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Our Language is Dying! Declaring War on the Extinction of Our Most Precious National Treasure When you speak with your parents, husband, wife, children, brothers or sisters in what language do you express your deepest, most personal thoughts? German? English? Russian? Arabic? Do you find it difficult to express yourself in your mother tongue? What is your mother tongue? I begin the first issue in 2008 not discussing the war in Iraq, the refugees in Syria and Jordan, or any of a dozen other similar politico-economic issues facing our people today. Instead I want to focus on a topic quite dear to my heart - the subject of our language and its slow extinction due to disuse and misuse. Can you speak a modern form of the Aramaic language fluently? Can you read its script? Which form - Eastern or Western? or Both? There are no statistics (other than this week's unscientific Zinda poll) that show the percentage of speakers of Aramaic language. But I can assure our readers that the percentage of those who fluently speak, read, and write a form of Aramaic language is less than 10 percent of our population. Worse yet, those of us who speak and read in both Eastern and Western Aramaic most likely make up less than two percent of our population - worldwide. Our language is dying! Aramaic language is the second oldest continuously spoken and written language of the world after Chinese. It was the lingua franca of the Middle East for centuries. But today, for every 500 speakers of Chinese language there is only 1 Aramaic speaker. Aramaic has come dangerously close to extinction as a living spoken and written language. Aramaic contributed to world culture from Mongolia to Egypt. It provided the basis for alphabetic writing in much of Asia at various historical periods. Adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet made possible the writing of vernacular languages among people of China, Mongolia, the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian cultural area. The Achamenid kings of Persia adopted Aramaic as the language of their empire. In fact, the word "Hakham-Anesh" referring to the dynasty of Kings Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes, is the Aramaic word for "Wise Men". Aramaic was the crucial transition from the Akkadian cuneiform to the alphabetic writing that ultimately culminated in the writing systems of Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew. These languages were the basis of spiritual, historical, medicinal, and scientific knowledge in western Asia, Europe, and beyond. Today Aramaic as a living language is on the verge of collapse. Ten years ago, for example, the last speaker of Mlahsô, Ibrahim Hanna, died in 1998 in the Syrian city of Qamishli. Mlahsô was a dialect of the western Syriac language. Other dialects of Syriac (both eastern and western) will slowly disappear if nothing is done in the near future. Scholars refer to our form of the Aramaic language as Syriac or leshana soryaya (for eastern speakers in Iraq and Iran) and leshono soryoyo (for western speakers in Turkey and Syria). Not to confuse this with the language of "Syria", most Assyrians call this language leshana Atoraya/Atoroyo or Ashuraya/Ashuroyo. Even in Iraq, its historic home region, the past two decades, and especially the period since 2003, have seen the scattering and diminishing of the compact Assyrian population (including church communities Chaldean, Syriac and Church of the East) that supports the maintenance of the language. A resolution was recently adopted by the Foundation for Endangered Languages at its Kuala Lumpur conference which convened at the University of Malaya. The resolution was presented by Dr. Eden Naby, a name familiar to the scholars in the modern Assyrian studies and the readers of Zinda. The Resolution distills the paper she presented at the conference (click here for full text in PDF). The Resolution on Aramaic as a Heritage Language as adopted at the XIth international conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – on 28 October 2007 reads as follows:
With the threat of greater dispersion of the once concentrated Aramaic-speaking communities from the Middle East, it is imperative that serious, large-scale initiatives be studied and implemented to widen the use of the Aramaic language as a living ethnic, religious, and world cultural identity. This requires a world-wide effort, promulgated by the centers of higher learning and the governments in whose territories live Aramaic-speaking populations. However, the greatest impetus to this global effort must come from the Assyrians, who use Aramaic in their daily conversations, sacred texts and liturgies, and nowadays on the Internet. Groups such as the Education Committee of the Assyrian American Association of San Jose (see SURFERS CORNER) are working on small, but effective, projects to re-print instructional books in the Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) language. Last month Ms. Carmen Lazar, the principal of the Diqlat Assyrian School announced that her school will return to teaching students after 15 years of absence. In the last few years the greatest corporate contribution to the emergence of the Aramaic as a literary and scholarly language has been made by the Gorgias Press in New Jersey. Hundreds of rare and extremely old Aramaic books and manuscripts have already been re-printed and sold to the universities, scholars, and linguists. Just last week I began reading "The Book of Ethics of Bar Hebraeus (Bar Avraya)" by Paul Bejan, recently published by Gorgias Press. This book, entirely in Aramaic, was first written in 1898 - exactly 110 years ago. In France, two gentlemen - Mr. Jean-Paul Sliva and Mr. Olivier Lauffenburger, have set up an online dictionary to collect Aramaic words and their definitions by volunteers - like yourself - from around the world (click here). Thousands of Assyrian students in north Iraq everyday attend classes in mathematics, sciences, literature, history, and geography completely taught in Syriac, Arabic, and Kurdish. In December Zinda Magazine received copies of two fine publications from Ankawa, North Iraq: "Targmana" published in Dohuk by the Oriental Cultural Center and "Simtha", a quarterly journal dealing with the Syriac language and literature. For a "Assyrian language buff" like myself such books and publications are the ornaments of soul. Interest among the youth in the Aramaic language is demonstrated in various forms of pop culture: Aramaic alphabet characters, words, phrases, and prayers tattooed on arms, neck, back, and feet, jewelry designed in the form of Aramaic letters , and digital posters of the Aramaic letters adorning exhibition halls. The Assyrian Preservation Society sends daily text-messages with the "Assyrian Word of the Day". There are websites that teach our language and sites that allow free download of Syriac fonts for your word processor There are websites dedicated to the teaching of the Aramaic language (click here). These efforts are significant, but isolated and disconnected. Preservation of the Aramaic language requires huge funding, long-term planning, concerted international effort among the institutions of higher learning and governments, scholars and hundreds of volunteers around the world. Today there are 6700 living languages. Of these only 78 are literary languages. Our language of Aramaic (Syriac or Neo-Aramaic, which I personally prefer to simply call Assyrian) is one of these 78 literary languages. In just a few minutes even I , with a non-collegiate education in our language, can demonstrate the structural strength and literary beauty of our language to any one familiar with the grammatical nuances of another literal language. It would be a calamity if such a magnificent invention of the oldest civilization in the world be lost to the pages of history. I remind my students of the Assyrian language that Aramaic is more than a language - it is an experience stretching more than 5000 thousand years, vocalized in the form of words and phrases. Simply put, it is what differentiates us - the Assyrians - from everyone else. It is indeed our most precious national treasure. The "War Against Extinction" begins at home and with ourselves. With every new word learned, a new full sentence spoken in our own language with our family members and friends, and every sentence read in a book or magazine we move our language one step away from extinction. Please become active in preserving our language today! Organize Aramaic language classes at home, in your church, and in your civic clubs. Buy books and CDs that are written and performed in Aramaic - even if you cannot read or understand the language. On a larger scale, our national heritage will forever disappear if we do not build schools in the Diaspora: at least one in every city. We can rebuild (and we will) our destroyed towns, villages, and churches; however, bringing back a language after its extinction is nearly impossible. These days even our church hymns are re-written in English, Turkish, and Arabic for the convenience of the church parishioners unable to read Aramaic. With one school in Sydney and another in Los Angeles we cannot prevent the extinction of the Aramaic language. Despite what the priests tell us, Aramaic is not just the language of the scriptures; it is the language of love, music, science, philosophy, political discourse, plays, musicals, love songs, and thousands of pre-Christian hymns. Before Jesus Christ spoke Aramaic, our kings declared wars and enacted laws in Aramaic. Before Mar Aprim wrote his prayers in Aramaic, Mesopotamian children sang lyrics adoring the Assyrian and Babylonian gods and goddesses in Aramaic. Team up in your city and begin projects to finance the construction of non-denominational Assyrian schools for grades pre-school to 6 or 12. This may take 1, 2, 5 or 10 years; but let our generation take this first important step. Let us build tens of schools for every school or church destroyed in our homeland. Today, the Internet is our best weapon to wage war against extinction. Here are a few projects to contemplate:
In the coming weeks Zinda will announce the launch of several projects, in collaboration with other institutions and companies, in pushing forward with the War Against Extinction of the Aramaic Langauge. If you as an individual, company, church, club, or a group of concerned individuals are interested in joining this effort, contact zCrew in thte coming weeks. Our language is incredibly beautiful, rich, colorful, flexible, precise, scalable, and romantic (yes, romantic). Use it - every day! Let our generation be the one that not only saved our language from extinction, rather revived it to its past glory - one speaker at a time. |
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My Art, My People Paul Batou
My journey as an artist began during my academic study in pharmacy school. At that time, religion, the gypsy culture, writing poems, painting, and playing classical guitar become my passions and my escape from the radical society. Those hobbies provided me with the ideals that I live by and the freedom to express my self among people who fear God and pray all day. The turning point in my search for that freedom was when I started reading and painting the Epic of Gilgamesh. That story had a major impact in my thinking as a human and as an artist. Gilgamesh, and his long journey and search for life, love, and freedom opened my mind and caused me to look back to my roots as a Mesopotamian. I became more determine to love my land and my people, and to fully understand that this is my Iraq, not owned by Shiites, Sunnis, or Kurds. After my graduation from pharmacy school, I was drafted into the army for five years in the Iran–Iraq War. During that time, I started reading the Bible, searching for any answer to the human suffering. I wanted to further understand God, whom I felt had abandoned me and my people after all the prayers, fasting, and sacrifice. Many times I would see his image or hear his voice through the crying of wounded soldiers, or over the sky when I looked up while returning home. I realized that he never left me alone, but I did not fully understand him. He empowered me with all the knowledge to survive, it is my decision to start and end the war, to be rich or poor, free or captive. In my view, God is not always generous. I can think, my eyes can see and analyze, and my hand can produce. I stopped looking to the sky asking for help. Instead, I am now searching within me and around the big universe. I feel that I have a duty to protect the air I breath, a duty to keep the water clear and pure, a duty to plant trees, flowers, and grass in a rich soil to create beauty on earth. I must love the birds in the sky, and the animals in the wilderness. I wish to gain power and knowledge to share with all humans so they can live in peace.
Freedom was the driving force for my decision to leave Iraq. In 1989 I moved with my family to Athens, Greece and eventually the United States. In the States I noticed that our people are shattered between Chaldean, Assyrian, Syriac, Orthodox, and Catholic. I asked myself, were do I belong? My father only told me,“ Iraq is your homeland; it was called Mesopotamia before, BET NAHRIN!” Since childhood, this phrase still rings in my ear. The current war in Iraq added more pressure for the native Iraqi-Christians to reclaim their ethnic group. I found myself attempting to unite all the Christians of Iraq as one, the same way I would mix different colors to create one desire for my paintings. This was not easy at all. One day I looked at my colors in their different tubes and I told myself, “Why bother? Let them be like that, they are different like my colors. They are beautiful separately, but I also understand that by mixing I will create a new, beautiful and unique color.” I am one artist among many. I am Sumerian when I read the Epic of Gilgamesh, I am Chaldean and Babylonian when I look at the Gate of Ishtar, I am Assyrian when I think of Ashur and listen to Evin Aghasi, I am Syriac when remembering the stories of the Genocide, and I am a Catholic or Orthodox when I read Jesus’ teachings of love. My colors are united in one art piece reflecting the tone of the Earth, the language of the universe, the cries and pain of the oppressed people. On my canvas, the black, red and white are in harmony just like my soul. I would love my people to achieve that kind of unity. Celebrate the art.
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Christian Churches Attacked in Mosul and Kirkuk Courtesy of the AsiaNews (9 Jan) &Church Times (11 Jan) (ZNDA: Kirkuk) The Eastern Orthodox Christmas, celebrated by Assyrians who follow the Julian Calendar (Ancient Assyrian Church of the East and those living in Russia) witnessed a number of coordinated attacks on church property in Baghdad and Mosul. 6 January On Sunday, 6 January, three churches and a Dominican nuns' monastery and a Chaldean nun's orphanage in Mosul were targeted by militants using explosive devices. Bombs exploded at the Chaldean Churches of Mar Polous (St. Paul), the Chaldean Church of the Holy Spirit, and the Assyrian Church of Mart Maryam (St. Mary the Virgin). Six people were injured.
In Baghdad, a small bomb damaged a doorway to Mar Giwargis (St George’s) Chaldean Church in Qadir, a mortar bomb damaged a Greek Orthodox Church in Saha Al Taharriyat, and a bomb was targeted at a Chaldean convent in the Zafaraniyeh neighborhood. Iraqi leaders, both Muslim and Christian, condemned the attacks. The Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, said they had “changed [Christians’] joy to sadness and anxiety”. The attacks in Mosul were confirmed by Chaldean Archbishop, Faraj Raho on Sunday. 9 January On Wednesday, 9 January, six Christian churches were bombed in Kirkuk, Iraq. Each of the 3 attacks was timed 2 minutes AND 10 minutes apart. Car bombs exploded near the Chaldean Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, the Syrian Catholic Church of Mar Aprim (St. Ephrem), and another church. The explosions occurred around 4 pm local time in Kirkuk. This was the first time Kirkuk’s Christian community experiences this kind of violence. Several buildings, homes, and automobiles were also damaged during these attacks. 17 January On 17 January, a car bomb exploded outside a church in Mosul slightly injuring two people, police said. The booby-trapped car was discovered parked outside the Al Tahira Chaldean church in the Al Shiffa district of the city and detonated as security personnel evacuated the area. A police officer and a little girl were wounded in the blast. No worshippers were in the church at the time of the explosion. The blast caused material damage to the external wall of the church and smashed its windows and doors. This church was before targeted by attacks in 2004. According to the Assyrian International News Agency some 40 churches in Iraq have been bombed since 26 June, 2004 (click here). Imams Condemn Bombings of Iraqi Churches Courtesy of the Catholic World News (ZNDA: Kirkuk) Iraqi Muslim leaders in the city of Kirkuk have condemned the car-bombing of Christian churches, saying that an attack on Christians is an offense against Islam. During Friday prayer services in Kirkuk, imams condemned the January 9 attacks that had struck the city's Chaldean Catholic cathedral and a Syrian Orthodox Church. The blasts-- which came as a shock to Christians, who had not previously been the targets of violence in the northern city-- were "contrary to Islam," the Muslim leaders said. Acknowledging the friendship that has marked Christian-Muslim relations in the city, the mosque officials said that "attacks of this nature are alien to region." Several Muslim leaders made personal visits to Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk to express their concern and their solidarity.
Some Muslim religious leaders, “shocked and saddened” by the event, recalled the “positive role” carried out by the Chaldean archdiocese in promoting and maintaining dialogue between the city’s diverse ethnic groups and the “respect” which Christians show them during the holy month of Ramadan. The Imam’s underlined with great force that “attacks of this nature are alien to religion” moreover they do “grave damage to Islam itself”. Wednesday’s car bombs caused only material damage, which has already been repaired. Four private homes were also damaged in the explosions, all belonging to Muslim families. The Archdiocese contributed to their restoration. On this same day it was snowing in Iraq, an event that the public believes is a "sign from Heaven for the bombings of the Christian churches". Others called it an omen of peace. This was the first snow in Baghdad in any living person's memory. Assyrian Revival Stirs in Turkey Courtesy of BBC News
(ZNDA: Tur-Abdin) At an early morning Sunday church service, chanting in Aramaic fills the air together with the sweet scent of incense. Men pray standing, their palms open to heaven. Most of the women are behind a wooden lattice at the back, their heads covered in scarves. These people are Assyrians and the region they know as Tur Abdin - in south-eastern Turkey, close to the border with Syria - was once the heartland of their ancient Christian church. At the turn of the last century an estimated 200,000 Assyrians still lived here. Today there are fewer than 3,000 left. But recently, there have been signs of a possible revival. Homecoming
In the nearby village of Elbeyendi, Aziz Demir contemplates what remains of his home - just the walls and a jumble of loose rocks. Two decades ago, the Assyrians were caught up in the Kurdish conflict here. Unwilling to side with the insurgents or Turkish troops, Aziz, his neighbours and thousands like them fled to Europe. Their abandoned homes crumbled to ruin. It was just the latest Assyrian exodus from the region. Many had fled nationalist oppression before or left to seek economic opportunity. But now Aziz and 10 other families have come back. "It was our dream to return to the land of our ancestors. We had so many comforts in Europe but something was always missing," Aziz says. "We also want to prove to other Assyrians that it is possible to return and be settled here." Reconstruction What the families found in Elbeyendi though was utter destruction.
Just behind Aziz's old house is the village church, thought to date to the 4th Century. It is still standing, just, but unsafe. Inside, the walls are covered in graffiti left by soldiers who fought here: pictures of snakes and daggers, and a skull and crossed-bones. Outside, family graves have been opened over the years and robbed. "It is hard to express our feelings when we arrived from Europe and saw what had happened. We just asked, 'Why?'," says Aziz's wife, Semso, standing in front of the ruins of the house where she got married. "But the situation is better now. We are trying to look forward without forgetting what happened in the past," she adds. On the edge of the old village, the beginnings of a new one has sprung up. The community has built 17 enormous stone villas so far and a new church will open next year. The Kurdish conflict has not ended but this area is safe now. Looking ahead The Assyrians say Turkey's accession talks with the EU also convinced them to return. "We lived through many difficulties here but Turkey is more concerned with human rights now - it is more democratic," believes Yakup Demir.
"That is why we came back, because we believe the future here will be better." But if this return is to prove enduring, the next generation has to be equally convinced - and they have spent their entire lives until now in Europe. "There is nothing here, just a pile of rocks," complains 17-year-old Ishok, who was brought up in Switzerland and speaks no Turkish. He has no plans to stay here. "There is no internet here, I have no real friends. It is boring," he shrugs. A short drive from Elbeyendi though, there are further tentative signs of renewal. Dayrul Zafaran monastery, the Saffron Monastery, was the seat of the Syriac Orthodox church in the days when tens of thousands of Assyrians lived here. Today, EU cash is helping fund restoration work on the 5th Century, honey-coloured brickwork and a new archbishop has re-invigorated the spiritual side of life. Twenty local boys are being schooled in the monastery in the hope some may become the next generation of much-needed Syriac priests. There is a constant flow of visitors through the gates, many of them curious Turks. Optimism
Christians have recently become the targets of a surge of nationalist feeling in Turkey. Three missionaries were murdered this year, two priests were attacked and one Syriac monk was even kidnapped. But the mood at the monastery is determinedly optimistic. "We believe the project of the EU means democracy, human rights and tolerance," says Archbishop Saliba Ozmen. "We believe that through this project our community too will be more tolerated. We will be happier people as Turkish citizens," he says. With such a turbulent history, the relative stability in this region now has encouraged the Assyrians' positive outlook. It has also prompted some community members living abroad to send money to help protect what's left of their heritage here. For now though, only a handful have chosen to return to Turkey themselves. The hope of those pioneers is that - eventually - others may follow. Iraqi Refugees in Turkey Seek Move to US Courtesy of the Associated Press (ZNDA: Istanbul) Sinan Mirogi is tired of waiting. The 25-year-old Iraqi refugee's money is running out. He lives in a tiny, shared studio — sleeping on the sofa, jobless and isolated in a country where he can't speak the language, hoping the United States will let him in. But just thinking of getting to the States makes his face light up. He adds — with big smile — that he's staying single so "I'll be available for American women as soon as I get there." It's when he thinks about his current life that that Mirogi, who fled Iraq after working for a U.S. contractor, gets dejected. He turns to his guitar — his "companion in loneliness," he calls it — and strums a sad Iraqi folk tune. "We are supposed to knock on the (U.S.) embassy's doors, instead of the U.N.'s," he said, referring to his repeated interviews with the U.N. refugee agency, the first stop for Iraqis seeking resettlement in the United States. "Time is running out, as well as my money. I cannot work or ask for help from my parents, because I should be helping them, not the other way around." The United States has been painfully slow in its promises to resettle thousands of Iraqis driven from their homeland by war — and it's only getting slower. For the third straight month, the number admitted in December declined amid bureaucratic infighting in Washington, despite repeated promises to speed it up. Just 245 Iraqi refugees were admitted in December — far short of the administration's goal of 1,000 per month. The holdup is frustrating for Iraqis in Turkey, many of whom chose to flee here believing they had a better chance of making it to the United States. "We came here hoping to get resettled faster to the States. In other countries, there is a long line of people waiting, here fewer numbers have applied," said Methaq Hermiz, Marogi's apartment mate and fellow refugee. Hermiz, who fled to Turkey in August, occupies the tiny apartment's bedroom, along with his wife and their 4-month-old daughter. Only around 10,000 Iraqis are believed to be in Turkey, compared with 1.5 million in Syria and 750,000 in Jordan — out of a wave of more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled the turmoil since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Some have returned to Iraq as the violence dropped in their homeland, but the bulk of the Iraqi refugees are still too nervous to venture back or want to resume their lives elsewhere. In Turkey, Iraqis face numerous obstacles on top of those faced by their fellow refugees in Arab countries. High among them, the language difference — few Iraqis speak Turkish, making finding even informal jobs difficult and further isolating refugees. Prices, which are on a European level, are higher than in Arab countries. The Turkish government requires many refugees to live in areas distant from the main cities, breaking their support networks. But so far they do appear to have gotten to the U.S. in a faster proportion than elsewhere, given their numbers. So far, 939 Iraqis in Turkey have been resettled to the U.S. and 37 more have been accepted and are expected to go soon, according to Metin Corbatir, the spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Ankara. That is out of a total 2,665 that the United States has taken in — a number that is far lower than Washington has promised. To meet its goal of 12,000 resettled in fiscal year 2008, some 1,215 Iraqis a month would have to arrive in the U.S. Corbatir would not say whether resettlement was faster from Turkey, but he acknowledged they may appear so because the Turkish office has longer experience with resettlement to the United States. Refugee advocates have criticized the process, saying the United States has a moral responsibility to take in Iraqis quickly, particularly those who risked their lives working for the U.S. military or contractors in Iraq. Marogi and Hermiz — who both worked as engineers for the Texas-based construction firm Tetra Technologies Inc. — are bitter over the slow pace. Marogi said U.S. officials "were not doing enough to help out" despite the risks he ran working for the Americans. Marogi fled Iraq after one of his neighbors in the northern city of Kirkuk who had been working for the Americans was kidnapped and killed by insurgents. Marogi's terrified parents made him quit his job and flee the country. He came to Turkey because his friend and fellow Christian, Hermiz, also planned to come here, after militants sent a death threat to his home in the northern city of Mosul, denouncing "traitors who work for the American infidel occupiers." They and Hermiz's wife Reema now share the $900-a-month apartment. All are jobless, unable to get work permits. "In the beginning I was happy to come here, then I realized that we will never survive in such an expensive place for a long time," said the 27-year-old Reema. "I cry every day thinking that soon we will run out of money and be unable to buy milk for the baby." Christians make up 39 percent of the Iraqi refugee community in Turkey, with another 28 percent Muslim Arabs and 23 percent ethnic Turkomans, who are related to Turks and speak a similar language. Another 7 percent are Kurds. In Kurtulus, a southern district of Istanbul where many of the refugees have found homes, Iraqis were seen shopping in the markets, negotiating in English with Turkish shopkeepers over vegetables. Only a few, have picked up informal jobs in local textile workshops or, for the lucky ones with a smattering of Turkish, in restaurants as waiters or cooks. Bassel Gorial used to run three shops in Baghdad, earning about a $1,000 a month. Since arriving Turkey over two years ago, he has been working to pick up Turkish and got a job washing dishes at a restaurant for about $500 a month. "My job can barely help me with the bills," said the 39-year-old Gorial. "It is not enough for the $400 rent, or for my three children." "I cannot find any more patience, I have been waiting for a long time and no one cares," he said. Turkish law forbids refugees from living for an extended period in the big cities, so up to 60 percent have been forced to move to provincial cities in central Turkey, fragmenting the community and distancing them from wider job opportunities. Nezar Gerges was forced to leave Istanbul to Konya province, about 270 miles southeast of the capital Ankara. The 28-year-old accountant sneaks into Istanbul every 15 days to work for a week as a laborer. But a worse blow was that his resettlement request to America was rejected. "I am in desperate need for any help," said Gerges. "They (Americans) invaded us, caused all that chaos in our country and now they have forsaken us. Mess O’Potamian Art Courtesy of the Newsweek Magazine In the renovated Assyrian gallery of Baghdad's Iraq Museum, archeologist Amira Edan al-Dahab was doing what she likes best: explaining the priceless treasures in her care. Stately 3,000-year-old statues of royalty—a couple lost their heads during the museum's looting in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion—have been restored and are presiding over the vast space. Ancient stone reliefs line the walls, with intricate carving depicting the rituals of early civilization. In one panel, an Assyrian and a Babylonian king are posed shaking hands to seal a treaty, not unlike a diplomatic photo op today. But in another relief, victorious soldiers are piling up their enemies' severed heads as a tribute to a monarch in a chariot. Al-Dahab, the museum's temporary director, shakes her head. "You can see the violence all through history," she says. "This one was always ugly to me, but now it's even more so." With the terror of the insurgency, sectarian attacks and suicide bombings, the devastation of Iraq's museums and archeological sites has become a footnote in the ongoing violence and political crises. In 2006, after a mass kidnapping near the museum, the director, Donny George, sealed much of the complex in a concrete tomb and, like many of Iraq's professionals, left the country. But now, with the U.S. troop surge, Baghdad is calmer. Last summer the concrete was replaced with an iron security door. Inside the museum now, nearly 300 workers and scholars are repairing and renovating the interiors and cataloging and restoring artifacts—not only those damaged in the rampage but also those stolen from archeological sites and turned in to the authorities. Though there are no plans to let the public into the museum—"I cannot risk opening this to anyone," says al-Dahab—NEWSWEEK was invited to survey the ongoing work. Despite the visible progress, the situation for Iraq's lost heritage is still grim. Of about 14,000 objects looted from the museum in 2003, fewer than half have been located, many of only negligible value. A few of the most precious works have come back, including the Warka vase from 3200 B.C., on which is inscribed one of the earliest known narrative illustrations. In 2006 the United States returned the headless statue of Entemena, from 2400 B.C., to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki when he visited Washington. It had been seized by U.S. Customs officials. Jordan and Syria have also managed to stem some of the smuggling out of Iraq, but scholars despair over the laxity of law enforcement worldwide. Numerous Web sites advertise supposedly Mesopotamian artifacts from Iraq. But some of the most prized treasures, like so many of the hallmarks of civilization in this proud country, have vanished. Among the most notable: an eighth-century B.C. ivory relief of a lioness attacking a Nubian man. It was one of a pair; the other is in the British Museum.
There are bright spots. When the violence eased in southern Iraq last year, archeologists began "rescue excavations" at 11 key historical sites that were being systematically looted. The newly unearthed finds, sent to the Baghdad museum, included a stone relief dedicated to the "god Shuda," a deity new to scholars. Iraq is pocked with 12,000 registered archeological sites, but there are fewer than 2,000 guards to protect them all. The war, a weak Iraqi government and the thievery that continues to flourish have been devastating to future scholarship. "Many of these sites are so damaged I don't know if any archeologists are going to go back to them," says McGuire Gibson, president of the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq. "It'll be like trying to dig up lace." Why should we care about a bunch of broken artifacts? Because Iraq may be the richest repository of information about our beginnings as civilized people. The great early epic "Gilgamesh" was pieced together from shards found by archeologists there; the ground is full of such clay tablets incised with cuneiform, the first writing. When sites are crushed by bulldozers or tanks—or when looters trash broken bits as worthless—who knows what other epics are lost? Or even little non-epics. Al-Dahab was thrilled to come across a small tablet incised with cuneiform describing a Babylonian wife furious with her husband for taking off with the kids. But her scholarly work takes a back seat to the basics: running water and air conditioning—the place has neither—and security, such as bomb-screening machines, should the building open to the public. What she hopes most is that George, the director in exile, will return. But George, now at Stony Brook University in New York, has no plans to do so, though he keeps in touch. "I'm very sorry to say this, but it's a kind of chaos," he says. "It's just a very, very hard situation." And once again, the evils of modernity have become the enemies of history, too. Ancient Church Awaits Restoration in Iraq Desert Courtesy of the AFP Armed bandits and looters rule in the region and no one can visit the southern desert around Ain Tamur unescorted, local officials say. But 1,500 years ago, the first eastern Christians knelt and prayed in this barren land, their faces turned towards Jerusalem.
The remains of Al-Aqiser church lie in the windswept sand dunes of Ain Tamur, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, forgotten by most. But some Iraqis are determined to restore the ancient edifice -- which some say preceded Islam in the region -- to its past glory. "It is a place of worship, a church, and without doubt, the oldest church of the East," said Hussein Yasser, the head of the antiquities department of the province of Karbala. "According to our research, it was build 120 years before the emergence of Islam in the region," Yasser said. Islam emerged in the Arabian peninsula in 622, or, by Yasser's account, 15 years after Al-Aqiser was built in a region teeming with Christian tribes. In time, Karbala overshadowed it and became a key Muslim Shiite pilgrimage destination, while across the region Christian communities began to recede. Deserted by its worshippers, Al-Aqiser slowly sank into the sands and would have been totally forgotten had it not been for a team of Iraqi archeologists who stumbled on its ruins in the 1970s. The foundations of the church jut out of the desert, forming a perfect rectangle 75 metres (yards) long by 15 metres wide.
The nave is clearly visible as well as the central part around the altar where masses were celebrated. "The church was built facing Jerusalem," said Yasser, who has been struggling since 1993 to attract funds and interest to restore the church and carry out excavations in the area. His efforts were briefly rewarded some years ago when the authorities agreed to finance a brief excavation that lasted six months. The work revealed an archway which he believes probably belonged to an underground crypt, bearing inscriptions in Syriac -- the language spoken by the first Christians. "I am sure there is a city underneath the sand," said Yasser, a Shiite Muslim. "Even then the city was known as Ain Tamur and stood at a major trading junction between Persia, the Arabian peninsula and the Roman empire," he added. "There used to be a vast lake. People made their livelihood from fishing," he said, adding that the site was more archeologically, than religiously, significant. A sand embankment indicates the location of the outer walls that protected the church, and Yasser is convinced that the uneven terrain that surrounds the church hides a wealth of archeological evidence. "There are certainly houses beneath it all, and inside I am sure we can find cooking utensils, inscriptions," he said. In the past Catholic Chaldeans, the largest single Christian denomination in Iraq who follow an eastern rite but recognise the Pope in Rome, used to pray in Al-Aqiser on Christmas Day but the faithful have not returned in a long time. According to official figures, the Christian community in Iraq has slumped from around 800,000 in the 1990s to between 400,000 and 600,000 now. The church "is part of out country's memory, part of the great civilisation that the Iraqis have built and it must be saved," said Yasser. Ain Tamur police chief Mahfoud al-Tamimi said he agreed that Al-Aqiser must be saved. "The church does not belong to the Christians only or to the Muslims. It belongs to the world," Tamimi said. "The world must help us save it," he said, calling for the church to be added to UNESCO's world heritage site list. |
Police in Sweden Arrests Suspect in Killing of Prof Fuat Deniz
Courtesy of the Local (Swedish News Magazine) (ZNDA: Stockholm) Earlier this month the police in Örebro, Sweden arrested a 42-year old man who is said to be a first-cousin of Prof Fuat Deniz and has now admitted to stabbing Prof Deniz on 11 December, 2007. The victim was stabbed on campus at Örebro University in central Sweden. The suspect has no former criminal record. According to the Örebro police, an old feud between the two family members constituted the most likely motive for the killing and there was no political motive behind the murder. Situation of Iraqi Assyrian Christians Discussed in Nürnberg Assyria Council of Europe 22 January 2008
Assyria Council of Europe Condemns Iraq Church Bombings Assyria Council of Europe 9 January 2008
Executive Board Elected by Assoc. Assyrophile de France (ZNDA: Paris) Last month a new Executive Board was elected to run the affairs of the Association Assyrophile de France. The new officers are: Chairman : Alain Darmo Trial Goes on Against Accused Assyrian-Iraqi SpyCourtesy of the Associated Press (ZNDA: Los Angeles) A former Iraqi intelligence officer identified documents in federal court on 30 January bearing the name of an Iraqi-born American citizen accused of working in the United States as a spy for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Referred to only as "Mr. Sargon" to protect his identity, the witness said he recognized documents belonging to the Iraqi Intelligence Service that were signed by defendant William Shaoul Benjamin, 67, of Los Angeles. The testimony came in Benjamin's trial on charges of conspiracy, failing to register as an agent of a foreign government and making false statements. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Heinz said Tuesday during opening statements that Benjamin was a paid informant for the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the foreign intelligence arm of the Iraqi government, after coming to the United States in 1992. Benjamin was to "penetrate and monitor" expatriate Assyrian Christians, a minority group in Iraq, Heinz said. Among the documents shown in court to "Mr. Sargon" was a receipt of Benjamin receiving $2,000 in 1994 from Iraqi officials and a memo to the accounting department in the Iraqi intelligence division seeking approval to pay Benjamin. When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Janet Hudson whose name appeared on the files, the witness responded through an interpreter: "According to the documents I have, Mr. William Shaoul." Benjamin's attorney, James Blatt, deferred his opening statement until later. In initial testimony Tuesday, "Mr. Sargon" said he had been an intelligence officer in Iraq from July 1979 until April 2003, when Saddam's government was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion. He said Saddam's government had a unit, "M-40," known as the Department of Enemy Activities, that investigated anti-Iraqi groups outside of the country, including Assyrians. Benjamin, who wore headphones to listen to an interpreter, was born in Iraq and is Assyrian Christian. Prosecutors portray Benjamin in court documents as a traitor to his own community by first working for Iraqi intelligence while in Iraq and then serving as a paid informant between 1993 and 2001. Code-named "9211," Benjamin traveled to Iraq to train with intelligence officers, authorities said. As compensation, Benjamin received separate payments of $2,000, $2,500 and $4,000 between 1994 and 1996, as well as two bottles of whiskey from Iraqi intelligence officers, court documents show. FBI agent Ted Oehniger testified he recovered Iraqi files from an opposition group known as the Assyrian Democratic Movement in 2003 that showed Benjamin worked for the Iraqi intelligence while living in the United States. Oehniger recognized Benjamin's picture in one of the files because he had interviewed him in 1999 after receiving an anonymous letter accusing Benjamin of being part of a terrorist organization. The allegations were never substantiated, Oehniger said, adding that Benjamin was cooperative and became a source for the FBI for a short time. Prosecutors also accused Benjamin of failing to provide details about working for Saddam's government when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 2001, and falsely declared that he had renounced allegiance to Iraq. Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks Commemorate Dink & Deniz Courtesy of the Pan Armenian Net (ZNDA: Moscow) Events in commemoration of the Agos editor, Hrant Dink, were held in Moscow on 19 January by the Youth Union of the Armenian Apostolic Church and a number of other youth organizations (click here for YouTube video). SAF Release on Church Bombing in Iraq Press Release
Assyrian General Conference Statement on New Iraqi Flag Press Release
ACAD Declaration of Intention
Baghdad Museum Unveils 2 Restored Halls Courtesy of the AFP
(ZNDA: Baghdad) The Baghdad National Museum has completed the renovation of two exhibition halls closed after looting following the US-led invasion of 2003, Iraqi antiquities and heritage chief Eedan al-Thahabi said. The Islamic and Assyrian halls have been completely restored but will not be opened to the public until security measures can be put in place to prevent a repeat of the looting in which around 15,000 items were stolen. Only 4,000 artefacts have been recovered despite the introduction of a reward system offering up to 3,000 dollars to those handing in stolen items. "Eleven Iraqi search teams started to look for antiquities in some cities after a five year gap. What the museum is receiving now is part of what they have been able to recover," Thahabi said. The newly refurbished halls, which are among 14 that had been closed due to damage, are now home to a host of spectacular ancient treasures including a huge stone slab featuring the Assyrian god of water, Aya, found in the palace of Sargon II, king of Assyria from 721 to 705 BC. Around 32,000 artefacts were looted from 12,000 archaeological sites around Iraq during the chaos which followed the US-led invasion. The museum also has a laboratory to maintain and repair damaged artefacts which is supported by UNESCO and several European countries. When There’s Persecution, What Can You Do? Courtesy of the California Catholic Daily
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An Iraqi places a national flag on the coffin of an Assyrian relative, Mr. Naed Toma, killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad. Photo by Wissam Al-Ikaili for AFP. |
Successive waves of Assyrians have landed here in California's 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 monarchy in 1979, then by new arrivals escaping the first Gulf War, when Samow, whose hometown is near Mosul, Iraq, came here with his family. An 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 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, and 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," said Betmaleck. "We encourage them not to come, but when there's persecution, what can you do?"
For Isaac Samow, staying was too risky.
He and his wife took their seven children—the youngest a 1-year-old whom 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'd 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 until they applied for asylum with Red Cross help 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 Assyrian future.
Assyrian American Civic Club of Chicago Report Card 2007 |
"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."
As cities and towns are reshaped at gunpoint into homogenized Sunni, Shia 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.
The priest in Samow's hometown of Telkaif disconnected his phone to stop the barrage of threats, the family said.
Assyrian Christians—among the first converts to Christianity—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, 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 ran three eating and drinking establishments in Iraq.
Many speak English, and work as translators means they're also 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," Frelick 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. And that could have long-term geopolitical consequences, Shea said.
"It's a profound loss," Shea 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."
Diqlat School to Return to Fairfield, Australia
Courtesy of the Fairfield City Champion
16 January 2008
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Assyrian Diqlat School principal Carmen Lazar and teacher Atour Joseph are getting ready for a new school year. The 2006 Australia Bureau of Statistics census showed Assyrian as the fourth most spoken language in Fairfield homes. Picture: Elliott Housego. |
The school, which was established in 1974 in Edensor Park, has run at various locations, including its current classes at St Johns Park High School.
Principal Carmen Lazar said the expansion to Fairfield High School would take in the "many" Assyrian-Australians who live in the Fairfield
area but don't have transport.
"There's probably about 40 percent of the Fairfield High School students who are Assyrian and there are a lot of cultural differences," Ms Lazar said.
"It's an excuse for me to teach the language and it's also about adopting a good culture in the area."
The classes are for anyone over the age of four interested in learning the language.
There are currently students aged from five to 75 years old.
"We've got all different levels and it's not just language that we teach," she said.
"I've got religion and cultural activities as well."
Enrolments for the Assyrian Diqlat School are being taken on February 2 at Fairfield High School, The Horsley Drive, Fairfield and St Johns Park High School, Mimosa Road, Greenfield Park, 10am-2pm.
Courtesy of the Modesto Bee
31 January 2008
By Susan Herendeen
(ZNDA: Turlock) After five years of litigation over who said what to whom at Turlock's Assyrian American Civic Club, there was silence, with Judge William Mayhew dismissing a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday, 30 January.
Later, former club President Ramin Odisho, who had sued eight club members, declared victory over rumor and innuendo, even as he declined to discuss the details of a confidential settlement lodged with Stanislaus County Superior Court.
Odisho said his critics falsely had accused him of stealing $800,000 from the club because his job procuring high-end automobiles for car dealers around the region gave him a flashy lifestyle that included expensive suits and a steady stream of fancy rides.
An investigation by Turlock police and the district attorney's office came up empty, though Odisho admits that he broke club bylaws when he used bingo proceeds to cash a $3,186 check to pay club expenses for security guards and electrical work.
"They couldn't find anything because it was all based on hearsay, jealousy," said Odisho, 38, of Turlock.
The dust-up that began in 2000 prompted 21 articles in The Modesto Bee and The Turloc
