Frederick
P. Isaac
Copyright (c)
Frederick P. Isaac.
All Rights Reserved.
Articles and book information on Assyrian issues including contemporary
history, experiences under Islamic rule, leadership and Assyrian
aspirations to nationhood.
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Assyrians - the Forgotten People, Part I
by
Frederick P.
Isaac
Copyright
(c) Frederick P. Isaac, 2000. All Rights Reserved.
Assyrians, who are they? One often hears this question from
non-Assyrians. Have you ever stopped to think why? Whether
deliberately or out of ignorance, people mistake the Assyrians for
Syrians and sometimes the media refer to them as Kurds. Also, Assyria
is oftentimes mistaken for Syria. Syria is an existing Arab state that
borders Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Assyria is the
historical name of an ancient kingdom that once thrived in what is now
known as Iraq. A landlocked region, Assyria bordered Urmia province,
part of north western Persia; Hakkari region, south eastern Turkey;
Khabur-Hasitcha province, north eastern Syria; and Mosul, Erbil and
Kirkuk, provinces of present-day northern Iraq. Their kingdom covered
an area roughly about 350 miles long by 350
miles wide. The name of their oldest capital city was Assur. The
capital Assur was named after the second grandson of Noah's eldest son
Shem. The name Assur applied to the whole
country, hence Assyria. The Capital Assur still stands as an historic
site, south of the ruins of their last capital city Ninveh in northern
Iraq. Assyrians are, therefore, the indigenous and original dwellers
of ancient Mesopotamia (the homeland of the two rivers, Tigris and
Euphrates) of present-day Iraq. Assyria was defeated by the Medians in
collaboration with the Babylonians. The Assyrians are Semite in race.
There are only three Semitic races in the Middle East: Assyrians, Jews
and Arabs, chronologically.
Being one of the main base roots of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian kingdom
encouraged urbanization, building of permanent dwellings and cities. They
developed agriculture, improved methods of irrigation and systems of
canals and aqueducts. They enhanced their language that served as a
unifying force in writing, trade and business transaction.
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They encouraged trade, established and developed safe routes, protecting
citizens and property by written law. They excelled in administration,
documented their performance and royal achievements, depicting their
culture in different art forms. They built libraries and archived their
recorded deeds for posterity. They accumulated wealth and knowledge;
raised armies in disciplined formation of infantry, cavalry and
war-chariot troops with logistics; and built a strong kingdom, a unique
civilization and the first world empire.
Assyrians, in and around Beth Nahrain, throughout the ages, had always
advanced learning and extended it beyond their realm. Since early history,
their unquenchable thirst for knowledge broke formidable barriers and
entered new frontiers. While the Disciples proclaimed the New Testament
westward and established Christian congregations around the Mediterranean
basin, through Anatolia (present-day Turkey), Greece and the Roman Empire,
the (Nestorian) Assyrian missionaries preached the Word throughout the
East - the Arab Peninsula, Persia, Afghanistan, India (Kerala), China,
Mongolia and beyond. Thus Assyria, playing the leading role in
contributing knowledge, throughout the centuries, led the world to
recognize Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization from which succeeding
nations drew their sources and increased their knowledge and expanded
further, emulating Assyria for its unique civilization, like the Persians,
Greeks, Romans and Arabs.
After its collapse, in 612 BC, Assyria became a vassalage and lost its
importance as a world power. It became a bargaining chip that was
exchanged between subsequent empires and conquerors. It gradually
diminished in importance as a trade centre and was reduced to a satrapy.
In the latter half of the 1st century AD, the Assyrians embraced
Christianity. Henceforth, they diverted their attention to evangelism.
They devoted their time and energy to preaching the Gospel and spreading
the teachings of Christ. They built churches, monasteries and learning
centres. Being skilled tradesmen, the Assyrians also engaged in business
and revamped trade. They strengthened their business and social relations
with many countries and along the Silk Road to China and Mongolia. The
Assyrian Church of the East (called by the misnomer: Nestorian) expanded
its missionary work and continued to prosper. Likewise, Assyrian trade
links increased and business flourished. Christianity had mellowed them.
They abandoned their bellicosity and were no longer described as warlike
people. They became peaceful and courteous in their dealings and attitude
yet remained sharp in business. They maintained peaceful coexistence with
their neighbours, building friendly relations with surrounding countries.
Assyria remained under the Roman sphere of influence until the Arab
conquests of Mesopotamia in the mid-7th century AD. With the emergence of
the new religion of Islam and the rise of hostility, resistance waned
against the successive waves of the Islamic invading armies. Islam focused
on spreading its religion. It diverted its forces and energy against the
'unbeliever', the infidel and the polytheist - the non-Muslim. Many
countries were overwhelmed. The Assyrian people suffered great losses,
persecution and humiliation for not recanting their Christian faith and
converting to Islam. They were isolated and languished in poverty. True,
the kingdom of Assyria may have been vanquished, yet its people have
miraculously survived the onslaught and trampling of past and present
invaders. After the triumph and rise of Islam, the evangelistic activity
of the Assyrian Church of the East was curtailed and finally dwindled to a
halt. The Assyrian Church weakened under the direct control of the Islamic
Khilaphates. It shrank and lost its influence and thereon was restricted
in its movement and activity and confined to within its own locality.
Under the Arab Khilaphate rule, land was awarded free of charge to
converts or as a reward in appreciation for their conversion and loyal
service to the Khilaphate. While under the Ottoman rule, conquered
territory and unclaimed land became government property and fell under its
jurisdiction. It could seize land and dispense with it in any manner it
deemed fit. In some instances, the Ottoman Empire confiscated Christian
farmlands and properties and leased them or sold them at nominal price to
the Moslem Turkmen, Kurds and Arabs. During the occupation period heavy
taxes were exacted on Christian adults which forced Christian landlords
and proprietors to lose their property. Christians were squeezed out of
their wealth. The Assyrians were forced to live a subservient life as
retribution for their unshakable faith in their Christian religion and
steadfast resistance to conversion or change of their national identity.
Thus, Assyria was trodden by invaders throughout the centuries, its
treasures looted and its historic cities laid to waste and eventually
forgotten and abandoned. Like a pack of hungry wolves, its territory was
preyed upon and chiselled away by neighbouring countries, especially after
the Islamic conquest of Mesopotamia and the brutal repression of its
indigenous inhabitants. To complete the picture, at the end of the World
War One of 1914-1918, the Mandatory Powers, England and France, abolished
Mesopotamia and wiped it from the World Atlas. They struck off Assyria
from the map, annulled the identity of its indigenous people and denied
them the right of ownership of their traditional homeland.
During the First World War, in April 1916, on behalf of their governments,
French Foreign Minister, Georges Picot, and his British counterpart, Mark
Sykes, had developed and signed a secret agreement, namely, the
Sykes-Picot Agreement to divide Mesopotamia between France and Britain
after dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Western Powers, through the
League of Nations, allied themselves against resettlement of the Assyrians
in their traditional homeland. Britain failed to make good her promise in
representing the Assyrians at the League. Acting as Judas Iscariot,
Britain sold the Assyrians to their enemy Iraq, for 30 pieces of silver.
The Western Allies had already predestined Assyria's future. They refused
to enter into any written negotiations with the Assyrian leaders for a
political settlement. They blamed their unfortunate and hard circumstances
on the changes to the Russian sphere of influence from which the Assyrians
of Hakkari in Turkey and Urmia in Iran had been driven out. In the wake of
the October 1917 Revolution, Russia withdrew from war and its zone of
influence. It revoked certain agreements with the West and left many
issues unsettled one of which was the rehabilitation of the displaced
Assyrians. The territorial losses of the Assyrians were discounted and
described as unfortunate by the Allied Powers, under the terms of Article
22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. To exploit the oil wealth of
the Middle East, insure its access and safe flow throughout several
borders and redrawn borderlines and maintain smooth relations, the
colonial powers annexed the divided Assyrian homeland to exiting and newly
created Islamic kingdoms and states.
Deliberately choosing not to heed the racial, ethnic and religious
diversities and the demographic reality of the Middle East, the mandatory
powers dismembered Mesopotamia. They partitioned Assyria and gave it away
to its enemies. The Mandates vehemently rejected Assyrian claim to their
ancestral homeland. They foiled their attempts to unite their ranks, hold
on to their territory and declare themselves independent. The Allied
Powers, mainly Britain and France, connived with the existing and newly
created states to keep Assyria shattered under the yoke of foreign rule.
To consolidate their hold on the Middle East and assert their authority,
the mandates collaborated with the Islamic countries in restoring the
archaic Millet3 Provision. To minimize their number and lessen their
political weight, the mandatory powers supported the Islamic states in
keeping the Assyrian people of the Middle East divided into several
denominational groups. They based them on different Christian sects,
rather than reunite them as one people of Assyrian nationality. They
conspired against the Assyrians and prevented them from shaping their
destiny to govern themselves in their traditional homeland, by keeping
them divided and subjecting them to the millet provision. Under the
authority of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, a clear
agenda had been set for the assimilation of the Assyrians into the Arab
nations.
For the past twelve hundred years, or so, since the Islamic conquests the
arbitrary rule of the Arab/Turkic governments has clamped down mercilessly
on the Assyrians. Their high handed policy wreaked havoc with the whole
Assyrian nation. They inflicted heavy loss of life and severe damage to
the social fabric of their very existence. Their oppressive rule, under
the millet provision, slummed the Assyrians deeper into deprivation and
misery. It was not only a setback but a catastrophe that regressed the
Assyrians to undignified life of subservience. In post World War One and
after over 12 hundred years of dormancy (750 to early 20th century), the
Assyrians woke up to see their Islamic neighbours, in connivance with the
West, nibbling at the doorsteps of what was left of their Assyrian
territory, situated in Urmia, Hakkari and the Mosul region. The Quartette
(Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria) have since annexed the Assyrian territory
to their states. They integrated it in its entirety, as an extension to
the ever expanding Islamic (Umma4) Nation, to encompass the whole of the
Middle East. During that long period, hundreds of thousands of Assyrians,
including neighbouring Armenians and also Greeks, men, women and children,
were massacred and their villages pillaged. Yet, miraculously, the
Assyrian people as a nation has survived the onslaught of Arab occupation,
Turkish massacres and Mongol barbarity. The Assyrians looked up to the
West and humanitarian organizations for deliverance from their chronic
plight, but to no avail. The power brokers and policy makers reshaped the
Middle East not in the interest of its local inhabitants but rather for
their long term strategies and economic benefit. The interests of the
Assyrians, Jews and other non-Arab ethnics were ignored and neglected.
As far as the Arab/Islamic states was concerned, the native inhabitants of
the Middle East, were considered minority 'millet' groups. They were
divided into religious groups based on their denomination and not their
racial identity. They were and still are, to a certain extent, recognized
as a millet - a term used to granting such groups of people protection and
freedom of worship only, after invading and occupying their country in the
name of Jihad. This recognition was granted by the first Khaliphate Abu
Bakr, in the early invasion of Mesopotamia. It was later extended by the
2nd Khaliphate Umar and other succeeding Khulapha'a. Millet provision
became part of the governing system of the Islamic state policy. The Assyrians were identified by the sect of
their Christian religion and not by the racial identity of their Assyrian
nationality. Millets are obliged to
abide by the law of the land under the Islamic Shari'ah (religious) law of
the government of the Abode of Peace. Thus, Assyria and Assyrian, both
terms, noun and adjective, were invalidated. In collusion with the World
Body, Mesopotamia was wiped from the map and Assyria abolished. The
ultimate aim was to erode the Assyrian identity to extinction, considering
natives of the Middle East as ancient history. This unethical and divisive
millet provision is still being practised by the Islamic states
heedlessly. The disappearance of Assyria and breakup of its national
inhabitants into smaller sectarian communities in the name of religious
tolerance and freedom of worship, is no more than a farcical ploy to deny
the Assyrian people their heritage. Reinforcement of the millet provision
was a continuation of Dar-Al-Silm advocates to perpetuate the end of
Assyria and seal its fate. The government implied that the old nationality
to which the natives had belonged no longer applied. In due course, they
expected them to renounce it and accept the State's current nationality as
a gesture of good will and pledge of loyalty to their newly adopted
national identification and country. This implication is extended to all
the non-Muslim native inhabitants of the Islamic world - Jews, Christians,
Bhaie's etc. This millet provision is still being widely used in many
Islamic countries, regardless of their political systems.
The Islamic government adopted the system of identifying the Assyrians by
their village and tribal name and or sectarian name - never by their
nationality. Assyrian nationals were forced to assume Christian sectarian
identity. They were identified as such outside the church as a substitute
for their Assyrian nationality. Sectarian names replaced the Assyrian
nationality. They became a falsified form of name change with which the
Assyrians were identified. These nationality substitutes have since stayed
with the Assyrians until today. Rather than being recognized,
collectively, as one people of (Syriac) Assyrian nationality, the Islamic
government abolished and disallowed its mention. It ceased calling the
indigenous inhabitants of Assyria by their nationality and country name.
Some were identified by the name of its religious leader or the country to
which its church was affiliated. The Islamic state reinforced the policy
of change to the Assyrian nationality in a bid to wipe out their racial
identity. They were no longer recognized as indigenous Assyrians. This
change was officially endorsed by the World Body, after World War One, by
abolishing Mesopotamia and wiping Assyria from the world map. Under the
sectarian names, the Assyrians were treated as foreigners - groups of
millets. They were dealt with in any manner the invaders deemed fit. The
government treated the Assyrian inhabitants at their absolute discretion
and with cruelty to suppress their national consciousness. They became
known as Nestorian, Chaldean, Jacobite, Syriani, Suroyo, Maronite, Rumi
and Masihi-Arabi. They were treated as mere residents, required to conform
to the majority rule of the Islamic Shari'ah law.. Their social customs,
secular celebrations and traditional festivities were restricted to within
their localities. Their dress had to conform to Islamic rule. Assyrians
were pressured to give their children Arabic names when christened. Their
social activities were gradually curtailed and with the passage of time
disallowed. They lost freedom of expression, of assembly, of association
and travel. Generations of repression dulled the Assyrian communities into
forgetfulness, weariness and misery. Ignored to the point of utter
neglect, they led the life of impoverished peasantry. Except for their
Assyrian language which they kept alive through their liturgy, conditions
deteriorated and life, in general, became meager. Illiteracy and ignorance
became widespread. Their life was lulled into a laze of inactivity that
receded into drowsiness. They lapsed into despair as if slipping into a
different time zone of deep freeze. After centuries of persecution, untold
suffering and isolation, they woke up to the rampages of the First World
War to see themselves still surrounded by the same hostile elements. The
imposition of the millet provision had taken its heavy toll. The Assyrians
expected the Western Powers to abolish the millet provision, to free the
Assyrian people from the yoke of Islamic rule, to restore Assyria to its
traditional owners and grant them statehood in accordance with the Geneva
Convention for Human Rights. But this was not to be. The Mandated Powers
had other hideous plans.
Notes:
1. The area is an approximation due to change of its historical
borderlines.
2. Genesis 9:18; 10:22
3. millet: Is a (multitude) distinct group
of people, non-Islamic in faith; may be of the same
nationality and religion but denominationally different, yet indigenous,
whose native land is conquered and occupied by the Muslim invaders
during the Islamic conquests, beginning in the mid-7th
century AD. The genuine nationality of its people is abolished. The
people are divided into (multitudes) groups, each according to its
denomination; henceforth identified by its sectarian name as a distinct
and separate community. All members of the millet are considered
residents but are not recognized as natives and full citizens of their
country. Millets are subjugated to the Islamic form of government of the
day with a view to fusing them into the Islamic (Umma) nation of (Dar
Al-Silm) Abode of Peace after conversion to Islam.
4. Umma: Nation
= a political body; the concept of
several Islamic countries, having the same aspiration, towards a united
Islamic (Shari'ah) law system of government, collectively known as Dar
Al-Silm under the umbrella of Umma - one nation government. Their long
term objective is to expand the borderlines of the Abode of Peace (Dar
Al-Silm), by bringing the Abode of War (Dar Al-Harb) - land yet to be conquered - under its
direct control and rule, thus encompass the whole world, forming one
single Islamic Nation.
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