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Dec. 1, 2008 The Assyrian tragedy in Iraq A Chaos of militias? Or a state terrorism? Translated to English by: Mary Challita There has been recently too much talk about the persecution of "Christians" in Iraq, while the aim of spreading such phrases is to portray the tragedy as being religiously motivated, while the "Christians" in Iraq see it as being an ethnic persecution, and that is the right choice since the persecution is directed against the Assyrians regardless of their church affiliation whether be it (the Syrian{c}, Chaldean, or Assyrian Church of The East) taking into consideration their geographic distribution within Iraq. This belief is prevalent not only in the Assyrian community, but also at all levels in the Iraqi community especially after knowing many of the attackers and identifying them as belonging to anti-Assyrians “Kurdish nationalist parties” (1) and not anti-Christian "Islamist religious organizations", thus to say persecuting “Christians” doesn’t accord the victims their rights and this is the grievous mistake which non-Assyrian media falls in. "It's the war of dogs, but it makes those who are powerful and heartless reach the summit, hence, the United States, while the weak burn just like oil, in order for Las Vegas to remain brightly lit throughout the night ..." This is how the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein* describes America's wars with the most recent being under the banner of "liberating Iraq from Saddam" which was raised by the United States one time under the pretext of “saving the Iraqi people from dictatorship, family and party hegemony over the country’s wealth” and also under the slogan "war on terror" which was considered by senior American foreign policy theorists as George W. Bush’s excuse for world domination (2) ... However, Iraq ended up with a democracy of murder, Islamization, Kurdification, and degeneration to the extent that when an observer ponders at the former regime’s era, he notices the fake Iraqi patriotism of the opposing factions at the time, we’re not mentioning this in Saddam’s defense but rather lamenting the state which Iraq is in today under the rule of his opponents … All this is taking place while the United States watches as a bystander if not to say the instigator who has begun escaping responsibility until a new hope emerges during the next period of American presidency, and following the imposition of the security pact on Iraq with an inside help within the Iraqi State from the Kurdish and few Shiite leaders who have entered the Iranian-American game of “exchanging kisses” under the table of the Iranian nuclear dossier, and the result of the so-called "Liberation of Iraq" was a national disaster which led to messing up the Iraqi social and economic system, forced Iraqi brain drain (those who survived) and turned the Iraqi people into a poor society living over the world’s largest oil reserve in a 434.000 square Km surface, with the Israeli flag flying in the north, the American flag in Baghdad, and the Iranian flag in the south ... As for the internal Iraqi dealings, Iraq’s sudden transition from a family hegemony or one party rule to pluralism and democracy, was the main reason for the anarchy which was interpreted in reality out of the chaos of creed (national or religious) to street chaos (nurtured by chaos of creed) then to the chaos of parliament (elected by the chaotic street) to arrive finally to the chaotic constitution ( legislated by a chaotic parliament) whereby the constitution’s text itself legally legislated the elimination of indigenous Iraqi cultures through some of the most degenerate articles known in the history of mankind, all this due to “bargains” amongst the factions controlling the internal Iraqi politics, this was attested to by senior government officials (3) who participated in the bargains during the writing of the so-called "Transitional Administrative Law" (TAL) in the spring of 2004. Hence, what is happening in Iraq today against its indigenous peoples (Assyrians, Sabaeans, and Yizidis) is a State terrorism rather than being "militias’ anarchy" because whomever these militias are they are still formally represented in the Iraqi constitutional institutions, they are the ones who participated in the writing of the so-called "Transitional Administrative Law” followed by the so-called permanent constitution (known to the Assyrians as the “Kurdo-Islamic constitution”), which helped in implementing the chaotic ideologies (Islamization and Kurdification) under a cover from the current ruling factions, specifically the Shiite and Kurds. Thus, an Assyrian organization was correct when it recently described the situation of Assyrians in Iraq as being a "transition from the period of dictatorship persecution to that of democratic obliteration" (4) Thus, the status of Assyrians is no longer tolerable, for they are considered today the most persecuted people in the world, since two thirds of them were displaced according to a strategic plot carrying various forms and dimensions, that which is polite and accepted at the European, American and Christian levels in general, and that which is impudent but accepted at the Iraqi state level and its sectarian leaders. Factors which facilitated the persecution of Assyrians, "following the fall of Saddam” 1st: The Naïveté of western societies, European, American, or others, thus the lack of public deterrent for the governments who make global decisions, that is evident in the adoption of a “public law” by U.S. Congress (5) allowing to strike Iraq, even though western governments were never interested neither in Iraq nor in any Iraqi faction whether indigenous or foreigner, rather all that interested them throughout history was the “Silk Road” then the oil road, and Iraq’s occupation is but a little link in the chain of “constructive chaos” adopted by the U.S. administration internationally and at the Iraqi level since April 2003; indeed this mess has built until this day a cancerous fortress ready to make Kirkuk the 52nd U.S. state (6) in order to achieve factional dreams which will bring calamities to the dreamers. 2nd: The shortcomings of the Assyrians were due to several factors, the most important being the psychological disappointment of all the ruling regimes in the Middle East without exception, that reflected in a sense of weakness vis a vis the degenerate currents (political, social, or religious) surrounding the Assyrians in Iraq or elsewhere, and what reinforced this feeling of weakness is the lack of "ideology” in Assyrian parties working in Iraq, thus these parties’ demands are put forward in a patriotic approach but in a sectarian Iraq, which reflects negatively on the Assyrians in the imposed game of quotas whether we like it or not, and often the demands of Assyrian parties are short term and not fateful, thus the Assyrian politicians’ protests on repealing article /50/ of the provincial elections law was a mere cover up to their defeat and failure at the level of fateful demands and to deceive the Assyrian people specially those in Diaspora who form an electoral force to be reckoned with in the coming elections, because the Assyrians’ rights are far greater than administering paving roads and collecting garbage in governorates… The irony in the Assyrian situation is that the opposition abroad unwillingly complements the defeated attitude in the homeland, thus when the Assyrian voices in the west are raised against the policy of Islamization and Kurdification, they are faced with refuting statements by the Assyrian politicians in Iraq. Hence, the credit of the Assyrian politician rises before his masters at the expense of his nation’s rights, whether that credit is for the “secular” Kurdification policy in Occupied Assyria, or “normalizing Islamization” in the rest of Iraq, and the Assyrian media played a destructive failing role in weakening the Assyrian National Movement for it took a humanitarian, entertaining and artistic role, but in the case of political affairs it is often from a narrow partisan propaganda for a party or its leader. 3rd: Religious and national racism in the Iraqi constitutional institutions, which is evident even to the most simple people through the ideologies of the dominant factions (under U.S. occupation) over the Iraqi internal decision, and those are the ones who worked throughout their history to divide Iraq, either through the creation of national entities which began with oppression slogans attracting to the emotions of the west, those are the ones who expelled the Assyrians from northern Iraq and continue to confiscate hundreds of Assyrian villages (7) or other currents which aimed since their inception at annexing parts of Iraq to Iran and those are the ones that tortured Assyrian prisoners in Iranian military prisons during the first Gulf War until many of them converted to Islam under psychological, physical and health pressures (8) ... They are the ones who abducted the Iraqi soldiers and delivered them to Iran during the first Gulf War… This is briefly the “patriotic” history of the Iraqi opposition and its ruling currents today, whom the "Assyrian - Christians" must share in their "patriotism" or they would be expelled out of their Iraq forever. Direct causes for persecuting Assyrians in Iraq: The Assyrians are familiar with what’s taking place today against them, and history bears witness to the massacres the Assyrians were subjected to since the fall of their political entity in 612 B.C., whereby many peoples invaded Assyria such as the Persians, Arabs, Turks, Turkmen and lastly the Kurds in the 16th century A.D. During these centuries, the Assyrians suffered many persecutions due to their cultural and religious beliefs, until the largest disaster of WWI when the de facto forces then of Turks, Persians, and Kurds rushed madly and around 600.000 Assyrians became genocide victims (half of their population at the time) then there was the Simel (Simeleh) 1933 massacre in the north of Iraq, which aimed at an Arabic obliteration of the Assyrian Cause. It’s hard for many reporters to analyze what’s taking place in Iraq today against its indigenous people, for several political and religious figures have been appearing in media but they are un-qualified to address the real message through to the listener or viewer, since the guests are always either former or present Barzani employees, or clergy who don’t know the abc’s of politics or don’t know the first thing about politics except to weep and wail while being courteous to the criminals, there are those who have their own personal commitments and refuse to call things by their names. However, it’s worthy noting the importance given by the occupying Kurdish authorities to silence every opposing voice to their project, for we have noticed holding Assyrian conferences sponsored by the Kurds while creating replacement figures for those whose role is over, the objective being the political assassination of any Assyrian political organization, even if it resigns to defeat , in addition to driving such conferences (directly or indirectly) to create dividing names for the Assyrian people such as (Assyrian Chaldean Syriac) or Christian people, the motive being to do away with the Assyrian national demands of equality in Iraq (the most basic of citizenship rights) while as Christians they will not have rights except the so-called "Kurdish protection" since Kurdish occupation is a secular entity to a great extent. The propaganda spread by some Assyrians who are driven by Barzani’s party is well known in embellishing the Kurdish occupying image towards those whom they so- called (“kurdstan” Christians) and the visits to Lebanon of many of them, specifically meeting with Christian leaders because they are aware of Lebanon’s “Christian” influence on the international Christian opinion, the other factor which greatly helped to distort the reality faced by the Assyrian people is the stand of the United States, European countries, and in particular the European media which only focuses on peoples’ religious affiliation, and since the Kurdish occupation is a secular one, hence, the West regards it as "an example of freedom in the Middle East" as was explained by U.S. and European officials on more than one occasion, and as long as 1000 Kurdish families converted to Christianity then Europe sees the whole world as being in good hands, without paying any attention to the Assyrian national culture (land, people and identity) being exposed to Kurdification policies. Why the Kurds? To sum it up, the Kurdish project is the so-called "Greater Kurdstan" which includes parts of Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, this project was given consideration in the "Saad Abad" convention in 1937 between these states, and since then until 2003, these countries used the Kurds to their advantage vis a vis other countries through their conflicting interests, until the Kurdish collaboration with Iran against Iraq reached its most difficult days and became the cause for what is known as the Halabja massacre which became a pretext to demand and achieve a Safe Haven in 1992 following the American bombing of Iraq, after Barzani's cooperation with Turkey to strike the Kurdish Workers Party in return for Turkey's approval to a Safe Haven. The project of the so-called "Greater Kurdstan" remains the dream of twenty million Kurds spread over four neighboring states, and the occupying Kurdish entity in northern Iraq is considered as the first step towards a greater project, where Kurds are regrouping following the strikes against them by the successive regimes in those countries. Today, the Kurds are armed and trained by the Israeli Mossad (9) at Iran’s doorstep which has for the longest time been raising the banner against the "Zionist enemy", the Kurdish dream extends to Syria to establish the so-called “Syrian Kurdstan ” after changing the Syrian regime (as per Kurdish bets) then the two entities in Iraq and Syria would be joined. To prove the Kurdish involvement in terrorizing Iraqis residing between the occupying Kurdish entity in northern Iraq and the Syrian border, we have only to go back to four years ago when the U.S. forces withdrew from large areas of Nineveh governorate (between the Kurdish entity in Iraq and the Syrian border) and handed them over to Kurdish parties militias, blasts began afterwards in the Assyrian areas (Nineveh Plain and Mosul), the Yazidis (Sinjar area), and Turkmen (Tal-Afar area) while accusing the Islamic organizations which had denied carrying out these operations and said that the Kurds were responsible, even though these organizations are never ashamed of what they do and usually issue a statement of pride following every terrorist or legitimate resistance operation. These groups neglected by the Iraqi government (Assyrians, Yezidis, Tukmans), reluctantly began demanding to join the “safe” Kurdish entity following the blasts. The move was started by some Assyrian clergy (without the approval of their Church Superiors), such as Alqush’s Bishop Mikhael Maqdisi (Chaldean denomination), followed by Yazidi Sheikh Tahseen Beg who demanded the annexing of Sinjar area (border with Syria) to the Kurdish entity. Hence, the Nineveh governorate is of great strategic value to the Kurds since controlling it means an extension to the Kurdish entity with a similar one in Syria, and the only way for them to obtain it without colliding with the Arabs is to terrorize the indigenous, non Muslim groups, using a bogeyman called "Islam" obliging them to demand joining the Kurdish entity, thus what took place directly following the annulment of article 50 of the provincial elections law is another proof on the Kurdish involvement in terrorism, when the Assyrian parties collaborating with the Kurdish occupation forced (using polite threat) the Assyrians living within Kurdish occupation to go out in demonstrations demanding "autonomy for Christians" in the Nineveh plain to be annexed to the Kurdish entity, afterwards attacks increased in Mosul in an attempt to prove the impossibility for Christians to live comfortably without joining the Kurds. However, Assyrians with all their denominations rejected this pressure and publicly announced that autonomous rule must be directly linked to Baghdad and not to any other entity (10) When we say that Kurds are behind the terrorism actions against the Assyrians in Mosul this does not absolve some degenerate Islamic groups, but these groups did not divulge any strategies aimed at "Christians", on the contrary, they have praised in their latest statements the stand of "Iraq’s Christians" for not dealing with the "infidel occupiers", and several Muslim organizations distributed statements denying their involvement in the killing and displacements of Christians, including the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq", which accused the Kurds of being behind the killings of the Assyrian clergy from various denominations, as well as the displacement of Assyrians of Mosul. The irony is in the way this reality is handled because every time a displacement campaign is started, tens of thousands of Assyrians are forced to leave, then the government calls upon them to return and less than 10% do return, a while after the plot is repeated and so on and so forth… Thus, five years ago until today in the era of “democracy” the number of Assyrians who left Iraq reached to about 500.000 while during the era of “dictatorship” 300.000 had left over a period of 35 years. With this reality in mind, the Assyrian people must be aware of the requirements to maintain their existence and know how to elect their representatives this time around, for as long as they are currently unable to respond to their enemies through similar methods (and that’s a legitimate right), or clean the Assyrian house by any possible way, they must be at least good readers of what is happening around in order to prove their existence by presenting "The Assyrian National Cause" and not asking for "political demands", when the nationalist demand is equality in Iraq with other groups and nothing more, this will ensure the dignity of the Assyrian nation in its homeland, through an Assyrian region tied directly to the central government in Baghdad, in accordance with federalism as confirmed in the Iraqi Constitution. Until that time, a Safe Haven must be allotted to the Assyrian people in Iraq, specifically in the areas where their lands are in the Assyrian triangle between the Tigris and the Great Zab Rivers, to vacate their occupied areas in Nohadra (Kurdified to “Dohuk”) and ensure the return of Assyrian refugees in Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to their lands, in order to establish the “Region of Ashur” (Assyria) in the aforementioned triangle. This is a just and legitimate demand of the Assyrian National Movement since its earliest beginnings till today, whereby many Assyrian organizations are working on this demand by any means possible both in Iraq and abroad until this goal is achieved. Lastly we say that the true Iraqi patriot is the one who preserves both the true Iraqi culture and the group which is practicing that culture. Footnotes: Naomi Klein * America's real business in Iraq. 1 - Report of the Assyrian International News Agency on proved charges against four members of Barzani's party, also the Washington Times in its issue dated October 25th, 2008, which considered the Assyrians living in the area under Kurdish Occupation as "hostages in Kurdish hands". 2- Brzezinski, Zbigniew. “Global Domination or global leadership” p.: 156 - Arab Book House, 2004 3 – Amin, Bakhtyar (Kurdish Minister of "human rights") in an interview with the “Arabiya” Satellite channel, June 09th, 2004, where he said that Kurds will boycott the central government in case of any rejection of federalism. 4 - Statement of "Save Assyria Front" - No. 4 / 2008, October 18, 2008. 5 - U.S. Congress adopts two types of legislation: “Public Laws” which are geared towards the people’s needs and wishes and “Private Laws” which aren’t related to the people’s wishes, the decision to strike Iraq was a Public Law. 6 - A promise made by the late Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani to Henry Kissinger, United States Foreign Affairs Secretary in the 1970’s in exchange of establishing a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq based on a CIA promise. 7 - The process of Kurdifying Assyria began in 1961 under the banner of "Kurdish Revolution" when the percentage of Assyrians in Dohuk was about 60%, while today they form around 8% in addition to about 300 villages occupied by Kurdish outsiders with the knowledge of the Kurdish occupation authorities. 8 – The Iraqi prisoners’ camps were called "camps on the road to Jerusalem”, these were run by Shiite factions who are rather more influential in governing Iraq today, and they were the ones who oversaw the Islamization process of the Assyrians prisoners of war. 9 – A video report from the BBC News, September 26th, 2006.
10 - Statements by both the Chaldean Church and the Church of the East.
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