|
||||||||||||||||
Click on Blue Links in the left column to jump to that section within this issue. Most blue links are hyperlinked to other sections or URLs. |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
"We are All Hrant Dink"
Receiving death threats for those of us who question the authority every day in the pages of our publications is a norm; it comes with the job. However when these threats become a vicious act of barbarism, hatred frighteningly becomes a reminder of the vile side of our bestial nature. Since the start of the new year two Christian journalism staff in Iraq and Turkey have been killed, one Assyrian and the other an Armenian. The former, Hanna Warda Sliwa, distributed copies of the Assyrian publication of the Assyrian Democratic Movement - Bahra - to numerous stops in Iraq. The latter carried the message of truth in the face of injustice in the courtrooms of Turkey. Both were killed by racist killers who despise plurality and freedom. Last Friday, Hrant Dink, a fellow journalist and the editor of a bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper called Agos, was assassinated outside of his office in Istanbul. Hrant was 53. His crime was his courage to discuss the genocide of the Christians in the hands of the Turkish government during the First World War. When the police searched his office after his death some 2,600 death threats directed at him were found in his possession. In a magnificent display of support and solidarity, for every death threat discovered a thousand mourner marched through the streets of Istanbul, weeping and chanting: "We are all Armenians" and "We are all Hrant Dink". According to Article 301 of Turkey's Penal Code it is a crime to "denigrate Turkishness". By discussing the Assyrian (Armenian and Greek) Genocide of 1915 Hrant Dink and the Nobel prize-winning novelist, Orhan Pamuk, both received jail sentences for insulting Turkishness, based on this meaningless ultra-nationalist penal source of prejudice and violent xenophobia. Until now, Article 301 has been the main source of Turkey's silence and denial. Now it is provoking the assassination of high-profile journalists and authors. Article 301 must be repealed NOW and Ankara should make a serious effort toward a public recognition of the Seyfo Genocide of 1915 where millions of Assyrians, Armenians, and Greeks were decimated. Two out of every three Assyrian living in the Ottoman Empire perished between 1915 and 1923 as the result of this crime against humanity. Zinda Magazine dedicates this issue to the memory of Hrant Dink, the latest victim of the Seyfo Genocide, and honors his struggle by publishing his last article in Agos. Hrant wrote this article shortly before his assassination. Allaha manikhleh! The ‘Dove Skittishness’ of My Soul Hrant Dink In the beginning I was not concerned about the investigation initiated by Şişli Public Prosecutor under the pretext “insulting Turkish identity”. This was not for the first time. I was familiar with a similar case from Urfa. I was being prosecuted since three years because of my statement at a conference in Urfa in 2002 where I said that “I was not Turk but an Armenian and a citizen of Turkey” and there was again the accusation of “insulting Turkish identity”. I was completely unaware of the trials, I was not interested at all. Some of my lawyer friends from Urfa were dealing with the case in my absence.
I was sure of myself. But to my surprise, the case came up in court. Still I didn’t lose my optimism. So I even told to lawyer Kerinçsiz who accused me during a live Tv program that “he should not be so eager that I would not be punished due to this case and that in case of punishment I would leave the country.” I was sure of myself, I really did not have the will or intention to “insult the Turkish identity”. Everyone reading the whole of the series of my articles would understand this. And indeed the committee of three academicians from Istanbul University who were appointed as experts submitted a report to the court revealing this understanding. I had no reason to be concerned, in this or that stage of the case this mistake would be erased. While remaining patient, it wasn’t erased. The Public Prosecutor wanted to penalize me despite the positive report of the expert committee. Then the judge gave me six months imprisonment. I was bearing all this and remaining patient with the expectation of the verdict of not-guilty. My only weapon is my sincerity But now the verdict was there and all my hopes were lost. From that time on, I was in the most embarrassing situation a man can experience. The judge gave the decision in the name of “Turkish people” and legally registered that I had “insulted Turkish identity”. I could bear everything but not this. In my view, to humiliate people who we live together on the basis of an ethnic or religious difference is called racism and this is something unforgivable. Just under the influence of such a psychology, I told the members of the press who were waiting for me at the door to check “whether I would leave the country or not” the following statement: A bad joke But the deep force determinant as it was to alienate me and to turn me to an open target found again a pretext to my statement and this time sued me stating that I was trying to effect the jurisdiction. This explanation was published and broadcast in all means of media but only the one in Agos drew their attention. This time responsibles of Agos and I began to be sued under the pretext of effecting the jurisdiction. It should be a bad joke. I am a defendant. Who else should have more right to effect the jurisdiction rather than a defendant? But look at the comedy, that this time the defendant is once again sued as to effect the jurisdiction. ‘In the name of Turkish State’ I have to admit that my confidence to the “justice system” and to the concept of “law” was shaken to a large extent. It meant that the jurisdiction was not independent as many state officers and politicians dared to say. Jurisdiction did not defend the rights of the citizen but the State. In fact I was totally sure that even if it was said that the decision was taken in the name of the people, it was actually taken in the name of the State. My lawyers would apply to Court of Appeal but who could guarantee that deep forces would not be effective there again as determinant as they were to make me down? And were all the decisions of the Court of Appeal right indeed? Was it not the same Court of Appeal having signed the unjust decisions confiscating the real estates of the Minority Foundations? Despite the efforts of the Attorney General We applied indeed, but did it make sense at all? The Attorney General of Court of Appeal, like the experts stated that there was no element of guilt and demanded my acquittal but the Court of Appeal found me guilty again. To the extent I was sure of my article so was The Attorney General of Court of Appeal of his decision that he objected the verdict and brought the case to the General Council. Like a dove It is obvious that those wishing to alienate me and make me weak and defenseless reached their goal. Right now they have brought about a significant circle of people who are not low in number and who regard me as someone “insulting Turkish identity” due to the dirty and wrong information. The diary and memory of my computer is full of messages from citizens of this circle full of rage and threats. (Let me note that I regarded one among them posted from Bursa as a close threat and submitted it to Public Prosecutor’s office in Şişli but got no result.) To what extent are these threats real and to what extent unreal? In fact it is impossible for me to know this. What is the real threat and what is unbearable for me is the psychological torture of myself. What I have always in my mind is the following question: “What do these people now think of me?” Unfortunately I am more popular nowadays and feel the look of the people telling each other: “Look, isn’t it that Armenian?” And just as a reflex action, I start to torture myself. Like a dove I have my eyes everywhere, in front of me, at the back, on the left, on the right. Just look at the price... This is the price What did Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül say? What did Minister of Justice Cemil Çiçek say? “The issue of Article 301 should not be exaggerated. Is there someone found guilty and sent to prison?” As if paying a price always means going to prison... Just look at the price... This is the price...Do you know Ministers what a price it is to imprison someone to the skittishness of a dove?.. Do you know it?.. Don’t you look at the doves at all?... The thing they call “life and death” What I experienced was not an easy process... Neither for me nor for my family. There were times when I seriously thought about leaving the country. Especially at moments when the threats focused the ones close to me... At that point I always remained helpless. What they call “life and death” should be such a thing actually. I could be the warrior of my own will but I had no right of exposing the life of near relations to danger. I could be my own hero but I had no right to reveal courage at the expense of another person let alone a kin. Just at these helpless moments I found shelter around my family and children. I found the greatest support from them. They were trusting me. There would be together with me wherever I went. They would come when I said “Let’s go” and stay when I said “Let’s stay.” To stay and resist But if we go, where then? To Armenia? But to what extent could a person like me tolerate the injustice as intolerant as I am at this issue? Wouldn’t I find myself in greater troubles there? To go and live in European countries wasn’t my style either. I know myself. After three days abroad, I miss my country. What should I do there? Ease makes me uneasy! To leave “boiling hells” and go to “ready heavens” was against my understanding. We were sort of people desiring to turn hell to heaven. To stay and live in Turkey was our real wish and and also a must of respect towards all of our known and unknown friends giving the struggle of democracy in Turkey and supporting us. We would stay and resist. However if someday we had to go, then we would go like in 1915... like our ancestors.. Without knowing where to go.... Walking on the roads they had walked... Feeling their pain and agony... Frightened and Free
I hope that we are never obliged to experience such an abandonment. We have enough hope and reasons not to live such a thing. Now I am applying to European Court of Human Rights. I don’t know how many years this case will take. What I know and what relieves me to some extent is the fact that at least I will continue to live in Turkey until this case comes to an end. When a positive verdict is declared I will surely be happier and then this will mean that I will never have to leave my country. Probably the year 2007 will be a more difficult year for me. Trials will continue, new cases will come up in court. Who knows which kind of injustice I will encounter. But while all this happens, I will regard the following fact as my guarantee. Yes, I can feel myself as restless as a dove, but I know that in this country people do not touch and disturb the doves. The doves continue their lives in the middle of the cities. Yes indeed a bit frightened but at the same time free. David and Asuma's Wedding
This was the first sentence in the marriage invitation for our reporter in Australia, David Chibo. I had to unfortunately decline the invitation due to the tyranny of distance and hectic work commitments. Little did we know it but the wedding had been planned to the finest detail not only taking place during the Assyrian New Year Spring festival but the wedding theme itself was the continuation of the ancient love story of Ishtar and Tammuz. In the story Ishtar traveled to the netherworld giving up her powers, represented by veils in order to rescue her lover using the Waters of Life. Resurrected, both Ishtar and Tammuz return from the netherworld during the start of spring. Unable to attend the U.S. staff and I instead sought permission for some select photos from their album be sent to us in order to be shared with our viewers worldwide. Here are a few pages from David, Zinda's noble and courageous son, and Asuma's wedding album. As is said in the sacred lands of Assyria: "May you both reach old age on the same pillow." |
||||||||
How Assyrian Representatives Shelved Nineveh Plains Discussions in Washington A Zinda Magazine Special Investigative Report While Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s staff was considering a proposed congressional resolution regarding the formation of an administrative area for Assyrians and other minorities, an act of national betrayal was committed with cold execution. On Wednesday, January 17th, 2007, Mr. Fawzi Hariri, a senior Assyrian member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the appointed Minister of Industry in Baghdad, and Mr. Praidoon Darmo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA), met with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and her staff. The result of the meeting was the Congresswoman’s temporary shelving of a critical congressional resolution that would support the creation of an administrative area for Assyrians and other minorities in northern Iraq. Zinda sources in Washington confirm that the message conveyed by Mr. Hariri (KDP) and Mr. Darmo (AUA) were the following, that:
When the gentlemen were asked to comment on Mr. Yonadam Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (due to his party’s and his own efforts on creating an administrative area), they responded by saying that Mr. Kanna is a symbolic figurehead at the national level and not a factor in the north. Mr. Hariri and Mr. Darmo concluded by commenting that more productive measures to secure the interests of this community were underway. Most prominent of these measures is the construction of a compound and massive church for the Patriarch of the Church of the East, to allow his return to Ankawa, near Arbil. Zinda Magazine has also learned that no opposition to the resolution seemed to be based on its use of the unifying ‘Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac’ name. In fact, Hariri and Darmo did not defend the Assyrian name. A short history Washington is one of the priority parts of a plan to get support and encouragement as Iraqi-based Assyrian political groups and leaders work towards forming an administrative area where Assyrians can live free and prosper within Iraq. The creation of an administrative area has been formally part of the post-liberation Iraqi Assyrian agenda since October 2003. At that time, the well-known Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac conference took place in Baghdad, pronouncing the formation of an Administrative Unit for Assyrians and other minorities as a clear goal. The Nineveh Plains is a critical element of any such area. Since then the political leaders slowed down on this matter, postponing it in parliament for approval. However, a shocking level of targeting Assyrian Christians from all sides in Iraq is now compelling Assyrian political actors to concentrate their efforts on the creation of the administrative area. Many observers in Iraq believe that if the Assyrian refugee problem continues, Iraq may be devoid of its Christian population and resemble Iran and Turkey in the near future. Creating an Assyrian administrative area is now the most pressing issue on the agenda of nearly all Assyrian political parties in Iraq. Last year Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s office requested language for a possible congressional resolution on this matter from the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project, a Washington-based group which promotes the rights of the Assyrians in Iraq. The request from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s office builds on a history of her support for this community’s interests in the Middle East, and her human rights efforts. It also came to being as a result of a series of visits by senior Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) officials expressing the urgency of creating an administrative area to exercise democracy and rights for Assyrians and other minorities. In fact, from early October to mid-December 2006, senior ADM members have been covered by the Associated Press, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, National Public Radio, and Radio Free Europe declaring this agenda. This effort has helped immensely to build momentum on the need for an administrative area. The White House demonstration organized by the ‘Assyrians for the Christians of Iraq’ on December 4th, 2006, clearly expressed the will of the community in calling for the Nineveh Plain to be part of a solution to the Assyrian exodus from Iraq. The name not an issue Mr. Hariri (KDP) and Mr. Darmo (AUA)’s meeting in Washington was early on described as a means to protect the ‘Assyrian’ only name, in contrast to "Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac" title. Other Assyrian media sources, including the AssyriaSat Television have already presented Mr. Hariri and Mr. Darmo as guardians of the Assyrian name against a Ba’athist conspiracy. It is unclear if these media sources are part of a cover-up of events. A staff writer with Assyria Times on January 20th explained that “some elements of conspiracy against the Assyrian identity, the Assyrian national church, and the Assyrians’ political, national, and land rights in Iraq are trying to influence the U.S. Congress through the Assyrian Congresswoman, Anna Eshoo” and the AssyriaSat last week praised the efforts of Mr. Darmo and Mr. Hariri. Both AssyriaSat and the Assyria Times are services of Mr. Sargon Dadesho-led Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party. Yet upon a closer investigation of this matter Zinda Magazine has learned that the name issue was never discussed at the meeting in Washington and both Hariri and Darmo’s primary goal in meeting with Congresswoman Eshoo was to prevent the establishment of an administrative area for the Assyrians in Iraq and the refugee problem for the neighboring countries. Key players According to a May 13th, 2006 report in the Arabist Magazine (click here), the United Kingdom-based company, Global Trading Group LTD, incorporated on 5 April 2005, is involved in arms transfers to Iraq and has purchased large quantities of small arms and light weapons for Iraq. According to UK company house data, Global’s business address is a private one, which appears to be the home of one of the directors of the company. One of the directors of Global Trading Group Ltd is listed as “Fawzi Francis Toma”, described as a British citizen born in 1958. Mr. Fawzi Hariri liaises with foreign governments on behalf of the KDP and serves as chief of staff of the Iraqi foreign ministry, currently headed by Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, also of the KDP. According to Companies’ House documentation, Global Trading Group Ltd’s registered business address is at the home of another company director, Praidoon Darmo, who lobbied the UK government to support the war in Iraq in 2003. A Global Trading director stated that the weapons supplied by Global Trading Group Ltd were on behalf of another company in Jordan who held the contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, but that the GTG director had seen the end user certificate which he said was issued on behalf of the Iraqi ministry of de fence and was sent to Belgrade. Mr. Praidoon Darmo’s brother Andy is also identified as a British businessman with ties to providing supplies to Saddam Hussein during the days of economic sanctions against Iraq (click here). Zinda Magazine has obtained documents which show that Mr. Andy Darmo was awarded contracts in the 1990s by the Iraqi government for the supply of medical equipment. The two contracts were valued over $2.5 million. Among these documents are also letters between Andy Darmo and the United Nations and US government officials indicating that Mr. Darmo was lobbying to get Iraqi assets unfrozen so that the funds would pay for his contracts. Mr. Andy Darmo serves as the chairperson of the church committee of the Assyrian Church of the East in England. He is also the head of the “Save the Assyrians”, a non-profit group in UK (click here), demanding the rights of the Assyrians in Iraq, with the exception of their full administrative autonomy. Mr. Praidoon Darmo is second in command of the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and accompanies His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, to official visits – including the now famous meeting with the late Pope John Paul II. Mr. Darmo was also present (read “The Puzzle Unravels at the Ritz” – click here) at the October 2005 meeting of H.H. Mar Dinkha and Masoud Barzani in Washington where it was agreed that an amount of more than 30 million dollars will be provided to the Church of the East toward the construction of new Assyrian Church of the East parishes and a patriarchate in Ankawa, Arbil. Both Mr. Hariri and Mr. Darmo were members of the Assyrian Delegation at the Iraqi National Congress gathering in New York between October 29 and November 1 in 1999 (click here), representing the views of the KDP and the AUA, respectfully. The Plot The meeting of Mr. Hariri and Mr. Darmo in Washington earlier this month is in line with the demands of Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional Government in north Iraq. In 2006 the KDP explicitly declared the Nineveh Plain and other Assyrian lands as part of Kurdistan and is vehemently opposed to any autonomous administration of any part of that region. The only acceptable alternative, according to the KDP, is an administrative region under the Kurdish rule. To put an end to any speculation on the extent of the involvement of other Assyrian groups in this matter, Mr. Dadesho’s Assyria Times recently wrote: “The Assyrian National Congress (ANC), Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party (BNDP), the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA), and some Assyrian Church of the East (ACOE) authorities will meet with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and contact other Congressmen and women to show their opposition to the draft resolution.” “Success in Iraq”: What It Means and How to Achieve It Captain Fred Furat Odisho What follows in this article will stand in the face of everything that comes naturally to the United States military and, with few exceptions, its inspirationally courageous men and women. Written by anyone outside of the military family, it would instantly lose its credibility; but I have hope that it will gain an audience since it is coming from this Iraqi born, American raised, West Point forged, and Army Infantry tempered officer. The situation in Iraq has matured to a dangerous extent where we, the military, must undertake the unthinkable—stop chasing the elusive insurgent and start connecting and communicating with the common Iraqi citizen. As American citizens and politicians await the anticipated recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Commission, this week’s testimonies to the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees by General John P. Abizaid of Central Command and David M. Satterfield of the Department of State probably left most wondering if there really is a way out this mess. There is. Both men were resoundingly correct when arguing that success in Iraq depends on supporting its government politically, economically and militarily, and that increasing or decreasing U.S. troop levels would do nothing to help in the long-term. If this is true, then why has the status quo produced so few positive results? That is because the missing element to success in Iraq rests, not with what we have been doing, but with how we, and especially the United States military, have been doing it. United States Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi went to the heart of this issue when he asked “what are we doing to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which at the end of the day, is what it’s going to take?” War, like many things, has its stereotypes, and most associate it consciously or subconsciously with some form of struggle. In large-scale wars, commonly referred to in the military as high-intensity conflicts, the struggle is directly against the opponent. The opponent becomes the central and decisive focus of the campaign’s main efforts. However, we are not facing a high-intensity conflict in today’s Iraq. Rather, we are facing a low-intensity insurgency against a very cunning and ethereal opponent. In an insurgency, by default, the central and decisive focus of the campaign is the indigenous population of the nation—in this case, the Iraqi people. In order to reach this audience, the central struggle must shift from your opponent to your opponent’s legitimacy, and the main concentration of your effort must shift from combat to communication (i.e. the military discipline of Information Operations). Ironically, an insurgency is fueled by popular support, much like democracy. It is much more akin to a political campaign, than a military campaign, where the different sides are struggling to delegitimize their opponents and gain the vote of the people. Insurgents without the popular support of the Iraqi people lose their power and momentum. They become stripped of their auxiliary and underground components and eventually lose their safe houses, their freedom of movement, their weapons supplies and their local funding. Similarly, a counterinsurgency without the popular support of the Iraqi people appears hostile, invasive and illegitimate. Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces, alike, become stripped of their just cause and lose the peoples’ trust, the peoples’ critical human intelligence, and the ability to distinguish the insurgent from the populace. Given this framework, only three possible outcomes exist for Iraq. First, if the insurgents win the popular support of the people, Iraq will crumble into chaos and anarchy and there is nothing the United States military or the fledgling Iraqi government and its Security Forces can do to stop it. Second, if the United States military wins the popular support of the people, then we should forget about future exit strategies and move forward with Iraqi colonization. However, it is doubtful that most Americans and Iraqis would rejoice in making Iraq the 51 st State. That leads us to our third and final outcome, the only one that is beneficial to both the United States and Iraq and devastating to the insurgency and international terrorism. If the Iraqi government and its Security Forces win the popular support of the people, the insurgency will fade away and Iraq will blossom into a sovereign, unified, functioning nation. Since late 2003, the Iraqi people have become more and more passive, indecisive and fractured. To date, not one of the three actors identified above—the insurgents, the United States military, or the Iraqi government and its Security Forces—has given the average Iraqi citizen anything to be faithful in or hopeful about. All have failed miserably in winning the support of the Iraqi people. This is the single most important reason why the average Iraqi citizen is still “sitting on the fence.” It also explains the recent rise in sectarian militias. With security conditions at a grave state and an insurgent strategy explicitly targeting ethnic and religious differences, the people have turned to local strongmen for protection.
Many supposed experts will argue that the sectarian, regional, ethnic, religious and tribal conflicts witnessed to this point were inevitable. They argue that modern Iraq is the “fiction of a British cartographer” and that it has been a diverse and divided community throughout recorded history. That is true to an extent, but does any nation exist in the world today that has a homogenous populace ethnically, religiously, racially, and culturally? Nations with heterogeneous populations are the rule, not the exception, and it is doubtful that anyone will argue this point. The Iraqi people can live together in peace, despite their differences, and have demonstrated that many times in ancient and modern history. To deny that Iraq has had a singular identity dating back to the beginnings of recorded time is to deny the existence and rich history of the name Mesopotamia. The name has stayed the course of history and of the imperial aspirations of the countless empires that occupied it. Furthermore, to deny that Iraq has had a singular identity in the twentieth century is to deny the history of modern Iraq from its Revolution in 1920 through the rule of Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim in 1963. Any Iraqi citizen who recalls this era would staunchly claim that the patriotism and nationalism adopted by the vast majority of Iraqis during this turbulent period ran deeper than the Tigris and wider than the Euphrates. The sectarian, regional, ethnic, religious and tribal conflicts witnessed in Iraq today were virtually nonexistent in 1963, and are the direct result of Saddam Hussein and his tyrannical and paranoid need to maintain control of the Iraqi people. To limit any threats to his reign, he intensified the differences and instigated infighting between all of the various communities in Iraq to keep them divided and misguided. In the aftermath of the Hussein Regime, neighboring nations, determined to keep the United States definitively occupied in Iraq, further exploited these differences preventing the reemergence of any unified Iraqi identity. Instead of preventing this deliberate attempt by reemphasizing and rekindling the patriotism and nationalism of mid-twentieth century Iraq, the United States government and the mainstream media intensified the differences by examining and characterizing post-war reconstruction and governance efforts through very narrow-viewing lenses— Sunni vs. Shia, Moslem vs. Christian, Arab vs. Kurd, Kurd vs. Turkoman, or Kurd vs. ChaldoAssyrian. Like any campaign for popular support, the side that dominates the communication spectrum—the lines of communication with the people—succeeds. Therefore, success in Iraq is not based on how many insurgents are killed or captured, but on how many people trust and support the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces. Unfortunately, in Iraq today, the insurgents dominate the communication spectrum, and efforts to prevent them have come too little, too late. Below are three examples. First, despite the dangers of commuting to and from one’s place of employment, the average Iraqi citizen knows that he must work. Without a steady income, he cannot provide his family with the basic necessities of life—clean water, healthy food, and secure shelter. Yet almost four years after the initial invasion, unemployment rates have steadily risen and have reached or exceeded 70-percent in some areas. How can the Iraqi government expect its citizens to perceive it as legitimate and support it if it cannot even create employment opportunities for its people? Poor security is no longer a justifiable excuse for not creating jobs. Poor security has become the way of life for all Iraqis, and they will push forward and find employment despite it. Sadly, if the Iraqi government is not willing to create jobs for its citizens, then insurgents will and they have. When pushed to extreme levels of desperation, the average law-abiding Iraqi citizen would do anything to protect and provide for his family, even if it meant working for an insurgency with which he does not necessarily agree. Second, not a single day goes by in Iraq where the citizens of the most violent cities do not hear gunfire or explosions in the background. To the average Iraqi citizen trapped in his home, this endless noise is a vivid reminder that his family and his neighborhood are not safe. It is a bold statement to the masses that, despite the overwhelming superiority of the Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces, they have not been able to silence the insurgents. Third, killing in today’s Iraq never goes unnoticed. Unlike in the United States where murder is usually an act one conceals, murder in Iraq is a message. When the body of a local store owner is dumped in the front of his store in broad daylight, the act is an explicit message to the entire neighborhood not to defy the local insurgents. It is not simply a convenient method of disposing of the body. Did he support the Coalition or Iraqi Security Forces or did he defy the local strongman by not paying his dues? In either case, the message was delivered to the entire neighborhood in the most powerful, horrific, and definitive way. The time has come for us, the United States military, to cast off our obsessive fixation with the enemy and to concentrate on what is truly important in achieving success in Iraq—the Iraqi people. Further, we must acknowledge that this shift in priorities means the inevitable shift from combat operations to information operations. Without communication superiority, without being able to drown out the insurgents’ messages with those of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi Security Forces, success in Iraq will remain a bridge too far. Listing and describing in detail the myriad of methods and examples on how to undertake the journey to achieve communication superiority is beyond the scope of this article. There is one exception, and the following method is critical because of its far-reaching ramifications. As the attention of more and more United States Soldiers shifts to training the various components of the Iraqi Security Forces, and rightfully so, we must be very cognizant of one very important aspect of this endeavor.
The Iraqi Security Forces are being trained by the most formidable fighting force in modern history; and like any student-soldier seated before the best teacher in the business, they have and will continue to emulate and behave like their trainers. Therefore, we must be wary of how we teach them the art of warfare. Whether in a training environment or on patrol down the streets of an Iraqi city, if the best army in the world focuses all of its attention on chasing down the enemy, paying no attention to the needs and demands of the local populace, the student-soldiers will follow suit. The successful performance of the Iraqi Security Forces from the perspective of the average Iraqi citizen is the single most powerful tool available to the Iraqi government in its campaign to win the popular support of its people. We have reached the point in this insurgency where we can no longer afford to preach “do as I say, but not as I do.” The insurgents’ strategy in Iraq has always been to keep us and the Iraqi Security Forces occupied in trivial combat engagements, while they slowly strengthen their lines of communication with the Iraqi people. This unchallenged dialogue with the Iraqi people has been the suffocating grip that has made them prisoners in their own homes. The insurgents understand, as should we, that no one can succeed in Iraq without the popular support of the people. Therefore, to keep us off guard, they have played to our deepest desires, our inherent need to do what Soldiers are supposed to do in war—fight. We have entertained these elusive insurgents long enough in this figurative game of whack-a-mole; and they have dutifully provided us with the targets upon which to drop our hammers. The answers to all of our most difficult and puzzling questions about Iraq end with the Iraqi people; it is about time we brought them back to life.
|
|||||||||
ADM Member, Bahra Staff Killed in a Terrorist Attack
(ZNDA: Dohuk) Mr. Hanna Warda Sliwa, 48, married and father of four, was killed last week as he was delivering copies of the BAHRA newspaper. A funeral was held in the victim's village of Koory Kafana near Dohuk in north Iraq, where thousands of mourners came to pay their respect to family and the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Mr. Sliwa was a member of Zowaa (ADM). Assyrian Church of the East bishop Mar Yo sip conducted the funeral service at the Church of Mart Shmoni. The ADM leadership and representatives joined a solemn procession to the graveyards where Mr. Sliwa was rest to peace. Mr. Sliwa dutifully distributed copies of the BAHRA (The Light) magazine to all centers of the Assyrian Democratic Movement. The attack was made during one such trips as he was on his way to the ADM headquarters in Baghdad. Iraqi Christians Lose All Hope with Violence, Anarchy Courtesy of the Christian Post De Groot, who visits Iraq several times a year, says that every time he visits, a local believer tells him that the situation is worse than the last time he visited. “Another Christian told me he had to buy new clothes for his wife because during a shooting on the streets, her wardrobe was riddled with bullets,” recalled De Groot. “A third man explained in detail what happened when he brought his son to school and a car bomb went off. The little boy ran inside the school and saw a human heart hanging against the window.”
There are four violent groups in Iraq: Sunnite insurgents who used to belong to Saddam’s Baath Party; Sunnites, who are fighting for Al Qaeda; Shiites; and a group comprised of criminals and gangs who don’t belong to any of the other insurgency groups, according to De Groot. The Open Doors co-worker said that the violent groups attack Christians for the main purpose of money to finance their fights. “Most Christians are shop owners and have some money,” said De Groot. “In addition, the small Christian minority has no armed branch which can take revenge or provide protection for them.” Nearly half of the Christians in Iraq have fled since the early 1990s. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) call the massive exodus of Assyrian Christians, who make up the majority of the Iraqi Christian population, a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations reports that although Assyrians comprise only five percent of Iraq’s population, they make up nearly 40 percent of the refugees fleeing Iraq. Assyrian Christians living in America have rallied, calling on U.S. leaders to help form an autonomous zone in Iraq for Assyrians and other Christians where they can practice their faith freely and work without persecution. “Because of their small population, weak status, and lack of regional support, they have no one to protect them from all the violence,” said Paul Isaac, one of the organizers of the Christians for Assyrians of Iraq rally in December. The Open Doors ministry operates several Christian cultural centers in Iraq to support the country’s Christian population through skill-building courses. The centers host religious dialogues and conferences where movies like Jesus Film are shown or discussions on Christian cultural topics are held. Tariq Aziz Seeks Protection from Vatican Courtesy of the Catholic World News (ZNDA: Rome) Tariq Aziz, who served as deputy prime minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, has issued a plea to the Italian government and the Vatican for permission to live in Rome while he awaits trial on human-rights charges. Giovanni DiStefano, an Italian lawyer for the former Iraqi official, explained that his client would like the Italian government and/or the Vatican to guarantee that he will appear to appear when his case is ready for trial. DiStefano said that he is asking the Iraqi court to release Aziz on bail. Aziz was arrested in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion of Iraq. He is now being held by US forces in Baghdad. He has insisted that he was not involved in the human-rights violations for which Saddam Hussein was convicted and executed. Tariq Aziz, a Chaldean Catholic, has appealed to the Holy See in the past for help in obtaining medical treatment during his incarceration. His attorney said that his health has been fragile since a heart attack shortly before the 2003 war. Aziz visited the Vatican in February 2003 to seek the help of Pope John Paul II in preventing the invasion of Iraq. After his meeting with the Pontiff the Iraqi leader made a pilgrimage to Assisi to pray for peace at the shrine there. Babel College of Baghdad Transferred to North Iraq Courtesy of the AsiaNews (ZNDA: Arbil) The doors to the Chaldean Major Seminary and Babel College, Iraq’s only theological faculty run by the Chaldean Church, have reopened in Ankawa (near Arbil). The two institutions were officially inaugurated last Thursday. The reopening of the college was marked by a mass in the Mar Eliya Chaldean Church, celebrated by Mgr Jacques Isaac, rector of Babel College.
In addition to many faithful, Mgr Andraous Abouna, vicar patriarch representing the Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly who stayed in Baghdad, and Sarkis Aghajan, a Christian and finance minister in Kurdistan’s regional government, were present. About 25 seminarians are registered at Babel College but there are many other students who are studying theology and philosophy. Moving the two institutions was a difficult decision. It was made official on January 4 but had been expected for some time. Abductions, assaults and threats to the Christian community in the capital convinced the Patriarchate first to shut both college and seminar down, then to move them. Sources in Baghdad, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the Christians left in the city are poorest, those who cannot afford to move elsewhere. “As for the rest, they have all fled,” they said. “Dora, the historic Christian neighbourhood is [now] in the hands of Sunni militias.” Moving around the capital is increasingly difficult and dangerous. “If you try to go in or out of a neighbourhood you have to ask permission from militias who are in charge; otherwise you might end up kidnapped or killed.”
|
|||||||
Great Minds Discuss Ideas Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady of the United States, has been credited with quipping, brilliantly, that "Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." In this new year, again, there is an opportunity to set our priorities on the right path. I believe Ms. Roosevelt was right when she said "Great minds discuss ideas". Assyrians are having a conversation about their future on two very different levels, causing us to talk past each other, instead of to each other.
What I mean is: there are different priorities as to what is important regarding Assyrian politics in Iraq. Those in the Diaspora who support the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), the largest Assyrian political party in Iraq with the only Assyrian representation in the Iraqi government, don't really care if it turns out they meddled in Assyrian church issues, or "trash-talked" someone, or forgot to rewind their video tapes before they returned them, or anything else as of yet unproven but gossiped about incessantly[1]. It is almost as "hilarious" as Kurds asking Turkey to stay out of the affairs of Kirkuk while they, the Kurds, simultaneously interfere with the affairs of the Nineveh Plains and Assyrians. Or when they, the Kurds, demand the Turks recognize their role in the Armenian genocide while simultaneously holding Kurds like Bedr Khan Beg and Simko - who viciously killed Assyrians and their leaders (Simko being a "man" who shot an unarmed Assyrian Patriarch in the back...when he was a guest...in Simko's home[2]...) - in the category of "heroes". But I digress. I'll leave that to human rights activists to sort out. No single political party, Patriarch, or person is a leader of the Assyrian nation. There are only political representatives. Nations to do not have "leaders" any more - this is the 21st century. We do not have "Aghas" and "Maliks". We have elected representatives whom we criticize, change, re-elect, or discard. Can anyone say that we can point a finger to a Patriarch and criticize him for foolish mistakes? Can we hold him accountable and ask for his removal? Can we even tell him he is wrong? Never. No wonder there was an offensive against a uniting name by the churches. No wonder none have shown support for the large political party, but rather a man who keeps us separate (thank you, Mr. Aghajan). That, in my book, is one of the lesser reasons to let go of Patriarchal leadership. Politicians, as we all know, are slick talking back-room dealers. Such is the nature of politics. Iraq is certainly no exception. As a matter of fact, Iraqi political parties are probably a shining example of just how "back-room" politics can get. Arab parties, be they secular or faith-based, and Kurdish parties all come from a background of violence - Sunni vs. Shia, Kurd vs. Arab (vs. Turkish vs. Persian) - there is a long history of hatred and hostility. I don't think the ADM falls in these ranks. They have wisely - more wisely than their Kurdish and Assyrian counterparts - maintained their loyalty to Iraq and have befriended all factions of Iraq, be they Shia, Sunni, Kurd, Arab, Yezidi or Turkoman. It is, quite frankly, realpolitik in its rarest form in the Middle East. Regardless of their personal feelings, personal leanings, personal desires, the ADM has played their part wisely. Notes:
|
|||
Bishop Meelis Zaia Awarded Order of Australia
(ZNDA: Sydney) On 26 January His Grace Bishop Mar Meelis Zaia, bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East for Australia and New Zealand became a member of the Order of Australia for "service to the community through the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East and through the development of a range of educational facilities." The Member of the Order of Australia is awarded for service in a particular locality or field of activity or to a particular group. The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established by Elizabeth II on February 14, 1975 'for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service'. The Order is divided into general and military divisions. Mexico Holds 11 Chaldean Iraqis Courtesy of the Associated Press (ZNDA: Monterey) Eleven Iraqis carrying false passports and heading to California were arrested at Monterrey's airport, immigration officials said Monday. Nine men, a woman and a two-year-old girl traveled from Madrid, Spain, to Monterrey, where they were detained Saturday, an immigration official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the arrests. None of the Iraqi citizens appear on terrorist watch lists and they told authorities they were Chaldean Christians trying to get to California were they would request asylum, the official said. They are being held at an immigration detention center in Mexico City pending charges for using false documents. Chaldean Christians have a sizable community in southern California and frequently try to enter the United States through Mexico, saying they face persecution in Iraq. Drug Smuggling Assyrian Grandmother Jailed in Australia Courtesy of the MSN News A 58-year-old grandmother who tried to smuggle heroin into Australia in her underwear will spend the next four years in jail. Iraqi-born Fawzieh Nona Danial, from Fairfield Heights in Sydney's west, was surrounded by her extended family as Judge Christopher Geraghty handed down the sentence in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Thursday. Danial had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to import a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug, namely heroin. She was frisked on arrival at Sydney Airport from Vietnam on March 24, 2006, and was found to have four suspect packages in her underwear, which police facts said were later revealed to contain a total of 239 grams of heroin. At the time, Danial told customs officials she did not know what was in the packages, and she was sorry "for doing this stupid thing". Danial, who was travelling on a New Zealand passport, told the customs officers of being approached by a Vietnamese woman at a Vietnamese KFC store, who offered to pay her $25,000 for taking four packages to Sydney. She later claimed she needed the payment because her only source of income was her husband's disability allowance. The couple sat hand-in-hand, with her husband offering comfort when the judge handed down his sentence and explained it to Danial, who is illiterate and speaks only Assyrian. Judge Geraghty told the court he had taken into account the defendant's age, her relatively early plea and clean record. However, he said the potential impact on Australian families remained a critical factor in determining her sentence. Danial was sentenced to a maximum of six years in jail, and will be eligible for parole in 2011. Several family members broke down upon hearing the sentence. Failed Entrepreneur Karl Suleman Jailed Courtesy of the AAP News (ZNDA: Sydney) Failed dotcom entrepreneur Karl Suleman has been sentenced by a Sydney judge to a minimum five-and-a-half years' jail on 26 fraud charges. The former director of Karl Suleman Enterprises (KSE) pleaded guilty to the fraud offences relating to more than $3 million he obtained from public investors for his supermarket trolley collection businesses. The former director of the failed Froggy group was charged with 15 counts of making false statements and 11 counts of using false documents between April 2000 and July 2001, following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.The false statements were used to obtain $3.185 million from 15 investors. The Downing Centre District Court was told the investors had sunk amounts ranging from $95,000 to $1 million into the business, but only two investors got their money back. The other 13 lost a total of $828,915. Sentencing Suleman on Wednesday, Judge John Nield said he had taken advantage of "commercially naive" investors so that he could live a lifestyle beyond his legitimate income. "It is obvious ... that the offender was using the money that he had obtained from later investors to pay the guaranteed payments to earlier investors," he said. Judge Nield sentenced Suleman to seven years and four months behind bars, ordering him to serve at least five and half years. With time already served, Suleman will be eligible for parole in 2011. Suleman had previously served a 12-month jail term for four unrelated fraud offences, after he made false statements to obtain loans to buy two Ferraris and a luxury yacht. From Baghdad to Long Island Courtesy of the New York Magazine (ZNDA: New York) Donny George, man of history, had vowed never to leave Baghdad, where he was the keeper of the keys to the looted Iraqi National Museum. Then his teenage son opened a letter with a bullet inside and a threat to cut off his head because his father “worked for the Americans.” An estimated 1.8 million Iraqis have fled their country since the U.S. invasion, but George, an archaeologist, along with his wife, Najat, and 17-year-old son, Martin, are some of the very few—only 500 a year—who’ve been granted a visa to live in the U.S. Which is how the short, stout 56-year-old ended up in Long Island, driving a Mitsubishi Galant, listening to Shania Twain, and preparing to teach Mesopotamian archaeology at suny–Stony Brook this spring semester. His older children, Marian, 21, a medical student, and Steven, 23, a computer scientist, couldn’t get papers. They remain in Damascus.
In the month or so he’s been here, George has learned his way around the campus, but he hasn’t yet reckoned with the modern ziggurat of the multilevel parking garage. Apologizing, he drives against one-way traffic up the ramp. They’ve been searching the suburban groceries for familiar foods and spices, while explaining to curious clerks and furniture movers that they are Assyrian Christians, neither Sunni nor Shiite. During the past two decades, George oversaw fieldwork at some of the most significant excavations in the world. In 1987, he was head of a field expedition in Babylon when Saddam Hussein paid a visit. “I met him and took him around. He was very calm. He was just listening. In one of the museums there, we had some inscriptions translated. In one, Nebuchadnezzar was saying that one of the gods had sent him to protect ‘the black-headed people.’ Saddam said, ‘You should change that.’ And I said, ‘No, sir, it’s scientific, we can’t change it, this is exactly as it was said. It doesn’t mean that people are black, it means “all the people.” Because if you have a crowd of Iraqis, all you see are their black heads.’ He wanted to change it to ‘all the people.’ And I said no.” Later, “one of his bodyguards took me aside and said, ‘How can you say no to the leader?’ And I said, ‘It’s science.’ And he said, ‘Well, good. God bless you. Otherwise, you would have vanished.’” In early 2003, as the invasion became imminent, George urged his bosses at the museum to protect the collection by sealing it up in the basement. “I begged them, ‘Please, for God’s sake, for the Prophet’s sake, we have to do this, it will be stolen.’ And all I heard was, ‘No, you are exaggerating. Saddam is here. Nobody will dare to come to Baghdad.’ George estimates that the museum lost 15,000 pieces and that Iraq’s archaeological digs lost much more. “From the site looting, we have retrieved about 17,000 objects, but if 17,000 came back, how much went out?” He’s heard that many of the objects have made it into growing private cuneiform collections in New York. “It’s very sad. There is one solution for this: If the American government will stop the tax deduction for people who donate it, the museums don’t buy it. But they encourage rich people to buy and then donate.” George is politically cautious; he wants visas for his other kids too. He wouldn’t comment on the president’s plan for a troop increase. In the end, though, he says, “The solution is entirely political. And it involves Syria and Iran.” In his worst imaginings, he says, he never predicted that Iraq would descend into a religious civil war. “Even during Saddam’s time, all these differences were dissolving. I never asked my neighbor or friend if he was a Sunni or Shiite, and Muslims would not ask each other either. It was a shameful thing to ask.” Meanwhile, the Iranians, he says, have already penetrated Iraq. He heard that Farsi is heard in the markets of Basra as often as Arabic. Before he left, there were rumors he was going to be replaced by a Muslim at the museum. The church where he and his wife were married has been blown up. Still, he is convinced they’ll go home someday. “Listen, we know history. We are the people of archaeology. We know it is impossible for it to stay like this.” He plans to give a few seminars on the American occupation at Stony Brook Manhattan this winter. The primary lesson he wants to impart is that Iraq has a heterogeneous past. “I would love Americans to know this is a country with multiple, different kinds of people—Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Kurds, Yazidis—people of different religions. These people have lived together for hundreds of years.” Renowned Professor Acknowledges Assyrian Genocide By Afram Barryakoub, reporting from Sweden (ZNDA: Stockholm) Prof. Israel W. Charny, Ph.D, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is one of the world’s foremost authorities in the field of genocide studies. Apart from his work at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem with psychology and family therapy, he is the Executive Director of the “Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide” in Jerusalem. Professor Charny exclaimed “ I feel very strongly that the genocide of the Assyrians, and also the genocide of the Greek population, alongside the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire must be elevated to known historical facts and commemorated along with the Armenian Genocide that we finally have succeeded in making known public knowledge”. Assyriska's New Managing Board
The extra meeting resulted in the forming of a new board headed by 29 year old lawyer Sargon Debasso. Resigning chairman Ferit Varli welcomed the results of the elections and welcomed the new board with the following words: “I wish all luck to the new board. They have taken on a big responsibility, but it is important that we all share this responsibility with them. It is important that all of us who can help them also do lend them a hand, economically as well as practically” And the new leader, Sargon Debasso, commented: “It feels good with regard to the widespread support that we received, it is flattering to receive this confidence. The aim is to keep this confidence and create conditions for Assyriska to reach new successes”. He also made clear that there will be no major changes in the team in the nearest future. But he emphasized that he will work to bridge the gab between the supporters and the board so that there will be more confidence between the two.
The new board includes:
School Preserves Ancient Culture Courtesy of the Daily News
(ZNDA: Los Angeles) Their alphabet, once carved in stone or found on ancient parchment, comes alive in red and blue marker on a white board in a San Fernando Valley classroom. They might not know it yet, but the dozen or so teens who write out the letters are making history by learning their history. It's the only way their culture will survive. "It's really nice to teach them, though it's challenging," said a patient Amir Dinkha, a teacher at the Assyrian American Christian school, the first and only private campus of its kind in the United States. "They ask questions I've never heard of before." The year-old Assyrian school has been a dream of the Rev. George Bet-Rasho, parish priest for St. Mary's Assyrian Church of the East in Tarzana. He envisioned classrooms where Assyrian children could learn about their ancient and modern culture, their language and faith, as well as more traditional subjects like English literature and U.S. history. "We feel the only way we can survive is to have a school," Bet-Rasho said. "It's been a dream and the talk of every church in the United States for a long time." That the school is up and running, with donations and support from the community, is somewhat of a miracle, Bet-Rasho and experts said - especially now. "It's a miracle we're even alive actually, considering all the persecution that we've gone through," Bet-Rasho said. "Assyrians have faced tremendous obstacles in being a countryless nation," said Mehran Kamrava, who specializes in the Middle East as a professor of political science at California State University, Northridge. "They haven't had a piece of territory which they could call their own country. The ravages of history have been unkind. And at least in recent decades, the Assyrians have not mobilized militarily such as the Kurds, which is why we haven't heard of their nationalist struggle." Guardians of culture
Without a country to display their flags and other symbols of nationalism, or to openly celebrate rituals, Assyrians must rely on passing down their language and culture to children in other ways, Kamrava said. "For diaspora communities, identity is doubly important," he said. "This school is an important step for the Assyrian community in that it enables the proverbial elders to act as guardians of the Assyrian culture." Humanitarian organizations have followed the persecution, including the hundreds of thousands of Assyrians killed during the height of the Armenian Genocide in 1915 to the "Arabization" of Assyrians under Saddam Hussein. Assyrians are not Arabs but have been forced to adopt Arabic names and have been denied the right to speak their language, according to a 2003 report by Human Rights Watch. "Even now, we're persecuted in the homeland," Bet-Rasho said. "Priests are afraid to walk in uniform in Baghdad." There have been reports of beheadings and even a modern-day crucifixion of a 14-year-old boy. More than 100,000 Assyrians have fled as insurgents have made threats and bombed their churches, according to published reports. Though Assyrians nationwide have petitioned governments to help secure the Ninevah plains once democracy is established, there has been little response. It does not surprise Bet-Rasho. "We don't have the numbers," he said. "We don't have the money, the power, the voting bloc. We don't have oil. The only people who remember us are those who care about humanity." The Assyrians, indigenous people of Mesopotamia, have a history spanning nearly 7,000 years. Their ancestors can be traced to the world's earliest civilizations. The empire ended in 612 B.C. An estimated 4.5 million Assyrians live worldwide, with almost a million in the United States. Others are dispersed in Europe, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. The school's principal, Richard Jensen, has helped open and establish other private Christian schools in Los Angeles but was surprised with the resilience of Assyrians. "It's sad that people don't really realize who Assyrians are," he said. "These people have been scattered all over the world. They haven't really had a place of their own." At home in school On a recent weekday, the students in teacher Dinkha's class read aloud the Aramaic version of a Bible story. There are good-natured giggles along the way as their American-trained tongues try to grasp words similar to those spoken by Jesus Christ. While the lessons can be tough, some students say they feel as if the school is their home. It is among each other where they have found their identity. "It used to make me feel kind of down because I would tell people at school I was Assyrian, and they would say, `What's that? Syrian?"' said Justin Atneyel, 14. "I used to bring a book with me to school to show them." Shereen Saado, 15, is all too familiar with the Assyrian/Syrian conundrum. She is both. She said she doesn't have family in the Middle East but is saddened that those her age do not have the same opportunities. "It upsets me to know that there are kids out there that can't get an education," she said. Both Bet-Rasho and Jensen said their goal is to expand the school over the next 10 years. Now, there are more than 30 students enrolled in grades five through 11. Their hope is someday to offer all grades and have 350 children. Bet-Rasho said he also wants the school to become more diverse, with children from other communities willing to learn about the Assyrians and how to speak a modern form of Aramaic. "We want to plant a seed in every child who will live on after they come to this school," Bet-Rasho said. "We hope others will help us carry a torch. This is our dream and it's because we live in the United States we can do this." By the end of the school year, the students might be ready to write to those who remain in their ancestral lands, Bet-Rasho said. He does not want the Assyrian American youth to forget where they came from. "This school is dedicated to every hero who died of persecution in the homeland," Bet-Rasho said. "They died for their name, their language and their faith."
Univ of Chicago Team Traces Mystery of Oldest City Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune (ZNDA: Chicago) Archeologists tend to uncover puzzling questions along with ancient artifacts, and so it was when a team from the University of Chicago discovered a long-vanished city, 6,000 years old, in eastern Syria.
The problem was the city wasn't where it should have been. "A hundred years of scholarship taught that urban life began farther south, in Mesopotamia," said Clemens Reichel of the U. of C.'s Oriental Institute, referring to the ancient name for Iraq. And unlike the cities in that area, Hamoukar isn't on a waterway. Now Reichel thinks he's found a critical piece of the puzzle: obsidian. Though thousands of years old, the piece of shiny volcanic rock he held up in his office last week still held an edge that felt sharp enough to shave with. ("Actually, I did that with a piece we found at the site," he said.) Hundreds of obsidian tools Over several excavating seasons, his team has recovered hundreds of finely fashioned obsidian cutting tools in Hamoukar--industrial equipment for a preindustrial age. Large deposits of obsidian were known to have existed just north of Hamoukar in what is now Turkey. Reichel theorizes that raw material was imported by the inhabitants of Hamoukar, sharpened and honed by local artisans and shipped downstream to Mesopotamia. Food was presumably imported with the profits. When Reichel and his colleagues first reported their excavations, beginning in 1999, what was most impressive wasn't the contents of the site but its sheer size--and dramatic evidence of its fate. Six hundred square meters of ruined city walls and buildings silently witnessed a flourishing urban center that had been abruptly destroyed about 3,500 BC. The ruins were littered with hand-shaped missiles, designed to be flung with a sling, and evidence of a house-to-house battle. At the same time, there was a massive fire. Hamoukar hadn't died of natural causes. Some invading force destroyed it in an early instance of the kind of street-by-street combat currently engulfing Iraq. "In archeology we can only say something is the oldest until the next discovery," Reichel said. "But so far, it's the earliest example we have of a theater of urban warfare." Great leap forward Archeologists are fascinated by the evolution of cities, noted Guillermo Algaze, a professor at the University of California, San Diego. They are where the human race took a great leap forward, comparable in its consequences only to the Industrial Revolution, many millenniums later. For most of their time on Earth, humans lived in small groups eking out a precarious living by hunting and subsistence agriculture. Then came what archeologists call the urban revolution, as substantially larger groups gathered together, specialized trades appeared and the hallmarks of civilization--commerce and writing--were developed. "Somehow people were persuaded that if they came together to live in a city, they could have a better life than if everybody stayed home and produced their own food," said Reichel. Scholars long assumed that urban life was a rare invention, with cities emerging in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago. From that beginning, they spread up the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys to the larger Middle East, then to Greece, Rome and Western Europe. Yet the excavations at Hamoukar revealed a city at least as old as its supposed predecessors far to the south. "So if you were aboard a spaceship hovering above the Middle East in the fourth millennium B.C., and a betting man," Algaze said, "it wouldn't have been a sure thing if civilization would emerge in the north or the south." Still, for the north even to be in the running was puzzling. Rivers provide drinking water and a natural avenue of commerce, so Hamoukar seems an unlikely site for city life. "Today, the inhabitants of the district live in small villages, just like those that must have existed in very ancient times," said Reichel. "But in between times, a city flourished there. We asked ourselves, why?" If obsidian is the answer, it also might account for the city's demise--perhaps at the hands of a commercial rival or former customers who wanted the obsidian market for themselves. Algaze thinks the Oriental Institute team is onto something. But as often happens in archeology, a new hypothesis leads to new questions. If Hamoukar reached the brink of civilization, why did that honor eventually go to the people of Mesopotamia? "The north went down the drain; the south took off," Algaze said. "Why? That's question of the hour." |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
What Ancient Kurdish History? Dr. Donny George I read the fine and correct words of Mr. Fred Aprim in the last issue of your esteemed Magazine about the article that mentioned the Kurds and their history (click here). From my own specialty and my over thirty years of experience in the field of archaeology, and having hundreds of archaeologists as friends and colleagues, I have never heard of such big lie and falsification, and twisting of the history. The Kurds, with respect to them all, have no ancient history and antiquities
according to the Iraqi Antiquities Law, the last of which was #55 in the year 2002. In that law anything that is older than 200 years is considered
antiquity and ancient history, and the Kurds are not included in that time There is no shame in that some people have no long history, but it is shameful if these same people try to steal the history of other people. THERE ARE NO DOCUMENTS THAT
MENTION THE KURDS IN THE HISTORY OF MESOPOTAMIA, as far as I, a responsible person in the Iraqi antiquities, am concerned. No one has even heard of the Kurdish scholar mentioned in Aprim's article, and Mr.
Shayda is not an archaeologist. He is a surveyor working in the Inspector's I do not wish to belabor this issue , but I need to say three things: 1. There are many attempts to re-write the history of the Kurds, and to grab real history of real people and attach themselves to that history, without any shame, as it is said in Arabic: "Unless you you feel shame, you will do what you want." 2. We must speak up, because the Kurds are working diligently to completely demolish and wipe out the Assyrians, and re-name them as "Christian Kurds", and all these attempts in the re-writing of history, fall in the same line. 3. The writer of the article should have asked a real historian and archaeologists and no one else.
Time will Tell Sargon B Yalda Just like Paul Isaac, I too went proudly to the Assyrian National Council of Illinois (ANCI) in Chicago and proudly voted for Zowaa during the December 2005 Iraqi elections. Unlike Paul, however, I cannot say that I am ashamed of that. |
Captain Fred Furat Odisho was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1978 and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1981. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve. Captain Odisho deployed to Mosul, Iraq with the 11 th Armored Cavalry Regiment from January 2005 to January 2006 where he served as the Deputy Division Information Operations Officer for Multinational Force-Northwest. He is currently a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern Illinois University.
