Interreligious Animosity 55 The First World War 61 From Versailles 1919 to Lausanne 1923 68 The Period of the Iraqi Levies and the Assyrian Settlement 71 vi | reforging a forgotten history General Settlement Plans 76 Notes 81 3 Iraq: Building a ‘Nation’-State 93 The Patriarch and Temporal Authority 94 The Massacre at Simele 109 International Recognition? 123 Road to the Republic 124 Notes 128 4 The Birth of the Republic and an Autonomist Struggle 138 The 1958 Coup and Renewed Internal Strife 139 The .oriyaS Massacre of 1969 154 Demographic Situation 155 Notes 163 5 Enduring Discord: Political Machinations and Border Clearings 169 A Resumption of Violence 174 The Border Clearings of 1977–8 178 Notes 188 6 New Movements and War on the Horizon 191 The Iran–Iraq War 191 The Calm before the Storm 192 Renewed International Interest in Iraq: the Anfal Campaign 199 Notes 214 7 State Formation, State-building and Contentious Pluralism 221 Situating the Assyrian Experience 223 Agency, Failed Strategies and Transdenominationalism 225 Simele Revisited 228 Development and Consequences of Urbanisation and Arabisation 239 State-sponsored Acculturation 244 Notes 253 8 Conclusion 263 Notes 268 Glossary 269 contents | vii Appendix A: Village Data 271 Description of Villages Affected in the 1960s by Region 271 Description of Villages Affected in the 1970s by Region 291 Description of Villages Affected in the 1980s by Region 310 Notes 347 Appendix B: Documents Concerning Cultural and Political Organisations 370 Bibliography 377 Index 404 Figures 1 Map of Iraq xvi 2 Map given to the Paris Peace Conference 1919 by the Assyrian delegation 4 3 Chart representing the granting of agency 16 4 Chart illustrating various perspectives or identifiers that create lenses through which experience is filtered 17 5 Diagram demonstrating the interdependency and interconnectivity of narratives 18 6 Letter from three Barwari Bala chiefs 41 7 The original legend to Father Josephe Omez’s map 43 8 General Petros Elia’s map of Assyrian territory 66 9 Batarshah, approximately 15 miles northwest of Simele 119 10 Dakhan or Dikan village following desertion of at least five families 120 11 Unnamed Assyrian village destroyed in 1933 121 12 Assyrian Sports Club, Christmas/New Year 1967–8 (Men) 139 13 Assyrian Sports Club, Christmas/New Year 1967–8 (Women) 140 14 Shrine to Ethniel Shleimon of Dūre 149 15 A portion of the 1965 Iraqi census 152 16 A cover of Mordinna Atouraya from 1973 174 17 ADM militia near Mar Mattai in 1987 195 18 ADM militia in the ruins of an Assyrian village in Barwar during the 1980s 196 19 Key to Omez’s map translated into English 272 20 Omez’s map showing northwestern Iraq 273 figures | ix 21 Omez’s map showing the Barwari Bala, Sapna/Sarsang, Nerwa/ Rekan and ‘Aqra/Nahla subdistricts 274 22 Omez’s map showing the Mosul region 275 23 Ruins of Mar Qayyoma 296 24 Mar Gewargis, Dūre, prior to destruction on 8 August 1978 297 25 The last vestiges of Mar Gewargis following the border clearings of 1978 297 26 Ruins of houses in Dūre, 1978 298 27 Mar ‘Abdyešu‘ monastery in Dere, 1991 319 28 Ruins of Hayyis, Barwar, destroyed in 1988 323 29 ADM figures among the ruins of a village in Nerwa 326 30 Ruins of Mar Gewargis, Hizane 332 31 Ruins of Kashkawa, 1987 333 32 Ruins of Mar Gewargis church, Bakhitme 339 33 Ruins of Bakhitme 340 34 Ruins of Bakhitme 341 35 Ruins of Sheze, circa 1987 343 36 Ruins of Levo following the Anfal operations, 1988 345 37 Security major, Sulaymaniyah district security manager to all administrative departments, ‘Assyrian National Front’, September 1984, p. 1 370 38 Security major, Sulaymaniyah district security manager to all administrative departments, ‘Assyrian National Front’, September 1984, p. 2 371 39 Translation of ‘Assyrian National Front’ 372 40 Security major, Sulaymaniyah Security Directorate to all security divisions, ‘Assyrian Democratic Movement’, 14 October 1984 374 41 Translation of ‘Assyrian Democratic Movement’ 375 42 Document concerning the ill treatment of an individual Assyrian 376 Tables 1 Assyrian population statistics in Van and Hakkâri 59 2 Statistics of ‘Ashiret (independent) Nestorians in 1869 60 3 Statistics of Rayat (subject) Nestorians in 1869 60 4 Assyrian population figures of the Middle East presented to the Paris Peace Conference 1919 69 5 Pro- and anti-patriarchal tribal factions 103 6 Villages destroyed, razed, looted, and/or forcibly abandoned during the Simele massacres 112 7 Assyrian settlement along the Khabur, 31 August 1938 125 8 List of people killed in the S.oriya massacre on 16 September 1969 156 9 Assyrian village summary, 1960s 158 10 Assyrian village summary, 1970s 180 11 Assyrian village summary, 1980s 203 12 Instances of internal violence against Iraqis by state, political party or military, 1933–91 223 Abbreviations AAS Assyrian Academic Society ADM Assyrian Democratic Movement ADO Assyrian Democratic Organization AI Amnesty International AIDP Association internationale de droit pénal AIJ International Alliance for Justice AIR Air Ministry Files, Public Record Office, London AUA Assyrian Universal Alliance CO Colonial Office Files, Public Record Office, London FIDH International Federation for Human Rights FO Foreign Office Files, Public Record Office, London HRW Human Rights Watch ICP Iraqi Communist Party IMF Iraq Memory Foundation IPC Iraqi Petroleum Company KDP Kurdistan Democratic Party MARA Modern Assyrian Research Archive NARA National Archives and Records Administration (USA) NCRD Nineveh Center for Research and Development PUK Patriotic Union of Kurdistan RAF Royal Air Force TNA The National Archives (UK) UAR United Arab Republic UNGC United Nations Genocide Convention XXH Kheit Kheit Allap I & II Acknowledgements am indebted to a variety of people for their support and kindness. Firstly, I without the diligence and guidance from the team at EUP – Nicola Ramsey, Ellie Bush, Eddie Clark, Rebecca Mackenzie and especially my copy editor, Jonathan Wadman – I don’t know how this work could have found its cul- mination. Cheers to you all. A special thanks to those who passed on personal experiences – specifically Elias Haroon, who was kind enough to allow me to articulate his story. Elias Haroon survived the massacre at Simele as a young child. During our inter- view session he remarked on my research protocols for the oral history por- tion.
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