Should Assyrian Christians pay the price of the civil war, I

[King Ashurbanipal]

Should Assyrian Christians pay the price of the civil war in Iraq?

When a Shi’a family is threatened it moves into a Shi’a dominated area and when a Sunni family is threatened by Shi’a Militia it moves into a predominantly Sunni area. The result of that is now armed Militias on both side are confiscating the property and homes of Christian Assyrians (Also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and resettling these Muslim families into Christians homes, each in their area Shi’as in Baghdad and now Sunnis in Mosul.
Just few day ago my aunt who lives with her sons has been forced out from her home in Mosul and my uncle who had his home rented by a Christian family in Baghdad has been confiscated by Islamic Militias and given to a Muslim family.

[K4L_2007]

This is a big problem for the Assyrians, but I cant think of any good solutions :/

[Diri]

The Kurds are your only friends in Iraq - support them and cooperate with them - annex your areas under the Kurdistan Regional Government - build your lands and your villages and your churches in the Nineveh Plains - and move all your families and your friends and your relatives to these areas to make up the majority of the lands...

Build POSITIVE experiences with the Kurds and make mutal agreement pacts, wherein you secure your rights as a nation, identity and a culture...

By this time, you will be a LARGE minority in Kurdistan Region - and the majority in YOUR lands - you will elect more people to the Kurdistan National Assembly - and you will be STRONG in a democratic state... You then put your efforts towards securing autonomy and federalism for your people - this will turn into a base and platform for you to strenghten your identity as Assyrians and to spread your message and cause to the world... Upon doing this, you will have won not only the sympathy of the Kurds but the whole world...

Don't let your people be used by Turks who seek to put our two nations against eachother... Scratch our backs and we will scratch your backs... That is how it works...

[Balci]

Their conspiracies will strike at us again, Just like Mehabad. It's just a question of time before southern Kurdistan lies in ruins.

[Piling]

It's just a question of time before southern Kurdistan lies in ruins.

In your dreams (which are to be the same than Turk's in fact, a free Kurdistan in South is the nightmare of both PKK and Turkey).

[Balci]

A Kurdistan in ruins is the worst thing that could happen, and since I know it's going to happen soon... well...

[Rumtaya]

The Kurds are your only friends in Iraq - support them and cooperate with them - annex your areas under the Kurdistan Regional Government - build your lands and your villages and your churches in the Nineveh Plains - and move all your families and your friends and your relatives to these areas to make up the majority of the lands... [/b]

We are already a majority in the Nineveh Plains!

Build POSITIVE experiences with the Kurds and make mutal agreement pacts, wherein you secure your rights as a nation, identity and a culture...

By this time, you will be a LARGE minority in Kurdistan Region - and the majority in YOUR lands - you will elect more people to the Kurdistan National Assembly - and you will be STRONG in a democratic state... You then put your efforts towards securing autonomy and federalism for your people - this will turn into a base and platform for you to strenghten your identity as Assyrians and to spread your message and cause to the world... Upon doing this, you will have won not only the sympathy of the Kurds but the whole world...

Don't let your people be used by Turks who seek to put our two nations against eachother... Scratch our backs and we will scratch your backs... That is how it works..

You cant build something really up if the other side occupy lands of you!

The Puzzle Unravels at the Ritz

In a few days a lavish dinner will be organized by the Assyrian Aid Society of America at the five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel in San Francisco to benefit the educational and reconstruction projects for the Assyrians in Iraq. Earlier this week another gathering at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington D.C. was put together to promote and profit a different population of Iraqi citizens. After meeting with the guest dignitaries in D.C. it became clear that the participants at the two events scheduled a week apart will have significant impact on the destinies of the Assyrians and Kurds of Iraq in the coming months.

On Tuesday, President George Bush welcomed Mr. Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government to the Oval Office in Washington D.C. The next evening, at a reception held in his honor at Ritz-Carlton hotel, Mr. Barzani said the following to his Kurdish and Assyrian guests: “In Iraqi Kurdistan we have, for the past 14 years, accepted the idea that we are a diverse society. Ethnic and religious minorities -- Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, Yazidis and Turkomans -- all serve in the Kurdistan regional government and all have the right to educate their children in their mother tongues and to broadcast in their own languages. We firmly believe that the Middle East must accommodate all of its peoples and all of their languages and religions.” He spoke eloquently about the “brotherly love between the Kurdish and Assyrian residents of Kurdistan” and their role in promoting “democracy and progress”. Mr. Barzani spoke in Kurdish and Arabic, standing in front of the U.S. and Kurdish flags. There were no Iraqi flags in sight.

A group of Assyrians and Chaldeans had arrived from London, Chicago and Detroit to meet Mr. Barzani and other notable Kurdish dignitaries that evening. These included the members of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the Iraqi Sustainable Democracy Project’s Mr. Michael Yoash, and myself. After waiting for over 5 hours in the lobby of the hotel on Tuesday night, we left the Ritz ignored by Mr. Barzani. It was not until the next morning that we discovered another important Assyrian guest was also staying at the Ritz and was later on meeting with Mr. Barzani.

While waiting for an acknowledgment of our presence in the lobby I had the opportunity to meet with a few other Assyrians including Mr. Praidoun Darmo from London, Deputy Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, and Dr. Odisho Khoshaba from Chicago. Both vehemently opposed the inclusion of the letters and articles against Mar Dinkha IV, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, in the recent issues of Zinda Magazine. Another Assyrian guest was Rev. Giwargis Toma from Chicago whose presence was quite surprising, until we discovered the next day that Mr. Barzani was having a special audience with His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV.

On Thursday morning Zinda Magazine was informed by very reliable sources in Washington and in North Iraq that the discussions between His Holiness Mar Dinkha and Mr. Barzani involved the construction of a multi-million dollar patriarchate complex in Ankawa in north Iraq. The complex will include a Cathedral, offices, a seminary, and a permanent home for the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East who is expected to move from Chicago to North Iraq upon the completion of this project. That evening, we learned that on Wednesday Mr. Barzani did not receive the representative of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, but met with the members of the Assyrian Universal Alliance who accompanied His Holiness Mar Dinkha, Dr. Khoshaba and Rev. Toma.

According to Mr. Darmo, the executive committee of the Assyrian Universal Alliance is also meeting in Chicago this weekend. Mr. Darmo will be returning to London soon after, where Mr. Barzani and his entourage will be holding meetings with the British Prime Minister and the government officials. Mr. Yonadam Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement and a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, a few days ago was in London to discuss deteriorating conditions of his people in Iraq. The friends of the Kurdish people in the British government including Dr. Bob Spink (see Literatus) were at hand to paint a different picture for their colleagues in the Parliament, prior to Mr. Barzani’s arrival

His Holiness Mar Dinkha at the same time will be presiding over the Holy Synod of the Church of the East in Chicago next week, where the future of the relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of the East will be argued. But a livelier discussion may also be sparked at this meeting, surrounding the accusations made against His Grace Mar Bawai Soro in California. Mar Bawai was instrumental in the efforts which culminated in the ecclesiastical agreements between the Church of the East and the Roman Catholic Church in 1990’s. Zinda Magazine sources in Chicago indicate that His Holiness will be recommending that His Grace Bishop Mar Bawai, in order to appease the worried bishops of his Church, to accept relocation to a different diocese outside of the United States.

Gradually an interesting picture is emerging as the different pieces of an ill-matched jigsaw puzzle are finally dropping into their places in these final weeks before the parliamentary elections in Iraq. The easiest way to start solving this puzzle is to start with the straight-edged pieces that obviously belong on the outside: the Kurdish Regional Government, Iran, the U.S. In the center of the puzzle is a great hole which many political party members and Churches wish for this publication not to touch. Zinda Magazine will uncompromisingly identify these middle pieces and their positions in relation to other pieces in the next editorial.


No cooperating with people like him(Massud Barazani)!