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On His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV's Trip to Iraq Guest Opinion Youel A Baaba His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East fulfilled the primary Kurdish requirement of citizenship for Assyrians in Kurdistan. The requirement simply stated says that all Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syrians may live in Kurdistan and be treated equally to the Kurdish residents as long as they drop their national identity, stop demanding national rights, and abandoning all political parties. They will be identified as Kurdish Christians, no more and no less. Assyria has now been renamed Kurdistan, Assyrian Church of the East will be known as the Kurdistan Church of the East, and Assyrians will be known as Kurdish Christians. After 2,600 years of struggle and sacrifices to retain our national identity, the Patriarch has closed the curtain on the Assyrian struggle and wiped out in one brief moment all that we have hoped for as he did in 1994 when he signed the ill-omened Christological Declaration recognizing Mary as “Mother of God”. In his speech after landing in Arbil, the Patriarch called for all Christians to live in peace with their neighbors, love them and respect them as Jesus Christ has commanded. Not once did he dare to mention the word Assyrian, or refer to his Assyrian nationality or even to his own church which he has added the word Assyrian to its name. He stressed the fact (his own fact) that Assyrians and Kurds have lived together for a long time in peace and harmony and that we should continue that relationship. The Patriarch knows very well that for centuries we have been oppressed, massacred, robbed, and ultimately thrown out of our ancestral home by force at the hands of our loving neighbors. The decisions for these acts may have been taken by the Ottoman Sultans or the conspiracies hatched in Tabriz or other cities, but Kurds were the ones who executed these policies and savaged our nation. Has the Patriarch forgotten the assassination of Patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimun at the hands of Simko, a Kurdish Agha? Has he forgotten the atrocities committed against his people in the great genocide of 1914-1918? Has he forgotten the massacres of Badr Khan Beg who ravaged Tiari and Thkhoma? Calling for peaceful coexistence is a noble call but that does not mean that we should surrender our heritage, our villages, our language, or our rights to develop political parties just to pretend that we are living in peace with our neighbors. We are glad to see that finally the Kurds have gained for themselves a homeland and want to live in a democratic society and in peace. However, that does not mean denying Assyrians to return to their villages, or denying their equitable share of the income that Kurdistan is obtaining from the Unites States and other countries. Let Mar Dinkha recognize and his Kurdish allies know that rebuilding churches in abandoned Assyrian villages is not an acceptable price for our surrender. Just as the Kurdish villages need to rebuild their homes, schools, roads, and irrigation canals so do the Assyrian villages. Empty churches in abandoned villages have no value for Assyrians. Instead, building ‘schools’ in the re-inhabited Assyrian villages, where our language would be taught and heritages preserved, are the ideal alternative. If Mar Dinkha was interested in improving the economic and political status of Assyrians in Iraq, he should have first visited Mr. Talabani, the President of Iraq and Mr. Malaki, the Prime Minister and then gone to see his friends in the north. Let us remember one fact that all Iraqis including Assyrians can live in peace and security only when Iraq is one united democratic country free of foreign domination and violence. For the years that he has been a Patriarch, Mar Dinkha has declared publicly and privately that he is not a politician and that he is not interested to have the church or his office become the leader of Assyrians. As a matter of fact, on many occasions he has stated that Assyrians should develop their own national leadership starting with the establishment of national assemblies in the cities that they live in. What was the motivation for the Patriarch that suddenly he became political and assumed the leadership of his nation? Dear Patriarch, the notion and practice of the Patriarch being both the religious and temporal leader of Assyrians died back in the 1940’s when the late Mar Eshai Shimun abandoned his struggle for a home for Assyrians after his petition was not recognized at the opening assembly of the United Nations in San Francisco. My fellow Assyrians, let us remember that for almost 2,000 years we have been a passive and peaceful nation living to the rule of turning the other cheek. That practice enhanced by our religious leaders destroyed the national aspirations in our people. We are grateful to a few Assyrians who revived patriotism among us during the last century. We should build on that and not go back. We should demand our human and political rights in every country that we reside. Let us not ask for them as if we are seeking charity. Today, all people are entitled to these rights and we should be willing to pay the price for them. Let us keep all our religious leaders of all denominations out of our national affairs. Let us remember that we were Assyrians before we became Christians. And I for one would rather live and die as an Assyrian rather than a Christian.
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Iraq’s Anti-Christian Pogroms Charles Tannock Iraq’s Christian communities are among the world’s most ancient, practicing their faith in Mesopotamia almost since the time of Christ. The Assyrian Apostolic Church, for instance, traces its foundation back to 34 A.D. and St. Peter. Likewise, the Assyrian Church of the East dates to 33 A.D. and St. Thomas. The Aramaic that many of Iraq’s Christians still speak is the language of those apostles – and of Christ. When tolerated by their Muslim rulers, Assyrian Christians contributed much to the societies in which they lived. Their scholars helped usher in the “Golden Age” of the Arab world by translating important works into Arabic from Greek and Syriac. But in recent times, toleration has scarcely existed. In the Armenian Genocide of 1914-1918, 750,000 Assyrians – roughly two-thirds of their number at the time – were massacred by the Ottoman Turks with the help of the Kurds. Under the Iraqi Hashemite monarchy, the Assyrians faced persecution for co-operating with the British during the First World War. Many fled to the West, among them the Church’s Patriarch. During Saddam’s wars with the Kurds, hundreds of Assyrian villages were destroyed, their inhabitants rendered homeless, and dozens of ancient churches were bombed. The teaching of the Syriac language was prohibited and Assyrians were forced to give their children Arabic names in an effort to undermine their Christian identity. Those who wished to hold government jobs had to declare Arab ethnicity. In 1987, the Iraqi census listed 1.4 million Christians. Today, only about 600,000 to 800,000 remain in the country, most on the Nineveh plain. As many as 60,000, and perhaps even more, have fled since the beginning of the insurgency that followed the United States-led invasion in 2003. Their exodus accelerated in August 2004, after the start of the terrorist bombing campaign against Christian churches by Islamists who accuse them of collaboration with the allies by virtue of their faith. A recent UN report states that religious minorities in Iraq “have become the regular victims of discrimination, harassment, and, at times, persecution, with incidents ranging from intimidation to murder,” and that “members of the Christian minority appear to be particularly targeted.” Indeed, there are widespread reports of Christians fleeing the country as a result of threats being made to their women for not adhering to strict Islamic dress codes. Christian women are said to have had acid thrown in their faces. Some have been killed for wearing jeans or not wearing the veil. This type of violence is particularly acute in the area around Mosul. High-ranking clergy there claim that priests in Iraq can no longer wear their clerical robes in public for fear of being attacked by Islamists. Last January, coordinated car-bomb attacks were carried out on six churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk; on another occasion, six churches were simultaneously bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. Over the past two years, 27 Assyrian churches have reportedly been attacked for the sole reason that they were Christian places of worship. These attacks go beyond targeting physical manifestations of the faith. Christian-owned small businesses, particularly those selling alcohol, have been attacked, and many shopkeepers murdered. The director of the Iraqi Museum, Donny George, a respected Assyrian, says that he was forced to flee Iraq to Syria in fear of his life, and that Islamic fundamentalists obstructed all of his work that was not focused on Islamic artifacts. Assyrian leaders also complain of deliberate discrimination in the January 2005 elections. In some cases, they claim, ballot boxes did not arrive in Assyrian towns and villages, voting officials failed to show up, or ballot boxes were stolen. They also cite the intimidating presence of Kurdish militia and secret police near polling stations. Recently, however, there are signs the Iraqi Kurdish authorities are being more protective of their Christian communities. Sadly, the plight of Iraq’s Christians is not an isolated one in the Middle East. In Iran, the population as a whole has nearly doubled since the 1979 revolution; but, under a hostile regime, the number of Christians in the country has fallen from roughly 300,000 to 100,000. In 1948, Christians accounted for roughly 20% of the population of what was then Palestine; since then, their numbers have roughly halved. In Egypt, emigration among Coptic Christians is disproportionately high; many convert to Islam under pressure, and over the past few years violence perpetrated against the Christian community has taken many lives. The persecution of these ancient and unique Christian communities, in Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole, is deeply disturbing. Last April, the European Parliament voted virtually unanimously for the Assyrians to be allowed to establish (on the basis of section 5 of the Iraqi Constitution) a federal region where they can be free from outside interference to practice their own way of life. It is high time now that the West paid more attention, and took forceful action to secure the future of Iraq’s embattled Christians.
 Charles Tannock is Vice-President of the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament and UK Conservative foreign affairs spokesman. Mr. Tannock's article appears on Project Syndicate's website. Project Syndicate is an association of world's newspapers currently consisting of 290 newspapers in 115 countries, with a total circulation of 42,893,253 copies. Project Syndicate is a not-for-profit institution. Financial contributions from member papers in developed countries support the services provided free by Project Syndicate to members in less advanced economies. Additional support comes from the Open Society Institute, Politiken Foundation and Die Zeit Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius Foundation.
Islam and Assyria: an Impossible Coexistence Peter BetBasoo Islam proclaims that once a territory is conquered by Muslims it can never revert to non-Muslim rule. It is this law that even today grieves Muslims for having lost Spain. Very few conquered territories have regained their independence from Islam since the beginning of the Muslim war on the world in 630 A.D.. Those that have succeeded have often faced intense pressure from surrounding Muslim states. New non-Muslim states that have sprung in the heart of "Islamic territory" -- Israel, for example -- have been perennially at defensive war with the surrounding Muslim states. Israel's case is instructive. With significant military and monetary support from the Jewish Diaspora and friendly nations, Israel still finds itself in a precarious position. Even the threat of its nuclear arsenal cannot guarantee that a nuclear Muslim state, such as Iran, would be deterred from using such weapons of mass destruction. Because in Islam the Shari'a is the supreme law that cannot be superceded by any other law, be it civil, international or religious, and because the Shari'a does not distinguish between church and state, any land ruled by Shari'a must ipso facto be Islamic in identity and nature. The Shari'a effectively and unambiguously defines the political State as Islam and Islam as the political State. There is no distinction between Caesar and God in Islam. Assyria, the homeland of the Assyrians, has been under Muslim rule for fourteen centuries. Beginning in 630 A.D., when Assyrians comprised 95% of the population in their homelands, until the present, where the population is 6-8% and dwindling, Assyria has been transformed into a Muslim territory. The heritage, culture and civilization of Assyrians have been systematically destroyed by violence, oppression, and apostasy forced by the sword and jizya. At present Assyrians cannot hope to establish a free Assyria even if the opportunity presented itself, for they are too few, divided, powerless and in a state of Diaspora. With a population of 3.5 million in the world, half of which living outside the Assyrian homeland, Assyrians cannot muster the economic, political and military resources to establish a free Assyria, and even if they could, such a state would come under immediate attack from its Muslim neighbors, the Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Iranians, and likely would not survive a few days beyond its declaration of independence. Islam will not allow Muslim territory to be lost. Why, then, do Assyrians fight for an Assyrian state when -- knowing full well -- this cannot be accomplished in an Islamic Middle East? There can never be a free Assyria so long as Muslims rule our lands. It is time for Assyrian nationalists to wake up from their dogmatic slumber, to shed their delusions, and to realistically reassess and reappraise their national movement. The Assyrian movement to-date has failed to unite the Syriac speaking peoples under one banner. It is now time to retreat from Assyrianism and address fundamental issues that divide our people and threaten the very existence of our nation, to wit: Church fragmentation and Islam. The Assyrian nation is divided into three main sectarian groups, controlled by three theocratic despots who prefer the preservation of their power to the preservation of their nation. They are a far cry from the days of Patriarch Yabalaha, a Mongolian who sacrificed himself for the greater good of the body of Christ. Given the division these Patriarchs are purposely sewing into the Assyrian nation, there is very little hope that Assyrians can unite in pursuit of their dream of Establishing a free Assyria. The Assyrian masses understand at a basic level, perhaps better than most intellectuals and nationalists, that the dream of a free Assyria is just that, a dream, given the Islamic reality on the Assyrian grounds and the reality of a divided and bereft Assyrian nation. In this regard, Assyrian nationalists have set unrealistic goals and expectations and as a result have inadvertently caused damage to their cause by failing to present to the common Assyrian man a realistic political agenda. It is telling that the number of Assyrian political parties is almost equal to the number of their members. The Assyrian movement, whose goal is to establish a free Assyria, cannot defeat Muslims, and so long as this is so Assyria can never rise. But Assyrians can defeat Islam, and they can do this with their greatest weapon: the Bible, which for Assyrians is more powerful than any weapon made by man because it gives us the ideas of universal love, of peace and charity, of mercy and compassion, of forgiveness. These ideas cannot be defeated by anything that Islam can muster. Christ’s salvation and redemption of man is a pull that cannot be resisted by anyone to which it is applied. I admonish the leaders of our churches to live the Word of Christ and stop dividing the Assyrians along sectarian lines, for in doing so they are dividing the Body of Christ and not following His message. We cannot fully unite our people under the Assyrian banner, and continuing the attempt only further divides our people along the denominational fault lines. But why continue the attempt at political unification when, even if it succeeds, nothing can come of it so long as Muslims rule our lands? Those of us who live in the West do not live under the Muslim yoke, but we face another danger: the disappearing Christianity in the West, which renders the West vulnerable to Muslim conversion. It is projected that Spain, Sweden and Italy will be majority Muslim within this century. I ask you: did we escape from our Muslim occupied lands into the Christian West only to witness the dying faith of our coreligionists, and to see Islam ascendant? Do we as Christians and disciples of Christ not have a duty to re-evangelize the secular West, to bring the Word once again to the people? The only way the West can repel the Islamic Jihad is to have deep religious conviction, to make Christ again an active part of the everyday life of the men of the West. If the West falls to Islam, to what safe harbors can Assyrians sail? We have twice in our 6756 year history changed the face of the world, the first time with our civilization, which was the highest at its time, and which we brought to the barbarians. The second time -- and even bigger -- was with the Word of Christ, which we brought from Cyprus to Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. When Assyrian missionaries traveled the Old Silk Road on their way to China, they embarked in groups which included Jacobites and Nestorians, but they did not travel as Jacobites or Nestorians, they traveled as Christians, and in their evangelical activities they did not distinguish themselves denominationally. It is time for the Assyrian nation to bring the Word of God to the West, because we must save the West for Christ and for us, because we cannot survive if the West falls to Islam. I challenge our Church leaders, our intellectuals, our nationalists, to set aside the political struggle and to apply the full resources of the Assyrian nation to the Christianization of the West. This means that we must not only evangelize the West, but we must fully apply ourselves in defeating Islam, not by the sword, but by the power of Christ’s words. We do so to bring genuine salvation to Muslims, to bring them to the light of Christ. No Assyrian, regardless of denomination, can resist this calling. This is what we must do to unite Jacobites and Nestorians and Chaldeans and Arameans and Maronites. Forget Assyria for now, it is now time to work for Christ. We must do this because it is our duty to God, for it says in Matthew 12:41, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.” I ask you my brothers and sisters, how can the men of Nineveh rise in judgment if there is no Assyria? And how can there be an Assyria so long as Muslims rule our lands?
Organisation and Subsititutionism Nineb Lamassu “A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves”. Frantz Fanon In a recent exchange of emails between a friend and I, he wrote, “Everyone is born patriotic (Umtanaya) and then one joins a political party to become a partisan (Gabbaya), and only then one becomes a politician.” I was bewildered as to how can my friend’s conclusions lead to such a linear evolution, one that would make Khalti Khinzada – if a party member - a world class politician and Noam Chomsky an apolitical patriotic. Since this anonymous friend of mine holds certain political weight in a leading Assyrian political entity, I felt it necessary to reduce my two cents on this subject to writing. It is my hope that this humble attempt will initiate a necessary discussion on organisation, its role and necessity within our community. What is an organisation? This question would appear to be very simple and amongst the readers there will be without a doubt many members of various organisations, who will perceive this question an idle one. But this is not so at all. As Zinoviev correctly noted, “When we are dealing with scientific definitions in those fields where masses of people are involved in a living way – this is entirely applicable to social organisations – then you will nearly always see that the representatives of different classes and world-outlooks define differently the essence of this or that social organisation.”[1] For example the initial wave of Assyrian Diaspora that has by now semi-assimilated – if not fully - within the western societies and succeeded in forming a special Assyrian bourgeois class, may perceive the Assyrian American National Federation (AANF) to be a platform to socialise and sometimes render petty deeds to feel good about ones self, while the capitalist among them see it as a waste of time or as an exploitative medium to maximise profit. But the wretched Assyrian in today’s Iraq may expect the organisation to offer relief, and better ones status by advocating and securing Assyrian rights in the new Iraq. Despite this the fact remains that a group of conscious Assyrians established the AANF as a desperate attempt to attend to the plight of the Assyrians immediately after the Semele massacre of 1933. This the AANF clarifies in the following words, “Historically, the Federation, as the Assyrian National Federation, had its birth in the fateful year of 1933, and was inspired by the merciless massacres of the Assyrians in Iraq.”[2] The AANF believed that this can only be achieved if all the Assyrian association of America worked in concert, “Pride and glory in the ancient dignity of our ancestors entail the assumption of certain obligations towards the remnant of our race, the numerous unrelated and disconnected associations, no matter how great or useful individually, cannot fulfil such obligations. The essential nature of the Assyrian American National Federation, Inc., is to assure functionally unity among Assyrian organizations.”[3] Therefore the need of establishing an organisation advocating the rights of the Assyrians through unity was deemed necessary, and AANF was to fill that void. Why do we need organisations? In an ideal world the people are capable of changing their situation, yet most of our people do not perceive themselves to be able to change their deplorable conditions. If our people were conscious of their capabilities then change would have been very simple. Since our nation has lost power for a while now and has been under the yoke of foreign rule, our people have been forced to hold all sorts of different ideas inside their heads, and the level of consciousness among our people is never uniform. My late father used to remark, “Our people carry a foreign head on their shoulders”. Therefore, we maybe able to think more like Arabs, Turks, Kurds and westerners rather than think Assyrian. Consequently our people can be segregated into three different categories. Some – usually a relatively small minority – accept nearly all the values of the powers ruling over them. Others – again a usually small minority – reject the dominant view put forward by the media, education system and other major institutions of the ruling power. Instead they develop a view which challenges those ideas and present an alternative. But the majority of the people most of the time hold to neither of these total views. They reject some ideas of the ruling powers while accepting others. They tend to accept the basic organisation of society as it is, but want to alleviate its worst effects. It is precisely due to this that we need an organised group of people. History has shown that people need a coherent theory and organisation to chart their way from oppression to emancipation. An organised leadership homogenised in thought, in touch with its people, and capable to lead must provide this theory and organisation. But this leadership must come from the people and not be imposed. It is this fact that Frantz Fanon warns against, “If the building of a bridge does not enrich the awareness of those who work on it, then that bridge ought not to be built and the citizens can go swimming across the river or going by boat. The bridge should not be ‘parachuted down’ from above; it should not be imposed by a dues ex machine upon the social scene; on the contrary it should come from the muscles and the brains of the citizens.”[4] Why do we need leadership? Leadership is necessary precisely because of the unevenness in thought and stance among our people, and because the dominant ideas in our society are those of a foreign culture and people. But every member of the community has to regard him or herself a leader. Leadership has to exist at all levels – local and international – and stems naturally from democratic centralism. It means that those building the organisation fight for their ideas and tactics within the organisation and within the community. So an organisation does not consist of a fixed leadership which always knows best. Thus, although leadership is necessary, we must however, be vigilant not to substitute leadership for a leader; again, Frantz Fanon warns against this by saying, “We ought not to cultivate the exceptional or to seek for a hero, who is another form of leader. We ought to uplift the people; we must develop their brains, fill them with ideas, change them and make them into human beings.”[5] Any successful organisation presents a special programme upon its inception. Through this programme the organisation analyses a phenomenon and offers an alternative and means to achieve this proposed alternative, i.e. set some objectives for itself as the representative of the people.
The leadership of the organisation must be in touch with its people and their needs, otherwise it will remain a small utopian minority. For the organisation to maintain a strong bond with the people and be in touch with its needs it is necessary to recruit individuals into its ranks and turn them in to cadres. Thus defining what constitutes a member is a necessity. The organisation is not to be made up of just anybody wishing to belong to it, but only those willing to accept the discipline of the organisation. In normal times the numbers of these will be only a relatively small percentage of the people but in periods of upsurge they will grow immeasurably. For example, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) had relatively small followers during the eighties but this fundamentally changed in the nineties after the UK and US imposed a “Save Haven” policed by the “no-fly zone”. Thus an upsurge naturally leads to an increase in membership. This membership or base growth is usually referred to as horizontal expansion which must be paralleled with vertical growth i.e. the organisational education of the new members. The education of the cadre is of pivotal importance and if not implemented it would result in opportunism and other negative manifestations. Therefore any horizontal growth without its vertical counterpart will naturally lead to an organisational imbalance, one that would either produce divergence from the proclaimed objectives, partisanism, subsititutionism, divisions and/or even coup de grace. On this momentous task of the leadership educating the cadres, Lenin remarks, “To forget the distinction between the vanguard and the whole of the masses gravitating towards it, to forget the vanguard’s constant duty of raising ever wider sections to its own advanced level, means simply to deceive oneself, to shut one’s eyes to the immensity of our task, and narrow down these tasks.”[6] So how do we end up with subsititutionism? The horizontal growth without its vertical partner, the leadership’s inability to educate its cadres who in turn are responsible to educate the masses through agitation, produces an organisation where differences are covered and the undisciplined cadres are unable to weigh the importance or unimportance of these differences and to determine where, how and on whose part inconsistency is shown. This would lead to a state of affairs in which – as Trotsky puts it – “the organisation of the party substitutes itself for the party as a whole; then the central committee substitutes itself for the organisation; and finally the “dictator” substitutes himself for the central committee.”[7] This is clearly demonstrated in a letter written by the legendary Agha Pitrus in 1922. In this letter Agha Pitrus paraphrases an Assyrian leader (one which he has kept anonymous) as saying, “two Assyrians under my control is better than a million; each with his respective direction”.[8] What is meant by subsititutionism in other words is when a potentially capable organisation seeks to put itself in place of the people it represents and seeks to take and hold power in its name, which usually results in a confusion between the organisation and what it represents. For example, until this very day many western Assyrians would construe “I am Assyrian” as being a member of Assyrian Democratic Organisation (ADO) and the reverse is also true. To avoid this calamity the leadership must promote a discipline that exposes differences existing within the organisation to the full light of day so as to argue them out. Only in this way can the mass of members make scientific evaluation. The organ of the organisation must be open to the opinion of those it considers inconsistent. Instead of substitutionism the task of the leadership is to connect with the problems and experiences of its members and sympathisers in such a way as to achieve a synthesis that is both a practical guide to action and a springboard for further advance. Such a syntheses is meaningful to the extent that it actually guides the activities of participants and is modified in the light of practice and that changes in circumstances which it itself produces. In conclusion, do we need organisations? Yes, as much as we need the masses: together, the people and the organisation represent a complete whole. As Trotsky puts it, “Without a guiding organisation, the energy of the masses would dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston box. But nevertheless what moves things is not the piston or the box, but the steam”.[9] In light of all that has been said in this article, does my friend’s equation of patriotism = partisanism = politician hold any ground? Well, that depends on the organisation and its leadership. Do we currently as Assyrians have such an organisation that could put my friend’s theory into practice and prove it correct? If there is one I am completely ignorant of it! Despite this, the need is still to build an organisation of conscious activists that will subject their situation and that of their people as a whole to scientific scrutiny, will ruthlessly criticise their own mistakes, and will, while engaging in everyday struggles of the masses, attempt to increase their independent self activity by unremittingly opposing their ideological and practical subservience to tyranny. Do such activists exist among us Assyrians? My recent trip to the USA lecturing for the Annual Assyrian American Convention, and my travels among the European Assyrians, and my observation through these travels allow me to hold an affirmative answer. Having said this, it is important though not to judge the capabilities of our people through individuals. That would lead to complete demoralisation because none of us is perfect. We must seek the positive in each individual, perceived as an inseparable particle of the community as a whole. Then, one would see a collective goodness worthy of ones sacrifice. Notes:
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Assyrians Left Out of Federalism Talks (ZNDA: Baghdad) After yielding to several demands from Sunni Arab parties, Iraqi political leaders agreed on Sunday to start debate on a bill that could eventually allow the country to be broken into autonomous states. Autonomous states are allowed by the new Iraqi Constitution, but the charter requires that Parliament first pass a bill defining how that would occur. A powerful faction of Shiites and Kurds tried to pass such a proposal three weeks ago. But their move angered Sunni Arabs and some Shiite and secular lawmakers, who united to block the bill. Sunni parties and other critics won two major concessions during a meeting of political leaders Sunday in return for allowing the proposal to be debated in Parliament. The Shiite faction agreed that Parliament will immediately form a committee to consider amendments to the constitution that include Sunni proposals that would restrict autonomous states. It also agreed that any move for areas to break off would be delayed until 2008, at the earliest, easing fears that the Shiites would quickly split from the rest of Iraq into one large confederation stretching from Kut to Basra. The discussions surrounding the "Nineveh Plain Administrative Region" around Mosul heated up in Iraq during the Parliamentary debates as the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East was visiting the churches in North Iraq. Reliable sources to Zinda Magazine in north Iraq indicate that high-level talks by the Assyrians, Shabaks, and Yezidis are underway with the Kurdish and Shi'ai leadership in Arbil and Baghdad, respectively. His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV Visits Iraq Courtesy of the Assyrian Church News (ZNDA: Sydney) His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, the Patriarch of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, accompanied by His Beatitude Mar Narsai Debaz, His Beatitude Mr Gewargis Slewa, His Grace Mar Emanuel and His Grace Mar Aprim Nathniel, arrived on Sunday 17 September, 2006 at Ankawa, on an official visit to Kurdistan region to open new churches and other religious projects. His Holiness was received at Mar Eliya Church by Mr Sadad Barzani , brother of the President of Kurdistan Region Mr Masoud Barzani; Mr Sargis Aghajan, Deputy Prime Minister and other ministers, Arbil Governor and Mar Raban, the Chaldean Archbishop of Ankawa. Warm welcoming speeches were presented by His Grace Mar Iskhaq Yousep, Bishop of Arbil, Dohuk and Russia, and the Kurdistan Minister for Religious Affairs. In addressing the gathering, His Holiness stressed the importance of developing and maintaining friendly relationship between all Christians and their neighbours.
Mar Dinkha Meets President Barzani, Discuss Family Ties Courtesy of Kurdistan Satellite TV in Arbil The Iraqi Kurdistan Region president, Mas'ud Barzani, received His Holiness Patriarch of Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Dinkhaa IV and his delegation, which included Archbishops of Beirut, Iraq, Canada, Syria, north Iraq and Russia. Barzani agreed to open a Christian school in Arbil, Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) satellite TV reported in its 1030 gmt bulletin on 20 September. The TV said that His Holiness Mar Dinha thanked Barzani for the meeting and spoke about his historical ties with the Barzani family. Barzani said that the Kurdistan Region would never allow discrimination against any faction in the region. Barzani welcomed the suggestion by the Patriarch of Assyrian Church of the East on opening a Christian school in Arbil.
8 Assyrians Killed in Baghdad Bombings, Many Injured (ZNDA: Baghdad) According to a report in New York Times and Ankawa.com, a series of bomb explosions on 4 October left 12 people dead and 56 wounded in the shopping district of Camp Sarah in Baghdad, a mainly Christian neighborhood. The following is a list of nine identified Assyrians and an Armenian killed in this attack:
Explosion Near Assyrian Church Kills 4, Wounds 14 Courtesy of the Deutsche Presse Agentur
(ZNDA: Baghdad) A car bomb blast near a Christian church in Baghdad early Sunday, September 24, killed four civilians and wounded 14 others including four Iraqi policemen, witnesses said. The explosion, apparently detonated via remote control, occurred while worshippers in the Church of the Virgin Mary attended Sunday mass. The policemen who were killed were members of a security patrol, employed to guard the church. No information was available as to the condition of the wounded, or whether the church was the primary target of the attack. Earlier Sunday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded in a suicide car bombing in Talafar, 450 kilometres north of Baghdad. Police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at an Iraqi army checkpoint.
Chaldean Church in Mosul Attacked Twice in 3 Days Courtesy of the Asia News
For months, tensions have been rising in Mosul, a Sunni stronghold. Some people have suggested that the anti-Christian attacks are linked to the controversy caused by the Pope’s speech in Regensburg, Germany. In fact, some flyers making anti-Christian threats were distributed around town, calling on Christians to condemn the Pope’s remarks or be killed and see their churches burnt down. Mgr Raho, Mosul’s Chaldean bishop, had posters pasted on walls saying that “neither Iraqi Christians, nor the Pope, want to destroy the relationship with Muslims.” But his action did not prevent violence from happening again. It is likely that in this as in previous cases, religion is being used for political purposes. In fact Iraqi Muslim leaders, including grand ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have expressed solidarity and understanding towards the Vatican. A representative of al-Sistani, who is Shia Islam’s highest authority in Iraq, has said that he wants to visit the Pope. In August 2004, the Church of the Holy Spirit was the target of another attack that injured the younger sister of its young parish priest, Fr Ragheed Gani. Two weeks earlier, His Beatitude Mar Emmanuel Delly, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church confirmed that Father Hanna Saad Sirop, kidnapped in Baghdad on Aug. 15, was released. Father Sirop, 34, was returning home after celebrating Mass in St. Jacob's Church in the Al Dora district of Baghdad, when he was seized by three gunmen. Days later, Benedict XVI expressed his closeness to the suffering of Iraqi victims and appealed to the kidnappers for the priest's release. Father Sirop is responsible for the theological section of Babel College, run by the Catholic Church in Baghdad. Pope Benedict XVI met Saturday with Mar Delly at the pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, on the hills south of Rome, and the Vatican did not release any details. According to Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq), 30 Christian families received threats on Friday September 29 to leave Mosul in 72 hours or be killed. Terror Campaign Targets Chaldean Church in Iraq Courtesy of the AsiaNews Blatant persecution Car bombs, artillery fire, and handmade explosives are the most commonly used tools in terrorist operations that have struck Christian targets so far. Apart from the attacks on the Church of the Holy Spirit (24, 25 September and 4,5 October), a convent of Iraqi Dominican Sisters in Mosul was also recently attacked. On 2 October, the building came under a burst of bullets that did not injure anyone. The garden of the convent, however, was burned. In the most ferocious attack this year, on Sunday 29 January, a series of coordinated blasts near churches and Christian buildings in Kirkuk and Baghdad killed three people and injured nine. Car bombs struck the Catholic Church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in Kirkuk, the Catholic Church of St Joseph in the capital and the Anglican Church in the area of Nidhal. Then too, the attacks were seen as a Muslim reaction to the "offensive" Muhammad cartoons. The people claim that the police and national army have never conducted adequate investigations or found the culprits of the violence against Iraqi churches. So communities must defend themselves: now practically every church has at least one guard, usually a young volunteer posted outside the building to watch for the arrival of possible attackers while mass goes on within. "Hidden" persecution A recent UN report denounced that religious minorities in Iraq "have become regular victims of violence and discrimination, with acts ranging from intimidation to murder." The document said: "Members of the Christian minority are particularly targeted." This is because they are more vulnerable than other communities, without an internal or external political force to defend them. Persecution is carried out not only through strong-armed or symbolic actions. AsiaNews sources have claimed that often, in Iraq, "at work and for public administration purposes, Christians are considered as second-class citizens: it always takes much longer than it would a Muslim to get a document, for example." In Baghdad, Christian government officials have not left their homes for months after they received heavy threats. Fear reigns in Basra too, in the south, as it does in Mosul in the north. Fundamentalists also target women, who are threatened or even killed for not respecting the Islamic dress code. Kidnapping of lay people and priests is on the rise, and the enormous ransoms requested bring families and entire communities to their knees. "Christians are held to be more well-off than other communities," said Yousef Lalo, assistant to the governor of Mosul. "So people seek to extort as much money from them as possible." Christians themselves say they have now become used to accusations dubbing them as "infidel crusaders" that "echo" throughout cities and towns. The emigration problem Out of a population of 27 million Iraqis, Christians account for around 800,000 (3%), divided into various rites and denominations. A 1987 census estimated that members of Christian communities amounted to 1.4 million. The drop is mainly due to growing emigration: around 100,000 have left since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. Many go to Jordan. According to UNHCR estimates, in the first four months of 2006, Christians were the largest group of new refugees in Amman. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 44% of Iraqis seeking asylum in Syria are Christians. There is also much migration to Turkey, Sweden and Australia. Internal displacement towards the more peaceful Kurdistan is also widespread. Qaraqosh, 67 km from Arbil, until recently had 30,000 residents, more than 90% of them Catholics. Now population figures have climbed to 50,000 following the arrival of many families from Baghdad and Mosul. Security remains a problem: Sarkis Aghajan, a Christian who is the Finance Minister of Kurdistan’s regional government, said more than 30 Christian villages had been rebuilt, "but people do not want to return until they feel safe". Aghajan said: "If our friends do not help us now, their friendship will not be worth anything in the future. If things continue like this, Baghdad and Mosul will be emptied of Christians." Even if in different dimensions, the tragedy facing Iraqi Christians is the same as that afflicting Sunnis and Kurds as well as the Shiite majority. There is no let up in sectarian violence like attacks on mosques. Iraq’s Migration Minister said the number of Muslims fleeing Baquba in Diyala province was "on the rise". This is the area hardest hit by clashes after Baghdad.
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Assyrians, Assyria, and the Rise of Islam The first week of Ramadan this year saw the highest rise in suicide bombings in Iraq in one week’s time. Reaction to the Pope’s quote about Mohammed bringing only violence with his religion sent a wave of violent reaction throughout the Muslim world, some threatening the murder of every Christian within their borders until the Pope apologized. They didn’t retract the statement once the Pope apologized. Recently declassified U.S. intelligence reports indicate a massive rise in jihadism in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world, which the war in Iraq is helping facilitate. A French philosophy teacher, Robert Redeker, was forced into hiding after receiving death threats for writing a critical article about Islam last week – one such criticism being that Mohammed was a “merciless war leader”. The list continues. While Assyrians in the Diaspora continue to cry for their civil rights in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, Islamism is on the rise and Christians are their primary target. The world is rarely a black and white place. Shades of gray rule the earth, and variables ad infinitum contribute to the philosophical ponderings that usually precede a final conclusion. There are many reasons Muslims behave more violently toward their religious and ethnic minorities, their women, and even each other, than others on earth: poor socioeconomic factors are usual contributors to violence, colonialism fuels fury against oppressors, and Eastern male egos are typically chauvinistic against women.
But, as Persian writer Amir Teheri said after September 11, 2001, there is a reason that out of 30 or so conflicts in the world, 28 of them involve Muslims on at least one side. Basically, it isn’t coincidence. Actually, many Muslim writers attribute more specific reasons than mere economics and politics for the violence that exists in Islamic societies, most being the Koranic interpretations themselves. There are about 160 verses in the Koran that preach jihad – the violent kind, not the self-spiritual struggle kind – that writers like Irshad Manji argue fuel violence, while other verses of peace – of which there are also many – go virtually ignored. The only problem with this reasoning is that if the Suras of violence against Christians, Jews, unbelievers, and women exist – and they do – then it is just as unreasonable to ask Muslims to ignore those and follow the peace loving ones than it is to ignore the peace-loving ones and follow the violent ones. And if there’s doubt as to the ultimate message of Allah and His Prophet Mohammed, then the default is to look at Mohammed’s own actions and how he lived Islam, which was anything but peaceful. So let’s call a spade a spade. While some Islamic scholars have managed to convince the West that Islam is basically love and peace, Assyrians have lived among Islam for over 1400 years and have barely survived. Their population in the Middle East would likely be in the tens of millions, if not more, were it not for Islam spreading itself by the sword. Assyrians live amongst Muslims today. On the one hand their real-life experience makes them wonder how the West can befriend such people, and on the other, for fear of retaliation, don’t speak up about what their daily lives are like in those countries. To be fair, Assyrians in Iraq have likely had the most “pleasant” experience, as many Iraqi Arabs became communists after World War II, and Ba’athists are not Islamists, but rather Arab nationalists, and persecute on political ideology or ethnic orientations rather than religious ones. But that did not mean being a Christian in Iraq was easy, or that they enjoyed first-class citizenship – communism and Ba’athism may have saved them from Islamic fundamentalism, but the rules of life as a Christian living in a Muslim country still prevailed. While Islamic apologists and progressives insist to the Western world that people like bin Laden have “hijacked” the religion, and that Islam is inherently peaceful, there is as of yet a single Muslim country that lives out this theory in practice. If a religion is only as good as how it is practiced, then academic discussions about the “true peaceful nature” of Islam are meaningless until it actually exists somewhere on earth. And while it is appreciated that scholars wish to change the perception of Islam in the West, they would better spend their time changing the practice of Islam in many of those countries. That would be much more helpful, and would do the job itself of changing the perception the world has of this religion. While I don’t argue that most Muslims are an inherently violent people (quite to the contrary, many choose to follow the peaceful aspects of the Koran – “choose” being the operative word), I do not pretend that Islam is an inherently peaceful religion. So what does this have to do with Assyrians and Assyria? Well, everything. The new Iraqi Constitution is inspired by Islamic law, and it states that no law shall be passed that is in conflict with Shariya. This is inherently un-democratic, as Islamic law is inherently un-democratic in nature. Islam is not just a religion – it is a political and social structure that dictates the lives of those who live under it. And for Assyrians, who are not Muslim, this means disaster. If Assyrians (or Shabaks, or Yezidis, or even secular Arabs and Kurds) wish to live their lives in Iraq outside of Islam, an Islamic inspired Constitution does not allow for it. Women, in particular, will suffer the most, as Shariya law is harshest against them. If Assyrians want to face reality, one of two things MUST happen: Either the Iraqi Constitution erases references to Islam, or Assyrians live outside of the reach of the Iraqi Constitution. Frankly, enough is enough. No one, not even Iraqis, are sure of how the Iraqi constitution will be implemented. Many Iraqi Members of Parliament – Muslim and non-Muslim – want a secular government, while others do not. The language of the constitution is so vague that even in practice it is difficult to ascertain how to interpret it. A recent example of this is the “war of words” between Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish north of Iraq, and Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani; they are arguing over how the constitution defines oil ownership, distribution, and who exactly can sign and enforce oil contracts. With the vague definition of “inspiration” of Shariya law in the constitution, Shariya can either be implemented lightly, or forced upon the population heavily. To the Christians of Iraq, mainly the Assyrians, this is not only wildly unfair, but also dangerous to their security and safety. Recently, a Member of Parliament in the Kurdish occupied north of Iraq, Sarkis Aghajan, who is an Assyrian, states his dissatisfaction with the Kurdish draft constitution for the Kurdish occupied areas of Northern Iraq. Whether or not this constitution will actually be used, he argued it did not guarantee the national rights of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people (who this author prefers to call “Assyrians of different religious orientations”, but I digress). In Islamic countries – however secular – there must also be a heavily enforced stipulation: that all religious groups, whether Shia, Sunni, Catholic or Protestant, enjoy full rights of their faith, are not subject to each other’s rules, and will enjoy safety and security and full practice of their religion. This may sound like the ultimate “good feeling” answer, but there is a monster behind those words: Muslims, by dictation of Islamic law, cannot live under non-Islamic law. And since Islamic law calls for either forced conversion or a heavy tax of non-Muslims (jizya), this presents an inherent problem. After all, men like bin Laden don’t only want to destroy the U.S. and Israel – high on their hit-list is “secular” Turkey, a Muslim country who defies, for the most part, Islamic laws. So how does this become reconciled?
The immediate answer is enforcement: Since the U.S. and Europe have decided to engage themselves in Middle Eastern affairs, and the U.S. specifically in Iraq, then it is their burden to ensure that their budding “democracies” are enforced. Do not go halfway. There is an ugly truth to Islamism that Westerners are uncomfortable with – you either surrender to it, or you destroy it. There is no middle ground. The long term answer is ensuring security to those surrounded by Islamism and who will be at its mercy. Israelis enjoy their full rights as Jews because they are protected with two fierce militaries – theirs and the U.S.’s. If Assyrians are granted their own governed area – which they have more right to than ANY group in the Middle East, be they Kurd, Arab, Turk, or Jew – then they must be allowed to have their own security force and be protected under international jurisdiction. Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Jews – all have their own security, while the most vulnerable AND OLDEST population goes un-protected, left to fend for themselves, or, even more sadly, FORCED to put hope in the success of “Kurdistan” so they may go like beggars from one Muslim group, the Arabs, to another, for their livelihood. Without these things, only a strong central Iraq, with secured borders, able to throw off the burden that Islamists are putting on them to make an “Islamic Iraq”, can Assyrians maybe hope to live in peace, finally free of persecution. Assyrians have been able to adapt and live among the Muslims, but living freely, comfortable, and happily are different than “learning to survive among them” by keeping low heads and profiles. So until a guarantee is given, by the U.S. and by the Iraqi government, Assyrians don’t want to hear the scholarly debate on how Shariya and democracy are reconcilable, they don’t care if the Koran is actually “misinterpreted by opportunists”, and they laugh off the academic deliberations over the true peaceful and equal nature of Islam. Islam has had 1400 years to show different, so until they start showing and stop talking, action is necessary to prevent this vulnerable Assyrian population long-term survival in a Muslim Middle East. |
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European Parliament Report Drops Assyrian Genocide Clause Courtesy of Zaman International (ZNDA: Strasbourg) The Turkey report prepared by Dutch parliamentarian Camiel Eurlings was adopted Wednesday at a European Parliament (EP) meeting, but it included revisions. There were 429 ‘yes’ votes, 71 ‘no’ votes, and 125 abstained. A clause that would have set the recognition of the alleged Armenian genocide as a pre-condition for Turkey’s EU membership and the proposal on a privileged partnership for Turkey, rather than full EU membership, were rejected. The non-binding report called on Ankara to accelerate its reform process. Before the vote, the majority of Socialist, Liberal and Green Party MPs asked for the withdrawal of the paragraph on genocide. The proposal demanding the withdrawal of the genocide clause was adopted with 320 ‘yes’ votes against 282 ‘no’ votes. The report, referred to by some parliamentarians as “a lobby report,” also called for the indirect recognition of the Assyrian and Pontus Greek genocides. By adopting the report, the EP aims to influence the content of the progress report to be released on Nov. 8.
It is the first time an EP report referred to the Greek Pontus and Assyrian “genocides,” as well as to the headscarf issue. The impact of the efforts to make the document on the Cyprus issue more balanced was limited. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies, who went to the EP to hold meetings, noted that while the revised report was more positive, the genocide paragraph was disturbing. Rapparteur Eurlings, who cited the report as “balanced” was asked a number of questions on the subject. Asserting that the report’s references to the Pontus and Assyrian “genocides” were not calls for genocide recognition, Eurlings stated that they were meant to encourage Turkey to face its past. Paragraph 50 of the report calling for recognition of the purported Armenian genocide urges Turkey to open its Armenian border, improve its bilateral relations and establish diplomatic relations with Armenia. The same paragraph also proposes the investigation of the “genocide” issue by a commission to be established under the auspices of the United Nations The conclusion of the paragraph urges the adoption of the same approach with regard to the “other minorities,” in reference to the Greek Pontians and Assyrians. The paragraph, which lacks quality and coherence, calls for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Pontians and Assyrians, for whom no state exists.. The report, which rejects the clause that would set the recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey as a membership pre-condition, implies that Pontians and Assyrians were subjected to “genocide,” just like the Armenians. Even though the amendment proposal submitted by Greek MPs to recognize the Greek Pontus “genocide” was rejected, the last two expressions in the report disturbed Turkey’s delegation. The references made to those three “genocides” spurred a new debate on how to read the report. Joost Lagendijk, the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission co-chairman, and Eurlings said that the report did not make a call for the recognition of Pontus and Assyrian “genocides,” but aimed instead at encouraging Turkey to discuss its past. Vural, an EP member of Turkish origin, strongly condemned the expressions on “genocides.” Because the report made indirect references to the “genocides,” it is most likely that the upcoming EP reports will contain similar expressions. Watson: Turkey Deserves Better Report Speaking to Zaman immediately after the vote, Liberal Party leader Graham Watson said that he preferred to abstain from voting since he did not approve the report. Noting that Turkey deserved a more embracing and positive report, Watson further said that the majority of the Liberal group abstained in the voting session based on its unbalanced content. Citing its unbalanced approach with regard to the Cyprus issue and references made to the Assyrian and Pontus “genocides” as the most disturbing aspects of the report, Watson noted that the European Union should help Turkish society discuss the issue of the alleged Armenian genocide. Southern California Assyrian Indicted on Charges of Spying for Saddam Hussein in the 1990s Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times William Shaoul Benjamin was arrested Sept. 14 for allegedly acting as a foreign agent without registering with the attorney general, as required by law. He also was charged with lying under oath to immigration officials. Benjamin pleaded not guilty on Sept 18 and was released on a $500,000 bond. At his ranch-style home in West Hills, California Benjamin declined to comment. He referred questions to his attorney, James Blatt, who did not return several phone calls. According to the federal grand jury indictment, returned in June and unsealed Sept. 14, Benjamin is accused of working for the Iraqi Intelligence Service from 1993 to 2001, under the codename "9211." The indictment alleges that Benjamin met with intelligence service officers in Iraq and Tunisia, and received three payments totaling $8,500, as well as two bottles of whiskey. The indictment reveals only this about what Benjamin allegedly did for the Iraqi government: "Defendant Benjamin would infiltrate groups and organizations located in the United States that were considered by the Iraqi Intelligence Service to be hostile to the government of Iraq under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. [He] would collect information regarding these groups and organizations, and the individuals in them, and provide this information to co-conspirators who were Iraqi Intelligence Service officers." The indictment did not say which groups were allegedly infiltrated. Several local Muslim leaders with ties to the Iraqi community said they had never heard of Benjamin. Assistant U.S. Atty. Judith Heinz, who is prosecuting the case, would not comment. If convicted on all counts, Benjamin faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. Assyrian Congress of Georgia Statement on Boris Ivanov Press Release Assyrian International Congress of Georgia The false accusations against General Boris Ivanov in Georgia has become top news all around the World. We, the members of the Assyrian International Congress of Georgia, urge you to pay attention to this case, an example of violation of civil and human rights. On the 27th of July 2006 a group of armed Special Police Force officers broke into the house of General Boris Ivanov, locked the house gate, rounded him off and planted a small bag of unknown substance in his pocket.
More than two months have passed since the arrest of General Boris Ivanov. In the initial round of judicial examination of this case, General Ivanov was accused of possessing drugs . Several witnesses can testify against these accusations. General Boris Ivanov did not possess any drugs when he was arrested. A small bag was placed in his pocket to plant false evidence. The arrest of Boris Ivanov has shocked not only people of Georgia (Assyrians and members of other ethnic groups), but also members of the Assyrian Diaspora elsewhere. Many have expressed their solidarity by sending signing petitions in support of General Boris Ivanov. Ivanov’s life, as recalled by members of his community, is full of countless stories of his altruism and generosity. He is remembered as a citizen who dedicated his entire life fighting crime and battling drug trade. He has always served his country of Georgia with pride. Boris Ivanov was also one of the founders of the Assyrian International Congress of Georgia and the first president of this organization. He was an honorable member of many Assyrian Organizations such as the Assyrian Universal Alliance (UNPO member), Assyrian Council of Illinois, Assyrian Organization “Khayadta”, Assyrian American National Federation. This case is at the centre of attention in the Assyrian Diaspora communities. Assyrian organizations, such as the Assyrian American National Federation have written letters of protest to the Georgian government demanding proper investigation in this case and the immediate release of General Ivanov; because he is innocent. The Assyrian TV and media from around the world have shed light on Boris Ivanov’s case. Suroyo TV which reaches 52 countries has mentioned General Ivanov's case on several news editions. Mr. Nuri Kino, the Swedish Assyrian investigative journalist (one of Europe’s most awarded) visited Georgia in September to investigate this case. According to the newspaper “Georgian Times” and the TV news “Imedi” Nuri Kino has met many eyewitnesses, representatives of the authorities and the government. The outcome of Nuri Kino’s investigation is that Boris Ivanov under no circumstances could have possessed any drugs on him when he was arrested. Assyrians have held several meetings to express their objection at the Georgian embassies in Moscow and Washington. Presently, there are many letters in support of General Boris Ivanov from US Senator John Nimrod, the President of the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation (AUAF); Ms. Attiya Gamri, the Assyrian Dutch politician; The Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA), Assyrian National Council of Illinois, Assyrian American National Federation (AANF), Assyrian Organization “Khayadta” in Moscow; AUA chapter in Australia, Assyrian Academic Society (USA), “Open Heart Society” (USA), and the Assyrian International Congress of Georgia. We hope that the arrest of and accusation against Mr. Boris Ivanov is deemed a misunderstanding and that justice and fair resolution will prevail in this case. AUA Annual Conference Press Release
Assyrian Elected to Winnetka Neighborhood Council
(ZNDA: Los Angeles) Mrs. Nina Fomaeva Essavi has been elected for a two year term on the Winnetka Neighborhood Council in Southern California. She overcame 12 other candidates to win a seat out of four available. She will join her husband Jozef Thomas Essavi, who has been on the Council Board since last year when he ran as an independent against a well organized slate. A neighborhood council is a non-political organization that allows each neighborhood to influence decision-making at the City-Hall. Mrs. Essavi ran on the platform of reform, financial transparency and term limits and promises to be be a crucial vote towards reform. Both Husband and wife are proud of their Assyrian American Heritage. Stolen Aramaic Incantation Bowl Returned to Iraq Courtesy of BBC News It came to police attention when a man attempted to sell it to a London auction house in August 2003. The man was arrested in November 2003 and although there was insufficient evidence to charge him, he chose to disclaim the item. Detectives were unable to establish where the manuscript was prior to 2003. A second artefact was also returned - an ancient Aramaic incantation bowl believed to have been illegally looted from an unknown area of Iraq and worth about £1,000 to £2,000. Det Sgt Vernon Ripley who heads the Arts and Antiques Unit said: "The return of these items demonstrates the success of our unit in raising awareness within the London arts market of the need to be aware of stolen artefacts being sold on." Both artefacts were received by the Iraqi Ambassador for London, Dr Salah Al-Shaikhly, after being handed over by Commander Sue Wilkinson. Assyrian Student Killed in Car Accident in California Courtesy of Mercury News Now, her Iraqi-born parents are left with a gaping void after Ms. Essa, 21, was killed in a Milpitas car accident last Friday afternoon on her way home from picking up her aunt in Fremont, California. Her aunt, Jini Essa, broke an arm in the accident. ``It's impossible to tell you how I feel,'' said her mother, Juliet Essa, who came to the United States in the 1970s. ``She was my best friend. My eyes. My life. Why did God take her? I wish he would take me soon, too.'' Milpitas police are investigating what led to Nenveh Essa's death. A 2004 Ford Escape driven by a 20-year-old Milpitas man, who wasn't identified, jumped a median on Abel Street and struck the Ford Escort Ms. Essa was driving about 3:30 p.m. Lt. Tom Borck said the preliminary investigation shows the man was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and he has not been arrested. Borck also said the man has cooperated with police. Ms. Essa borrowed the family car that day and was trying to avoid the busy freeway, deciding to take city streets home to Milpitas, her mother said. If it were the day before, Ms. Essa would have been at Santa Clara University, her mother said, where she was studying accounting and business -- even though her dream was to work in Hollywood. ``She said accountants make good money,'' Juliet Essa said. ``But she really wanted to be a director. But she said this way, `At least I have another choice.' ''
Nenveh Essa was born in San Jose and grew up in Milpitas. Juliet and Gabriel Essa consider themselves Assyrians from Iraq and are practicing Catholics. Juliet Essa said her father always dreamed of coming to the United States, but didn't achieve that goal before he died. Nenveh Essa was realizing the family dream. Her mother said she worked hard and earned good grades throughout school, attending Pearl Zanker Elementary School in Milpitas, St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Milpitas in junior high and Notre Dame High School San Jose. Many of those teachers and friends were visiting the Essa family at their home Tuesday, giving support to relatives, including cousin Elias Pera, 23, who flew in from Chicago and remembered Ms. Essa as a shy girl who grew into young woman who was ``talkative and joking.'' A receptionist who didn't give her name at St. John the Baptist said Ms. Essa was a ``wonderful'' student and that the school community was ``praying'' for her family. Whenever her parents needed help, especially when it involved navigating the English language, she was there. Juliet Essa works in the cafeteria at Zanker Elementary, and Gabriel Essa was laid off from an electronics company. ``She is the one who take care of us,'' said Juliet Essa, acknowledging that her English is shaky, as Assyrian and Arabic are her first languages. ``Since kindergarten, she has been doing all the homework herself. When I make credit card calls, you know, they have lots of messages, I always push the wrong number.'' Her daughter would always help. ``On my cell phone, I push the wrong buttons. `Mom, you have 17 messages. You have to learn. I can't be with you every minute to fix your telephone.' '' But her daughter never said no. Even if Nenveh Essa was at the movies with her friends, she'd always put her cell phone on vibrate and answer her mother's calls. On Friday, her mother called and called, terribly worried when her daughter didn't return her messages. She found out the reason why about 8 that night when two men from the coroner's office knocked on her door. Rev. Gabriel R. Brakhia (1951-2006) (ZNDA: Los Angeles) Reverend Gabriel R. Brakhia, 55, of Anaheim, California; former priest of St. Thomas Assyrian Church of the East in New Britain, died unexpectedly Tuesday (September 12, 2006) in California. Born in Beirut, Lebanon he was son of the late Rihan and Asiat Brakhia. He came to the United States in 1973 and resided in Yonkers, NY for eight years. He later moved to New Britain and then Newington before moving to California two years ago. He served as a Deacon at St. Thomas Assyrian Church for 11 years and was ordained a Priest on July 11, 1999. Father Brakhia served the St. Thomas Parish for five years before taking a church in California. Father Brakhia is survived by his wife Anna Maria (Elia) Brakhia; a daughter, Samara Brakhia in Anahiem, CA; two brothers and there wives, John and Romina Brakhia and Zaya and Victoria Brakhia, all of Yonkers; eight sisters and there spouses, Anna and Edmund Constantine and Jeanette and Robert Shononeskol all of Yonkers, NY; Almas and Egdar Zodo, Zelfa and Andre David, Mirna and Henry Abboud, Georgette and Serge Akiba, Asmar and Tony Gemayel and Juliette Brakhia, all of Chicago, IL; many nieces and nephews. Graveside services were held Monday 11:15 a.m. at St. Thomas Cemetery, New Britain. A procession to the cemetery was formed Monday morning 11 a.m. at St. Thomas Assyrian Church of the East, Cabot Street, New Britain. There were no calling hours. Memorial donations may be made to St. Thomas Assyrian Church of the East. Cynthia "Cindy" Besho (1951-2006) (ZNDA: New Britain) Cynthia "Cindy" Besho, 51, of New Britain, Connecticut, died Wednesday (September 20, 2006) at Hartford Hospital.
A native and lifelong New Britain resident, she was daughter of Rachel (Yohanan) Besho of New Britain and the late Matthew Besho. Cindy graduated from New Britain High School, Class of 1974 and attended the University of Connecticut. She was office manager of the Monroe Group Staffing Services in New Britain for the past six years. She was a member of South Church in New Britain and also attended St. Thomas Assyrian Church of the East. Besides her mother Rachel, she leaves a brother, Mark Besho of New Britain; an uncle, Ernest Yohanan and an aunt, Mary David, both of New Britain; and four cousins, Barbara David and Marlene Whitsett, both of Windsor; Julie David of New York City and Mary David of Malibu, CA. A memorial service was held Tuesday 1 p.m. at South Church, 90 Main Street, New Britain, CT 06051. Burial was at the convenience of the family in St. Mary Cemetery. There were no calling hours. Memorial donations may be made to the South Church or to St. Thomas Assyrian Church of the East, Cabot Street, New Britain, CT 06051. |
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Did Zinda Forget September 11 ? Ashour Lazar
It saddens me to read your September 11, 2006 issue of Zinda Magazine, not because of what was covered in the issue, but what was not covered. How can you publish your current issue on September 11, 2006 and not even mention the terrorist attacks the took place five years prior on September 11, 2001. There isn't a simple "We Remember" or "God Bless America ." The only picture of the American and Assyrian flags are in the picture of Mr. Aladdin Khamis, who was the main story in issue, standing in front of them. How could your crew not mention, not even a sentence of this tragedy when you are located in Washington , D.C. the function of the United States of America? While the AANF topic covered is important so is the mentioning of 9/11. As citizens of this country we must always respect and remember the tragedies of this great nation or whatever nation we (the Assyrian People) are living and when our resident country is having a celebration we must part take in that event. I hope that next time the Zinda Crew will take a moment to honor and remember what is happen in their country. Has Zinda Abandoned Ship? Albert Michael I feel deeply perplexed after reading the lead editorial in Zinda magazine’s issue 18, dated 11 September 2006. I am not one to neither speculate nor point fingers at anyone without just cause, particularly against our No.1 Assyrian publication Zinda magazine or it’s chief editor Mr Wilfred Bet-Alkhas. However, shortly after the last issue was published I was bombarded with comments by Assyrians from all over the world condemning the tone and nature of your editorial, and certainly their comments strikes a chord with me too, because this was a veiled attack against the movement of our people – the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) and His Grace Bishop Mar Bawai Soro.
The journalistic attributes of Zinda magazine have always been exemplary, however this sudden switch from one extreme to another seems to a certain extent to be acutely sinister. For instance, your editorial blames Mr Alaidin Khamis and his supporters for foolishly encouraging and championing the unnecessary split in the Assyrian Church of the East (ACE). The truth however is that those that fashioned the split had conspired months before the Synod to oust His Grace Mar Bawai Soro from their midst, and despite our pleas for leniency to Patriarch Dinkha his response was one of complete denial that His Grace Mar Bawai would be reprimanded, in fact he had categorically stated that no such matter was on the agenda of the Synod meeting that took place on Halloweens day. However this gross lie was subsequently revealed inadvertently or even deliberately by none other than the corrupt bishop of Australia, Meelis Zaia who exposed the following in court under oath when questioned by his attorney Mr Robert Sturges: Pages 49 & 50 of the reporter’s transcript of proceedings in the superior court of Santa Clara held on 01 February 2006. (Question by Plaintiffs attorney Robert Sturges) Now that makes me ask the question, do you know what Bishop Soro was referr |
