ishtartv.com-
AINA
2015-03-05
20:25 GMT
The
Assyrian-Chaldean community is facing dark times and a distressing situation.
These criminal attacks, these innocent kidnappings (more than 250 people, young
people, women and older people are taken into captivity), the forced exile of
thousands of people (more than 3000 refugees in Hassake and Qamishli) those
martyred (more than 10 already) are a terrible shock to a community that has
endured in the past much suffering.
A
new tragedy and collective extermination against the Assyrian-Chaldeans is once
more unfolding before our eyes in pain and blood in Syria, since Monday
February 23rd, following that of Iraq where the Nineveh province is still in
mourning since its invasion by the terrorist groups of the so-called
"Islamic State", one June the 10th and July the 17th of 2014.
With
the destruction of historical monuments that date back more than 3000 years of
history and the demolition of churches and sanctuaries by a band of nihilist
obscurantists, the memory of a people and traces of a civilization, Mesopotamia,
one of the cradles of humanity, that holds a tangible and intangible world
heritage, is being erased.
These
acts of vandalism have been vigorously denounced by the Director General of
UNESCO, Irina Bokova.
Early
on the morning of Monday February 23rd, the ISIS terror befell the Assyrian
villages of Khabur, with the first persecutions having begun in September, with
the summing of removal of crosses from churches.
The
irony is that these new victims, these worthy son of Hakkari, their ancestral
home, are precisely the children of the deported from Iraq massacres of 1933,
themselves survivors of the 1915 genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Syria
was the third country of refuge
They
live in the northeast of Syria, since 1933, on the 2 banks of the Khabur River
in 35 villages between the towns of Hassake (which is my hometown) and Ras
al-Ain. It is with joy that I spent my childhood and youth between Hassake and
the Assyrian villages where I fed on the love of the Assyrian country and
learned the pride of belonging to this people.
Who
are the Assyrians?
The
documents of the League of Nations (SDN), which is the UN between the wars,
claim that the Assyrians were "driven from their mountains by Turkish
forces" in 1915 and "took refuge in Urmia, Persia, that was, at the
time, in the hands of Russian troops."
After
1915, a new tragedy occurred, the exodus of the Assyrian-Chaldeans of Persia to
Iraq on the 31st of July 1918. This terrible exodus is described in these
terms: "After traveling in the stampede 300 miles (480 km) towards the
south-east, with their families, their livestock and their property, the
Assyrians finally reached Hamadan, decimated by perpetual attacks of the Turks,
Kurds and Persians on all sides. Burned by the heat of the summer, ravaged by typhus,
dysentery, smallpox and cholera, the old and young, exhausted by fatigue and
fever, were abandoned on the roadside, and the dead and dying marked the path
to retreat. In the end, after losing 20,000 of them, the survivors reached
Hamadan and made contact with the British troops."
Fifteen
years after arriving in Iraq (1918-1933), they were again victims of massacres
that were at the time largely reflected by the international press, namely
French.
Yet
when Iraq gained independence and was admitted to the League of Nations on
October 30th 1932, commitments were made to establish the Assyrians, who
originated in Hakkari, as a homogeneous ethnic unity and compact group.
However, the word "unit" was in the plural, thus maintaining the
dispersion of the people. At the time, three key ideas summarized their demands
homogeneous institution, administrative autonomy and right to collect taxes.
All
efforts to establish the Assyrian unity had failed due to the resistance of the
Iraqi authorities. Therefore, it was before such a state of dispersion,
disunity and sloshing that the situation was becoming more and more critical.
Massacres
took place in the village of Simmele and other localities in northern Iraq in
August of 1933, committed by the now independent Iraqi state.
They
made state of 3000 victims killed in atrocious conditions. It was then that a
number of Assyrian mountaineers once again took the road on a forced exile to
Syria, where they were greeted and seated in the Khabur region by the French
authorities who then had the Mandate of Syria, entrusted by the League.
Villages
cited as model
They
built villages and developed agricultural land that lay fallow. They were cited
as a model of success and loyalty to Syria.
We
can mention with pride the list of major Assyrian villages built with their
labor, estimated at 35, which is a microcosm and a reproduction that reminded
them of the Hakkari:
Um
Gargan Arbouch Tal Tal Hormuz Damshesh Tal Tal Tal Tal Maghada, Kharita, Alkeif
Um, Um Waqfa Abu Tina, Qabr Shamiyeh, Baloaa Tal Tal Goran Shamiram Tal Tal
Jazirah, Talaa Tal Tal Najme, Hefian Tal Tal Nasri, Baz Tal Tal Jumaa, Maghas
Tal Tal Masas, Jadaya Tal Tal Tawil, Tamer Tal Tal Kepchi, Faidat Tal Tal Ahmar
Tal Ruman Tahtani Tal Ruman Fokani, Brej Tal Tal Sakra, Wardiate Tal Tal
Shamyeh.
The
Khabur, a miniature of the Hakkari
What
is extraordinary, from an anthropological and sociological point of view, is
that when they arrived in the Khabur, Assyrians reproduced the structures of
tribal organization, clan, family and religion prevailing since ancient times
in Hakkari.
Thus,
Tal Damshesh was occupied by the people of Konak, called Qotchesnaye, a village
which was until 1915 the Patriarchal Headquarter of March Shimoun , the Baznaye
inTal Baz and Tal Ruman Tahtani, the Talnaye in Tal Tal, the Djeloaye in Qabr
Shamiye, the Tchalnaye in Tal Brej, the Gounouknaye in Tal Sakra and Qabr
Shamyeh, the Mazernaye in Tal Wardiate, the Deznaye in Tal Baloaa, the
Gavarnaye in Tal Goran and Tal Maghas, the Marbouchnaye in Tal Shamiram, the
Halemnaye in Tal Jumaa, the Barwarnaye in Tal Masas, the Ilynnaye in Tal
Jadaya, the Tiaraye in Tal Tamer, the Akernaye in Tal Kepchi the Mazernaye in
Tal Ruman Fokani ....
The
defense of their identity, ethnic, cultural and religious
This
story is transmitted, since, as an intangible heritage through songs,
illustrated by folklore, perpetuated by many poems and literary productions.
Belonging
to the Assyrian Church of the East, formerly called Nestorian, grouped around
their Patriarch (who lived in exile) and their leaders (the Maleks), they built
churches whose names recall their saints, those they worshiped the country, as
Saint Shalita, Saint Zaya, Saint Petion, Saint Guiwarguis, Saint Sarguis, Saint
Bichou ...and every village is composed mainly of the tribe and clan to which
they belonged.
A
knowingly planned strategy and a crime against humanity
Since
the 23rd of February the situation has been extremely worrying, with several
villages like Tal Tamer, Tal Shamiram, Tal Tawil and Tal Hormuz attacked by
ultra radical Islamists, equipped with heavy artillery.
Misfortune
has befallen this peaceful community that asks for nothing more than its share
of life and the right to dignity and respect.
Fed
by a political ideology of hate, this is a strategy concerted and carefully
prepared for the goal of emptying the region of its Christian population,
destabilizing, sowing fear and spreading terror.
Faced
with these cruel and barbaric acts, it is urgent to respond by taking concrete
measures to break this passivity and inconsistency in which the international
community delights.
How
did we reach this situation? What contempt of the human being and what decline
of civilization.
This
address was delivered at the event for the Assyrians Khabur (Syria), in
Sarcelles, Sunday 1 March 2015.
Translated
from French by Maguy Chiha.
Joseph
Yacoub is Honorary Professor (Political Science) from the Catholic University
of Lyon.