GET OUT & SHOW THEM WHO YOU ARE

The second Gulf War may be inevitable, but we can prevent aggression against the Christians of Iraq if we let the citizens of our adopted countries, our local governments and policymakers know who we are. Zinda Magazine sources in North Iraq indicate that there are no solid commitments given by non-Christian groups to protect the Assyrians against possible attacks. Furthermore, Assyrians may not even be fully recognized under the new constitution of the land as equal citizens of Iraq if the U.S. and her allies do not pressure the Moslem groups.

This week several Assyrian organizations and churches are calling for public demonstrations in various cities across North America to demand equal rights for the Assyrians in a post-Saddam Iraq. Is your church or organization on this list?

If not, then you should be calling your minister, club president, or local civic leaders and request a peaceful demonstration between this Friday, 14 March and Monday, 17 March. The city of San Jose, California for example expects a crowd of 1,000 demonstrators to march along the downtown area on Sunday, joined by many other Northern California groups.

Assyrians must do everything to make these demonstrations the single biggest obstacle to possible aggression toward the Christians in Iraq. Select a busy location, a Federal building, a crowded park and hold up signs that express our resolve to rebuild a new Iraq- an Iraq that is free, democratic, and treats Assyians as equal citizens.

If necessary do not go to school or work on Friday or next Monday. Change your plans for this weekend. Motivate your family members and friends to join you in these demonstrations. Don’t leave your children behind; take them with you to the demonstrations. Let them proudly wave the Assyrian flag and cheer: “Assyrians Exist”.

Remember that over one million Assyrians along with 22 million other Iraqis are at this very moment living under the fear of the biggest war in recent history. It is our duty to do all we can to protect our fellow Assyrians from immediate violence that may ensue shortly after the March 17 deadline set by the U.S. and Great Britain.

ADM Secretary General Mr. Yonadam Kanna sitting on the left. Assyrians in Iraq may not enjoy equal treatment in future Iraq without pressure from outside groups

Organize a group to hand out leaflets and flyers during your demonstrations. Briefly explain who Assyians are. Focus on the fact that Assyrians are the only indeginous people of Iraq and are predominantly Christian. Emphasize the phrase “Assyrian Christians of Iraq”. Take these flyers to your local non-Assyrian churches, friends, and work colleagues. Write to your local newspapers and make sure your letter gets published.

Display the Assyrian flags and the flags of your adopted countries. It matters not if you are for or against the war. What matters is that Assyrians may not receive equal treatment after the removal of Saddam Hussein and be subject to harrasment as they did after the departure of the Russian and British troops in the last century.

These demonstration should be built broadly. Today there can be no discussion of our religious, tribal, linguistic differences. We must come forth as one nation and resist any attempts by Arabs and Kurds in Iraq to separate us into two religious factions.

Zinda Magazine will begin publishing the names of the Assyrian organizations, ad hoc groups, and individuals who will be supporting these demonstratons within the next few days. Contact us and let us know who you are and where you will be converging for your demonstrations. Are you going to talk at a gathering? Let us know too.

Do you need help for your press releases, signs, letter writing campaign, etc.? Rely on the Zinda Crew. We will gladly help you with your campaign.

Finally we urge all Assyrians from every country around the world to participate at these worldwide demonstrations. Chicago, Sydney, Moscow, Amman, Stockholm, Assyrians from everywhere. Just walk out and let the world know that Assyrians exist!

Z-Crew

THE ASSYRIANS OF NORTH BATTLEFORD, CANADA
A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION

“The Canadian West has no greater settlement story than that of the Assyrians who landed on Canadian soil, January 1, 1903” (N. Battleford News Optimist, June22, 1979)

The first week of September 2003 is a historical time for the Assyrians of North Battleford as the local Assyrians, together with Assyrian guests from other cities in Canada and the U.S.A. will commemorate the 100 years of the arrival and settlement of Assyrians in this city. In its December 18, 02 issue the Battlefords News Optimist, in an article titled “A great Way to Mark Anniversary”, states: “Assyrians have made a huge contribution to the life of the Battlefords. They and their descendants have started up many important businesses and enriched the cultural and religious life of the area. They’ve also been great contributors to the agricultural community.” The North Battleford Archives Committee “with the help of members of the local Assyrian community, plans to preserve their history via computer and eventually see it go on line-complete with sound and video-on the Saskatchewan Archives website.” On the day of commemoration, the Archives Committee will make a historical presentation honoring the many contributions that the Assyrians have made to the community and a cairn will be erected on the site of the first encampment of the Assyrian immigrants.

The Assyrians are among the very first settlers of North Battleford. The mastermind behind this venture was Rev. Dr. Isaac Adams. He is the first and the only person who engineered a mass migration of Assyrians to North America. He initiated two resettlement projects to Canada: one in 1902, the other in 1906. Both have been unique in the history of Assyrian migration overseas. They were the sole planned group projects composed of families—and not merely men—intended for permanent resettlement abroad. In hindsight Isaac Adams saved the lives of the people he brought over to Canada since thousands perished during World War I uprooting of the Assyrians in Iran and Turkey.

( Dr. Isaac Adams and Family.)

“The name of the Rev. Isaac Adams will always be cherished by his people here. He is enshrined
in their hearts as one who gave them ‘new lamps for old’ on these western plains; and guided their footsteps in the strangers’ land.” (N. Battleford News Optimist June 22, 1979)

Isaac Adams was born in the village of Sangar, near the town of Urmia, in 1872. At the age of six he lost his father who had gone to Russia as a migrant worker. Subsequently the village Agha (landlord) confiscated their land upon the pretext that his father had owed him money. The mother and five children were left in the care of their relatives. Adams writes in his journal that he came under the influence of the Presbyterian mission where he attended school. Upon reading the passage from the bible that says “Cut thee out of thy country…into a land that I will show thee’, this modern day Abraham decided to leave on his own to the promised land, America (Adams 1900:24). In 1889 he entered the United States border at the age of 16 and made his way through the customs with less than $6:00 in his pockets when the regulations for entering the country required a minimum of $25.00. With the help of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, he studied to become a minister. Meanwhile having learned the ways of the middle class in the west and its fascination with the things “exotic”, Adams traveled throughout North America on a 45-day lecture tour dressed in his picturesque native costumes where he spoke on the culture of the Persians and the traditions of the Muslims and Christians. He sold his photographs and raised money with which he opened mission schools in various Assyrian villages when He returned to the old country. In 1897 Rev. Adams returned to the United States to pursue his studies in medicine. Three years later he graduated from the Grand Rapids Medical College. Having secured his American citizenship, Adams returned to the old country and married Sarah, the daughter of the prominent physician, Hakim Israel. Sarah was only 15 and it appears that her parents were hesitant to marry their daughter off to live in a far away land. But Dr. Adams could not be dissuaded. He persisted and finally overcame their hesitation.

( Dr. Adams’ Diploma of Medicine)

As early as 1902 Isaac Adams had planned to settle a large group of Assyrians in California where the climate is close to that in Urmia, and where he believed that the Assyrians could exercise their traditional skills in the growing of orchards and vineyards. But when he inquired about the possibilities for homesteading, the immigration official in Sacramento enlightened him that public lands sufficiently large for a colony were no longer available in the region. This was true because by that time most of the land in the valley was in private holdings. He had better luck with Canadian immigration officials whose government’s policy was to settle and develop Western Canada into a major wheat and cereal producing region in the country, and did not discriminate against immigrants of a different creed or country (Hall 1975). So he took a colony of 36 men and women composed mostly of his own relatives and friends to Western Canadian prairies which were opened up for homesteading.

( Dr. Israel and wife)

“New Lamps for Old”

It was in the Fall of 1902 that 36 Assyrians under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Isaac Adams, left on six horse-drawn carts (Arabanas) from Urmia towards the Turkish border. Their names make familiar reading to the Assyrians of California who are the descendents of these pioneers. In the group were Isaac Adams, and his family, his two brothers Joseph and Abraham with their families, their cousin Solomon Backus and his family. These were all from the village of Sangar. From the town of Urmia they picked up Esakan Shabaz, Odishoo, and Baba Shabaz and their families. They picked up Aushani, Samuel Jacobs and his brother Elishaw in Gavilan. From the town of Tabriz that was on their way, they picked up the families of Michael George and his brother Peter. These two families were originally from Sangar, and were related to Isaac Adams. Banosha, a lonely woman, and Samuel Baba also cast their lot with the group. A Turk nicknamed “Knife” joined them as well. Other families among the early pioneers (1907) are Jacob Adams, Elisha George and family, Sargis George, Benjamin George, Pete Badal, Shirin George (daughter of Michael George), and the families of Samuel Robin, Daniel Lazar and Samuel Lazar, Avshalim George; Philip and Able Tamraz.

After they crossed the robber-infested Iranian-Turkish border, they crossed over to Turkey. From Turkey they took the train to Israel and then to Hamburg in Germany, where they boarded a steamship called “Assyria” and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Halifax in Canada. On board the ship Abraham Adam’s wife gave birth to a baby girl. They named her “Assyria”, after the steamship. They landed in Halifax on New Year’s Day, 1903. From there they took the train to Winnipeg, where they spent the winter. In spring of the same year they traveled by train to Saskatoon, and after purchasing the necessary equipment there, they followed the old Battleford trail on carts. Then they ferried the North Saskachewan River and landed on the north bank. Their first act was one of worship. Dr. Adams gave thanks to God for His bounties and mercies and for keeping them safe during their arduous journey. They encamped in tents in a clearing of bush and poplar on a site where today stands the Saskatchewan Provincial Hospital in the city of North Battleford. (See maps) But the northern spring gusts drew them eventually to a dug out on the side of a hill until they built themselves a large one-story substantial house, 30 feet by 50 feet with walls that were two feet through. (Wetton, Celia. Saskatoon Star Phoenix. date nd.). They lived in this communal hall like one large family until each family’s residence was ready to move out. Dr. Adams sent his young wife to school so that she could learn English and home economics. Their first son John was born in 1908.

A visit to the North Battleford Cemetery is an excellent statistical source. The tombstones with Assyrian inscriptions are a historical landmark signaling the presence of Assyrians oceans away from their original homeland. Mrs. Daniel Lazar wrote the inscriptions in Aramaic.

( Mary Jacob’s Grave)

The Assyrian Pioneers

Source: Old Tombstones with Assyrian Inscriptions

The First Homesteads

In 1902 land was already surveyed and quarter sections designated by number. The number was on a steel pole in front of each plot. A quarter section could be purchased at $10.00 and another quarter could be preempted for $3.00. The Assyrians filed for homesteads soon after their arrival. Dr. Adams purchased a quarter section where later the Saskatchewan Provincial Hospital was built. Michael’s homestead later became the Canadian Railway’s Right of way. On a current city map, Daniel Lazar’s homestead would be across the shopping mall.

In 1903 there were very few farmers in the area. The closest town, Battleford, was some miles away from the Assyrian encampment. The town was experiencing a setback as the railway had bypassed it in favor of other cities. Movement of cargo constituted a problem and imported goods were very expensive due to the high freight rates. Farmers were therefore not attracted to the area because they could not market their produce if they settled there. The Assyrian colonists engaged in subsistence farming and for their source of cash they went to town for any jobs available in unskilled labor, an arrangement with which they were already familiar, as they had practiced it in the old country. The colony prospered in the first few years. The land was virgin and it produced much more than they had ever had in one season back home. Sarah Adams is quoted to have remarked that the cabbages grew so large that they did not fit within one person’s arms. Even work in town was much more remunerative compared to the old country.

In the meantime the Canadian Northern Railway officialdom bought large tracts of land around the Assyrian homesteads and to the utter dismay of the inhabitants of the town of Battleford, decided to divert a line, which was supposed to go through the town, to this area. In a short time a settlement arose which within a year developed into the prosperous town of “North Battleford”. New business and people, mostly from England or British settlers from Eastern Canada, poured in. In March of 1906, a year after the railroad reached the area; the settlement acquired the status of a village. Four months later the population had reached 565, and the village was officially incorporated as a town. This gave the Assyrians plenty of opportunity to find work. Some hauled bricks with a team of oxen; others laid water and sewer lines, or found other types of work in the booming construction market and on the railway. For example, Moses Backus as a new immigrant worked in the construction of King Street School. Later he hauled bricks with a team of oxen to build the Saskatchewan Hospital, and laid water and sewer lines for the city of North Battleford. Esakan Shabaz opened a candy store. He also invested in the building of a billiard parlor. The three Adams brothers formed a small corporation. They bought a “steamer” and a set of ploughs. Their plan was to plough other farmers’ fields and work as “land breakers”. Their very first attempt was a disaster. A British farmer hired them, but the steamer failed to operate shortly after the work had started. As they did not know how to repair the machine, they were told to be gone. In the autumn they made a second attempt and bought a separator (a winnowing machine which separates the wheat from the straw) and instead of the steamer they used fourteen teams of oxen. This failed too because, as a British informant put it, “It was out of proportion to their experience and the farming situation in the area where farming was still done on a small family scale.”

In 1906 the settlers had saved enough money that they were ready to send passage money and bring their relatives over from the old country.

Isaac Adams went to Persia in 1906, and in 1907 returned with another colony of 40 Assyrians. The new settlers purchased land in the White Wood area 7-8 miles N.E. of the town of North Battleford. This land proved to be of much better quality. It was flat, had excellent soil, and was free of rocks. The drawback was the crops on it were exposed to freezing. A few of the settlers who were exasperated with the rocks and the swarms of mosquitoes near the river plots of the 1903 settlement, abandoned their homesteads and relocated to the second site. But good land was not enough to ameliorate the situation for the Canadian farmer in those days. With the agricultural technology limited to human and animal power, it was not easy to break a sufficient amount of land for cultivation, particularly if the unit of labor was the family. Quarter-section farms were inadequate for dry farming. A half section would be viable, but then it needed more labor than one family could afford. The government expected to develop Western Canada into a farming region, but it was not prepared to subsidize the farmers. Consequently approximately 57% of (six out of ten) farmers failed and moved out to towns (McGinnis 1975). The Assyrians were no exception. Like most farmers they were part-time laborers, and as farmers they practiced mixed farming and livestock raising for subsistence. Year after year the crops failed; they were hit by frosts before the farmers had a chance to take them off the ground. Dr. Adams had to obtain relief for the hard hit families. By 1914 most Assyrians had moved out of farms and settled in a section of town that was called “Chism Town”.

In 1910 the provincial government paid Dr. Adams a good price for his homestead because his land was selected for a government project, the Saskatchewan Provincial Hospital. He decided to move to California and establish a new colony there. He urged the Assyrians of North Battleford to join him. Only one of his brothers, Joseph, and Odishoo Backus did. His two other brothers Abraham (Abram) and Jacob stayed in North Battleford. Jacob was killed doing military service during World War I. Abraham (Abram) died in a fire in 1915. Abraham had eight children: two sons William and Paul, and six daughters. When Dr. Adams got settled in Turlock, California he helped his nephew William to relocate. William in turn moved his sisters to Turlock. Assyria got married in Turlock and is buried in San Francisco. Abraham’s other son Paul stayed in North Battleford and his offspring live in various cities in Canada.
In subsequent years more Assyrians joined the colony in North Battleford either on their own, or through the help of relatives already there. In 1905 Joseph Odishaw moved from the United States to North Battleford . In 1910 he helped bring his brother John, wife and three children from the village of Gavilan. John could not find land close to the other Assyrian settlers and his homestead was isolated; but he became the only successful farmer “because his homestead was on a slope and his crops escaped freezing.” In 1972 his son Michael and his grandson Richard were among the most prosperous farmers in Western Canada.

Samuel Robin had immigrated from Urmia to eastern United States in 1900 with three Assyrian priests. The four men homesteaded in partnership in Flint, Michigan. Samuel could not farm. He left for Ohio and worked there as a laborer for three years. Then he heard about the Assyrian colony in Canada and joined it in 1904. He homesteaded and in 1906 asked Dr. Adams to bring his wife Shirin from the old country. Later he also brought George, the son of his sister-in-law (his wife’s sister’s son) claiming that he was his own son so that the immigration authorities would allow the young man across the border. Samuel left farming and moved to the town and became a buggy driver.

Sam Esaw, one of the Assyrian refugees during the Kurdish pre-World War pillage of Gavar, had immigrated to Chicago with the help of the Red Cross. He joined the colony in 1912. Later he sent money to the old country and brought his wife Miriam and his brother Robert to Canada. Sam opened a confectionary store in N. Battleford; but went bankrupt and engaged in peddling for a while.

In 1923-24 twelve settlers came from Marseilles, France. They were all originally from the Urmia region, but during World War I they had fled and lived for several years in refugee camps, and then had gradually made their way from Baghdad to Marseilles, where there was a small refugee enclave at the time. These twelve individuals belonged to two families. One family consisted of David George, his wife and two children, and his niece Nina whom he raised as his own daughter after the death of her father, his brother. George had sent his younger brother Benjamin to Canada with the 1907 colony, and was now joining him. The second family consisted of the rest of Backus brothers. The history of the migration of the Backus family starts with the 1902 colony. There were six brothers in this family. The eldest brother Solomon had left Sangar with his uncle Esakan George with the first colony. In 1906 he had helped his younger brother Moses Backus to come to N. Battleford with the second colony. The two brothers homesteaded and sent money to their parents in the old country. As a consequence their father became so prosperous in Sangar that he was unwilling to immigrate to Canada. Instead, he asked his two sons to return to the old country. After the two brothers got their passports and were ready to return, World War I broke out in Europe and they could not travel. Following the uprooting of the Assyrians from their homes during the war, the Backus family lived in Baquba refugee camp. The two Backus brothers in Canada sent their parents passage money and helped them to relocate to Marseilles, France. In 1923 the parents were awaiting their visas to Canada. However, Peera, the father, had trachoma and was forbidden entrance into Canada. Since his wife Sonia refused to leave the old man behind, one of the brothers Robert, decided to stay in Marseilles and came to Canada after the parents passed away several years later. The other two brothers, Envia, and Eli who was married and had a small child, resumed their journey and reached N. Battleford in 1924. They also brought a young woman as a wife for Odishoo, whose wife had passed away in Turlock, California. The matchmaking was arranged by the parents of the girl and the Backus’ who had become friends while staying in Baquba refugee camp. In 1936 one of the Backus brothers who was unmarried, returned to Marseilles, and with the recommendation of his parents married a distant cousin and brought her with him to N. Battleford. It appears the Marseilles transit colony served as a bridal reservoir for the Assyrian bachelors in North America.

In 1937 Tom Yonan joined the colony from England. Tom was originally from the Assyrian Tyari tribe of the Hakkari Region in Turkey. He had served as a levy during the British occupation of Iraq, and was brought to England by his superior officer after the British pulled out of Iraq in 1933. He resided in England for two years and worked in the house of his former officer until the latter arranged a visa for him to immigrate to Canada. An Assyrian in Canada was needed to sponsor Tom before immigration authorities would allow him entrance into the country. Solomon who had helped many people, volunteered to do so for Tom too.

The latest addition to N. Battleford was a young man named Jack Ismail from the post-World War I Assyrian Settlement in Syria. He too was originally from the Tyari tribe and related to Tom. They were clan cousins. He came as a visitor in 1972 and stayed at Tom’s for some time. He was determined not to return to the Assyrian settlement on the Khabour, in Syria. However, the immigration regulations made it virtually impossible for him to obtain a visa. His efforts to stay with the help of the Assyrians in Canada failed. Then he met and married a charming Canadian girl and was able to stay.

Many more Assyrians came to N. Battleford. But the rate of emigration from this city was much higher than that of immigration into it. Most of the Assyrian families applied for immigration visas to the United States and left to join their relatives there. Those who chose to stay permanently in N. Battleford were either prosperous enough not to want to relocate, or their immigration applications to the United States had been rejected. The Assyrians who made North Battleford their hometown proved to be exemplary citizens.

They worked hard but with determination and perseverance; they farmed, established businesses and educated their children so that they could enrich the fiber and strength of their adopted homeland.”(Nordstrom, Inez. “People and Places”. The Battleford News Optimist)

In 1972 there were 46 Assyrian men, women and children left in N. Battleford. Of these 26 were full Assyrian. None of the 1902 settlers remained in the city. They had either out migrated or had passed away. Of the 1907 colony only Shirin George Robin was alive.

Community Profile

“An unusual group of people often referred to as ‘Presbyterian’ began arriving in North Battleford in 1903 from Iran.” (The Battlefords News Optimist, Sept. 25, 2002)

The Assyrians, with Rev. Dr. Adams as their minister, were the first Presbyterians in the region. When Dr. Adams left for Turlock California, they brought a new minister, Rev. Eshoo who continued providing them service in their own language until 1940’s. (See group picture.) Then they joined the St. Andrews Church and remained its backbone throughout. They served in various capacities as treasurers, ushers, and elders of the church. The church choir was full of Assyrian youth and the Assyrian women were very active in charity work as members of the church ladies auxiliary. Their handicraft and baked goods had eager takers. In a special ceremony at St. Andrews Presbyterian church on the 80th anniversary of the arrival of Assyrians to North Battleford, Lieutenant Governor C. Irwin McIntosh remarked: “It is a matter of record today that almost half of the elders of St. Andrews are descendants of those first settlers. They have made a contribution to our city and to our country which belies their numbers.” (The Battlefords News-Optimist, 1983)

Assyrian Businesses

“The candy industry in Canada is a big business but how many are aware that a few short years ago North Battleford had its own candy manufacturing industry?” (Nordstrom, Inez. The Battlefords News-Optimist)

The founder of the candy industry in North Battleford was no other than Esakan Shabaz who opened the Olympia Candy Store where he made his own candies. He was a skilled candy maker and his recipes include such varieties of confectionery as sugar cream, caramels, assorted toffee, marshmallows, chocolates, buttercups, tutti-frutti, and peanut brittle. When Esakan passed away, his nephew Bob Shabaz inherited the business. Then Solomon Backus married Mary, the widow of Esakan, and the candy store as well as the billiard parlor passed into the hands of Backus family. In 1959 Sandy Backus turned it into Sandy’s Coffee Shop, a modern day version with soda fountain and marble topped ice cream tables.
There were other businesses owned and operated by the Assyrians of North Battleford. Among them are:

Madison Billiards Owner: Moses Backus later passed on to sons Joseph and Donald
Picadily Grill Owner: Eli Backus
Bob’s Barber Shop Owner: Robert Backus
Patricia Confectionary Owner: Sam Esaw
Lazar Dry Cleaning and Tailor Shop Owners: Daniel and Sulton Lazar
North Battlejford Tannery Owner: Fred Lazar
Beaver Billiards Owner: Tom Yonan
Modern Billiards Owner Bob Shabaz
Battleford Furniture Owners: Richard and Chris Odishaw
People’s Cab Owners: William and Albert George
J.R.’s Distributors, Dispensing and Catering Owner: Robert Odishaw
Korner Store Owner: Shirley LeCore (Robins)
Capital Grocery Owners: John and Thirza Odishaw

Various individuals among the Assyrians of North Battleford obtained prominent positions in the community and in the country. Johnny Esaw was the vice president of sports for the CTV television network. Moe and Jeep George coached and managed some of the most successful hockey teams in the community’s history, and along the way, helped many residents have successful hockey careers. Mike Odishaw, one of the many Assyrian- descended elders of St. Andrews Presbytrian Church in North Battleford, was reeve of the RM of North Battleford for many years. Dick Robin was a member of the North Battleford Public School Board for many years. In 2002 Chris Odishaw was not only the owner of a successful furniture business in the Northwest, he was in his second turn as president of the Battlefords Chamber of Commerce. David Odishaw operated a successful jewelry store for many years and also was a Chamber director.(The Battlefords News-Optimist Dec. 18, 02)

“To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a surce, a tree without root.”

The inscription above is on one of the four plaques that the Assyrians dedicated to depict their history in North Battleford. This was done on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the settlement of the colony in this region. “The plaques, housed at the Western Development Museum, are dedicated to the memory of the first Assyrian settlers in Saskatchewan and to their beliefs in religious freedom which led them here. The contributor of the historical material, Mrs. Margaret Stewart of the North Battleford, is the granddaughter of Michael George, one of the settlers who arrived in the area in 1903.” (Battleford Telegraph August 24, 1984).

The descendents of the pioneer generation of Assyrians who still live in North Battleford are:
Robert, Don , and Lydia Backus, Margaret George Beach, Richard Odishaw, Tom and Tim Yonan. These were full Assyrian. Part-Assyrians were: Chris Odishaw, Sandra High Backus, Bob Odishaw, David and Don George, Kathy Beach (Margaret’s daughter), David Odishaw, Candice and Mark Odishaw (Richard’s children).

The Assyrians have remained zealous about their ethnic identity, even though assimilation and geographical dispersion has eroded many Assyrian customs that remained alive in the community until 1940’s. Few spoke Assyrian at the turn of the 21st century. Nevertheless they have preserved their ethnic identity at the same time that they have remained dedicated Canadians.

Dr. Arianne Ishaya
California

An Invitation to All Assyrians

The Assyrians of North Battleford invite all Assyrian-Americans and particularly the descendents of the pioneer generation who now live in the United States, to participate in this historical centennial celebration in North Battleford. In this group belong the descendents of Isaac, Joseph, and Abraham Adams, the descendents of Odishoo Backus, Michael George, and S. Robin family; the descendents of the Lazar, and the Tamraz families; as well as Shabaz and Jacob families.

The descendents of George and Robin family now live in Connecticut, Ohio, Atlanta and Tennessee. The rest live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities in the Bay area.

IN A LETTER TO PRES. BUSH AUA SUPPORTS U.S. ACTION IN IRAQ

March 7, 2003
George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President;

Thank you for the excellent press conference of last evening. Your presentation was impressive and your message that Saddam is a threat to the United States and that he is a threat to the Iraqi people is accurate. Your stance is a reassurance to our fellow Americans that our President has put our safety as his first priority.

I believe that the future will show that your actions in the case of Iraq will have resulted in the saving of millions of lives including those of Americans. For a change America is standing for something in the beginning and demonstrating leadership as a super power of the world. I know it is not easy but don't let them compromise your rightful position on disarming Iraq.

Thank you for giving the Christians of Iraq (Assyrians) hope that they will be included as equal citizens in the future government of Iraq. Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq. They have been persecuted and discriminated against because they are Christians, because they are considered to be pro-western and finally because they are pro-American. This is valid because it was proven in WWI that they were the smallest ally of the West. In WWII the British Levi (Assyrians) saved Baghdad from being taken over by the Germans. They were betrayed and did not receive their promised independence at the Paris Conference. Assyrians were forgotten when Iraq was created and ignored their promised rights by the new Iraq government.

You have shown that you are a moral God fearing man and I thank you for telling the world that you pray for peace in Iraq. I might ask if you and the White House family will join with us on Sunday March 9, 2003 in the Worldwide Day of Prayer for Christians of Iraq. I have included the announcement for your information. We have received hundreds of e-mails from around the world stating that they would join us in prayer for the Christians of Iraq.

My only disappointment was that you mentioned the Sunni, Shiites and Kurds and did not mention the Assyrians as you had done previously. When we get mentioned the world takes notice and Assyrians are encouraged and know that you will stand behind your statement that "Christians and Jews must remain in Asia and Africa."

Our Assyrian Nation in Iraq and those around the world will continue to pray for your Presidency, your safety and your family.

Respectfully,

Sen. John J. Nimrod, Ret.
Secretary General

OXFORD GRADUATE, MONK BECOMES SYRIAC ARCHBISHOP

Based on an article by Nismettin Kaplan in Mardin, Turkey; translated for Zinda Magazine from Turkish by Isa Nahroyo

(ZNDA: Mardin) Oxford University graduate Nuri Saliba Özmen, with the approval of 22 religious leader world wide, in the Syrian capital Damascus, was ordained an Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Özmen’s ordination was celebrated with with chanting of hymns and songs.

In Turkey the followers of the Syrian Orthodox Church have increased in number and now have three Archbishops serving their communities. The Assyrians in Turkey have been inhabiting this land for over five thousand years. The Syrian Orthodox Church also enjoys a substantial membership in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordon, Israel, India, the U.S. and various European countries.

In turkey, Assyrians mainly live in the cities of Mardin, Diyarbakir, Hatay, and Istanbul. Until now there were only two archbishops serving the Istanbul and Midyat (a province of Mardin). Archbishop Özmen will also be serving the Mardin district.

After the death of Archbishop Mor Hanna Dölapünü in 1969 the Archdiocese of Mardin had become vacant. Archbishop Nuri Saliba Özmen is a graduate of Oxford University and has a Masters Degree in Semitic Languages.

The Syrian Orthodox Church representatives together with the clergies corresponded with twenty two religious representative worldwide requesting the consecration of Monk Saliba Özmen as archbishop. Following the arrival of the religious leaders in Damascus, His holiness Patriarch Zakka 1 Iwas conducted the religious ceremony and
Monk Saliba Özmen was consecrated as archbishop by the attending dignitaries. After the consecration Archbishop Özmen was presented with a gold cross.

After 34 years Archbishop Özmen has become the first archbishop to be appointed to the head of the historical monastery where he had received his religious education in earlier in life.

After the ceremony in Syria, on his return to the monastery in Turkey Archbishop Özmen was met with the welcoming of the Assyrians who had come from several cities and towns to meet their new religious leader. In the monastery he preached to the people the message of peace and called on his flock to unite in peace and love.

Archbishop Özmen was congratulated by Turabdin Archbishop Mor Samuel Aktas and other community members who had come to greet him with a kiss on the the cross in his hand.

ASSYRIANS FIGHT TO BE NOTICED

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune (10 March); article by Sean D. Hamill

(ZNDA: Chicago) Assyrians around the world held a day of prayer Sunday to bring attention to oppression faced by their Christian friends and family in predominantly Islamic Iraq.

Many Chicago-area Assyrians also hoped Sunday's global effort would illuminate a basic fact about them.
"We want the attention because people think we don't exist anymore," said Linda Mamook, 34, of Morton Grove, after attending a service with more than 800 people at St. George's Assyrian Church in Rogers Park.

Thousands attended similar services, lighting prayer candles and attending meatless and dairy-free Lent breakfasts afterward, in the four other Chicago-area churches, which together make up the largest concentration of Assyrians in the United States.

Everyone interviewed at St. George's, 7201 N. Ashland Ave., expressed the hope that Saddam Hussein is removed from power. Nearly everyone with Iraqi origins had a story to illustrate Hussein's brutality.

"Even our [Assyrian] flag, you were not allowed to put it in your house," said Eilen Sommo, 39, of Chicago, who left Iraq 12 years ago. "If you did, they'd arrest the men in the house."

Her son, Gilbert, 13, was born in Iraq, but he was too young to remember anything of it. Still, he talks with his relatives who still live there and has an opinion on what should happen next. "The thing is, I want them to attack to get rid of Saddam," he said after attending an Aramaic language class at St. George's on Sunday. "I was born there, but I've never been back, and I want to go back some day."

For now, that's impossible, his mother said.

"Maybe someday," she said, "when Saddam is gone."

As Christians, Assyrians are an ethnic and religious minority in the Middle East, where more than 2,000 years ago the Assyrian state controlled the region. They are quick to point out that they are neither Muslim nor Arab, and the language they speak is a modern relative of the ancient Aramaic that, scholars say, Jesus spoke.

But Assyrian-Americans have battled not only cultural suffocation in Iraq, where they can't teach their language, but confusion once they have settled in the United States.

"My name is Christina, but [after people look at me] everyone always asks if I'm Muslim," said Christina Abraham, 22, a political science student at DePaul University.
Abraham, who has black hair and olive skin, was born in the United States. Her parents immigrated here in the late 1970s from Lebanon and Syria, countries that, like Iraq and Iran, many Assyrians call their ancestral homes.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the confusion has been dangerous and pervasive.

Leaders of another Chicago Assyrian church, St. John's, 1421 W. Lawrence Ave., believe that an arson there less than two weeks after Sept. 11 was a hate crime directed at them because someone thought the congregation was Islamic, despite the Christian cross that stands in front of the church.

"We had notes left at the church before the fire saying `Are you with US or them?'" said Rev. Charles Klutz, St. John's pastor. "Even the policewoman who responded [to take the fire report] called us a Muslim mosque."

IRAQI EXILES TO HELP LIBERATE HOMELAND

Courtesy of the Arizona Republic (5 March); article by Daniel González

(ZNDA: Phoenix) They live comfortable lives in the United States, playing soccer on the weekends and working at good jobs.

They haven't forgotten, though, about the plight of their countrymen still living in Iraq or their own memories of terror and persecution under Saddam Hussein.

So when the United States sent out a call for Iraqi volunteers to help the American military liberate their homeland, at least a dozen Iraqi exiles living in the Valley were among the first to sign up.

As many as 3,000 Iraqi exiles nationally will be trained at a military base in Hungary to work as mediators, translators and guides both during a possible war and its aftermath, according to a Defense Department official.

"I told my wife, 'If something like this happens, I'm going to be the first one to sign up and help America,' " said Biton Biton, 38, an Iraqi exile in Glendale. "We are all happy about it. . . . This is the happiest moment because for us it means the beginning of the end."

During an interview last month, Biton and five other Iraqi exiles who have signed up to assist the U.S. military spoke excitedly about the prospect of helping overthrow Saddam, even though it will mean leaving behind their wives and children, their jobs, and, in some cases, their businesses.

"If we are going to die or not, we don't care," said Iraqi exile Paul Odisho, 36, of Glendale, who owns a swimming-pool and repair business. "We are living a beautiful life in America. We want the same freedom for the people of Iraq."

Odisho and the other Iraqi exiles are Christian Assyrians, a minority group within Iraq, a predominantly Arab nation. All said they are naturalized U.S. citizens.

An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 Assyrian Americans live in the Valley, home to the nation's fastest-growing Assyrian population.

In September, the U.S. official recognized the Assyrian Democratic Movement, one of six major Iraqi opposition groups.

It began recruiting locally for volunteers to assist the U.S. military. Sam Darmo, the group's Phoenix representative, said he knows of a dozen Assyrians from the Phoenix area who have signed up.

"There are volunteers from Phoenix who have left already and are getting training somewhere. It's undisclosed," said Darmo, a 47-year-old Phoenix real estate agent.

Adam Benjamin, a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Chicago, did not want to discuss details of the call-up to protect Assyrians still living in Iraq.

"As Americans, as Iraqis and as Assyrians we are backing President Bush 100 percent," Benjamin said. "We need to get rid of the regime of Iraq because Saddam Hussein is a ruthless president that killed thousands of Iraqi people without reason."

Several Muslim Iraqi refugees have also signed up or want to sign up to assist the U.S. military, said Jabir Algarawi, president of the Arizona Refugee Community Center, a social service agency in Phoenix that primarily serves Iraqi refugees.

"Believe it or not, I received a call from a woman. She has four kids, but she wants to be part of the liberation," Algarawi said.

American officials have reportedly ruled out the possibility of using the exiles in combat, but some may accompany ground forces in Iraq.

The exiles said they understand the dangers and are willing to fight.

"If that's what it takes, we are willing to do that," said Zaya Zowaa, 41, of Glendale, who received word recently that he has been selected for the training and to report on March 15.

The actual training has begun, and the recruits were told to expect to be gone six months to a year.

The call-up of recruits begins the largest known U.S. effort to train Saddam's enemies since passage of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, which called for his overthrow and designated $97 million to train and equip his opponents.

Biton says he is motivated to assist because he said the Iraqi dictator killed his father in 1982.

As a teenager, Biton said he played soccer for the Iraqi national team but he was kicked off after he refused to join Iraq's ruling Baath Party. Fearing reprisals, Biton and a brother fled to Turkey and eventually to the United States.

"The government started asking my father questions," Biton said. "Where are your two sons? They came and took him away. He never returned. They said it was a heart attack. But my aunt says they injected him with something in the arm."

Odisho said he traveled to northern Iraq, a region outside the control of Saddam's regime, to visit relatives he hadn't seen since 1982. Two sisters living in Baghdad met him there. Odisho said he was appalled by the poverty they described in Iraq, where war, sanctions and mismanagement have destroyed the economy.

Zowaa said he left Iraq in 1978 at age 16 because he feared he would be forced to join the Iraqi army. An uncle was jailed under Saddam's regime for 10 years for not joining, he said.

Zowaa, father of four children ranging in age from 3 to 12, said he hopes he has the opportunity to return to Iraq as part of a U.S.-led liberation force.

"It's a dream," said Zowaa, who drives trucks for a living. "We lived there. We know what these people are going through. We want to see Iraq free."

[Z-info: Zinda readers can reach the reporter at daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com or (602)444-8312.]

ASSYRIANS KEEPING THEIR CULTURE ALIVE

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune (9 March); article by Deborah Horan

(ZNDA: Chicago) With the unsteady hand of a 6-year-old boy, Sargon Hermez is learning to trace the sharp angled letters of his ancestors' ancient alphabet onto wide-lined paper at a North Side church.

The script is one of the last vestiges of the Assyrian empire, which covered much of the modern Middle East more than two millenniums ago, produced epics and invented one of the world's earliest writing systems.

Like many other Assyrian parents, Sargon's mother wants to make sure her son can read the language, a modern relative of the ancient Aramaic that scholars say Jesus spoke. Fearing that their culture will disappear from Iraq, the seat of ancient Assyrian power, they are determined to preserve their traditions in exile.

Many find hope in the Bush administration's drive to oust Saddam Hussein from power, even if it means going to war, because it offers Assyrians a better chance at survival in their homeland.

A minority in Muslim Iraq, Assyrians are Christian--among the first peoples to accept the faith--and do not consider themselves Arab. Massacred by Turks and Kurds in the early 20th Century and forbidden from teaching their language by Hussein's regime, about 1.5 million Assyrians live in Iraq today.

On Sunday the Assyrian community--including an estimated 80,000 in the Chicago area, more than in any other American city--is planning a worldwide day of prayer to bring attention to their plight.

If war does bring a change of regime, leaders say, the United States must help guarantee that any new government in Baghdad safeguards the region's religious and ethnic minorities. Otherwise, they say, Iraq's Assyrians--the largest concentration in the world--may be in danger of vanishing through forced assimilation.

"We need to make sure that whatever government comes after Saddam is democratic," said Ronald Michael, president of the Assyrian American League in Chicago. "If we don't, we will have no way to protect our rights."

Already, Assyrian history and contributions to Iraq have been erased from school textbooks, community leaders say. The Assyrian language is a dying tongue. Iraqi censuses do not count Assyrians as a category, because the government does not consider them a separate ethnicity.

"You do not have the right to call yourself Assyrian in Iraq," said Aprim Rasho, who produces a weekly Assyrian-language television program.

Many Assyrians are not granted Iraqi citizenship, particularly if they refuse to join the ruling Baath party, but also for lesser infractions, such as taking a traditional Assyrian name.

"Sometimes, when they wanted to get rid of us, they would put us on the Iranian border and say, `Now you are Iranian,'" said Rasho. "They forced us to move to Baghdad and encouraged Arabs to live in our villages."

While they wait and hope for change in Iraq, Assyrians abroad cling to their culture.

In Chicago, Assyrians first began settling north of the Loop in the 1860s, when their homeland was governed by the Ottoman Turks. Later generations moved to the suburbs of Skokie, Niles, Roselle and other areas as they joined the middle class.

Over the years Assyrians have kept a strong sense of identity centered on churches, where women wear colorful veils and prepare feasts of stuffed bread and dolma, or stuffed cabbage and grape leaves. Chicago is also home to the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkha IV.

Elders teach youngsters how to write the ancient Assyrian language in twice-weekly classes held at four of the five Assyrian churches in the Chicago area. The script looks like a cross between Hebrew and Arabic and probably derived from an ancestor alphabet common to all three languages, according to John Huehnergard, a linguist at Harvard University.

In addition to the classes, Assyrians in Chicago produce two television programs, Rasho's "Ashur TV" and "Assyrians Around the World," which feature Assyrian-language plays and comedies, sports, entertainment and news, from the Middle East and from Assyrian communities in 40 countries.

Other community members print textbooks in Assyrian, and priests use the language when they recite the liturgy. Most Assyrians speak it at home, so their children grow up bilingual.

"If we don't use it, it's going to vanish," said Christina Yousif, a kindergarten teacher at Boone Elementary School and one of a half-dozen adults who teach Assyrian to children at St. George's Church, 7201 N. Ashland Ave.

Their diminishing numbers in Iraq, and Iraqi government attempts to "Arabize" them, have made Assyrians sensitive to how they are identified by outsiders. Most Assyrians prefer to count among their ranks other Christian groups whose ancestors came from ancient Mesopotamia, including Chaldeans and Syriacs. Some Chaldeans, however, consider themselves a distinct group whose ancestors split from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1552.

Although such divisions have strained relations, the groups have been working to create a united front, hoping their combined strength will allow them a voice in any future Iraqi government. Some talk of joining forces with Yazidis and Turkmens, two other minorities in Iraq, to increase their political power.

"We would like to see both branches of this one nation unite since all their requests are the same," said Glenn Younan, founder of an Assyrian-Chaldean organization called Bet Nahrain in Chicago. "They both want their villages and churches [to remain]. They both want autonomy."

To that end, several Assyrians have been working with the State Department's Future of Iraq Project to create a blueprint for a post-Hussein democracy that they hope will safeguard Christian rights in Iraq.

After years spent feeling invisible, even to other American Christians, and neglected by more powerful Iraqi opposition groups, Assyrians were heartened in October when President Bush mentioned them by name during a speech in Cincinnati.

"We're raising awareness about the plight of Assyrians," said former Illinois state Sen. John Nimrod, secretary general of the Assyrian Universal Alliance.

Assyrians have little patience for anti-war protests, which they find insulting to the Iraqi people.

"Those people demonstrate because they have not tasted the brutality of Saddam's dictatorship," said Edward Odisho, a professor of teacher education at Northeastern Illinois University who sits on the education committee of the Future of Iraq Project. "Believe me, none of those demonstrators are Iraqis."

Rasho agreed. "The Iraqi people are sitting in their windows waiting for the American soldiers to come," he said.

Since the U.S. began protecting the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the roughly 50,000 Assyrians in that area have fared relatively well compared with others in Iraq, Assyrians say.

With help from Assyrians in the United States, they have opened 44 schools in the north, some of which teach entirely in their language, Odisho said.

Assyrians here hope these freedoms will survive the political upheaval a war may cause. Meanwhile, they will continue to teach the Assyrian language.

At St. George on a recent Sunday, two dozen children listened attentively while Yousif pronounced the sounds of the letters she drew on a chalkboard. Dozens of other children and a few adults sat in different classrooms separated by white partitions in the church basement.

Jackie Coma, 30, attended one of the adult classes "to refresh my memory," she said. Her two children, Maryann, 8, and Peter, 7, practiced writing in a third-year class nearby.

"It's my language. It's my parents' language. It's the language Jesus spoke," Coma said. "I don't want it to die with me. I want it to live on."

ASSYRIAN-AMERICAN CIVIC CLUB OF TURLOCK REGAINS BINGO LICENCE

Courtesy of the Modesto Bee (6 March); article by John Holland

(ZNDA: Turlock) The Assyrian-American Civic Club has a bingo permit once again, but when the games will resume is unclear.

The Turlock Police Department had suspended an earlier permit in August 2001 because the club did not have the required nonprofit status. That status has since been obtained, and the department issued the new permit last week, police spokeswoman Rosemary Howser said.

"They have met all of the requirements to get the bingo permit," she said.

A recorded message at the club, on North Golden State Boulevard, said the bingo games "will soon reopen." The new permit puts the club under revised rules that the City Council adopted in November for all bingo operations in Turlock.

The new rules require monthly financial reports to the city, annual audits of bingo records and maintenance of separate bank accounts for bingo revenue. Also, armed guards hired for the games cannot be affiliated with the operators.

Meanwhile, the Stanislaus County district attorney's office continues to look into the Assyrian-American club's bingo operation. Authorities have not disclosed the nature of the case.

ANTI-WAR ARTISTS HONOR ANCIENT ASSYRIAN RELIEFS

Courtesy of the Dartmouth (7 March); article by Holly Shaffer

(ZNDA: New Hampshire) As part of a nationwide demonstration by artists against war in Iraq and its potential effects on ancient artwork, Elizabeth Mayor -- a New England-based artist -- organized other local artists to bring their protest to the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire last Wednesday afternoon.

The event allowed artists to sketch the Assyrian reliefs on show temporarily at the Hood Museum. Taken from what is today northern Iraq, the reliefs are an example of the type of art that would be devastated by a bombing campaign in the region.

Although very large, the works are often overlooked at museums, Mayor noted.

Similar conscience-raising events, in which artists sketched art from Iraq, have recently taken place across the country. The largest protest so far was held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Joyce Kozloff, a painter who has also worked in mosaic and ceramic tile, organized the event in New York before attempting a national commemoration of the history of Mesopotamia and present-day Iraq. The Hood Museum visit was one of the national stops.

Iraq contains a vast amount of ancient art, much of it still under excavation.

The reliefs in the Hood, originally from the 8th century B.C. palace of King Ashurnasirpal II, are an example of such work.

The six reliefs in the collection are taken from four rooms of his palace and show a variety of events glorifying the king's life.

Among the themes reflected in the reliefs are fertility, hunting and the association of the king with genies.