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On the Path to Reconciliation Habib Afram
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A Report on the Assyrian Refugees in Istanbul Sister Hatune Dogan
After my visit to Jordan with Nuri Kino and Febroniya Atto I heard that also in Istanbul, Turkey there are Christian refugees from Iraq. Before my visit to Istanbul I had an idea about the situation of our people there. I myself am a refugee from Turkey and I know the mentality of the Turks and Kurds, so I could imagine their attitude towards the Christians from Iraq. I decided to go to Istanbul to study the situation of the Christians of Iraq, to meet our people personally. My feelings pushed me to go there. I took 130 kilograms of various aid supplies for the refugees such as clothing, medicine, toys for children, etc. I took more toys for children to bring them joy and make them happy. I landed on 26th of June 2007 at 6:00 at the Istanbul airport. At 7:00 Aboona Hanna Aykurt came with his daughter, Tullin, to pick me up. I had some rest until 11:00 and then he brought me to Aboona Y. Sag, as he lives closer to the place where our refugees from Iraq are living. I also met Aboona Fransua. He is a Chaldean priest and is a very active and enthusiastic person. He took me to his office and described the severe situation of our refugees from Iraq. We had to plan what to do in the next few days. Thank God there is an organization called ACMC and Aboona Fransua presides over it. Together with some of his people they have established the KASDER society and try to help our refugees. Four people are working full time and others volunteer. Refugees with their UNCHR number are registered also by this Society and they are given clothes and other provisions. I left the clothes I brought with me so that the refugees could have them for free as well. I stayed at this place with Aboona Fransua and his team until 13:00. During that time I could see how good people are working there. Later I was brought to the residence of Bishop Mor Filoksinos Yusuf Cetin. I stayed for a night at the Bishops’ place. First working day with the Iraqi refugees in Istanbul At 10 a.m. Essam Yousif picked me up from the Bishop’s House and brought me to the Refugee Office. He is one of the KESDER members. I talked with all four of them and Fr. Fransua. I asked questions about their working conditions and also about the situation of the Christian refugees in Turkey. I received detailed and factual information from them. Ms. Wasam Davod Iskender and Mr. Esam Yousif expressed their willingness to go with me and show me some refugee families. They both also are refugees from Iraq. They were members of a Chaldean Church and were originally from Kirkuk. Now they have an official refugee status. They both were with me almost all the time and I could visit refugee families with their help. Father (47) Widat Hanna Matte Widat Hanna Matte recently had an operation and he is paralyzed on one side. He is in need of an urgent medical treatment. The family is living in a damp basement and has only one sleeping room. The same living conditions are true for 98% of all Christian refugees from Iraq in Istanbul, because of the very high rental costs in Turkey. Their kitchen is too small; it is only 1 by 2 meters. All the walls are mildewed and half broken. For this so called apartment the family has to pay about 200 EUROs monthly. Their two daughters are visiting “Don Bosco School”. This is a private school and it is in the neighborhood. The school has been funded by the local Chaldean Church. In addition to the many subjects, children learn English too. I gave 100 EUROs to the mother of the family and she got tears in her eyes. It was not so much. But unfortunately I couldn’t give more, because I wanted to help other refugee families as well. June 27: Visiting Rafael Israel and Maryam Yusuf We visited another family. They also are living in a small, damp and mildewed basement. I could hardly stay there because of the moisture. I told myself how could this family live in such severe conditions? The family lost their two sons: Iskender and Israel. Rafael and Maryam have no idea what happened to their sons and where they could be. They also have one daughter, but I couldn’t meet her home. At that time she was cleaning somewhere to earn some money for their everyday bread. Also this family pays for their small living place about 200 EUROs per month. I gave them 200 EUROs and they were very happy with it. Later, I met a quiet young Christian woman, a mother, 39 years old, and her three sons. One of them has heart problems. He overcame very serious surgical operation on his heart and for the rehabilitation he normally needs a special medical examination every two months. Because of the financial problems the family has no possibility to pay for these medical procedures. Two other boys are working, but they always are afraid of being recognized as Christians. Every day at work they hear what the Muslims talk about the Christians and they hide their religious belief. They need this work to earn some money for their everyday life. They also are afraid of being deported because of not having an official refugee status. I got some donation in the amount of 300 EUROs and gave this donation to the family for the medical treatment of their sick boy. After visiting this family I went to “Don Bosco School”. I distributed some toys for children there. Unfortunately it was not enough for all of them. I wanted to buy some ice cream for the other children but we had no time. On that day I was alone because my helpers couldn’t come with me. I stayed at the Bishop’s house and from the balcony of this house I could see several families living in the neighborhood. On that day I visited 5 refugee families from Iraq. Two of these families were living in better conditions. They also have very small premises, but they didn’t live in damp basements as others. The men are working illegally and they are always afraid of being killed because of their religion. On 29 June I met a girl whom I will never forget. Her family consisted of 5 members and they lived in Baghdad, when in 2004 she was kidnapped. The ransom sum was in amount of $USD 10 000. The family and their relatives collected all their money and gold and gave them to their neighbor, who promised to release their daughter. It is very difficult to tell this story. The girl could hardly speak about what happened three years ago. I understood she was violated and that’s why she couldn’t talk about it in the presence of her family. I asked them to leave me with the girl and asked her to tell me her story. During the 10 days she was violated by three men. It was terrible. When she told her story she could hardly breathe because of the tears. I put her in my arms and tried to calm her. This story happened to the girl three years ago, but still she is living in great fear. When she hears Arabic language she panics. I think everyone I met needs humanitarian and moral support. None of these Christian families can’t stay in here. First, they are not officially registered, and second, they live in fear because of their Christian religion. Christian children go to Muslim schools and they have been attacked by Muslim children with knives. They are afraid to go to school and prefer to stay at home, in the damp basements. This is a very long story and it is impossible to describe all the cases in detail. That’s why I will finish here. This is quite enough to understand what is happening to our Christian Assyrian refugees from Iraq. If people want to donate to the Assyrian refugees from Iraq they can donate to the following foundation, mentioning ‘donation to the poor’ (Donations are tax deductable). I will take the responsibility that the most needy get your financial aid: For more information you can contact me at: india_charity@hotmail.de |
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Iraqi Christians Pack Churches for Christmas Mass Despite Violence
Courtesy of the the Associated Press (ZNDA: Baghdad) Thousands of Iraqi Christians picked their way through checkpoints and along dusty streets lined with concrete blast walls, packing churches in Baghdad on Tuesday for Christmas Mass.
Death is never far in Iraq — two separate suicide bombings north of Baghdad killed at least 34 people and wounded scores more. But the number of attacks has fallen dramatically in the past few months — the U.S. military says by 60 percent since June — and the country's small Christian community took advantage of the lower violence to turn out in numbers unthinkable a year ago. "We did not celebrate last year, but this year we have security and we feel better," said Rasha Ghaban, one of many women at the small Church of the Holy Family in Karradah, a mainly Shiite district in downtown Baghdad where many Christians live. "We hope our future will be better, God willing." Families streamed into the church's courtyard, wrapped in heavy winter jackets to protect them from the early morning chill. Young children with neatly combed hair held their parents' hands, and women stopped by the front door to pick through a basket of small lacy headscarves, placing them over their hair before walking in. The pews were almost full — women toward the back and on the right side of the church, the men on the left — and still more people streamed in. Outside, police armed with automatic rifles manned a checkpoint at the corner of the narrow street, searching every passing car for possible bombs. Christians have often been the target of attacks by Islamic extremists in Iraq, forcing tens of thousands to flee. Many of those who stayed were isolated in neighborhoods protected by barricades and checkpoints. Less than 3 percent of Iraq's 26 million people are Christians — the majority Chaldean-Assyrians and Armenians, with small numbers of Roman Catholics. A coordinated bombing campaign in 2004 targeted churches in the Iraqi capital, and anti-Christian violence also flared last September after Pope Benedict XVI made comments perceived to be against Islam.
But this year, with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha coming just before Christmas, Iraq has been living through some of the most peaceful moments since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003. Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church and Iraq's first cardinal, celebrated Mass before about 2,000 people in the Mar Eliya Church the capital's eastern New Baghdad neighborhood. "Iraq is a bouquet of flowers of different colors, each color represents a religion or ethnicity but all of them have the same scent," the 80-year-old Delly told the congregation. Muslim clerics — both Sunni and Shiite — also attended the service in a sign of unity. "May Iraq be safe every year, and may our Christian brothers be safe every year," Shiite cleric Hadi al-Jazail told AP Television News outside the church. "We came to celebrate with them and to reassure them." William Jalal, a 39-year old father of three attending Mass at Mar Eliya, said this Christmas was clearly different. "We didn't celebrate like this in the past two years as we were holding limited celebrations for relatives in an atmosphere filled with fear," said Jalal, a cook in one of Baghdad's social clubs. "Now we feel better as we see all these security forces in the streets to protect us." Bombers still attack city markets, police or army patrols and stores, and the dead bodies of tortured kidnap victims turn up almost daily along river banks or dumped on the streets. Venturing out in large numbers late at night in Baghdad is still unthinkable, so the capital's Christians celebrated midnight Mass in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Delly, speaking to The Associated Press at his guarded compound in western Baghdad on Christmas Eve, said fear still pervaded everyday life, despite the fall in violence. "Everyone is still afraid to go out," he said. "Even small animals are afraid of the danger." But in Irbil, a city in northern Iraq's much safer Kurdish autonomous region, thousands packed the Mar Yusef church at night for midnight Mass on Christmas Eve — unlike in Baghdad, where the service was held in the afternoon. Sita Butrous, a 31-year-old Chaldean Christian, wore a tight teeshirt and jeans, clothes she said she could no longer wear in Baghdad. "There's some improvement in security (in Baghdad), but I'm not reassured," Butrous said. "Our sect doesn't have weapons to protect us, and we are a minority." Worshipers headed to the town of Ain Kawa, near Irbil where Kurdish Christians live. Some 1,600 Arab Christian families from Baghdad and nearby regions have settled there, said the local mayor, Fahmi Sulafa. Matti Gordese, a 40-year-old father of four originally from Baghdad, said that "here, I feel my soul is at rest. "I can practise my religion without feeling that suddenly, a bomb will explode and kill you in God's house," he said. Iraqi Army Soldiers Deliver Season's Tidings to Assyrian Christians in Kirkuk Courtesy of the Black Anthem Military News
(ZNDA: Kirkuk) The 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division invited Coalition Forces to a Christmas Party at an Assyrian Christian School in Kirkuk, Iraq, 15 December.
"We want to live and work with our neighbors in harmony ... as Iraqis," Maj. Zyad Junaid Omar, 2-4 IA Civil Affairs officer, said. Zyad, whose father is an Arab and mother a Turkman, said that he invites CF Soldiers along to show Iraqis that, "Americans are good people that want to help." He also wanted the Iraqi public to see how well the IA and CF work together.
"We're honored to be a part of their program," said Markert. "These children are the future of Iraq; they are the most important equation in our mission here." "I fought as a Marine in the Gulf War against some of these Soldiers who I am now mentoring," Ganiszewski said. "This brotherhood we've formed is making a positive impact on the children of Iraq ... its future." He said that both groups of Soldiers agree that what they are doing has a larger impact than "kicking doors down and brandishing weapons." He underlined the importance of getting involved by saying, "That child who is given a pair of shoes may return home and convince a relative not to place an IED out on the road. Or, if he sees someone trying to hurt an IA or CF Soldier, he'll report it." Kidnappers of Christian Doctors Arrested in Kirkuk Courtesy of Asia News (ZNDA: Kirkuk) On 13 December Iraqi police captured the members of a gang specialised in kidnapping Christian doctors. The criminal organisation was made up of 4 brothers, arrested in various raids between December 11th and 13th. Two unemployed relatives aided the brothers. All of the gang members have confessed to the crime. They are Muslims who have no connection to terrorist organisations, or Islamic extremism. They, themselves confessed that they chose the kidnapping industry to “make easy money, what’s more according to sharia taking money from a Christian is legitimate”. The group had a complete list of doctors and pharmacists, possible future targets. The Chaldean Archdiocese’ excellent relations with other civil and religious authorities in Kirkuk greatly contributed to the capture. Committed to protecting the community, Church leaders frequently visit and meet with political parties, government authorities, Imam’s, Sheiks and police and National Guard commanders. The medical profession has long been a target for terrorists and criminals throughout Iraq. Recently in Kirkuk 4 specialised doctors have been kidnapped. Their families were forced to pay extortionate sums for their release, amounting to thousands of dollars. Under increased pressure from constant threats 3 doctors had already left the city in the last few weeks heading for the safer climate of Iraqi Kurdistan. Just this week in Baghdad unknown assailants killed the director of the psychiatric hospital 'al-Rashad', the nation’s most important clinic for mental health problems. These increasing attacks on the medical profession have forced numerous leading doctors and specialists as well as simple GP’s to leave Iraq, thus depriving the nation of their vital talents. In Mosul, for example, threats to male Gynaecologists, who are virtually extinct, have resulted in pregnant women being unable to find medical assistance for child birth. Stabbed Italian Priest Discharged from Turkish Hospital Courtesy of the New Anatolian (ZNDA: Ankara) Italian priest Adriano Francini, who was hospitalized after he was stabbed at a church in Karsiyaka town of western province of Izmir on Sunday, 16 December, was discharged from the hospital on 20 December. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ersin of the Aegean University (EU) Faculty of Medicine Hospital stated that the health condition of Italian priest Adriano Francini is well and he was discharged from the hospital Wednesday morning. 65 year old Priest Adriano Franchini had been missionary in the Aegean port city of Izmir for more than 27 years. The priest was responsible for the Capucine order in Turkey and heads the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus. The suspected 19 year old assailant had traveled to Izmir from a town in the north, Balikesir, claiming to be interested in Christianity. Franchini was taken to hospital, had minor surgery and spoke to the media from his hospital bed. There have been a series of attacks on Christians in Turkey in recent years. In one of the deadlest incidents, three Protestants were killed at the office of a Christian publishing house in the eastern city of Malatya in April. In February 2006, at a time of widespread anger in the Islamic world over the publication in European newspapers of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, a 16-year-old boy fatally shot a Catholic priest as he knelt in prayer inside his church in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. Following that killing, a Catholic priest was attacked and threatened in Izmir, and another was stabbed in the Black Sea port of Samsun. In November this year, an Assyrian cleric was abducted in southeast Turkey and rescued by security forces. In April, three Christians were killed at a publishing house that produces Bibles. Last week, Turkey began an investigation into alleged collusion between police officers and at least one of the suspects charged in the killings. The three victims, a German and two Turks who had converted to Christianity, were tied up and had their throats slit. The European Union has long complained that Turkey, an EU applicant, is not fully protecting the religious freedoms of its Christian minority, which makes up less than one percent of the population. 7 Christian Families Leaving Turkey Again Courtesy of Doğan News Agency (ZNDA: Şirnak) A group of Chaldean Christians who were forced to leave their homes in Beytüşşebap, Şırnak, near the border with Iraq, in 1988 due to an escalation in acts of terrorism have once again decided to abandon their homes and move to Belgium. Forty people from seven families first moved to Belgium in 1988 but decided to return in 2004 when the terrorism problem had somewhat abated. The families returned to their village of Cevizağaç and built modern homes. However, with the escalation of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism in 2005, they were forced to begin packing for Belgium once again. One villager, Şenol Yaramış, said: "We lived in Belgium for many years but never forgot our country. We longed for our village. We returned in 2004. However, the escalation of clashes last year, especially in our region, kept us up at night. We are going to lock our homes and go to Belgium. If the tension subsides, we will return next summer." Erdogan: Attacks on Christians in Turkey Unacceptable, Against Islam Courtesy of the New Anatolian (ZNDA: Ankara) Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that attacks on several priests and a publishing house in Turkey are incidents that the government "can never accept." "The Santoro incident in Trabzon, the incident in Malatya (publishing house incident), and the recent incident in Izmir (an attack injuring a priest). We can never accept them," he told in a gathering in Istanbul to exchange Eid al-Adha greetings. "Those who are staging them do not know anything about Islam," he said. Erdogan said his government is at equal distance to Muslims, Christians and Jews in Turkey. "It is true that 99 percent of our country consists of Muslims, but there are also people of different religions." Erdogan said the government has to guarantee security of life to every citizen and said those attacks are not things that a Muslim can do because Islam is the religion of peace and tolerance. "We will do what we have to do (to end these incidents) until the very end," he told. Erdogan said his government is against ethnic, regional and religious nationalism because one can be proud of his/her ethnic identity, but cannot keep it over the other's identity. "Some say there are 38 ethnic identities in Turkey, some think there are 30 different ethnic identities," he told. Erdogan said whatever the number of ethnic identities, what is important is the Turkish citizenship that unites everybody. "As the administrators of the Republic of Turkey, we are at an equal distance to 70 million people in our country," he stressed. On another issue Erdogan said nobody should think of "any surgical operation on Turkey." "If there is any one with such a thought, they will see us against themselves he told members of his party at the Justice and Development (AK) Party office in Uskudar, Istanbul. Erdogan said his party has red lines and it is against regional nationalism. "Former governments made their investments in the west of the country," he said. Erdogan said Turkey is a 780,000-kilometer square country and those who played on regional nationalism made wrong calculations. "We have visited all our cities because we have a policy. It is one flag, one homeland, and one state," he declared. Earlier Erdogan terrorism is a calamity for all humanity, not only Turkey. "Therefore, all humanity has to launch a joint fight against terrorism," Erdogan told members of his party. Erdogan said Turkey staged raids against the PKK in northern Iraq, and took diplomatic, political, economic, social and military steps before this operation. "Turkey has rights under the international law, but being right is not always sufficient," he told. Erdogan said Turkey should explain to the world that it is justified, otherwise it will be isolated. "We visited Gulf countries, EU member states and the United States, and a positive atmosphere emerged after all these visits (allowinmg the raids in northjern Iraq)," he said. Erdogan said Turkey is determined to eradicate terrorism. Mar Delly Calls For Tariz Aziz' Freedom Courtesy of the BBC (ZNDA: Baghdad) The spiritual leader of Iraq's Chaldean Christian community has called on US forces to release Saddam Hussein's ex-deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
Cardinal Emmanuel Delly made the request in his Christmas message. Mr Aziz, who is himself a Christian, gave himself up to US forces after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but no charges have been brought against him. He was seen in court last year in his pyjamas, testifying for the defence in the trial of Saddam Hussein. "In terms of Tariq Aziz," Cardinal Delly said, "we have to demand the release of all those who were captured and which have no evidence against them." The Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, who criticised the US-led invasion in 2003, said his requests to visit Mr Aziz in prison had been turned down. Iraqi prosecutors say he could face charges in connection with the crushing of the Shia Muslim uprising after the 1991 Gulf War. In January last year, Mr Aziz's lawyer said his client had suffered a stroke. In his message, Cardinal Delly also called for religious freedom in Iraq, where many Christians have been kidnapped, killed or forced to flee. Assyrian Monasteries in Turkey Destroyed by Treasure Hunters Courtesy of the Turkish Daily News (ZNDA: Midyat) Treasure hunters are targeting Assyrian monasteries and churches in Şırnak and Mardin provinces as Assyrians have migrated abroad due to terror events in southeastern Anatolia, the daily Taraf reported yesterday. The project to develop cultural heritage as part of the Southeastern Anatolia Project Region, organized by Midyat Assyrian Culture Association (MSCA) with European Union funds, seeks to locate and preserve vulnerable cultural artifacts for future generations. “There is no place left in our houses of worship that is not dug out and destroyed. A history which is the common heritage of the world is disappearing,” said Yuhanna Aktaş, head of MSCA. Our sites of worship should be protected and restored by the Culture and Tourism Ministry immediately, said Aktaş, adding that Assyrians do not have the financial resources to do this work alone. |
Assyrian Professor Murdered in Sweden
(ZNDA: Stockholm) Dr. Fuat Deniz, an Assyrian professor of sociology at Örebro University in Sweden, was stabbed with a knife in the back of the neck on 11 December. A six-hour surgery was performed immediately, but to no avail. His conditioned continued to worsen until his death due to his injuries on Thursday, 13 December. He dies two days later He was 40. The attacker remains at large. Dr. Deniz lectured at the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Örebro University. So far there is no conclusive evidenceno as to the motive for Dr. Deniz' murder. Swedish security police (SÄPO), the equivalent of the FBI in Sweden, suspects that the attack was politically motivated. Dr. Deniz’s work was mainly focused on the Assyrian identity and touched upon the Turkish genocide of Assyrians. The identity of the suspect has not been fully described at press time, but a sketchy description has been provided by the Swedish police as a result of interviews with witnesses and a picture provided from a suveillance cameria. According to the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, Dr. Deniz and other researchers who have contributed to the study of the Assyrian Genocide in 1915- including Dr. David Gaunt - have been receiving death threats. Dr. Deniz was born in the village of Kerburan in the Tur-Abdin region in south-east Turkey. His family emigrated to Sweden when he was only 9. He was invited to speak at the 69th Annual National Assyrian Convention in Detroit, Michigan where he lectured on the "Maintenance and Transformation of Ethnic Identity: the Assyrian Case". This was also the title of his doctoral dissertation: "The Odyssey of a Minority. Maintenance and Transformation of Ethnic Identity in Response to Processes of Modernization - the Assyrian Case". His dissertation was written in Swedish with an English summary. On Wednesday, 19 December at 6 pm Swedish time eight Swedish university cities -Örebro, Stockholm, Jönköping, Uppsala, Lund, Linköping, Gothenburg and Norrköping - held special memorial ceremonies simultaneously for Dr. Fuat Deniz. The Swedish flag in front of the Örebro University was flown at half mast. Dr. Deniz was to receive the Örebro University's "Good Educator" award last week. He was admired among colleagues and students who chose him as their favourite for the award. Fuat Deniz is survived by his wife and a 3-year-old daughter whose birthday was celebrated last week. US House of Reps Passes $10M Assistance to Nineveh Plain U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk 19 December 2007 Kirk Language Providing $10 Million to Assyrian Christians in Nineveh Plain Final Omnibus Appropriations Bill Reasserts Support for Nineveh Plain;
Washington, D.C. – The House of Representatives today will pass a final omnibus appropriations bill, including $10 million in assistance to internally displaced religious minorities in the Nineveh Plain region of Iraq. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) first proposed the $10 million initiative in June as an amendment to the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. The amendment passed unanimously by the full Appropriations Committee and later passed the House. “As Sunni-Shia sectarian violence drops and refugees begin returning home, religious minorities in Iraq remain at risk and ignored,” Kirk said. “We must build a safe and secure home for Christians in Iraq. This $10 million is the first step toward building that home in the Nineveh Plain.” In addition to the $10 million, Kirk won additional language in the final omnibus appropriations bill, ordering the State Department to designate a point person within the Department to “focus, coordinate, and improve United States government efforts to provide for [Assyrian] humanitarian, security and development needs.” Kirk said he plans to arrange a meeting early next year between Assyrian-American leaders and the new State Department designee. “There must be a clear line of authority and accountability at the State Department for assistance to the Nineveh Plain – less bureaucracy and a lot more action,” Kirk said. CASCA Release: $10 Million Appropriation Headed to President's Desk For Immediate Release Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America CASCA Advocacy Successful in Shining Light on Plight of Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac People and Securing U.S. Government Aid $10 million appropriation in the recently passed Congressional Appropriations (Washington, DC) – Today the U.S. Congress completed action on the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act, sending the bill to the President’s desk for his signature. For the first time, the bill contained money and policy direction for administering U.S. Government aid to address the suffering of the Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac people of Iraq. Specifically, the bill includes the following language: “The Appropriations Committees support the use of prior year funds, as proposed by the House, to assist religious minorities in the Nineveh Plain region of Iraq, and direct that prior to the obligation of funds, the Department of State consult with ethno-religious minorities and locally-elected representatives to identify Iraq-based non-governmental organizations to implement these programs. The Appropriations Committees are concerned about the threat to the existence of Iraq’s most vulnerable minorities, particularly the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christians, who are confronting ethno-religious cleansing in Iraq. The Appropriations Committees expect the Department of State and USAID to designate a point person within the Department to focus, coordinate, and improve U.S. Government efforts to provide for these minorities’ humanitarian, security, and development needs.” The language is a tremendous victory for the advocacy efforts of the newly formed Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America (CASCA). Jackie Bejan, the Executive Director of CASCA hailed the Congressional action, “The struggles of our people in Iraq are finally coming to light and Congress is stepping up to address the real challenges of the less recognized ethno-religious minorities in a meaningful way.” Martin Manna, another director from CASCA added, “Before this year, we had very little luck in getting the needs of the Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac people recognized, much less addressed. By coming together, we achieved a major milestone for our people.” Ms. Bejan added, “There were several members of Congress who we worked with that understood the importance of making progress on this critical issue. I want to especially thank Representatives Eshoo, Kirk, Wolf, and Knollenberg for their leadership on this issue. I also want to recognize the openness and assistance of Representative Lowey and Senator Levin in this endeavor. Without the assistance of every one of these thoughtful leaders we would not be able to have achieved this outcome.” CASCA was formed in 2007 to educate U.S. policymakers on the plight of Iraq’s Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac Christian minorities and to advocate for policies that will support stability, security, aid, and reconstruction relief within Iraq and assistance and resettlement of the most vulnerable refugees of this fragile population outside Iraq. CASCA was formed from the following 4 organizations: The Assyrian American National Federation, The Assyrian National Council of Illinois, The Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce, and The Chaldean Federation of America. Iraq’s true minorities are being driven from their homes and communities all across Iraq. Many have returned to their ancestral homeland in Nineveh, and many more have fled the country. The violence, economic and social displacement that drove them from their homes in Baghdad and other, once-integrated Iraqi cities has followed them to Nineveh. Today, violence permeates their existence and threatens to erase the presence of these people of antiquity from their ancestral homeland in Iraq altogether. ISDP Release: $10 Million for Nineveh Plain IDPs Passes Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project For Immediate Release $10 Million for Nineveh Plain IDPs Passes Washington: December 21, 2007 – In June this year ISDP announced the passage of $10 million in funding for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Nineveh Plain, proposed by Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). It rallied numerous concerned representatives, and with its ease of passage in the Senate, the focus is on maximizing outcomes for IDPs. The $10 million passed the Senate easily given the extent of the crisis facing the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac Christians, and other religious minorities in the Nineveh Plain. “ISDP is proud that its policy work and research could be the driving force behind this entire effort and that others in the community were able to rally to it and support our ground-breaking work”, said ISDP’s Project Director Michael Youash. The $10 million amendment is a major breakthrough as it focuses on a specific geographic area – the Nineveh Plain. This is unprecedented and reflects close to 3 years of constant work by ISDP to raise awareness on the vital role of the Nineveh Plain in ensuring a future for Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs, Shabaks, Yezidis and others. This message is growing, as demonstrated by Rep. Kirk’s own statement that, “We must build a safe and secure home for Christians in Iraq. This $10 million is the first step toward building that home in the Nineveh Plain.” Additionally, it rallied numerous community organizations and countless individuals to the push, making this a genuinely grass roots effort. From ISDP’s offices in Washington, events unfolded that made an entire community heard with historical results. “We are overjoyed that so many people have been able to play a part in this process and that other organizations have been able to take forward their own work as a result of ISDP’s efforts in Washington,” added Youash. ISDP has been working for months with aid and relief partners in Iraq on the types of projects needed for minorities, including IDPs, and coordinating its unique expertise with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders. This always has been and will remain a primary focus for ISDP. Reconstruction and development is one of the central policy pillars on which ISDP is working; with security and governance matters also being of central importance. International Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides For Immeidate Release Adam Jones, Ph.D. In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923. The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution." In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide, there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire." Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods, including mass executions, death marches, and starvation. IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to publicize and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had made Asia Minor their home for millennia. The umbrella term "Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs, Aramaens, Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites. "The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December 15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities." The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely recognized
as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the
perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future Extensive supporting documentation for the Assyrian and Greek genocides
was circulated to IAGS members in the months prior to the vote, and is
available at http://www.genocidetext.net/ FULL TEXT OF THE IAGS RESOLUTION
Christmas Message of Save Assyria Front For Immediate Release Save Assyria Front Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Assyrians have four times wished each other Merry Christmas. While the unarmed Assyrian nation is still confronting terrorism, Kurdification and Islamization conspiracies by the defiance of a large portion of the Assyrian people in the bereaved Assyria, we greet all the Christians in the world for the fifth time. We congratulate the oppressed Assyrian nation and all its persecuted religious sects on the occasion of Jesus Christ’s birthday. As we approach the New Year, we offer our best wishes to the hostage Iraqi nation including the Assyrians and the other groups. We call for peace and understanding each other in a patriotic Iraqi spirit, far from ethnic and religious intolerance, in order to make Iraq an example of democracy as the Iraqi opposition has always promised after the fall of the former regime. In order to achieve the legitimate goals of the Assyrian nation, the Save Assyria Front promises Assyrians to cooperate in facilitating the union of the Assyrian political organizations as much as possible. These are all mentioned in the closing statement of the Assyrian expanded conference, which was held in Stockholm from the 15th to 17th of December 2006. As our main aspiration, we continue to ask the Iraqi government and the international community to recognize Assyrians as the indigenous people of Iraq according to the principle of equality. Long live the Iraqi nation
Brother of Late Chaldean Patriarch Accused of Iraqi Spying Courtesy of the Detroit News (ZNDA: Detroit) An active member of Metro Detroit's Chaldean community and a younger brother of the late patriarch of the Chaldean church was secretly indicted for spying for Saddam Hussein shortly before he died, court records show. Jamal Bidawid, who was 67, died of a heart attack in a health club hot tub last month, federal officials said Thursday. Since then, Bidawid, of Sterling Heights, has been praised by some users of an online message board popular with Chaldeans as a "great Assyrian," but denounced by others as a traitor.
Federal court records show Bidawid was named in a sealed federal indictment in August, accused of infiltrating opposition groups and spying for Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Intelligence Service. He was the third Detroit-area man charged with spying for Saddam. On 27 November U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook quietly dismissed the charges of conspiracy, illegally acting as a foreign agent and violating the embargo with Iraq. Cook cited Bidawid's death Nov. 7 as the sole reason for the dismissals. Though charged, Bidawid had not been arrested or arraigned and the charges against him had not been publicized. "I don't believe it," Bidawid's daughter, Balsam Bidawid of Hazel Park, said Thursday. "He was not a spy." But Andy Akrawi of Sterling Heights, a local member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said intelligence reports Bidawid filed about Detroit-area members of the group that opposed the Saddam Hussein regime were found at Iraqi Intelligence Service headquarters after the fall of Baghdad. "Who could you trust more than the patriarch's brother?" Akrawi asked. "I'm so sorry he died. I wanted to go see him in jail." Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and Jamal Bidawid's older brother, died in Beirut, Lebanon, in July 2003. According to the indictment, which was ordered unsealed 19 November, Bidawid illegally acted as an Iraqi agent from 1998 until 2002, used the code name "374," and was paid several thousand dollars by the Iraqi Intelligence Service to cover expenses. Bidawid, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen, provided the Iraqis with cassette tapes and other materials, the indictment alleges. The indictment does not mention the specific groups Bidawid allegedly spied on. It does mention a trip Bidawid allegedly made in 1999 to the annual Assyrian Book Fair in Chicago. Sam Darmo, a Phoenix, Arizona Realtor who hosts the California-produced satellite television program "Assyrians for Justice," said he exposed Bidawid on his TV program in March. "He spied on the Chaldean community in Detroit, the Assyrian community in Chicago, and mainly the Assyrian Democratic Movement," endangering relatives of members who were still in Iraq, Darmo said, adding that he has copies of the Iraqi Intelligence Service reports related to Bidawid. Balsam Bidawid said she knew FBI agents had questioned her father, who was retired from the plumbing and heating business, but her understanding was that federal officials had dropped the matter. Ghazi Al-Awadi, 78, of Dearborn, was this month sentenced to 18 months in prison for spying for Iraq. Al-Awadi, who earlier served prison time for stabbing his son-in-law to death, bolstered his credentials with the Iraqis by telling them the killing was related to his son-ion-law's connections to an opposition party, officials said. Najib Shemami, 59, of Sterling Heights, who allegedly traveled from Michigan to Iraq on several occasions between 2002 and 2003 to meet with Iraqi intelligence officials, is awaiting trial. Synod Approves Consecration of Syrian Orthodox Bishop Courtesy of the Hindu (ZNDA: Kerala) A specially convened synod of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church held at the church headquarters at Devlokam, Kerala, India on Thursday, December 6th recognised the consecration of a German priest as Bishop of the newly formed Orthodox Archdiocese of Europe. Ramban Moosa Gurgan, a priest of the Antiochian Church in Germany, under the Holy See of Antioch, was consecrated Bishop Savarios Moosa Gurgan by two Bishops of the Orthodox Church clandestinely at Thrissur. The development marks a milestone in the decades-old war of nerves between the Orthodox Church and the Holy See of Anitoch. On 6 December, the Catholicate office said the Catholicos Baselius Marthoma Didymos I and the synod sought explanation from the two Bishops on the issue and they were satisfied with the explanation and accepted them. A section of the German Church which had differences of opinion with the parent church had sought the help of the Malankara Orthodox Church which had a similar fight with Antioch, in establishing their identity. The issue of consecration of the German Bishop had come up at the synod held in August. Things had moved in a clandestine manner and the progress was slow, as differences of opinion developed among the five Bishops who were in the know of things. However finally, while two of them kept away from the consecration ceremony, two of them were present at Thrissur. The third extended his support through a special message. Friday’s synod was scheduled earlier to discuss the revised norms for bishop-candidates. The Catholicate office said the decision to accept the explanation of the two bishops were unanimous. U.S. Assyrians Worry about Cultural Survival
Courtesy of the Associated Press (ZNDA: Modesto) Isaac Samow's ancestors have occupied Mesopotamia for millennia, surviving innumerable conquests and massacres. The headstones in the cemetery of his hometown near Mosul, Iraq, document centuries of his family's history there, and the ancient ruins that dot the arid plain near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers tell of his people's role in building humanity's first cities. Yet another war is now threatening the survival of Assyrian culture and language -- a derivation of the tongue spoken by Jesus -- in its native land. Among the first converts to Christianity, thousands of Assyrians have fled since the U.S. invasion. Samow's relatives are scattered worldwide, with some in Canada, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Greece, the Netherlands, England, Sweden and Germany. Others are refugees in Syria, Jordan, and inside Iraq, not knowing whether they can return to cities and towns carved into Sunni or Shiite enclaves. In such a climate, minorities such as Assyrian Christians face an uncertain future. "My children speak my language, but what about my grandchildren?" Samow said from his home in Modesto. "If there are no Assyrians left in Mesopotamia, how will our culture live?"
Successive waves of Assyrians have landed in the Central Valley, beginning with those who fled a massacre by Turks near the end of World War I. They were joined by families who escaped Iran when an Islamic revolution overthrew the shah in 1979, then by new arrivals escaping the first gulf war, when Samow came here with his family. A similar Assyrian community also thrives in Chicago. But with their numbers now dangerously low in the region where Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet, Assyrians here fear that the current wave of migration could mark their end. Community leaders in the United States are working to support Assyrians back home. The Assyrian American Civic Club of Turlock is housed in a fortress-like hall decorated with winged bulls that have human heads -- a traditional Assyrian protective figure known as a lamassus. An old map on the wall shows population centers that no longer exist. "Once, most villages in that area were Assyrian," said the club's president, Fred Betmaleck, who is Iranian-Assyrian. "Now there are very few left." The club works to keep Assyrian culture alive by hosting a radio station that plays Assyrian music and carries community news. It also holds festivals, such as the Assyrian New Year's celebration known as Kha-b-Nissan, in the spring. Members also raised money through dances and raffles to help Assyrians who remain in Iraq. "We try to help them stay there as much as possible, because when you leave, you never go back," Betmaleck said. "We encourage them not to come, but when there's persecution, what can you do?" For Isaac Samow, staying was too risky an option. He and his wife took their seven children -- the youngest a 1-year-old that Samow strapped to his back -- on a dangerous hike across the rugged snow-covered mountains between Iraq and Turkey. He spent all the money he had saved from his job as a construction contractor to smuggle his family to the dirt-floor tents of a Turkish refugee camp, then to Istanbul. They spent a year and a half in Greece before, with Red Cross help, they applied for asylum and were accepted into the United States in December 1992. Now, 15 years and another Iraq invasion later, the family is safe, but they worry about relatives back home -- and about the survival of their culture. "We feel this could be the end of a people who have survived since Babylonian times," said Zack Samow, 34, Isaac's oldest son. "This could be the wave that pushes Assyrians out of their homeland for good." Relatives and friends in Iraq have found menacing notes on their doors and heard of churches being bombed. The priest in Samow's hometown of Telkaif disconnected his phone to stop the barrage of threats, the family said. As cities and towns are reshaped at gunpoint into homogenized Sunni, Shiite or Kurdish territory, groups without their own militias or political power are left vulnerable to attacks, said Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom and a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Assyrian Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities have been particularly hard-hit by the sectarian violence, she said. Among those leaving are Jews; Sabean-Mandeans, who follow John the Baptist; Yazidis, who are ethnic Kurds whose religion precedes Christianity and Islam; Baha'i; and Iraqi Turkmen, Shea said. They might dress differently from their Muslim neighbors, speak other languages and pursue businesses that make them stand out -- selling liquor, for example. In addition to a construction business, Samow also ran three eating and drinking establishments in Iraq. Besides their religion, the fact that many speak English and work as translators means they also are often seen as siding with the United States, said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch. "They're not just being hunted down because of their religious identity," he said. "Many of them are regarded as being pro-Western." Their absence could allow the region to become less tolerant as it loses the diversity that has characterized it for centuries. That could have long-term geopolitical consequences, Shea said. "It's a profound loss," she said. "These populations have lived together for a long time, but if this continues, it will not be a plural society any more. It'll be devoid of non-Muslims." Van Cliburn Competition Winner Credits His Assyrian TeacherBased on an article in the Modesto Bee
(ZNDA: Modesto) Jon Nakamatsu, 39, a San Jose navtive who won the 1997 gold medal in the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition credits his Assyrian piano teacher for most of what he knows about piano playing. The Van Cliburn Competition is held every four years and the winner and runner-ups receive substantial cash prizes plus a concert tour at world-famous venues featuring pieces of their choice. It rivals the Tchaikovsky competition. Nakamatsu performed a recital at the Gallo Center for the Arts last weekend. He says that his teacher, Marina Derryberry "was an incredible influence musically and became the conservatory for me." An Assyrian, Derryberry grew up in Tehran, Iran, and studied in the late Shah's conservatory. Now retired, she started teaching Nakamatsu in Sunnyvale when he was only 6 and continued coaching him through adulthood. He recalls her speaking fondly of visiting family and friends in the Assyrian community in the Turlock area. Nakamatsu considered pursuing a music degree but decided not to on his teacher's advice. She had spoken with a lot of professionals in the field who pointed out that enrolling in an acclaimed music school is no guarantee of a music career. Nakamatsu settled on studying German at Stanford University because he had always wanted to learn another language and he thought that one would be particularly helpful with music since so much of the great piano repertoire came out of German-speaking cultures. To hedge his bets in case his piano career didn't work out, Nakamatsu got a master's degree in education at Stanford and got a job teaching German at a high school in Mountain View. He was still working at the school when he entered the Cliburn competition. Out of the 250 pianists who applied to enter the contest, he was one of 165 given live auditions by judges, and then one of 35 invited to perform in Fort Worth, Texas, where the finals are held. "For me, that was a last chance," Nakamatsu said. "The competitions end (when pianists are) around 30 years or so, and I was already 28. The competition is only every four years and then I would have been too old." Nakamatsu didn't feel particularly confident about his abilities in Texas and considered quitting after the first round. But he persevered and emerged victorious at the end, becoming the first American pianist to win the contest in years. He quit the teaching job |
The above was presented by the Mr. Afram on Friday, 17 March 2006 at the University of Istanbul. 
