Home | News | Bet-Nahren, Assyria Indigenous People in Distress by Frederick A. Aprim — activist, author, historian. | profile | writings | website Posted: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 11:05 AM UT | Printed: April 04, 2003 | Updated: August 24, 2018 Contents Indigenous People in Distress Preface Introduction Section 1: Iraq Section 2: Turkey Section 3: Syria Conclusion Appendix 1: Churches Destroyed by the Ba'ath Regime in Iraq Appendix 2: Assyrian Villages Destroyed by the Ba'ath Regime in Iraq Assyrian Villages and Monasteries PREFACE Throughout the media coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the emphasis continues to be predominantly on the oppression of the Iraqi Ba'ath regime against the Shi'aa Arabs and Kurds. The Indigenous People in Distress world, despite to a very limited cases, have Edited by Fred Aprim | PDF continued to neglect the suffering of the Assyrians, the indigenous people of Iraq. Details: Paperback, 91 pages, in English Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" (in inches) When the thought for an urgent need for the publication of a booklet about the suffering ISBN: 0974445061 of the Assyrians came about, I was given the Publisher: Assyrian Academic Society opportunity and responsibility of gathering Published date: September, 2003 information and putting it together. In doing so, I used material from many trustworthy Assyrian web sites such as www.aina.org (AINA), www.atour.com (Atour), and www.zindamagazine.com (Zinda). Other resources were information I have gathered throughout the years and are part of my upcoming book. I hope that this humble work will give the reader a general idea about the Assyrians. The Assyrians: Indigenous People in Distress | https://www.atour.com/news/assyria/20030617a.html emphasis is on the Assyrians in the 20th century and the acts of oppression, persecution, abuse, terrorism, massacres, and genocides they have faced in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular in that period. Fred Aprim — Editor, April 4, 2003. profile | writings | website INTRODUCTION Iraq, known throughout ancient history by the Greek term Mesopotamia (Land between Rivers, i.e. Tigris and Euphrates), is the home of many ethnic and religious groups such as Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkomen, Yezidis, Mandeans, Armenians, and others. The Assyrians of Iraq are the indigenous people of the land. They are the direct descendants of the ancient Assyrians and the heirs of the Assyrian Empire, whose heartland is in a geographical territory of what is today north of Iraq. The Assyrians are one of the first people to accept the teaching of Jesus Christ in the First Century A.D. The Assyrian Christians make around five percent of the Iraqi population. They are also known by the following religious denominations: Nestorians, Chaldeans, Jacobites, or Suryan. The Assyrians use a dialect of the Aramaic, the language of Christ, known in the linguistic world as the Syriac language. The English term Assyrians comes from the Greek "Assurios" through Latin "Assyrius." In their own language, i.e. Syriac (Neo Aramaic), the Assyrians are known as "Suraye" derived from "Asuraye" and yet earlier "Aturaye," originated from the ancient Assyrian Akkadian language "Ashuraye" or "Assuraye." The Assyrians have experienced many massacres from the fall of their empire in 612 B.C., especially after adopting Christianity, but miraculously managed to survive. Assyrian Church and other historical records show that Persian Sassanids, Mongols, and Tartar massacred very large numbers of Assyrians. More recently, the Kurdish tribes under Badr Khan Beg massacred hundreds of thousands of Assyrians and destroyed many Assyrian villages in the middle of the 19th century (1842-1847) in southern Turkey and northern Iraq region. The massacres continued around the end of the 19th century by Kurdish tribes in the same region. During and in the immediate years after World War I, the Turkish, Kurdish, and Persian forces in Iran and Turkey committed acts of genocide against over 750,000 Assyrian Christians. At the conclusion of World War I (1914-1918), the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 convened to settle the partition of the Ottoman Turkish Empire that fought beside Germany against the Allies. The entire Middle East, northern Africa and parts of Eastern Europe were one political region under the Turks for almost five centuries. With the conclusion of WWI and the Peace Conference, the political boundaries of the modern Assyrians: Indigenous People in Distress | https://www.atour.com/news/assyria/20030617a.html countries of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and others were drawn. Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine were put under the “Our Smallest Ally is now British mandate while Syria (including Lebanon) under homeless, and dependent the French. In 1921, the present-day Iraq became on our charity at officially a republic under the British mandate according to the League of Nations (became the United Baqubah, for its lands and Nations after World War II). villages have been utterly destroyed, and it has the After years of struggle of Iraqi nationalists against the further mortification of British presence and mandate, Great Britain finally promised to assist in the admittance of Iraq in the seeing - from reasons League of Nations, as an independent and sovereign beyond our control - that state. The Assyrians, who aided the British, French, and although it threw in its lot Russians during World War I, began to bring to the with the ultimately attention of the League that if the issues of the Assyrian victorious side, Kurds, and national rights and settlement were not addressed and resolved before admitting Iraq into the League, the others of the defeated Assyrians were going to face a great danger under enemy, are in practical Iraqi Arab rule. Britain and the allies betrayed the possession of its ruined Assyrians and broke all the promises they had made to homesteads.” the Assyrians before World War I. Finally, in 1932; Britain admitted Iraq into the League but with — H. H. Austin reservations by the Special Commission of the League Brigadier-General of Nations concerning the Assyrians and the other minorities. “Can Great Britian, now that she is responsible for The Iraqi government promised the League to respect the rights of the non-Arab and non-Moslem inhabitants order in the country, of Iraq. The Declaration of the kingdom of Iraq, issued afford to neglect so in Baghdad on May 30, 1932, on the termination of the valuable a military asset British mandatory power and admittance of Iraq into as this nation has proved the League, contains clear concessions given by the itself to be?” Iraqi government to the Council of the League of Nations. Such concessions are expressed, only for — Dr. W. A. Wigram example, in Chapter One, Article 2:1, which guarantees Our Smallest a “Full and complete protection of life and liberty will Ally (PDF, 17 MB) be assured to all inhabitants of Iraq without distinction Our Smallest Ally: A Brief of birth, nationality, language, race or religion.” Account of the Assyrian Nation Meanwhile, Article 4:3 states that “Differences of race, during the Great War language or religion shall not prejudice any Iraqi national in matters relating to the enjoyment of civil or political rights, as, for instance, admission to public employment, functions and honors, or the Assyrians: Indigenous People in Distress | https://www.atour.com/news/assyria/20030617a.html exercise of professions or industries.” The above and many other concessions were not exercised nor were they implemented. In fact, only few months after the admittance of Iraq in the League of Nations and gaining complete independence the Iraqi army moved to north of Iraq and massacred in cold blood over three thousand unarmed Assyrians. That massacre will be addressed later. Assyrians in the Middle East Are the Assyrians indigenous people or are they ethnic, “Will America unjustly religious and linguistic minorities? To answer this enrich herself, as the question properly one has to distinguish between the various regions the Assyrians are living today, British, at the expense of meaning, one has to address every country case this "Forgotten Ally" by separately. Dr. Lincoln Malik, an Assyrian nationalist, allowing them to find states: "Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq their abject and ignoble and not a national or ethnic, religious and linguistic defeat in their glorious minority. This is a very important distinction with major political and juridical consequences related to victory of 1941? Assyrians’ human rights in their ancestral homeland of The Middle East was the Mesopotamia (today basically Iraq and regions of southern Turkey and northeastern Syria). The home of civilization. It is distinction between a national or ethnic minority and now the nerve centre of indigenous peoples is the historical and cultural ties of our problem... the people to the land." There is but one solution Malik adds: "A national and/or ethnic minority is to this explosive political commonly people that have migrated to the land from the outside. Assyrians on the other hand do not have situation - the realization an ancestral homeland outside Iraq. As such, Assyrians of the natural aspirations are the indigenous people of the country, irrespective of all the native elements.” of their numbers compared to the Arabs and Kurds. Many in Iraq, driven by chauvinist or other political — Dr. David Barsum Perley motivations, have sought to label Assyrians as an June 6, 1947 ethnic minority, or as the regime has attempted, a linguistic minority. These are nothing short of attempts to abridge Assyrians’ legitimate human rights in their ancestral homeland." (Atour) Therefore, the Assyrians of Iraq are the indigenous people of the country; they are not just minorities. Meanwhile, the Assyrians of Lebanon, for example, are ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities because they are not the original people of Lebanon. Throughout the history of modern Iraq and other newly established Middle Eastern countries, harassment, oppression, persecution, and massacres against Assyrians have continued in various shapes.