Christian Assyrians Demand Protection, Take to the Streets Around the Globe
According to the Assyrian International News Agency:
(AINA) — A string of demonstrations have been witnessed around the world this summer. The common denominator has been the persecution of the Christian Assyrians (also called Chaldeans and Syriacs) in Iraq.
Thousands of Assyrians, inspired by the first demonstration by the community in the Swedish capital in May, have taken to the streets since then.
Demonstrations have been held in Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Florida, Chicago, Canada, Australia, Sweden and France. In some countries Assyrian communities have arranged more than one demonstration.
The demonstrators from the different continents and countries have been united in one voice calling for the protection of Iraq’s indigenous population, the Christian Assyrians.
Recent reports make visible an ethno-religious cleansing campaign against Iraq’s third largest minority which is at the same time the only Christian minority.
Several districts of Baghdad have already been emptied of their Christian residents after attacks on churches, kidnappings, forced conversions to Islam, imposition of Islamic taxes on non-Muslims and forced hijab dress for Christian women.
The pattern of this ethno-religious cleansing in Baghdad is feared to be repeated in northern Iraq if nothing is done to protect the hundreds of thousands of Christian Assyrians living there on ancestral lands that once constituted the heartland of the Assyrian Empire.
A solution in form of a legal administrative area in the Nineveh plains in northern Iraq is currently being considered to halt the exodus of the Christian Assyrians from Iraq.
The current Iraqi constitution allows for the formation of administrative areas and if it becomes real, the Nineveh plains administrative area would become the first of its kind in an Iraq still spiralling into chaos.
Already inhabited by different vulnerable minorities, both Christian and non Christian, the Nineveh plain administrative area could be the life buoy that will allow Iraq to keep its minorities alive through these difficult times.
The Nineveh plains administrative area would give the minorities living there tools to protect themselves from forced conversions, kidnappings, Islamic taxes and what could be described as a civil war in Iraq.
By Afram Barryakoub
Join the Conversation
Andre Slewa,
The article says “A solution in form of a legal administrative area in the Nineveh plains in northern Iraq is currently being considered to halt the exodus of the Christian Assyrians from Iraq.â€
So the Christians will get their own administrative area while non-Christians continue to get killed, exposed to chemical weapons, destruction of their homes and mosques, and put in jail without any justification.
I said before and I will say it again, the occupation of Iraq must end and the U.S. and its allies must not use agent provocateurs to fuel the violence in Iraq.
Why are you refusing to address your fellow Christians in America, Britain, and its allies concerning the occupation of Iraq? Ask them why they are punishing the Iraqi people for U.S. foreign policy. It was the United States that helped Saddam Hussein into power and supported him strategically and financially when he was committing his worst atrocities.
This is not simply addressing that Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Suryoyo will get their own administrative area, actually, we don’t want an area, most of us, we want to live in our home country peacefully without religious and politicial persecutions, we are the original people of Iraq anyway.
“So the Christians will get their own administrative area while non-Christians continue to get killed, exposed to chemical weapons, destruction of their homes and mosques, and put in jail without any justification.”
If you are implying that the Americans are only helping the Christian population then you are wrong. Muslims and Christians are both being helped, do not separate us because of our religions! we are IRAQIES and that’s it. You see that many Iraqies are being murdered and kidnapped in the streets, it is not the American soldiers for the last time, even Iraqies are not doing this evil, neighboring countries are doing this purposely so they can get back at the U.S. and Britain as they say “the great shaitan.”
No! it should not end, America and it’s alleys have to stay and repair what they did. If they leave, then shaitan Al-Qeada will take over! and it will be another Afghanistan. Yes it may be an occupation for oil, I say let them have it, I just want my Iraqi people to be safe. Also the war has provided ALOT of jobs for Iraqies and other Arabic speaking people living in the U.S. and Britian who knows what financial hardship they could be going through.
“they are punishing the Iraqi people for U.S. foreign policy”
if they are being punished, then why are they being allowed to immigrate to America.
AND it was not the United States that helped Saddam into power, where are you getting this from? The Ba’athist party was already formed in Syria and Iraq before the U.S. became active in international affairs. It was Khomani, the Iranian former president, who was put into power by the U.S.
What? Khomani was put in power in Iraq by the US? o.O
It was the US who put the Baath Party in power. So yes, it was the US who put Saddam in power. Look up Abd al-Karim Qassim?
Andre Slewa,
Here is an article about “How the CIA put Saddam’s Party in Power” http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html
I think the Assyrians should stand up and be part of Iraq in a real way which means they should alsos tand up and defend Arabs, rather than take such a negative and hostile approach to Arabs. Assyrians, as you know, denounce anyone who even hints that they are “Arabs.” They are not Arabs, but it is the hostility that exists between Assyrians and Arabs that causes a lot of the problems. The other fact is that NOT ALL OF THE IRAQI CHRISTIANS are Assyrian. Many are Christian Arabs. They have no representation and the Assyrians have silenced them by expelling their members from their ranks in Iraq.
In fact, here in the US, the leading advocates supporting the illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq by George Bush (acting under the orders of Dick Vicious Cheney for sure) are the Assyrians, in part fueled by the animosity thate xists between Assyrians and Arabs.
When will it stop? It’s not just one side. Both sides have to stop. I am against the Islamicists (political zealots who have bastardized Islam to their own distorted intrepetations) targeting Christians, but not just the Assyrians. All the Christians, including many Iraqi ARAB Christians.
Several of my relatives, Palestinians, have married into Iraqi Arab families. Chicago has one of the largest Assyrian populations in the United States. Years ago, we once acted as a unified group. A man by the name of Klamis Ganji, who published the first Assyrian newspaper in Chicago, brought the Assyrians and the Arabs together to promote the Middle East Christians, not just one group. But Klamis is long gone and his successors have been more militant and antagonistic.
You have made some good points, but please don’t turn your back on Christians in the Middle East simply because they are Arab or are not Assyrian.
We should come together not as Arabs or Assyrians, or Palestinians and Israelis. but as moderates in the Middle East battling extremists. And, we should hold our leaders accountable, something we rarely do.
Glad you are here to raise these issues, but please be open minded and remember the Christian Arabs, too.
Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com
Here’s the link to my column on the fate of Christian Arabs that appeared this week in the Jerusalem Post …
RandallJones
Thanks Randall for the address.
Jina
I looked up Abd al-Karim Qassim on Wikipedia and didn’t seeanything of the U.S. helping put the Baath Party into power. Is there another website that tells more Jina?
Ray Hanania
Assyrians, Chaldians, Syrianic people don’t take “negative and hostile approach to Arabs” lol we are brothers and sister shabab! The hostility that has erupted is from the Al-Qeada terrorists and brainwashed Iraqi youth. A true Iraqi Arab would not lay a hand on Iraq’s native people.
There are Iraqi Arabs of course, but many of us consider them to be former Assyrians who took the name of Arab when Arabs first came to Mesopotamia. In my opionion, most Arab Christians in other Middle Eastern countries are not Arab to me at all.
Thanks shabab! I will try to be as open minded about many other things as I can!
Ray,
I don’t believe that animosity between Assyrians and Arabs exists as you would have most readers believe. Assyrians want to be recognized as a people with a distinct history and tradition. However, many Middle Eastern governments have tried and are still trying to reduce Assyrians into Arabs — see the history of Assyrians in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria for some examples.
Most recently, the Arab American Institute has attempted to do the same to Assyrians in the United States. It is a continuation of the policies perpetrated by Middle Eastern governments of subjugating the Assyrians. See Arab American Institute Still Deliberately Claiming Assyrians Are Arabs (AINA)
Assyrians demand fair, honest, and equal recognition from not only Middle Eastern governments but also Arab organizations in the United States and worldwide. Until that day, Assyrians will assert their right to be recognized as a separate ethnicity.
I believe that if the Kurds and Turkmen of Iraq were labeled as Arabs (so as to decrease their legitimacy and abrogate their rights) then you would see the same protests from those communities that the Assyrians have been made in the past.
You wrote “In fact, here in the US, the leading advocates supporting the illegal and criminal invasion of Iraq by George Bush (acting under the orders of Dick Vicious Cheney for sure) are the Assyrians, in part fueled by the animosity that exists between Assyrians and Arabs.” This is an incorrect assumption. Assyrians were supporters of the invasion of Iraq after the fact and were only supporting because it ousted Saddam.
Just like the Kurds, the Assyrians of Iraq want to have the opportunity to build a society where they are free to express their identity.
Emil Soleyman,
The United States is running the show; they gave they Kurds their own region, so why don’t you ask your fellow Christians in America for a land of your own.
Andre Slewa,
Regarding Jina’s suggestion, you wrote “I looked up Abd al-Karim Qassim on Wikipedia and didn’t seeanything of the U.S. helping put the Baath Party into power. Is there another website that tells more Jina?”
It says “Another assassination attempt, motivated by suspected pan-Arabist influence and state control over the petroleum sector, was carried out with the backing of the British government and the American CIA in on February 9, 1963″
Look for the paragraph under the following heading written in bold,
“Pan-Arab revolts and overthrow”
Also when you scroll down to the bottom of the page, they give you some references concernig the events of that time.
Very good Emil Soleyman, you are exactly right. We Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syrianic people do not consider ourselves Arabs for reasons that we were living in Mesopotamia before the Arab invasion, we are not Islamic by faith (not that all Arabs are Muslim), and we did not mix with Arabs because of religion. In fact, it is considered with much DNA testing that we are the direct decedents of the our ancient ancestors.
RandallJones,
I reread the “Pan-Arab revolts and overthrow” section and also asked my uncle a few questions about it. Now I know that Britain and America placed the Baathist Party purposely in order to get there hands on Iraq’s petroleum.
Thanks for informing me Randall, it really helped alot!