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Volume IX

Issue 24

4 August2003

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This Week In Zinda

cover photo

Zinda Says

The Living Martyrs

The Lighthouse

Art of Ancient Sumer at New York’s Metropolitan

Good Morning Bet-Nahrain

Assyrian Elected Mayor of Telkaif, Iraq
Militant Moslems Attack Christian-Owned Store in Basra
Iraqi Documents Point to Assassination of Francis Shabo
Yonadam Kanna Appeals for a Force under U.N. Mandate
Children’s Bible Printed for Iraqi Kurds
Assyrian Village of Qaraqosh to Become American Military Base
Mardin Reacts to UNESCO Report
Assyrische christenen blij met nieuwe regering Irak

News Digest

White House Letter to Chaldean Federation President
CFA President Congratulation Letter to Yonadam Kanna
A Declaration from World Leader of the Yezidis
Treasures from Nimrod to Tour United States

Surf's Up!

Greetings from Um-Qasr
On Milt Khoobyarian’s “Unraveling Iraq”
What Shall Be the Name of This Nation?
Assyro-Chaldean as a Unifying Name & Syriac as Its Language
Severely Flawed
An Open Letter to His Grace Mar Sarhad Jammo
Kanna is not the Right Person
ADM Secretary General on Ashur TV
Do We have the Wisdom?
Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce
Assyrian for Governor of California

Surfer's Corner

Assyrian Martyrs Day Commemoration in Chicago
New Issue of Hugoye is Out
1st Open Heart Society Fundraising Party in Chicago
70th Annual National Convention
9th Annual Assyrian Youth Excellence Pageant

Literatus

A Petition Against 80 Years of Persistent Injustice
After Decades in Exile Assyrians to Rebuild Native Village

Bravo

Assyrian Rapper Releases First CD

Calendar of Events

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Zinda Says

THE LIVING MARTYRS

According to one historian, in the past 2,000 years nearly 70 million Christians have been killed for their faith. Of these two-thirds have lost their lives in the past 150 years alone. One estimate indicates that since 1990 as many as 160,000 Christians have been killed every year, the vast majority by Muslims in the Third World.

The majority of the Middle Eastern population prior to the Islamic conquests under Mohammad the Prophet was Christian. It is estimated that by the year 2020 only one percent of the entire population will attest to Christian faith. Currently there is no pressure coming from the western governments and media to reverse the process of the emigration of the Christian families from the Middle East. As for the last 2000 years, Christians of whom a majority are Syriac-speaking, have endured a life under constant threat of jihad and militant uprisings. No Islamic country provides government-funded programs to help stabilize the diminishing population and worsening conditions of their Christian populations.

Today, no Christians are more threatened by the horror of fundamentalism than those in the Middle East. Western indifference to the Christian suffering in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and even Israel (stand off at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem) continues even as more and more Christian missionaries are arriving in the major Islamic cities. Why are the western scholars not discussing the persecutions of Christians by Muslims in the Middle East? Why this silence dominates the western academia and the conferences such as the Middle Eastern Studies Association?

The Seyfo Genocide of 1915 through 1923, for example, destroyed two-thirds of the Assyrian population. These included Syrian Orthodox from Kharput in Turkey, the Church of the East bishops and patriarchs from Hakkari, Chaldean women and children in the Mosul Villayat, and even recently converted Presbyterians in the plains of Urmie, Iran. The eight-year bloodshed resulted in the death of two-thirds of our population in the Middle East. This year we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Semel Massacre in Iraq, which also coincides with the 80th anniversary of the end of the Seyfo Genocide.

The greatest act of martyrdom is the unswerving acknowledgement of one’s faith and identity in the face of the Moslem fanatics’ senseless debauchery, discrimination, persecutions and barbarism. Assyrians are predominantly Christian. Their dissimilar faith which has distressed their neighbors for the last 2000 years is recognized by their devotion to their Eastern (Nestorian), Chaldean, Syriani, & Protestant convictions.

Each year on August 7, we commemorate the martyrdom of the countless millions of Assyrians who perished under the sword of the Persian rulers, Roman emperors, Moslem leaders and fanatics. We remind ourselves of the massacres and pogroms, genocides and humiliations. We light candles and pray for the salvation of those still living under the threat of Islamic militancy.

Members of the Council of Bishops in Mosul discuss their concerns with U.S. Army Sgt. Curtis Hargrave on 26 July

As soon as the Assyrians are granted certain rights equal or greater than those of their Moslem neighbors, the Moslem masses revolt against them, arrest and kill their leaders, burn their churches, rape their women, and raze their villages. Today, Christians in Iraq and Assyrians in particular have a voice in the newly appointed Iraqi National Council. However, the recent kidnappings of the children in Baghdad and the grenade bombings of the stores in Basra are symptoms of a larger anti-Christian movement that may erupt as soon as the U.S. forces complete their mission and delegate the protection of the people to local authorities. The 24 “open-minded” Moslem representatives on the Iraqi National Council cannot even bear to see the name of their Christian colleague on the list of the future Council Presidents. A Christian representative according to the laws of Sharia cannot preside over the affairs of the Moslem constituency.

What must we do now? The threat of ethnic cleansing is eminent as more Christian missionaries from the west are arriving in large numbers with copies of the Bible in Arabic and Kurdish. Our churches in the Urmian villages are slowly converted to mosques, our women in Iraq are asked to wear a veil to cover their faces, and our relics and ancient manuscripts are stolen or vandalized in Turkey. The Coptics in Egypt, Maronites in Lebanon, and Catholics in Pakistan are in no better condition.

The massacres and genocides in the last 14 centuries divided our nation into five or more religious denominations and stripped us of our national identity. 150 years ago with the coming of the western Missionaries and the discovery of the magnificent ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, the notion of Martyrdom for Assyrians in the name of Christ evolved into a secular concept. We adopted a political identity under the name of “Assyrians” and initiated a massive effort to reorganize ourselves as a single body of people with a common religious, historic, and linguistic heritage.

On August 7 we remember the heroic acts of the past, and remember the anguish endured by many of us today under the intolerant governments of the Middle East. To be called the “Representative of the Chaldeans and Assyrians” in Iran, and the “Representative of the Chaldean Assyrian Christians” in Iraq is in itself an act of defiance in the face of bigotry and intolerance. To call oneself a “Christian Representative” during a time that waging a holy war against the forgotten Christian communities of the Middle East is as close as a Shiite Iyatollah’s Friday Prayer, is as gallant an act as the Martyrdom of the early fathers of our churches and the sacrifices made by the dozens of the Zowaa martyrs. Indeed to call oneself a Christian in the Middle East in 2003 is the most compelling act of Martyrdom. Those professing their identity as “Assyrian” and “Christian” in the Middle East are truly the Living Martyrs of a nation that has endured so much suffering in the last 2000 years. We must never forget the deeds of the past and boldly profess our true identities as Christian Chaldeans, Syriacs, Nestorians and ultimately, the Assyrians.

Wilfred Bet-Alkhas
Editor

The Lighthouse

ART OF ANCIENT SUMER AT NEW YORK’S METROPOLITAN

Courtesy of the WSWS.org (30 July); by Sandy English

Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B. C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus
Through August 17, 2003
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City

“Art of the First Cities” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York features sculpture, jewelry, cylinder seals, clay tablets and other artifacts (about 400 items in all) from the world’s earliest complex society: Sumer in southern Iraq in the millennium after 3,000 BC.

While the geographical breadth of the exhibition extends from the Aegean Sea to the Persian Gulf to central Asia, at its core is exactly the same sort of artwork that has recently been plundered from or destroyed at archaeological sites and museums all over Iraq, beginning with the looting of Baghdad’s National Museum in April.

The continuing loss of this material to history and art is incalculable. As the exhibition shows, it is among humanity’s most precious creative work. Merely to view it or discuss it is to bring us closer to one of the major cultural catastrophes of the modern world. Whatever the intentions of its curators, Art of the First Cities is a protest against the policies of British and American imperialism in Iraq.

The Sumerians (they called themselves “the black-headed ones”) had, by the middle of the fourth millennium BC, become one of the most socially and technologically sophisticated peoples on earth. They farmed the arid land with canal-water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, constructed cities and large buildings, and were the first people we know of to write. They were perhaps the first even to organize their society into distinct social classes.

They were by no means unique in these developments: cities, monumental architecture, social stratification, and, in some cases, writing had emerged independently toward the end of the fourth millennium BC in Egypt, Peru, along the Indus river valley in Pakistan and later the Yellow River in China.

The Sumerians created a cultural region that the Greeks named Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers. This area, including roughly modern Iraq, parts of Iran at the foot of the Zagros mountains and southeastern Syria, had, more or less, a single, organic history that unfolded from the middle of the fourth millennium until the Persian conquest of 539 BC.

In spite of frequent invasions by less developed peoples, Mesopotamia possessed a unique economy, set of social relations and culture. The later Babylonians, Arameans and Assyrians all assimilated the culture initially prepared by the Sumerians.

In the Iraq of five thousand years ago, large, bureaucratic institutions centered on temples, and later royal palaces, dominated the social and political life of the Sumerian city-states (uru in Sumerian). They controlled a huge portion of the working population (whom we call, somewhat inaccurately “serfs,” farmers who had no or little land of their own) and the surplus that it produced.

The temple- or palace-serfs supported a ruling group of temple administrators, priests, or monarchs and palace officials, who lived at a much higher standard.

There were also groups of smaller or larger independent farmers, craftsmen and merchants. They had to pay taxes in the form of produce or labor-duties, but do appear to have enjoyed certain rights, at least in the earlier period, including even a kind of limited political representation.

The art of the Sumerian cities was almost universally oriented toward religious expression or the prerogatives of one or another monarch; that is, the sensibilities of the ruling classes dominated the work displayed in Art of the First Cities.

One of the first pieces in the exhibition that struck me was a small stone carving of a demon with a muscular male human body and the head of a lioness. (exhibit no. 14, magnesite or crystalline limestone, 8.8 x 6.2 cm., Proto-Elamite period in Iran [ca. 3200-2800 BC]). The twist of the upper body of this little figure is powerful and very human. Perhaps that is why it is startling to see the head of an animal on the shoulders.

Animals banqueting in what are believed to be religious ceremonies is a feature of the art of Elam [1], that came to be a motif in Sumerian art, as a number of cylinder seals in the exhibition show. (Cylinder seals, a unique Mesopotamian invention, were cylinders meant to be rolled in clay to seal property. Often the images have writing or mythological scenes on them.)

Some of most impressive objects in the exhibition are those removed from the city of Ur in the 1926-30 excavations lead by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. The so-called Royal Graves of Ur contain mass graves, probably of monarchs and their servants who were put to death along with them. In spite of this gruesome fact, some of the artifacts found with the dead—three well-known objects in particular thought to date to the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2700-2334 BC)—are particularly beautiful:

* “The Standard of Ur” (no. 52, wood with shell, lapis lazuli, red limestone, 20 x 47 cm.) is an inlaid wooden box (the wood has been restored) wrongly thought by Woolley to have been carried on a pole. Its real use is unknown.

The box has three registers of figures on each side, on one, banqueting scenes with religious overtones; on the other, scenes from a war (chariots running people down and bound, naked captives). Their exact meaning is still unclear, but there is something moving about the juxtaposition of two sides of life in this early class society.

* “The Great Lyre” with bull’s head and inlaid front panel. (no. 58, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, bitumen; head is 35.6 cm high, plaque is 35 cm). The eyeballs in the head are made of white shell and the lids and pupils are made of lapis lazuli, which matches the bull’s long flowing beard of lapis lazuli backed in silver.

The plaque underneath has several images of humans, mythological figures (a scorpion-man), and animals (a seated ass plays a lyre identical to the Great Lyre).

* “Puabi’s Headdress” (nos. 61a-e, comb with six-pointed stars, wreathes and ribbons; gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian; bands, etc. with accompanying huge gold earrings). There is a fringe of golden willow and beech leaves on the headdress. We do not understand the symbolism of the elaborate headgear, which was found in the grave with a cylinder seal of a woman named Queen Puabi.

Light seems to emanate from all of these things, as diverse as their uses may have been, and we can only wonder at their presence in their original world—a world with altogether less wealth than ours.

As the third millennium progressed, the Sumerian city more and more became dominated by a ruler, an ensi who became the largest landowner in the community. He waged war with an army equipped with bronze weapons and the ass-drawn chariot, the armored tank of its day.

In roughly the last third of the millennium our knowledge of history and social life becomes enriched through the many readable baked and unbaked clay tablets with writing: economic data, myths and even personal letters. (The unbaked variety is precisely the sort of artifact that disintegrate when exposed to the air; an untold number is being destroyed in Iraq at present).

Some baked tablets are represented in the exhibition. There are not only tablets from Sumer in the third millennium (e.g., no. 321), but one containing a mathematical text (no. 322) or a record of monthly consignments of cloth from Syria. The exhibition has a number of tablets from the second millennium BC in the old Babylonian period (ca.1740 BC) including one of the famous “Sumerian King List” (no.330).

These also have a certain physical beauty in the incisions of the wedge-shaped writing, although the main value of these objects is the information they transmit—the “Sumerian King List” being one such important document. Not the least valuable piece of information is the fact that the different classes of Sumer came into conflict with each other.

In one document, King Urukagina of Lagash (r. 2351-2342) brags that he undertook broad social reforms to protect the poor from the incursions of palace officials. It is here that we encounter, for the first time in history, the word for freedom (amargi) [2].

In about 2350 BC, Sargon (Sharru-kin), speaking Akkadian, a distant cousin of Arabic and Hebrew, conquered the region, creating the world’s first known empire, a state with multiple cites ruled from a single capital, Agade, which he founded and which has not been located.

The art of the Sargonic period—especially the fragments of victory steles (pillars) incised with scenes of war (foreshadowing the Assyrian art of centuries later)—is well represented at the Metropolitan.

One realistic copper-alloy head of an Akkadian ruler (no. 132) stands out, though it serves to remind us that there is a gaping hole in the exhibition: the more detailed and truly stunning copper-alloy head of a ruler often thought to be one of Sargon’s descendants could not be borrowed from the National Museum in Baghdad. It was subsequently stolen during the April looting [3].

An invasion by mountaineers from the Zagros range of Iran overthrew Sargon’s dynasty. Once again rival city-states contended until Ur-Nammu, a Sumerian from the city of Ur, reconquered the region in 2112 BC. A new period of Sumerian florescence, splendidly documented in this exhibition, began.

While Ur-Nammu’s legacy is well represented here, it was the work of the very beginning of this “neo-Sumerian” period that really caught my attention. For some reason, many artifacts remain of a local ruler from the city of Lagash slightly before Ur-Nammu’s empire, named Gudea (r. 2141-2122 BC).

Many of these are solemn and moving statues of Gudea himself: solid, short-limbed in black diorite (no. 305, 44 cm high) or more elongated in blue-white paragonite (no. 306, 41 cm high). They seem less egotistical (after all, Gudea only ruled a city), and even less ferocious, than images of Sargon or Ur-Nammu. One in particular is captivating: a headless statue of Gudea, covered in cuneiform writing, holds in his lap the blueprint of a temple, one of the first known representations of an architectural plan.

The third millennium also saw the expansion of urban and class culture to other parts of the world. One of the remarkable things about this exhibition is the light it casts on developments in Syria, Iran, Anatolia, the Aegean, India and central Asia, with several rooms devoted to these regions.

The many artifacts from the city of Mari in Syria repaid close examination (as did the museum’s gallery notes on Mari): especially the lion-headed eagle (no. 81, lapis lazuli, gold, bitumen, copper alloy, 12.8 cm x 11.9 cm). The inhabitants of Mari seem to have been completely Sumerian in culture from an early period, but apparently Akkadian linguistically and ethnically.

Then there was the Harappan material from Pakistan. The Harappans built cities beginning in the fourth millennium in the Indus River valley. The material presented here from this key civilization that had (as yet undeciphered) writing and cylinder seals does not compare well, at least aesthetically, with the Iraqi material, but its presence marks a valuable contrast between two early urban cultures that developed apart from each other, yet clearly according to the same basic social laws. The exhibition is quite enlightening concerning the trade between the Harappan cities and Mesopotamia.

There is more ceramic work in the non-Mesopotamian displays, and this is dimmed, somewhat unfairly, by the luster and precision of the artwork left behind in the graves of Ur, or by Sargon, Gudea or Ur-Nammu, though there were notable works from each culture represented here. The golden goblets and ewers from Anatolia (nos. 186, 187a, b, late third millennium BC) are some fine examples.

It was a pleasure to read the clear explanation in the gallery notes of the central Asian third-millennium cultures, accompanied by the large maps of trade routes stretching from modern Tajikistan into Oman in the Persian Gulf. [4].

Art of the First Cities posed some major challenges from the start. It was impossible to display items from the National Museum of Baghdad because of UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq. Cultural or political tensions with other countries also caused problems in borrowing objects.

According to the review of this exhibition in the New York Times, statues from Saudi Arabian collections, for example, were loaned reluctantly because of the prohibitions in Wahhabi Islam against depicting the human body. By all accounts, the curators did a painstaking job in putting months and months of work in several countries to secure specific pieces.

There are also challenges to the viewer: the huge amount of information obtained from clay tablets deeply enriches our view of Sumerian society, but this information can only be hinted at in an exhibition devoted to visual art.

In addition, one has to look patiently at a good number of miniatures, especially imprints from cylinder seals, to fully appreciate the mythological and aesthetic scope of the art on display here.

Visitors to this exhibition should also be sure to see the Metropolitan’s Near Eastern galleries, with more third-millennium artifacts from Mesopotamia as well as the impressive Assyrian reliefs from the palace of Nineveh. Nineveh, near Mosul in Northern Iraq, has also been plundered in the last few months.

Notes:

1. Elam, whose capital was at Susa, was a part of Sumerian-Mesopotamian cultural region although the Elamite language does not seem to be related to Sumerian. The Elamites also began writing quite early in the still-undeciphered Proto-Elamite script.

2. Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963, p. 79.

3. See Donald P. Hanson, “Art of the Akkadian Dynasty” in the exhibition catalogue, p. 194. Images and a description of this piece can been seen in the Oriental Institute’s database of stolen Iraqi art at: http://www.oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/53.htm

4. See Maurizio Tosi and C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, “Pathways across Eurasia” in the exhibition catalogue, pp. 347-376.

[Z-info: An accompaniment to the Metropolitan exhibition of the Sumerian arts is Ms. Joan Aruz’ book “Art of the First Cities. The Third Millennium B. C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus” published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003, 540 pp.]

GOOD MORNING BET-NAHRAIN

ASSYRIAN ELECTED MAYOR OF TELKAIF

(ZNDA: Telkaif) The result of last week’s elections in the district of Telkaif, Iraq which includes the towns and villages of Batnaya, Alqosh, Tallesqof, and Telkaif were as follows:

The 11-member City Council –

· 4 Chaldo-Assyrians

o Hazim Noah (resident of Batnaya)
o Luis Stifo (resident of Alqosh)
o Adil Mikha (resident of Tellesqof)
o Esho Soro (resident of Telkaif)

· 3 Arabs
· 3 Yezidis
· 1 Kurd

According to the information office of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Mr. Wadhah Giwargis, a resident of Telkaif was elected as the mayor of Telkaif. Mr. Wadhah holds a Bachelors degree in Science.

CHRISTIAN FAMILIES TARGET OF KIDNAPPINGS IN IRAQ

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times (5 August); by Robyn Dixon

(ZNDA: Baghdad) Sources to Zinda Magazine in Baghdad have confirmed the kidnappings of several Assyrian boys, between the ages of 3 and 17, from the streets of Baghdad in the recent weeks. The kidnappings takes place during day time and on crowded streets.

Salaam, A 13-year-old boy, and a group of seven friends were on their way to school two weeks ago at approximately 12 noon when four men holding guns in their hands take kidnap him at gun point, only half a mile away from his home in Baghdad.

Sources to Zinda Magazine explain that to date, 6 Assyrians have been Killed, 7 Assyrians boys kidnaped, 13 Assyrians shops burned down, and a majority of the liquor stores that belongs to the Assyrians have been forced to close down. The sources say that no Assyrian girl can walk alone in the street of Baghdad.

The kidnappers often ask for ransom and when the parents of the kidnapped children are unable to pay, shortly after the bodies of their loved ones are returned to them.

Stolen from his Baghdad street two weeks ago while playing with friends, Peter Yakob, a mute child of 6, couldn't tell the gang of Iraqi kidnappers his phone number.

For two days, the kidnappers tried to get it from him while the boy's family waited frantically for a message from the criminals.

On the third day, Peter's parents chalked their phone number on an exterior wall of their home. Within 30 minutes, a call came demanding what to them was an unimaginable amount: $50,000.

"When we said we couldn't pay, they said: 'That's your problem. Either pay the money or we'll send him home to you in a sack,' " said Peter's mother, Makdonya Yusuf, 47. After desperate bargaining, the family paid a $15,000 ransom.

The appearance of highly organized kidnapping gangs sends a worrying message to U.S.-led occupation authorities, suggesting a level of criminal planning and commitment well beyond the spasm of thievery that followed the regime's fall.

The kidnappings have a dark, ruthless quality, often targeting children and teenagers, usually from Iraq's Christian community where no networks exist to fight back against the gangs.

In many cases, the only sons of large middle-income or wealthy families are seized. The abductions, which are often committed in broad daylight, add to Iraqis' sense that nowhere is safe, day or night.

Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who is overseeing Iraq's police force, held a briefing Tuesday to announce that a gang of nine kidnappers had been caught Monday in central Baghdad and that several hostages were freed.

He did not mention that the kidnappers killed a female hostage during the operation, carried out by Iraqi police. That fact emerged during questioning of Iraqi officers near the end of the briefing. Kerik said the police conducted the operation without U.S. help, attacking a house at dawn and triggering a gun battle. One suspect was wounded.

Because the Iraqi police force doesn't keep crime statistics, it's difficult to establish exactly how many kidnappings are occurring, but members of the Christian community listed many cases and Kerik said three other gangs had been arrested in recent weeks. Police uniforms were found at the home of those arrested Monday, Kerik said, suggesting that the kidnappers posed as police. He urged Iraqis to report abductions.

But several families of kidnapping victims said they had approached police or the U.S. military for help but got little or no assistance. Instead, they paid ransoms ranging from $15,000 to $75,000 for the release of loved ones.

"There are so many of these cases in Baghdad," said Adib Yunan, Peter's uncle, a businessman and liquor store owner who bargained the ransom price down. "It's a matter of money, simple money."

Yunan's brother, the boy's father, works in his store and lives in a rental house.

The gangs carefully track their targets, watching the victim's routine and gleaning details of the family's situation and activities.

Yunan and his brother went to a police station in the Hay Mikhaniq neighborhood seeking help. U.S. military police are stationed in all Iraqi police stations.

"We went to the police and saw the Americans. An American told us, 'What can we do?' " he said, a complaint echoed by other families of victims.

He said that after he provided information and pictures of the boy to American MPs and Iraqi police, the Americans promised to keep in touch. But his family heard nothing more and resolved the case itself by paying the ransom.

During his ordeal, Peter, who can communicate with his family but not with strangers, often cried. Ali, one of the kidnappers, would hold a gun to his head, screaming that if the boy didn't quiet down he would kill him.

Makdonya Yusuf got her son back four days after he was taken. But the formerly happy boy had changed. He was confused and seemed drugged. At night he lay awake, frightened.

"My son used to be carefree, but now he's nervous and terrified," she said. "He can't sleep. He shouts: 'Ali is coming! Ali is coming to take me!' " She has pinned a medallion of Christ to his pillow so that he can kiss it to help him sleep.

Emanuel Lirato is a patriarch with a motorcycle business he started 55 years ago. His son Maher, 50, an epileptic, was kidnapped July 20 when a car with heavily armed bandits cut him off as he reached the family business by car.

Lirato went to the police and stopped a military convoy for assistance, but he said neither gave him real help.

The U.S. soldiers in the convoy asked him what they could do. "I said: 'You have to decide. You're in charge.' " They searched the streets and shops in the neighborhood, but then gave up, he said.

His son was chained to a wall in a room for five days. Lirato paid a $25,000 ransom, but the gang still did not hand over his son. Instead they increased their price to $300,000.

"We kept negotiating. We agreed on $50,000 in addition to the $25,000," Lirato said. Now he wants armed guards to escort him to work, but ordinary Iraqi citizens cannot carry guns.

"Ninety percent of cases are Christians, because they know Christian people are calm and won't make trouble," Lirato said. "They just want their beloved ones to come back home, so they create no difficulties. But Muslim families might resist."

Lirato blamed coalition authorities for the frequent kidnappings, saying they had dismantled the old security structures without putting something in their place.

"They abolished the army, the security forces and the police," he said. "So they gave the bad guys a chance to make the best of this chaos and lack of security. They made it easy for them to commit their crimes.

"I think the gang will come again and maybe this time they'll take me, not my son," he said. "If things get worse, I'll have to leave Iraq."

Adib Yunan, Peter's uncle, said Hussein's release of prisoners before the war planted the seeds of the crime spree. "This is the aftermath of two or three wars," he said. "There are so many men who have no job, so they resort to the simplest way to get money."

Adnan Issa, a restaurant owner, paid $15,000 for the release of his only son, Rani, 17, kidnapped by gunmen who jumped into his taxi one recent morning. The gang initially demanded $120,000 and only relented after the family produced documents to prove that their house is rented.

"My husband was completely shocked. He couldn't do anything. Mary the Virgin gave me the strength to carry on and negotiate the matter," said Rani's mother, Suaad Jibro, who tearfully begged and bargained with the gang on the phone.

She said she and her husband were too frightened to contact police even after they recovered their son for fear of retaliation by the gang. Now they are desperate to sell the family restaurant and flee Iraq.

"These robberies and kidnappings are happening at daytime," Adnan Issa said. "The Americans' priority is to capture Saddam Hussein and guarantee their own safety."

The day Rani went missing, his parents approached U.S. soldiers who were searching the neighborhood to ask for help. "They told me: 'It's not our business.' " Issa said. " 'We're here to search for Saddam Hussein.' "

MILITANT MOSLEMS ATTACK CHRISTIAN-OWNED STORE IN BASRA

(ZNDA: Basra) On 27 July, a group of unidentified militants attacked a Christian-owned liquor store in the center of the southern city of Basra and wounded 5 Iraqis including the store owner. The attackers used several RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) fired from two vehicles 100 feet across from the store. Most of the injured were standing next to the store at the time of the attack.

IRAQI DOCUMENTS POINT TO ASSASSINATION OF FRANCIS SHABO

Courtesy of the KurdishMedia.com (26 July); by Bryar Mariwani

(ZNDA: London) Francis Yosef Shabo, an Assyrian member of the Kurdish Parliament was assassinated by the former Iraqi regime agents in 1993, reported the independent Kurdish weekly, Hawlati on 23rd of July.

Hawlati has obtained a document from the former Iraqi Intelligence Services which reveals that Shabo was assassinated on 1 June 1993by Khalid Hajitahir Al-Hamzani, an Iraqi agent working in north Iraq in 1993.

Shabo was a member of the Kurdistan National Assembly and the representative of the Assyrian community in the Assembly. According to the document, Al-Hamzani was the head of an Iraqi agents group of 5 members; they were: Waheed Majeed, Tahir Hussein Hassan, Mohammad Sidiq, Akram Majeed Muhammad and Ahmed Mohammad Sidiq.

The group carried out other criminal activities for the Iraqi government in 1993 including on 29 January 1993, the attempted assassination of the US citizen, William Brown, in Dohuk. He was accused of proselytizing Christian religion. Mr. Brown was severely wounded in the attack.

According to the document Al-Hamzani was jointly working with the head of the general military intelligence office, Istikhbarat Al-Amma.

In June 1993 another Assyrian, Lazar Mackho, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party, was also assassinated.

YONADAM KANNA APPEALS FOR A FORCE UNDER U.N. MANDATE

Courtesy of the Zenit News Agency (24 July)

(ZNDA: Baghdad) The only Christian in Iraq's Provisional Government Council said that there will be no religious discrimination in the new Iraq.

Mr. Yonadam Kanna (Left) sits next to Ibrahim Jafari (R) of the Shi'ite Dawa party and another Council member during the public launch of Iraq's new government at a Baghdad conference hall on July 13. Jafari was chosen as the first president of the Iraqi Governing Council, which is to be rotated among nine of its Moslem members. Photo courtesy of Reuters / Faleh Kheiber

An Assyrian-Chaldean Christian, head of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Yonadam Kanna explained that, among other things, his mission in the Council is to see that the rights of Christians in general are guaranteed, although he admits that the attributions of each member are still not clear.

"Under the former regime, we were second class citizens. The time of discrimination has ended. Today, in Iraq, every citizen is free, regardless of his religious or ethnic" background, Kanna said to the French newspaper La Croix.

"We will benefit from the same legal rights enjoyed by the two main ethnic groups, the Arabs and Kurds. So the Assyrian-Chaldeans will be recognized with the same title, as a nation."

"As the future Constitution will guarantee religious and cultural rights, we are going to militate for the de-nationalization of confessional schools so that our children can go back to their roots and, above all, to their maternal language," he promised.

The Constitution, Kanna added, "will establish the separation between State and the religious factor. When Iraq is a secular State, there will be no problems with our Muslim brethren," he added.

"The mission is arduous. The people criticize us. They still have not realized the risks we have taken. I can assure you that I took less risks at the time when I was condemned to death by Saddam Hussein, and had to flee to the mountains in the north of the country," he concluded.

CHILDREN’S BIBLE PRINTED FOR IRAQI KURDS

Courtesy of the Maranatha Christian News Service (4 August)

(ZNDA: London) The United Bible Society and the International Bible Society will distribute what they call "the first ever" Children’s Bible in the Kurdish language in Northern Iraq despite concern over Muslim extremism in the region.

Although fund-raising is still underway, both organizations expect 20,000 copies of the book "365 Stories" from the Bible to be delivered later this year, said United Bible Society official Nova Hagopian, an Iraqi “born again Christian.”

"This distribution would have been impossible in the past. Under the Saddam Hussein regime there were a lot of checkpoints between Kurdish controlled areas (in Northern Iraq) and the rest of the country,” he told in Baghdad, from where the operation is coordinated.

However there is still concern about Muslim extremism in the region. “Eight months ago one Muslim person died when an evangelical pastor held a Christian exhibition in Northern Iraq.” Yet, he suggested that with borders disappearing, new chances have emerged to spread the Gospel.

"We have also seen that many Kurdish Muslims are asking questions and accepting Christ as their Savior. That number is expected to increase now that the war is over. So there is a big need for a Children’s Bible," Hagopian said.

Since 1985 his organization was able to import an estimated 1.5 million Bibles in Iraq and over five million New Testaments as well as other Christian publications. "People always think that sounds a lot. But it was very difficult to receive permission from the former Ministry of Information. We now hope to import many more books", he stressed.

Besides spiritual needs, aid workers have also observed a cry for humanitarian aid among both Christians and Muslims.

"We are helping already 5000 needy Christian families as well as some Muslims," added Saleh Fakhouri, Iraq Coordinator of Jordan based Manara Book Ministries.

MBM and other organizations hope to reach different places in Iraq. But attacks, especially against Christian women in places such as Basra have made it difficult to reach the needy, including orphanages, church sources said.

ASSYRIAN VILLAGE OF QARAQOSH TO BECOME AMERICAN MILITARY BASE

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times (29 July); by John Hendren

(ZNDA: Los Angeles) Pentagon strategists have a vision of a new Iraqi army that is well-trained, disciplined and welcomed by those it protects.

The residents of the village of Qaraqosh in northern Iraq have memories of a very different army. And they're taking no chances.

For decades, villagers say, the Iraqi army and despised paramilitaries loyal to Saddam Hussein terrorized them, raping women and carrying out interrogations and torture from a base at the edge of this small town about 15 miles southeast of Mosul. When the soldiers fled as Hussein's regime fell, town officials installed a volunteer guard around the base to ward off looters. They wanted to use it as a youth recreation center.

But when town fathers heard reports that the Americans wanted to use the base to train a new Iraqi army, the security guards were withdrawn and the word went out: Tear it down.

"They were guarding it and then they said, 'Go ahead. We want it razed to the ground,' "said Foud Jerma, 22, a looter with a cross tattooed on his forearm, perspiring as he broke apart foundation stones.

Iraqis here and elsewhere fear a new state security force, and their attitude illustrates one of the greatest difficulties the U.S.-led occupation forces face in stabilizing the country and shifting responsibility back to Iraqis. Many residents don't trust their own countrymen to carry out their duties without returning to the ways of the past.

"We don't want to relive the bad history," said Louis Qassab, the Catholic priest who oversees both the civic and religious affairs of this predominantly Christian town. "God gave us the gift of forgetting. We want to forget what happened here before.

"If there is a military base here, the Americans will not have liberated us," Qassab added.

What was one of the few military sites that had suffered only minor looting a month ago is now one of the few where looting goes on unabated. Attacked by dozens of sledgehammer-wielding residents, few of the buildings are more than a handful of stacked bricks.

A sign on the lone remaining wall of one read in Arabic: "The military intelligence center. The eyes of the country."

A few blocks away, a battered Mercedes-Benz truck and a horse-drawn cart hauled looted bricks that resell for less than a dime past beat-walking police officers and a soldier from the Army's 101st Airborne Division standing guard outside a government building.

Iraqis' mistrust of their own soldiers is so profound that they destroyed the buildings — and their hoped-for youth center — based on little more than a rumor. The actual army training site is a nearly five hours' drive to the south, in the equally small and similarly named Diyala province village of Kerkush, said Walt Slocum, the American advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority who is responsible for establishing an Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

"It's easy to understand the confusion," said Slocum, who noted that the site was chosen for its isolation. "When we tell Iraqis where it is they kind of look at us with a blank stare."

A number of sites will eventually be used to train the new army under a $48-million contract given to Northrop Grumman's private security subsidiary, Vinnell Corp. A spokesman said the 101st Airborne Division began preparing a site near Qaraqosh last month.

The first 12,000 troops are to be trained at the remote Kerkush site. Other areas are also likely to be selected with an eye to separating them from civilian areas, said a senior official of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

That news came too late for Qaraqosh to save its youth center. Every door, window and stick of furniture is gone, and a makeshift crew of resident looters spent the weekend taking down the few remaining walls on the site.

Most, if not all, of the looters are Christians who said they had at least the tacit approval of the church that governs the town on behalf of all its residents, including its minority Muslim Arabs and Kurds.

Qassab, the priest, denied that the church gave orders to destroy the site, contradicting the story told by several looters there. However, he acknowledged that he was pleased it could no longer house soldiers.

"They would come to the civilian streets and bother families and the women. We were always going there and asking them to keep the army away from the city," Qassab said. "We are saying very forcefully that we do not want a military base here."

Baram Khalil recalled how two village girls were kidnapped and sexually assaulted at the base, but never told their story until the military left because they feared for their lives. After the soldiers left, Khalil said, he was among the security guards the Kurdistan Democratic Party sent in to join the community volunteers in securing the site until American commanders, wary of the armed militia, asked them to leave.

"What you see now is an entire camp destroyed because we didn't want any military here," said Khalil, speaking at the party's village headquarters under a photograph of its president, Massoud Barzani. "People here saw many things with their own eyes that they don't want repeated."

The old regime's army, a force of 400,000 ranging from conscripts to the elite Republican Guard, was widely feared not only by neighboring countries, but by domestic groups such as Shiite Muslims, Kurds and Christians. The new Iraqi army is not expected to exceed 40,000 soldiers when it begins functioning in three years.

U.S. military officials expect it to be a purely defensive force. No high-ranking members of the former ruling Baath Party, or anyone ranked colonel or above in the old Iraqi army, need apply.

Most analysts say the force will be far too small and its duties too restricted to pose much of a threat to the country's neighbors — or to Iraqis.

Qaraqosh's impoverished community of chicken and rice farmers suffers from high unemployment and is desperate for economic development. Though he is in effect the mayor, the priest drives a faded white 1985 Toyota. Along the town's main strip, raw sewage streams through the gutters in front of sidewalk cafes. Residents say they want economic development if it comes from coalition troops, but not if it means strange Iraqis with guns milling about the village, as in the past.

"Life here is so bad, we are destroying this place so we can take the rocks and sell them," said Waleed Aziz, 40, taking a break from pulling down a wall at the former military base, where he planned to sell the bricks for 100 dinars apiece, less than a dime. "We want the American Army here, but if they want to train Iraqi soldiers here we want them to be from Qaraqosh."

Fellow looter Ammar Sulaiman, 24, added, "If they gave us jobs and wages, we would never do this."

MARDIN REACTS TO UNESCO REPORT

(ZNDA: Mardin) Based on a recent report from the Turkish newspaper Zaman, the city of Mardin in Turkey’s Municipal Council has criticized the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report refusing to designate Mardin as a World Heritage Site.

At a meeting in the Mardin Municipal Building, Mardin Mayor Abdulkadir Tutasi, Mardin Municipal Council President Cemal Artik, the Republican People's Party (CHP) Mardin Deputy Muharrem Dogan, and representatives of local civil groups evaluated the report.

Tutasi characterized the report as nothing more than a series of weak excuses. He said, “The report says that the Syriac Christians and the Deyrulzafaran monastery are not being protected, and that they feel threatened by migrants from the villages. But we have never denied our Syriac friends. And I also believe that it is necessary for us not to deny Islam. There is a hidden intent here. Because they take the subject from here to there and then bring it back to the monastery. I have visited the monastery, but I still haven’t been able to convince the monks to visit a mosque. If they want me to make concessions regarding my identity, personality and culture, then may it never happen. We don’t want it.”

The Province of Mardin in the Tur-Abdin region has been an important center for Syriac Christianity since the First Century A.D.

ASSYRISCHE CHRISTENEN BLIJ MET NIEUWE REGERING IRAK

Reformatorisch Dagblad (29 July)

De Assyrische Syrisch-Orthodoxe christenen in Nederland -circa 40.000 leden- zijn dezer dagen blij verrast door de berichten uit Irak, schrijft Abraham Tunc. Ze zijn niet blij met de huidige chaotische situatie, maar wel met het feit dat de Assyrische christenen voor het eerst in de afgelopen 2500 jaar erkend worden als een etnische minderheid in Irak.

Irak blijft de gemoederen bezighouden. Het was in de afgelopen maanden weer gewoon oorlog in Irak. Vreemd genoeg is dit voor Irak-kenners geen nieuws meer, want dit is eigenlijk al 4000 jaar het geval. Irak heeft in de afgelopen euwen
bijna altijd oorlog gekend. De duizenden Assyrische christenen in Nederland hebben dit aan den lijve ondervonden. Ze zijn gevlucht voor de zoveelste oorlog en zochten in Nederland een veilig onderkomen.

Veel namen

Het land heeft vele namen gekend; Sumeri?, Akkad, Assyri?, Babyloni? en Mesopotami?. Begin vorige eeuw is het land Irak genoemd en misschien dient het rijtje aangevuld te worden met een nieuwe naam: het land der oorlogen.

Nergens in de wereld is zo veel strijd geleverd. Zo zijn in de afgelopen twintig jaar maar liefst drie bloedige oorlogen gevoerd. Voormalig Assyri? voerde tussen 1980-1988 een bloedige oorlog met Iran, waarbij miljoenen mensen om het leven kwamen. In 1989 bezette Saddam Koeweit, waarna de VS het land van de emir te hulp schoten. En de recente oorlog wipte Saddam eindelijk van zijn troon af.

News Digest

WHITE HOUSE LETTER TO CHALDEAN FEDERATION PRESIDENT

THE WHITE HOUSE
Washington D.C.
July 14, 2003
Mr. Saad Marouf
Chairman
Chaldean Federation of America
18470 West 10 Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48075

Dear Saad:

Thank you for your letter expressing your support and that of the Chaldean Federation of America. Like you, Iraqis have taken heart from their liberation by American and Coalition forces. Saddam Hussein's regime has now ended, and the Iraqi people are regaining control over their own destiny. American and Coalition forces are still engaged in efforts to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and establish security throughout the country.

The United States has a deep respect for Iraq's citizens, civilization, and religious faiths, including the Chaldean Church, which has played so great a role in the history of Iraq and the development of Christianity. Along with other Coalition leaders, I am strongly committed to delivering aid to the Iraqi people. The United States is also committed to helping the people of Iraq build a new country that is united, stable, and free, in which people of all faiths arc free to
practice their beliefs.

Sincerely,

George Bush

CFA PRESIDENT CONGRATULATION LETTER TO YONADAM KANNA

The following is a copy of the letter of congratulations from Mr. Saad Marouf, president of the Chaldean Federation of America on Mr. Yonadam Kanna’s appointment as the representative of the Chaldean Assyrian Christians in Iraq. To view the official statement from the Iraqi National Council click here:

July 16, 2003

Mr. Younadam Kanna
Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM)
Baghdad, Iraq

Dear Mr. Kanna,

It is with great privilege and pleasure that on behalf of the Chaldean Federation of America, an umbrella association of Chaldean organizations and people in the USA, I would like to extend our warm and sincere congratulations for your prestigious appointment as a member of The Interim Governing Council of our homeland, Iraq.

We are confident, based on our personal knowledge of your ability, commitment, and proud history in serving your fellow Christians, and in particular our great AssyrianChaldean nation, that you, along with our brothers and sisters, distinguished members of the council, will promote the implementation of freedom, democracy, equality, peace and justice to all people of Iraq.

We are hopeful that an Iraqi constitution will be constructed soon. It should respect the legal, civil and human rights of all Iraqis and recognize, with full representations all ethnic and religious groups, in particular, the AssyrianChaldean indigenous people of Iraq with roots since 3000 B.C.

During this turning point in the history of our nation, I urge all AssyrianChaldean political, nationalistic and social organizations to stand united with one voice towards a future full of harmony and prosperity to our great one nation.
We sincerely wish you great success. The Chaldean Federation stands ready to assist you for what is in the best interest of our people.

God Bless You.

Sincerely yours,

Saad Marouf
Chairman- Chaldean Federation of America

CC.: - Honorable George Bush, President of the United States of America
- Honorable Colin Powell, US Secretary of State
- Mr. Paul Bremer, US Administrator of Iraq

A DECLARATION FROM WORLD LEADER OF THE YEZIDIS

29 July 2003

For Immediate Release

The Yezidis are a part of the Iraqi people and they are the heirs to the old civilization of Mesopotamia and the roots of their ancestors go back far deep into the Assyrian and Babylonian cultures, and it is mixed with that of the Umayyads.

The Yezidis, through history, have passed through and endured so many difficult and cruel historical stages that until today have threatened their identity. The Yezidis, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, have been inflicted with such cruel massacres, migrations and dispersions at the hands of the Ottomans and the Kurds. This extended even into the times of Saddam’s dictatorial regime. We have suffered so many atrocities and denial of our rights under that regime who treated the Yezidis, sometimes as Kurds, and other times as Arabs.

Since 1915, the Yezidi people have participated in most of national movements in Iraq. They have assisted their brethren, the Assyrians, the Syrianees, the Chaldeans and the Armenians and had offered a lot to the British against the Ottomans.

After the removal of Saddam’s dictatorial regime, the Yezidis are looking forward for a future with a spirit full of optimism by allowing them to participate in the building of a free democratic Iraq to be a country for everybody without discrimination and for every party not to feel as prejudiced against or marginized or distanced.

The Yezidis have a futuristic perspective for Iraq of tomorrow, which we expect, through the gaining of all parties of the Iraq people, their rights equally. We strongly believe:

1. In protecting the unity of the land of Iraq.
2. In the participation of all nationalities and minorities of the Iraq people in the future government to secure its success and to avoid falling into unexpected errors.
3. In demanding a free secular democratic system that will equally ensure the rights for every citizen .
4. In officially recognizing all national and religious denominations of the Iraq people.
5. In recognizing the religion of the Yezidis equally as all other religions, and to be ratified and included as an act in the coming constitution of Iraq>
6. In refusing the consideration of the Yezidi territories of Mosuland Dohuk as Kurdish districts, but rather as a inseparable part of the Iraqi lands that will be under the control of a central government in the future. If any district is ever granted to any Iraq nationality, we as Yezidis, will demand to have a special district for our own people in the district surrounding the Sigar mountain and Shekhan District. And we, willfully, accept the participation of the Christians. The Assyrians, the Chaldeans and the Syrianees, in those lands, the tie among us is that of the historical coexistence in these parts.
7. In returning to the Yezidis all the private and public possession and estates.
8. In granting the citizenship for all the Yezidis who emigrated and who were forced migrate. We implore to all the Iraq forces and the American and the British governments to take our requests into consideration.

Prince Anwar Muawiya
The Prince of the Yezidis

IRAQI TREASURES TO TOUR UNITED STATES

Courtesy of BBC News (1 August)

(ZNDA: London) The Baghdad museum is lending some of its greatest treasures to the US, just months after fearing much of it had been looted.

The museum in the Iraqi capital was hit by a wave of looting in the days following the fall of Baghdad.

But after recovering much of what was thought to have been stolen, the Iraq museum is keen to show off its items of cultural importance.

Among the valuables which will form part of a travelling exhibition is the collection of Assyrian jewellery known as the Nimrud artefacts.

The priceless array of 650 bracelets, necklaces, royal tiaras and semi-precious stones is thought to be among the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th Century and dates from the 8th Century BC.

It was discovered in the tombs of Assyrian queens and princesses during excavation near the northern town of Mosul between 1988 and 1992.

The Nimrud collection comprises 650 pieces

It was among the pieces that were thought to have been lost during the looting but was later recovered from the Central Bank where it had been deposited in the 1990s.

A Sumerian Warca vase, dating from 3200 BC, will also be allowed out of the country.

The vase, which was discovered in 1940 in the town of Samawa, was one of the artefacts looted from the museum in April

The piece was then found by three men who handed it back to authorities, with the museum paying them "expenses".

"We are working on a travelling exhibition, which will be mounted for the first time in the United States within six to eight months," said Pietro Cordone, an Italian envoy charged with overseeing Iraq's cultural activities.

"Along with these pieces of extraordinary beauty, including bracelets with clasps that still work, the American public will also be shown the Warca vase, a unique piece made of alabaster dating back to 3200 BC which portrays scenes from everyday life."

Surfs Up!
Letters From Zinda Magazine Readers

GREETINGS FROM UM-QASR

Greeting from our homeland of Assyria-Iraq. I am sending you all my warm regards, wishing you all good health and success in your life in Ghareeboota. Despite the heat, I am very happy, because I am drinking water from Deqlat w Frat (Tigris & Euphrates), eating fruit from our beautiful land. Sometimes I sit alone and talk to my land. I hear somebody in pain. Her words are not too clear. It’s like she wants to tell me something but the wind takes her voice away. She is very happy to see me back to our land, but she wants all her children back home. I am trying to make her happy and proud of me by doing my best. But she misses you all. She wants you to be united. Khoyada kolanaya.

The ancient City of Babylon, south of Baghdad, on 16 July. U.S. forces are assisting Iraqi curators prepare for the reopening of the renowned 4,300-year-old archaeological site for tourism in two months

Please make that for our mother…

Noel N. Yaro
Iraq

ON MILT KHOOBYARIAN’S “UNRAVELING IRAQ”

I want to thank you for offering Milt Khoobyarian's book Unraveling Iraq: Roots of Instability. I purchased two copies, one for myself and one for my father, John A. Yohannan.

Mr. Khoobyarian does an excellent job of being objective as he traces Iraq from its conception to today's history. From primary sources and other research, Khoobyarian makes the case that Iraq was doomed as an artifical country from the start, all for the greed of oil, from an amalgamation of four separate entities. He tells of the deception of Woodrow Wilson by the British and French and then how Iraq never lived up to its obligations as a member of the League of Nations, now the U.N.

As a professor of English, I am impressed by Mr. Khoobyarian's thesis, its supports, and his conclusion: the U.N. made Iraq; now it should supervise the proper rebuilding of Iraq, not the United States. Iraq, as Khoobyarian maintains, "has been a world problem that started with the League of Nations' ill conceived and politically infested nation building. Therefore, it is fitting that the United Nations should be the 'higher authority' to oversee its correction and manage the re-building of the nation without selfish outside political interventions." It is a shame that the U.N. is such an impotent organization and that the U.S. should be burdened with the task instead.

I thank Zinda Magazine for bringing Mr. Khoobyarian's book to my attention and hope some people in the media, in Congress, in the Pentagon, and in the White House read it.

Grace Yohannan
Florida

WHAT SHALL BE THE NAME OF THIS NATION?

[Z-info: This article contains Syriac letters and has been saved in a PDF format by the author. To view this article please click here.]

Isho Callo
United States

ASSYRO-CHALDEAN AS A UNIFYING NAME & SYRIAC AS ITS LANGUAGE

Throughout history our people has suffered a lot because of the external persecution and the internal schisms (division) which led to it becoming a weak and divided nation.

After centuries of attempts by external forces to deface our history, civilization and to deprive our people from their historical and national rights, our people have recently started to look forward for life in a democratic and free Iraq with full national and linguistic rights alongside the other ethnic groups in Iraq.

It is a known fact that the internal schisms in the past had lead to the existence of a number of different names to the same people. Despite the fact that these names had played a negative role in widening the gap between the different groups within our people, we are proud of all these names as we think they all, at the end, refer to one nation.

We thank God that we lived to the day that we witness the beginning of the journey to the inevitable reunion which took place in the historical meeting in Baghdad. This meeting that included clergymen and secular figures representing all the different churches in Iraq, which had come in a time to fulfil what many had been dreaming of for a long time and to put an end to the long suffering of our great people. We consider your decision to adopt the term AssyroChaldean as a single and unifying name for our people with Syriac as its language as the right resolution. This is because it is the opinion of the majority of individuals and groups within our nation and also because it has been adopted after long and comprehensive consultation with all the relevant parties, organizations and individuals who bear the good will towards our one nation.

We the undersigned, we are pleased to express and declare our strong support for your resolution and we take this opportunity to thank you for this great decision. We ask God to bless and protect you and enable you to protect your decision form the tiny minority that is working against such an initiative.

The importance of such a historical resolution should not pass without being remembered every year as a very important day in our people’s history and we propose that it be celebrated as a national day for all our people.

May God bless all those who made it possible such a great agreement and may God enable you to work harder for the benefit of this great nation.

Support the term ‘Assyro-Chaldean’ by signing this petition: http://ankawa.com/cgi-bin/petition/petition.cgi

Ankawa.com

SEVERELY FLAWED

Whew! What kind of an idiot is Severius Hawa, Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad and Basra?

The article in Zinda Magazine (Good Morning Bet-Nahrain: July 21) quotes Hawa: "Since the Americans have been in Iraq, nothing good has happened for us..."

I pray & hope y'all will light candles for this needy soul.

Charlie Gregory
United States

AN OPEN LETTER TO HIS GRACE MAR SARHAD JAMMO

Your Grace,

Allow me first to introduce myself. I am a member of a “Chaldo-Ator” family! My father and grandfather (mother’s side) served as deacons, the two sister churches, or more precisely, the mother and daughter churches. Ironically, my father who was born in the Hakkari region was called Assyrian, while my grandfather who was born in Mosul (Nineveh) was called Chaldean!

President Bush talks with Nadia Mirza, left, founder of the Assyrian Community for Civic Responsibility, and Dr. Maha Hussain, President of the Iraqi Forum for Democracy, center, upon arrival in Romulus, Michigan on July 23. Ms. Mirza's grandfather was arrested by the Baath Party in the 1960's. Following his release, Mirza's family fled Iraq. She is the current president of the Assyrain Academic Society. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press / Charles Dharapak

I have heard some of your interviews and read your article published on www.chldeansonline.net about our national identity. Ironically, on the same website, it is referred to your own hometown, which is adjacent to Nineveh the capital of Assyria, as “Tel Keppe d Ashourayee”. I believe reading the facts mentioned in this site is enough to find out the truth about our history and identify.

Our nation is on the crossroad now and it is imperative to make the right choice; either we stay as one nation of one name, one nation of a compound name or two separate nations. The compound name will solve part of the problem but will leave the other part, the name, unsolved. It is understandable why we are compelled to take half a solution to avoid being identified as Christians only and It is a step forward to come to a term that we are all one nation and have a lot in common. However, it is regrettable that we could not solve our differences and agree on the best solution to have a uniting name for our nation, whether be Chaldean, Assyrian or Syrian which can symbolise our national identity, rights and aspirations.

We do not want this nation to suffer more by its own sons and daughters. It is enough what we had from foreigners. Our failure will result in having a compound name. Do we need to compromise our name for the sake of the status quo? Do we need to use Chaldo and Atur as two kingdoms of the same nation even though Chaldo’s dynasty lasted 85 years only?

I believe there are many historical fallacies that have lead to this dilemma and created contradictions and confusions between the facts and reality, between history and politics and between the interests of foreigners and our people’s aspirations. We can solve this problem by rejecting the status quo and showing the leadership we need and history will only remember those who choose to be the truth advocates.

I have a lot of respect to all apostolic churches but I feel distressed by the influence of the Roman Catholic Church on our nation. Let me ask your Grace. If your church did not convert to Catholicism would we have this problem now? We would have used the (Sorayee) name. Why didn’t the Catholics preach solely to non Christians as there are billions of them? Why were the missionaries trying for centuries to find any reason (heresy, the selection of the Patriarch) to divide our church in the name of unity? Does the Catholic Church really care if we are called Assyrian, Chaldeans or any other name? Are today’s Chaldeans descendants of the old Chaldeans? Are the old Chaldeans a separate nation or a dynasty? Isn’t our responsibility to find out what is the truth? Do we need to put the interest of others above the interest of our glorious history and nation? Is it not their goal to have all of us converting to their church? Does your church have a real autonomy? If yes, then why!

Did your church and recently the Maronite Church complain about the Vatican not giving their Middle Eastern churches the right to administer their congregations outside the Middle East?

The vast majority of Christians are aspiring for the unity of Jesus Christ’s church. However, the Catholic Church has tried to achieve that unity in different ways, including annexation of other churches for different reasons such as heresy! Couldn’t all apostolic churches achieve unity through constructive dialogues to face the ongoing challenges as sisters in Christ?

The Catholic Church justification is based on the interpretation of Jesus’ saying to Simon that he is the rock on which he will build his church (Mathew: 16). Our Lord did not mean Simon as a person but the faith when he replied “you are the son of God”, otherwise, Jesus would have not called him a Satan a few lines later. It is the same faith of the trinity Jesus asked the apostles to teach all nations in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Further more, the Catholic Church has changed its mind to call “Nestorians” who converted to Catholicism as Chaldeans, even though it had called Mar Sulaqa in 1552 as the “Patriarch of Assur”, while the archaeologist (including Hurmizd Rassam of the Chaldean Church) were discovering our antiquities and history as Assyrians. Later, this church has admitted to using the wrong name, “Strictly, the name Chaldean is no longer correct; in Chaldea proper, apart from Baghdad, there are now very few adherent of this rite, most of the Chaldean population is found in the cities of Kerkuk, Arbil, and Mosul. It is in the former ecclesiastical province of Ator (Catholic Encyclopaedia: Chaldean Christians). Probably, that was based on the confusion of some of the early writers between Ur and Urhai (Addai Sheer: The History of Chaldo and Ator, part 1, pp169). Knowing the facts doesn’t imply to change geography and names of the two cities but to correct that mistake.

In both occasions, (admitting the faith of the church of the East wasn’t heretical and the name Chaldean is no longer correct), the Catholic Church has not tried to rectify that misunderstanding by returning you back to your original church (the Church of the East) or at least renaming your church as the “Assyrian Catholic Church”. Otherwise, that will put our brothers and sisters who know their national identity as Assyrians in the difficult choice between Catholicism and Assyrianism.

We cannot deny the influence of the outsiders on our identity. Greek’s mispronunciation of Assyrians as Syrians predates Christianity (3-5 centuries BC) refutes the claim that after the fall of Nineveh, 612 BC, the Chaldean name was dominant in Atour, if that was the case, why didn’t the Greeks call us Chaldeans?. The claim that “Sorayee” means Christians is also misleading since that name predates Christianity to the time of Herodotus. Surly it had developed to that understanding later due to our non-Christian surroundings. Also “Soreth” is not a Christian language, nor it is Aramaic for using its script; it is the language of “Assurayee” with “allap tleqta”. A simple comparison between an Aramaiec text in the 8th or 9th centuries BC and an Edessa text we are still using in our churches will prove that.

We may understand our problem more if we compare it to the more recent one of the Turks; they had the Ottoman dynasty and they converted to the western script, but they didn’t change their name or their language. They remained as Turks who speak Turkish. They have survived this situation because there was no outside influence on their choices, unlike our confusion between the three designations; Chaldeans were a dynasty which ruled Babylon between 626- 539 BC. Justifying the Chaldean designation as being the last name we used is unjustifiable, firstly, it is expected to consider the older and longer used designation as a national name, like Assyrians in our case; secondly, Urhai was the last kingdom not Babylon.

Another misinterpretation is also common in reading our history in the Old Testament. Assur is the son of Sam who moved with his people to the plain of Shinar where they settled and made bricks to build the city of Babylon with a tower that reaches the sky. (Genesis: 10-11). Nimrud (the son of Cush, who is the son of Ham) started his kingdom, which included Babylon, Erechand and Accad in the land of Shinar. From that land (Shiar) Assur went north to build Nineveh. Doesn’t that imply that we had one group of Semitic people descendent of Assur who settled in Shinar and build the two great cities of Babylon and Nineveh? Further more it is referred to Chaldeans as royal advisers or wise men when Nebuchadnezzar called them to explain his dream (Daniel: 4), while the current designation is merely a Catholic one, hence there are no Chaldeans outside the Chaldean Church, but a large proportion of our people from different denominations call themselves Assyrians.

I appeal to you, to all Chaldean Prelates especially the new Patriarch to be elected and to all brothers and sisters who converted to Catholicism to set all things right and reverse those fallacies by following the steps of the late Mar Bedaweed (God bless his soul).

Anwar Atto
Australia

KANNA IS NOT THE RIGHT PERSON

I would like to respond to the article Mr. Alfred Alkhas had posted in your previous issue, titled: “We must rise to the occasion”

Mr. Alkhas had listed a number of facts that frankly I don’t see them qualifying to be called facts. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, fact is defined as the quality of being actual, something that exists or occurs. Therefore it would be wrong to use words such as maybe, or, I think, when we claim to be making factual statements.

Also, contradictions cause the statements to lose their value, and the writer to lose his/her credibility. Something we have been seeing a lot happen lately on the Assyrian websites, forums and magazines.

It is wrong, always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything, upon insufficient evidence. The Assyrian nation deserves to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Contradiction # 1. Mr. Alfred Alkhas is asking all parties from all ranks and sectors to be more proactive, realistic and brave, but at the same time he is criticizing those who do take an active role in defending their national identity. You can’t expect people to be brave and proactive, ONLY if they are in agreement with you and your opinion!

Contradiction # 2. In one paragraph of his article, Mr. Alkhas has described Mr. Younadam Kanna to be a strong leader, in the other paragraph has described him to be feeling weak because of the lack of support from his nation. Note: Mr. Kanna’s feelings are the least of the Assyrian nation’s concern at this point. It is quite impossible to feel sympathy for someone who is responsible for his own wrongdoing.

Contradiction # 3. Mr. Alfred Alkhas along with some other writers have been cheering for Zowaa and trying to convince us that almost all of the Assyrian nation is supportive of ADM and Mr. Younadam Kanna’s latest disastrous actions, but in his mentioned article, Mr. Alkhas quotes:” One could easily notice the unpleasant response from MOST of our organizations and intellectuals to the fact that Mr. Younadam Kanna being selected as the only representative of all Christians of Iraq”. Could it be that most organizations and intellectuals, as he puts it, are right and Mr. Kanna is wrong? Note: there should be enough Christians among Arabs, Kurd and Turks to sympathize with their Christian representative, Mr. Kanna.

Contradiction # 4. Mr. Alfred Alkhas quotes: “Do we all know that you need less than a day to demolish a building, but you need more than a month to build it again”. My question is do you, Mr. Alkhas, ADM and Mr. Younadam Kanna know this little fact? If so, then how can you live with yourself when you agree that your 7000 years of history to be reduced to 2003 years only and not as a nation but as a religion? Do you even care?

Contradiction # 5. A number of times Mr. Alkhas has stated that we, the Assyrian nation, instead of criticizing, must support our so-called representative, and we shall have our rights recognized and fulfilled. We, the Assyrian people, would like to ask Mr. Alkhas, if the stove in his house catches fire, would he wait for the whole house to burn down, before taking any action? We think not, unless he has started the fire intentionally and plans to collect insurance money for the fire! This is exactly the kind of game ADM, MR. Kanna and few of his friends, such as Mr. Alfred Alkhas, Mr. Wilfred Bet-Alkhas, Mr. Fred Aprim and a few others are playing. Not only they are not lifting a finger to put the stove fire out, they are trying to stop any neighbor from taking action too, so that their devious plan will be successful. My question is how does our representative of all Christians plan to demand our national rights, if he won’t even have us recognized as a nation? Furthermore, please don’t insult our intelligence and say that we have started criticizing Mr. Kanna even before he took that cursed seat. We all remember very well, that the idea of ridiculous combined names for the Assyrian nation came way before Mr. Kanna took that seat.

Contradiction # 6. Mr. Alkhas quotes” I think there will be no harm done if Arabs and Kurds are willing to recognize our national rights by referring to us as Christians”. Now, that statement holds more error than the number of letters it contains! I don’t think I need to analyze that, as a first grader will be able to point out the false in that statement. It certainly wasn’t possible for Arabs and Kurds national rights to be recognized by being referred to as Muslims, was it? That applies only to Assyrians, right?

Contradiction # 7. Mr. Alkhas mentions that we have not discussed our demands internally on all levels, and we have failed to announce our agenda and demands for our internal debates. My answer to you Sir is this, by trying to pretend that AssyriaSat does not exists and has not always been announcing, pleading, debating our demands, you are only fooling yourself. This powerful media has enough witnesses to build an army!

Mr. Alkhas, in your article you have claimed to have listed all the facts regarding our situation. My question is why then the fact that Assyrians are the indigenous people of Iraq is not mentioned at all. Don’t tell me the interaction with the two History-Phobic Bishops has affected your interest in the history of your nation. A concerned Assyrian, as you have called yourself in your article, would know his nation’s history by heart.

Writers have a very important duty toward their readers. After all, there is a difference between writing a diary or a personal journal, than an article that will be read by many people. A writer must always seek the truth and respect the pen he/she holds, as the humanity owes its knowledge of history to all righteous writers. We never expected to agree on everything 100%, we have only expected to agree on one thing, the recognition of the Assyrian people as the indigenous people of Iraq.

In conclusion, you have asked the Assyrian people if they are going to continue fighting, criticizing and discrediting Mr. Younadam Kanna or are we going to just wait for any mistake or non-preferred outcome from this process to grill him. My respond to you is: “Mr. Kanna, with all his wrong choices, is doing a great job grilling himself!”

Shemiran Daniali
California

[Ms. Daniali is the host of a morning program on AssyriaSat television network, sponsored by Bet-Nahrain Inc. in Ceres, California. Other Bet-Nahrain Inc. affiliate organizations include the Assyrian National Congress and the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party – both headed by Mr. Sargon Dadesho, a political opponent of Mr. Yonadam Kanna in Iraq.]

ADM SECRETARY GENERAL ON ASHUR TV

As many of you know by now, Ashur TV broadcasts every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. West Coast Time for one hour via the Apadana Satellite TV. The program which aired on July 26, 2003, featured two guests: Mrs. Jackie Bejan, President of Assyrian American Association of San Jose, and Mr. Wilfred Bet-Alkhas, editor of Zinda Magazine.

Mrs. Bejan's and Mr. Bet-Alkhas' opening statements emphasized the importance of supporting our people in Iraq. They explained that the Assyrians in the Diaspora must refrain from their direct interference in the political affairs of the Assyrians in Iraq. They explained that the Assyrians of Iraq are taking all the risks; bearing monumental responsibilities; and hardship and they they should have the final say in what they see fit for themselves. They are the ones who understand their environment better and understand what is best for them. They have to deal with their Moslem neighbors, Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen. Mr. Bet Alkhas stated that he will present his recommendations but he will not give himself the right to impose his personal opinion on the struggling Iraqi Assyrians when he is living comfortably in the U.S.

Minutes into the program, Raabi Yonadam Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, called in. Questions for Raabi Kanna centered around three focal points. First, the perception that Raabi Kanna is only a representative of Christians of Iraq and not that of the ethnic Assyrians. Second, the united stand of all Christian denominations under one leadership. Third, the short and long terms duties of the Iraqi Governing Council.

Mrs. Bejan first described to Raabi Kanna the media campaign by certain groups that is framing Raabi Kanna's representation in the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) as a Christian representation.

Before replying to Mrs. Bejan's question, Raabi Kanna stressed that his representation in the IGC was not personal in nature. He added that the Assyrian presence in the IGC was the result of 20 to 30 years of hard work by Assyrians and it is a great moment for our nation. To answer the question, Raabi Kanna stated that three main reasons are contributing to this false impression that his representation in the IGC is under a Christian title and not ethnic:

1. AL-Zaman Newspaper. It is well-known fact that the editor of al-Zaman is a person who does not like the Assyrians, and he tries hard to distort the reality of the matter.
2. Pan-Arab TV stations for the same above reason.
3. Certain members of the IGC. It is unfortunate that different members conducted different interviews with the Iraqi News Net, each presented one format according to his own understanding. One stated Assyrian Christian; another Chaldean Christians; a third used ChaldoAssyrian Christians and so forth.

“Certain groups in Iraq,” said Raabi Kanna, “want to see this representation in the Christian frame because then we will remain second-class citizens. If we are looked upon as Christians then we are second to Islam as ‘people of the book’, or ahl al-Dhimma." He continued: “A Christian cannot rule over a Moslem, we understand that and it is for this reason that we cannot accept a representation, which is based on religious foundation. On the other hand, when dealing with other Iraqis on ethnic basis, we will stand equal, side-by-side, with Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen.”

It is a well-known fact that the ADM's struggle was never portrayed in the context of Christianity. The Iraqi Opposition Group's meetings in London, Salah al-Din, Nasiriya, and finally the April 28, 2003 Convention Center meeting in Baghdad presented the ADM as a national representative of the Assyrian people. Raabi Kanna adds that we are Christians indeed, but ADM’s work is political and not religious in nature. The ADM today has taken the political decision to represent the Assyrian Chaldean Christians of Iraq and that is how his representation is accepted.

Furthermore, the Political Statement issued by the IGC, cleared further confusion. The July 22, 2003 official statement clears the ethnic fabric of the Iraqi society: It stated Arabs, Kurds, Turkomen, and Chaldo-Assyrians. Raabi Kanna stated that people are free to say what they wish; however, he affirmed that he is the representative of the Assyrian-Chaldean people. He further states that a congress in Baghdad will convene on the end of the third week of September to address the name issue and that the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) was in Arbil today preparing for this event and talks were to continue tomorrow in Baghdad.

Answering a question from Ashur TV’s host, Zaya, regarding the Iraqi Christian groups agreement, Raabi Kanna re-emphasized that the five main Churches in Iraq did come together in unity in Baghdad. The 25 intellectuals, representatives of these Churches, and blessed by their corresponding religious leaders, formed the AshurChaldo National Congress. Raabi Kanna states that the ADM supported this union because only through such union our nation can gain its rights irrevocably. If we demand our rights under different denominations, each on its own, we might gain something temporarily only to lose it later.

Mr. Wilfred Bet-Alkhas asked about the present cooperation of the ADM with other Assyrian groups and the short and long terms goals of the IGC.

Raabi Kanna answered by stating that there has been good cooperation with many groups, unfortunately, when many of these groups come under certain obligations to outsiders, they hold back. At the current moment, there is strong understanding and cooperation with the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Chaldean Federation of American (CFA), Assyrian American National Federation (AANF), and Beth-Nahrain National Alliance (BNNA).

As far as the IGC duties, Raabi Kanna stated that they are working to put together the IGC By-Laws. Then the IGC will elect the ministers, ratify Iraqi national policy, appoint ambassadors, and finally write the new Iraqi constitution. The IGC is establishing a preparatory committee, which will be involved solely to write this constitution. The new constitution is months away but it is here, states Raabi Kanna, that our rights will be stated clearly.

Regarding the people who were relocated or left the country, Raabi Kanna states that these issues will all be addressed in due time. He added that anybody who calls himself/herself Assyrian, Chaldean, or ChaldoAssyrians will have their Iraqi citizenship back. Furthermore, their rights to own property and vote will be protected.

Regarding our future in Iraq, Raabi Kanna states that under a future free democratic Iraq we will be in all three branches of Iraqi government: Executive (administration), Legislative (parliament), and Judiciary (Courts). Depending on the future type of government system in Iraq, we will have a share in that governing system. If the current political system continues (republic), then we will share power with the Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomen. We will have mayors, city councils, all types of civil administration; we will be active in the police force; and will be in all levels of government. Raabi Kanna continues to state that if a federal system was constituted under ethnic lines, then each ethnic group will have its administration on a defined piece of land. Assyrians as well will have their legitimate rights over their historical lands or at least over parts of their known historical lands. We might have part in a piece of land "Ashur State," which is a long-term strategy.

The program ended on the note that we have to unite because in unity is our power. Raabi Kanna explains that 80% of the members of the Catholic and Orthodox churches in Iraq support the representation under the Chaldo Assyrian term. Furthermore, out of the remaining 20% of the members who belong to both branches of the Church of the East (new and old calendar), 70% support this political compromise. Raabi Kanna concludes that we have to be patient for the next three to six months. By then, the new Iraq will be in place; meanwhile, the stronger our support for the Assyrians of Iraq in this period the more powerful they are to stand firm in their demands. Raabi Kanna invites people to visit Iraq, witness the situation personally, and live the truth.

Fred Aprim
California

DO WE HAVE THE WISDOM?

To Mr. Fred Aprim and all the concerned in our beloved nation.

I really understand your frustration and deep concerns for one simple reason that is because I have the same concerns and may be most (if not all) of the concerned people in our beloved nation share with you the same frustrations.

With all respect, I would ask our intellectuals to be more serious, courageous and proactive in handling this crisis and in addressing it to our nation. Our nation’s destiny is not and will not be decided by few individuals who deny their identity for their own personal ambitions or political interests. It is our nation’s voice that will prevail, after all, over such individuals and we will repel them from bringing any harm to our nation’s fate and our coming generations.

I cannot understand why we are appealing to any of these two bishops and asking them to change their position. Their attempt is clearly not to baptize our nation with a new name but rather is to divide our nation into two separate entities, as was our Church of the East divided earlier. I have my reasons for asking not to do so, first, it is clear and obvious that they made their minds, picked their side, and prepared for this wicked campaign long back. Second, I think that it is our call to show how much we deny these evil attempts and not by asking them to return from their decision. Third, most articles and discussions in our media claim that the majority’ of our faithful in the Chaldean Church disagree or even oppose these attempts, then how did the minority’ made us change our nation’s name?

We all know that this name’ is not what we, the Assyrians, want to change, but rather is what the congregation of the Chaldean Church prefer to be called by from now on. It is the fellow Assyrians’ from Chaldean Church who must speak out their voice to respond to these attempts. It is the voice of the faithful in the Chaldean Church who must rise and ask their clergies not to play another dirty game and stop interfering into cheap politic games. Maybe it is the Roman Catholic Church, who should take the initiative as it did in other occasions, to acknowledge its historic mistake against our Assyrian nation and baptize the church that had created by its correct name The Catholic Church of the East’.

Yes, unity is born due to genuine concerns of divided and distressed communities that feel the urgency for progress and survival, but we are presuming one important factor still under question, i.e. genuine concerns’. Who ought to be expressing these genuine concerns? Is it the people who are keeping their identity intact, proud of it and scarifying their life for its progress and survival? Or is it those who just realized that they would have new entity and that they will be called, from now on, with new name invented by some individuals (politicians and religious) in an evil and wicked effort to further divide our nation?

Yes, something is very wrong! But do we have the wisdom and the courage to stop this wrong from being another disaster in our nation’s quest that will be remembered as that one we had before 150 years ago!

I recall here this quote: I pray to God to give me the serenity to accept what can I do and what I can’t, to give me the courage to change what I can and the wisdom to differentiate between both! Do we have the courage and speak out our voices addressing this issue without any ambiguity or hesitation? Did we hear from all whom we usually hear them loud in much smaller issues?

I am calling upon parties, organization, intellectuals and all concerned individuals in our nation to take actions and not words, to take initiatives and not criticism, to take responsibility and not ignorance. We don’t have the choice to keep silent, this is our nation’s fate and the future of our coming generations and the history will condemn us forever if we fail this time.

After all, if our fellow Assyrians from the congregation of the Chaldean Church have made their minds and decided to follow these two bishops and agree to change their identity and their name to Arabs, Chaldeans, or whatsoever; then I think we also aught to accept this fact and keep our Assyrian name intact and put an end to this ugly discussion.

Alfred Alkhas
California

IRAQI-AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

A golden opportunity for all Assyrians, world-wide, especially those in Iraq.

A group of four Iraqi-American businessmen recently decided to form I-ACC and approached the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and got their approval and support to go ahead. On June 1, 2003 it became operative, and with full backing of the American Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC.

I was surprised by a phone call from the CEO of the I-ACC telling me that he has discovered one of my articles, regarding the Assyrian American Chamber of Commerce, that I had on Internet three years ago which he liked and has included it on his web page!

We met and had an informative meeting at the offices and in the presence of the CEO of the Assyrian American Chamber of Commerce of California. It appears to have a professional framework and very promising. It was decided that we should work together and encourage the Assyrians to get involved and benefit from this opportunity. He expressed willingness, and especially, would like to work with the Assyrians in Iraq and outside of Iraq. We shall have another meeting prior to his scheduled second visit to Baghdad.

This golden opportunity opens doors for both Assyrian groups.

Group 1: The Assyrians currently residing in Iraq. Those who have an idea and the willingness to work hard to make a success of a business, but they do not have the money to invest, and nor the knowledge how to handle this issue:

Here are the answers: The I-ACC very soon will be opening an office in Baghdad, and as soon as possible they will be opening branch offices in major cities of Iraq.

I-ACC is aware of the fact that the Iraqi public for the past 30 years was denied access to private businesses, and they do need help and financing. Obviously, there must be a few that are familiar with the system from past business experience; yet the majority who are below 50 years of age have no clue. Therefore, I-ACC will be opening a Training Center to educate all those who are seriously interested and have the desire to start their private business. Those who go through the training system will be registered and become members of the Chamber.

Thereafter, I-ACC will assist the members of the Chamber to get the necessary funds from a local Iraqi Bank to cover their Letters of Credit and related costs; to facilitate the Import and/or export requirements.

Furthermore, I-ACC will also assist the Chamber members to search and find adequate manufactures and/or suppliers of the product that the member is interested to import.

Likewise, I-ACC will assist the member to find a market for the commercial product that the Chamber member intends to export.

A Major American Banking Corporation has been assigned to establish a modern banking system for Iraq. They are preparing to come to Baghdad, to replace the existing Banking System with the modern procedure. Hopefully to be ready before the new Iraqi Currency is printed and delivered in October 2003.

Group 2: One can imagine the scope of business opportunities out there. Assyrians outside Iraq should seize this opportunity and get in touch with their relatives, friends and/or others that you know who are reliable to work with you. Ask what are their needs and do what’s necessary.

It is true that at the present time the situation is moving slowly towards the target of reorganizing the whole system, to bring it in line with the civilized world. What a better opportunity than this period, which allows us to get organized. If we wait until things get ready, I am afraid that the gap will get too narrow, and many of us will regret it.

In Business it is said time "Time is of the essence" and “Action speaks louder than words.”

If you are interested, Please get in touch with me and specify your question and/or needs: e-mail address is [email-masked].

Wilson P. Benjamin
California

ASSYRIAN FOR GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA

This is to announce that I am running as a Republican for Governor of California.

I was qualified last Friday, but my name is not on the Ballots yet, that is contingent to completing and submitting the nomination signatures and paying the fees by the end of this week.

I am currently collecting nomination signatures, and will be at the Assyrian American Association of Southern California in North Hollywood at 7 p.m. on Thursday August 7th, 2003. So anyone who wants to sign my nomination is welcome to attend.

In the mean time, any registered voter that would like to circulate the nomination papers and collect signatures for my campaign, please e-mail me at: [email-masked]

Please pass the word, and tell your friends all over California.

Thanks,

Hanna Hajjar
California

[Z-info: A candidate for the office of the Governor must declare their candidacies by Aug. 9 - only 59 days before the election. All that replacement candidates need to get on the ballot are signatures from 65 registered voters of their own party and $3,500 - or 10,000 signatures in lieu of the filing fee.]

Surfer's Corner

ASSYRIAN MARTYRS DAY COMMEMORATION IN CHICAGO

Thursday August 7, 2003
6:30 PM
Montrose Cemetery
5400 N. Pulaski, Chicago, Illinois

The 7th of August is a designated Memorial Day for the Assyrian Martyrs who gave their lives in defense of our culture and ethnic identity. This day also commemorates the genocide of the Assyrian people throughout centuries, beginning with third century BC at the hands of the Sassanide Persians in Mesopotamia and the mid of ninetieth century at the hands of the Kurdish Leader Bader Khan Beg in Hakkari and during the turn of the twentieth century at the hands of the Ottoman Turks Turkey and Urmia/Salames - Persia, all the way to the massacre of the Assyrians in 1933 by the newly asserted state of Iraq, as well as the ethnic cleansing which was conducted against our people (Maronites) in mount of Lebanon 1975 & 1985.

However terrible and decimating those massacres were unable to destroy the living spirit of our nation and her thrust for freedom and persistent struggle for preserving our ethnic and cultural identity.

On Thursday August 7, 2003, at 6:30 PM a commemoration ceremony, with candlelight vigil, will be held by “The Assyrian Martyrs Monument” at the Montrose cemetery, 5400 North Pulaski, Chicago, Illinois. Following the ceremony a consecrated “DOUKHRANA” will be offered at Mar Odisho Church, 6201 North Pulaski, Chicago, Illinois.

We call upon our people, especially, our youth to observe this very special day and participate in this ceremony.

Joseph Tamraz
Midwest Regional Director,
Assyrian American National Federation

NEW ISSUE OF HUGOYE IS OUT

(ZNDA: New Jersey) The Syriac Institute (http://www.bethmardutho.org/) has published the new issue of its peer-reviewed academic periodical Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (Vol. 6, No. 2). The issue is available electronically on the Institute's home page, and will be available in-print later this year.

The current issue features five papers, a short article, and five book reviews, in addition to publication announcements, conference reports, and advertisements.

The issue begins with a “Kudos to Four Outstanding Scholars” who turn 65 this year (Sebastian P. Brock, Sidney Griffith, Rifaat Ebied, and Khalil Samir Khalil), and an obituary of the late Fr. François Graffin.

The papers are as follows:

1. Gabriel of Qatar's Commentary on the Liturgy by Sebastian BROCK, Oxford University
2. Towards automatic transcription of Estrangelo script by William F. CLOCKSIN, Oxford Brookes University, and Prem P.J. FERNANDO, University of Cambridge
3. The Doctrina Addai as a Paradigm of Christian Thought in Edessa in the Fifth Century by Sidney GRIFFITH, The Catholic University of America
4. Patriarchal Funerary Inscriptions in the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd by Amir HARRAK, University of Toronto
5. Ms. Schøyen 2530/Sinai syr. 3 and the New Testament Peshitta by Andreas Juckel, University of Munich

Brief Article:
1. Some Further Notes on Thecla in Syriac Christianity by Catherine BURRIS, University of North Carolina and Lucas VAN ROMPAY, Duke University

The Book Reviews section contains the following reviews:

1. Daniel Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity. The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 33. Reviewed by Robert KITCHEN, Knox-Metropolitan United Church
2. Françoise Petit, La Chaîne sur l'Exode I. Fragments de Sévère d'Antioche. Texte grec établi et traduit. Avec un glossaire syriaque par Lucas Van Rompay. Traditio Exegetica Graeca, 9i. Reviewed by Edward G. MATHEWS Jr.
3. J.F. Coakley, Robinson's Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar 5th ed. Reviewed by Robert R. PHENIX Jr., The Institute for the Christians of the Orient
4. Perrin, Nicholas, Thomas and Tatian: The Relationship between the Gospel of Thomas and the Diatessaron. Reviewed by Paul-Hubert POIRIER, Université Laval
5. Robert F. Shedinger, Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures: A Textual and Philological Analysis of the Old Testament Citations in Tatian's Diatessaron. Reviewed by William L. PETERSEN, Pennsylvania State University

Three Conference Reports are given as follows:

1. ARAM Society: Twentieth International Conference on Alcohol , 7-9 July 2003. David G.K. TAYLOR, University of Birmingham
2. North American Syriac Symposium IV, 9-12 July 2003. Edip AYDIN, Princeton Theological Seminary
3. IVth International Forum on Syriac Computing, 11 July 2003. Thomas JOSEPH, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute

In the advertisements section, Beth Mardutho provides a link to Amazon.com from which users are encouraged to make their purchases (to support the Institute). The American Theological Library Association advertises ATLA Serials' Digital Journal Project of which Hugoye is a participant. Gorgias Press announces titles on Syriac studies. Publishers interested in advertising in future issues of Hugoye may contact the General Editor at [email-masked].

Hugoye is XHTML 1.0 compliant, using cascading style sheets. Readers using older browsers such as Netscape 4.0 or IE 4.0 may not see the formatting as intended.

The Journal is hosted at The Catholic University of America and is available electronically from www.bethmardutho.org.

Hugoye Staff
New Jersey

1ST OPEN HEART SOCIETY FUNDRAISING PARTY IN CHICAGO

Lets stretch our hands and open our hearts through electronic connection with our brothers and sisters all over the world.

Computer Youth Centers for the Assyrian villages in Georgia, Armenia and Russia (installation of computer equipments: computer, monitor, printer, scanner, and internet subscription for one year) in a village center.

Sunday, August 24
7:00 PM
Eden’s Banquet
6313 N. Pulaski Rd.
Chicago, IL 60626
Tel: 312-478-8808

Armenia
• Dvin village
• Koilasar village
• Arzni village
• Shahriayar village
• Yerevan

Georgia
• Dzveli Kanda (Mukhran) village
• Gardabani village
• Tbilisi

Russia
• Urmia village
• St. Petersburg Assyrian school

Open Heart Society, Inc.
1423 W. North Shore, Suite 1
Chicago, IL 60626
773-914-6919
http://www.geocities.com/openheartsociety

70TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION

Join us as we gather to celebrate our Assyrian Culture through great entertainment, insightful programs, inspiring events and good fun!

Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois

Starting this year, convention registration has completely changed and has reached a new phase. All the events will be held at the convention center and we have 4 hotels to choose sleeping accommodation for your convenient. There will be no events held at the hotels.

There is one registration fee that will cover all the events including parties. The $100 registration fee for 18 years of age & over, $50 for teenagers between 13 - 17 years of age, and Free of charge for kids under 12 years of age, registered by August 28, 2003, will cover all the events including parties of the convention excluding the dinner for the Sunday’s banquet and Monday's picnic. All under 18 years old youngsters must be accompanied by their parents.

4 hotels are Double Tree Hotel $79, Hyatt regency Hotel $89, Sofitel Hotel $99, and Embassy suites $119 per night per room. All hotels are surrendering the convention center within the walking distance. All the hotels have a walkthrough to the convention center. Therefore, you do not have to walk outside the hotels. There are free shuttle busses from airport (O’Hare) to all the hotels for your arrival and back to the airport for your departure.

The convention website http://www.aanf.org/convention2003 is up and running now. Site has all the information that you might need regarding the events, registration fee, timetable schedules, Hotel accommodation options and price structures. Site will be updated daily with more detail information as they become available. Site is ready to register you online for the convention.

For online registration and more information:

http://www.AANF.org/convention2003 or contact us:

Assyrian American National Federation
6313 N. Pulaski, Chicago, Illinois
Phone: 773-583-0707 - Fax: 773-583-0808

9TH ANNUAL ASSYRIAN YOUTH EXCELLENCE PAGEANT

The Assyrian American National Federation and the Midwest region affiliates for the 70th National Convention, along with the National Youth Excellence Pageant Committee would like to invite qualified students to participate in the 9th Annual Youth Excellence Pageant.

This is a program that promotes and rewards education, talent, knowledge of the Assyrian language and history, and good character among our young Assyrians. The pageant is also intended to instill the sense of Assyrianism in the hearts and minds of our youth.

The pageant will take place during this year's AANF Annual National Convention, August 28th, 2003 to September 1st, 2003 in the City of Rosemont, Illinois.

The pageant is open to all candidates who possess the following:

1. Have at least one parent of Assyrian decent.
2. Must be between 18-24 years of age, attending college, or be a high school graduate.
3. Be in good standing in his/her respective educational field, with a GPA of 3.0 or above.
4. Be involved or interested in any of the following: Art, Literature, Science and Athletics.
5. Be able to speak the basic Assyrian Language.
6. Process basic knowledge of Assyrian History, Literature, Art and understand the current status of Assyrians around the world.

Please go to the link below for the Application packet which includes the criteria required to participate in the pageant, the application form and other necessary documents.

http://www.aanf.org/convention2003/graphics/YEP%20Application.pdf

For more information contact me or visit www.AANF.org or contact us at [email-masked] or call us at 773-583-0707.

Denise Gewargis
YEP 2003 Chairperson
[email-masked]
(847) 910 – 2218

Literatus

A PETITION AGAINST 80 YEARS OF PERSISTENT INJUSTICE

As a result of the political developments and new state formations (foundation of the Soviet Union as an immediate result of the October revolution and beginning of the Turkish independence war against the allies) which took place during and directly after the First World War at first in the Middle East and, in the end, in the whole world, the treaty of Sèvres was declared invalid and instead, the Lausanne treaty was brought on the agenda. In order to clear the details of the agreement and so that the conditions for the establishment of Turkish Republic as the heir of the Ottoman Empire, be created, the representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, the Serbian-Slovakian union, Romania and the new Turkey met in the Swiss town of Lausanne.

Although the representatives of the Assyrian-Syriac people arrived to this conference in which the future of the mesopotamian people should be determined by agreement, they had not been admitted officially to the meetings. In consideration of the circumstances the destiny of the Assyrian-Syriac people was left to the justice sense and morality consciousness of the leaders of the allied states and Turkey.

In the phase of the negotiations the Assyrian-Syriac delegation succeeded with strong engagement to bring the Assyrian-Syriac question on the agenda of the respective committees. Still, no concrete decisions were being brought forward in this matter. Consequently the identity and the rights of the Assyrian-Syriac people were generalized under the concept "Non-Muslim" minorities in Turkey and were denied.

Although after the ratification of the Lausanne treaty on 24.07.1923 in the III part in which the articles 37 to 45, while rights were partially granted for non-Muslim minorities, to the Armenians, Greeks and Jews, these had totally been kept from the Assyrian-Syriac people.

Therefore in 1923 in Mesopotamia the newly drawn borders and the posed status quo restrained the social developments and gave to the people no freedom. With the foundation the draconian regime the regional disputes increased. The enmities and differences between the people polarized and stepped up, so that hopes and views for peace were destroyed in every respect.

In protest against the events mentioned earlier we have begun from the 15th June to the 24th July 2003 a petition. This petition is directed against the injustice, the division policy, suppression policy and defamation policy of Turkey, as well as it is meant to activate the United Nations (UN) and the European parliament (EP) in this affair.

Hereby we call on the whole Assyrian-Syriac people to raise their voice to enlighten the public opinion about our concern and appeal at the same moment to the people of the different peoples, cultures and religions to support with their signature our petition which is directed against the Lausanne treaty .

Further we hope that the international institutions and organisations comment sensitively and with restraint on the new conditions in Iraq and prevent a second Lausanne treaty which the Assyrian-Aramean-Chaldean-Syriac people will block.

In this sense we demand:

1. the abolition of the third section of the Lausanne treaty of 24.07.1923 which regulates the rights of the non-Muslim minorities and was signed by the representatives of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Greece, the Serbian Slovakian union, Romania and Turkey, and necessarily its correction in the course of a summoned international conference

2. that these states, who signed the Lausanne Treaty, have to fulfil their obligations to the Assyrian-Syriac people and to the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey.

3. a contemporary new definition of the sections concerning of the non-Muslim minorities in the 3rd section of the Lausanne treaty and an extension of the rights of the Assyrian-Syriac of people. In the following the articles of the 3rd section of the agreement:

Article 37
Turkey obliges itself to recognizing the regulations contained in article 38 to 44 as a basic lawful regulation. No law, no order and no other state measure may stand in the contradiction to these regulations or impair them; no law, no order or other state measure may have priority over the regulations of this treaty.

Article 38
the Turkish government obliges itself to protecting the life and freedom of all inhabitants of Turkey without difference in origin, nationality, language, race or religion extensively and without reservation. All inhabitants of Turkey have the right to exercise their belief, their religion or world view publicly or in private, as far as the fulfilment of these rules stands in accordance to the public order and good customs.
Non-Muslim minorities should have for the whole state area or parts hereof, except for the measures which count from the Turkish government in the interest of the national defence or the maintenance of the public order to all Turkish citizens, comprehensive freedom and the unlimited right on emigration.

Articles 39
Turkish citizens, who belong to the non-Muslim minorities, should enjoy the same civil and political rights like Muslims. All inhabitants of Turkey should be identical without differences in religion before the law.
Differences of religion, world view or denomination may not lead to the disadvantage of a Turkish citizen in his civil or political rights, for instance, concerning the access to the public service and public offices as well as public honour and honourings or exercise of an occupation or trade.
No Turkish citizen may be subjected concerning the free use of a language in the personal traffic, in the economic life, in his religious practice, in the press or in publications of any kind as well as in public meetings to any restrictions.
In spite of the existing state language adequate measures must be created for Turkish citizens of non-Turkish language origin, so that they can use before court their own language.

Articles 40
Turkish citizens, who belong to the non-Muslim minorities, enjoy juridically and factually identical
treatment and security like other Turkish citizens.
In particular they have the same right to establish, at their own expenses charitable, religious and social institutions, schools and other educational sites and training centers, to pursue and to lead in this matter the supervision, including the right, to practice unconditionally in these institutions their own language and to exercise their religion.

Article 41
in the area of the state education the Turkish government will provide in those towns and districts in which a larger part of non-Muslim citizens lives for adequate institutions which guarantee that the lessons are given in the elementary schools for children of these Turkish citizens in their respective language.

This regulation should not hinder the Turkish government from prescribing the Turkish linguistic lessons as a compulsory subject.

In towns and districts with a larger part of Turkish citizens, who belong to non-Muslim minorities, an adequate part of the public means is to be granted to these minorities for the use and implementation which are administered to the households of the land, the municipalities or to other households for religious, charitable and educational purposes.
The allowances are to be paid in each case to the commissioned representatives of the relevant institutions.

Article 42
the Turkish government obligates itself to take measures in accordance to the family right or the personal state of the non-Muslim minorities which allow the regulation of these questions in the harmony with the traditions of these minorities.

These measures are to be compiled by special committees which should be formed equally from representatives of the Turkish government and representatives of every single affected minority. If no arrangement is achieved, a European lawyer is ordered by the Turkish government and the council of the League of Nations by agreement as a referee.
The Turkish government obliges itself to granting comprehensive protection to the churches, synagogues, cemeteries and other establishments of the abovementioned minorities. The same advantages and approvals are given to religious endowments as well as religious and charitable establishments of the minorities living at that moment in Turkey like other similar institutions, and the Turkish government obliges itself to granting all necessary advantages to new religious and charitable establishments which are also granted to other similar private establishments.

Articles 43
Turkish citizens, who belong to non-Muslim minorities, may not be made to act against their belief or their religious rules; they may also have no disadvantages if they refuse to appear during their weekly rest day before court or to do any calculation work.

This regulation does not release these Turkish citizens, nevertheless, from the duties which are imposed on all Turkish citizens in the interest of the maintenance of the public order.

Article 44
Turkey recognizes that the regulations of the preceding sections of the contract, as far as they concern the non-Muslim citizens in Turkey, show international-law obligations and fall under the guarantee of the League of Nations. They may be changed only with approval of the majority of the council of the League of Nations.
The British empire, France, Italy and Japan declare that they oppose no change which has been legally agreed by the majority of the council of the League of Nations.

Turkey recognizes that every member of the council of the League of Nations is entitled to steer the attention of the council to every breach or danger of a breach of the regulations, and the council should be authorized to give those measures which seem to it under the given circumstances suitable and effectively.

Furthermore Turkey recognizes that disputes about the juridical and actual questions which originate from this contract between the Turkish government and one of the remaining signatures or another power, the member of the League of Nations council is devoted, when international-law disputes are to be regarded in accordance with article 4 of the statute of the League of Nations. Herewith the Turkish government explains her approval that such disputes at the request of the other party are presented to the permanent international tribunal for the decision. The decision of the permanent tribunal should be indisputable and have the same force of law and effect like an arbitration according to article 13 of the statute.

Articles 45
The rights granted to the non-Muslim minorities of Turkey in the regulations of this segment should be granted by Greece in the identical way to Muslim minorities living on its territory .

3. the acknowledgment of the Assyrian-Syriac people as indigenous people of Turkey and the definition and manifestation of their rights in the state constitution.

4. the guarantee and protection of the national, cultural, religious, economic and political rights of the Assyrian-Aramean-Chaldean-Syriac people at first in Iraq, in Turkey and in other states of the Middle East in the course of a summoned international conference.

5. the ending of all suppression measures and methods and the assurance of freedom of expression of opinion for the Assyrian-Aramean-Chaldean-Syriac people which counts as the oldest and the original people of Mesopotamia.

The preparation committee
15 June 2003

Mesopotamia Freedom Party (GHB)
Patriotic Union of Bethnahrain (HBA)
Assyrian National Organization (ANO)
Chaldean National Congress (CNC)
Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA)
Bethnahrain National Alliance (BNA)
Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Union (ACSU)
Federation of the Syriac-Assyrian Associations in Sweden (SARS)
Union of the Assyrian-Syriac Associations in Germany (USAD)
Union of the Syriac Associations in Switzerland (HSS)
Cultural Centre of the people from Mesopotamia in Brussels/Belgium (CCPM)
Assyrian American National Federation
Assyrian Australian National Federation
Assyrian National Council of Iran
Assyrian Association of Armenia
Assyrian Russian Federation
Assyrian International Congress of Georgia

AFTER DECADES IN EXILE ASSYRIANS TO REBUILD NATIVE VILLAGE

Kafro [Turkey] – Looked at from the roof of the church in the evening sunlight, it all seems possible. The velvet-green hills roll off into the distance, the birds chirp in the stillness, and even the ruins are picturesque in the warm light of the setting sun. In this light, one can even believe that history can be overcome, and that a new beginning is possible.

The people who have gathered on the roof of the 1500-year-old ruined church in Southeastern Anatolia believe this. They speak to one another in Aramaic, the language once spoken by Jesus, which had almost been doomed to die out. They have come back to Kafro from Zurich and Truellikon, from Augsburg and Goeppingen, in order to save their culture, a millennium and a half old, from dying out, and to try for a new beginning in their original homeland.

They need a firm faith, for the soft light is deceptive. The houses have been destroyed by war and plunder, the vineyards burned down, and the fields taken over by weeds. And it is still, because no human being has lived here for a long time. “My father was one of the last to leave,” says Bedros Demir as he points toward a ruined house downa below. “There, that was my parents’ house.” Only the foundations of the walls can be seen, but Bedros and his companions are able to fill in out of memory what is no longer there. They speak of the 17 different types of grapevine that once grew here, of the oak forests that surrounded the villages, and of fig and almond trees.

“Certainly rebuilding things will be difficult,” says Bedros, a shoemaker by trade. Even so, the 40-year-old wants to give up his secure life in Zurich, plant is wife and four children here, and invest his life savings in the reconstruction of the village. Just like the other people assembled on the roof of the church.

It is almost a miracle that they are back. In 1995, the last three families in Kafro got the order from the military to leave the area. The Christians of the area of Southeast Anatolia known as Tur Abdin were caught between the two sides in the war between the Turkish army and Kurdish separatists. Yet that was, after hundreds of years of torment, only the final blow for the “Suryanis”, who are also referred to as Assyrian, Aramaean, or Syrian-Orthodox Christians, and who have lived in Tur Abdin since the 5th Century.

Scorned as Unbelievers and Treated as Second-Class Citizens

Scorned as infidels by their Kurdish neighbors, and treated by the Turkish state as second-class citizens, many Suryanis emigrated [to Europe] as guestworkers in the 1970s. Today over 150 000 Suryanis live in Western Europe, while hardly 3,000 still live in Tur Abdin.

In the nearby monastery of Mar Gabriel the Bishop of Tur Abdin and a few monks and nuns held out even though the years of the war. “Our prayers have been heard,” says Malfono (Master) Isa Gulten from Mar Gabriel today. The war ended, Turkey is trodding the path toward the European Union, and so return now beckons to the Suryanis.

“If we don’t come back then soon there will be no Suryanis left here; then our 1,500-year-old culture will die out,” says Bedros, who has lived in Switzerland for almost 25 years, has a Swiss passport, and speaks excellent German. On Tuesday, there will be a celebratory groundbreaking for the rebuilding effort. By the coming spring, the “Kafro Development Association” wants to have the village in a livable condition once again. More than als 70 Suryanis, most of them families with children, want to return to the village from Switzerland and Germany.

In a less-mild light, the project would seem hopeless. The wells of the village have long been sealed up, the electricity for the construction work will have to be provided with temporary cables, and only a dirt track leads to Kafro. “We won’t be able to return without making sacrifices,” says Bedros. “But my grandfather and my father built the village three times over in any event. Now it’s my turn.” There are Return Associations in Western Europe for other Suryani villages as well. If the return to Kafro succeeds, thousands of Suryanis will follow the pioneers and return to Tur Abdin, says Malfono Isa Gulten.

“Sergeant Mehmet, there are strange flocks of sheep on our land.”

Not all observers share this confidence, but the initial signs are encouraging, as Turkish officialdom is showing itself to be cooperative. The returnees even try to have good relations with the paramilitary gendarmerie. “Hello, could I speak with Sergeant Mehmet please?” says Bedros, speaking in Turkish on his cell-phone with the local barracks. “Sergeant Mehmet, there are some strange flocks of sheep on our land; could you please send a couple of men over?”

Sergeant Mehmet himself soon arrives hurriedly in a jeep, greets the Suryanis with a handshake, and sends his troops after the Kurdish shepherds. The Kurds in the area have taken over use of the fields and meadows of Kafro in the intervening years, and they do not want to give them up. Recently, as two young Suryanis from Goeppingen were shoveling sheep manure out of the village church, built in the 5th Century, and working to repair a ruined house in order to stay temporarily in Kafro, they were set upon by shepherds from a neighboring Kurdish village and beaten to the point of requiring hospitalization. The returning Suryanis are not being welcomed by everyone.

Yet the returnees are not letting themselves be intimidated. “We have to trust the Turkish authorities; they promised us their protection,” says Yahko, who has come from Truellikon, near Zurich. Temporarily, however, the Suryanis go into the monastery at night, and only go to the ruined church in the daytime to work out their plans. Kafro is to get a sports field, and then perhaps even a small hotel, explains Yahko to the Turkish sergeant. The young soldier looks a bit skeptically at the field of ruins out of which a prosperous village is supposed to grow.

You have to have the right light in order to be able to see all of that -- as well as strong faith.

Susanne Guesten
Switzerland

[Z-info: Courtesy of Sonntagszeitung, Mr. Martin Sarkis, and the Assyrian American Association of Southern California website at http://www.aaasc.com/]

Bravo

ASSYRIAN RAPPER RELEASES FIRST CD

Courtesy of the Alameda Times-Star (4 August); by Elizabeth Jardina

(ZNDA: San Mateo) At night, San Mateo hip-hop artist Kobo performs on dim stages to crowded clubs, spitting his rhymes to appreciative audiences. During the day, he sizes up his clients' heads, snipping and shaping their hair to best flatter their faces.

Kobo, born James Alkhass, is what you'd call naturally entrepreneurial.

He just released his solo debut album, "The Birth," on his own record label, MY Entertainment. Last year, the 29-year-old opened his own shop, MY Salon on 25th Avenue in San Mateo.

"I make all the cuts -- hair and records," he laughs.

A tall man with strong features and a curly, shoulder-length ponytail, he's quite dashing, riding a motorcycle and wearing a leather jacket.

Alkhass mostly goes by his nickname Kobo, which comes from "Kid Bass," the moniker he chose as a middle-schooler for competing in freestyle rap contests.

For Kobo, rapping quickly went from hobby to passion, especially when he won the Battle of the Rappers on KMEL (106.1-FM) when he was 15.

"From there, my mom finally started believing I could do something with this rap stuff, so she gave me her blessings," he says. "After she saw I won $1,000 at 15, she said, 'OK, maybe this could go somewhere.'"

His story starts even earlier, though. Born in Kuwait, Kobo is ethnically not Arab, but Assyrian, or Babylonian.

"We have no country," he says. "We lost Babylon 7,000 years ago. There are Assyrians you find in Iraq. That's really what Babylon used to be. There are Assyrians in Russia, there are Assyrians in Australia. We're Christian, Catholics."

He and his family left Kuwait when he was 10. "We were living in the Middle East, where it's tough on Christians," he says. "My father -- before (the Kuwaiti government) took us all to war -- just decided to pack us up and take us to our freedom, where we were free to practice religion and escape all that persecution and escape all that was going down."

From Kuwait, the family moved to Detroit. An important birthplace in the history of hip-hop culture, Kobo absorbed the beats and rhythms of the developing genre in the early 1980s, even though he hadn't really mastered English yet.

From Detroit, the family moved again, to San Mateo, where Kobo's parents opened up a deli in the Laurelwood Shopping Center, and he went to Abbott Middle School, then Aragon

After winning the Battle of the Rappers in 1989, Kobo began performing with a number of groups around the Bay Area, and then in Turlock, where his parents moved when they retired during Kobo's senior year in high school.

Did it matter that hip-hop was primarily developed by African-Americans, and that as a Kuwaiti-born Assyrian he didn't fit the mold?

"Back in the late'80s and very early'90s, the music was very Afro-centric, especially the hip-hop," he says. "Most people accepted, but there were a few ignorant people. But like I say, music is blind and product speaks for itself, You can never deny talent. You can never deny what your ear hears, what your eye sees."

Success came early, with a record contract in 1993 for Kobo's group, Abandoned in the Streets, which changed its name to DaHomlez (The Homeless). Their album "Abandoned in Da Streetz" came out in 1995.

The record did well, but the profits went into the record company's coffers, not the artists' bank accounts.

Kobo is philosophical about the whole situation now. "We were young, dumb, loved our music, didn't know our business," he says. "That was my learning the ropes. I lost a lot of time, dropped out of college for it. It was a deal, it just wasn't the right deal. There's a good experience. Made me stronger."

Meanwhile, as he was building his music career, he was also cutting hair at a barber shop on 25th Avenue. "I started music and hair at the same time," he says. "And I kept them both.

"Hair is my daytime gig, you know, and at nighttime all the music kicks in, all the clubs and the promotion and that good stuff," he says. "Opening up my own business gave me the flexibility to do my music. If I have to take off, I can take off."

Right now, he's hoping "The Birth" takes off. It's available in San Mateo at Tower Records and Vinyl Solutions, as well as MY Salon and Mr. Pickles sandwich shop.

He's building a fan base, doing gigs at clubs like La Fiesta in downtown San Mateo, The Edge in Palo Alto, Tunes in San Jose and Limelight in Mountain View.

He's also in negotiations with a couple of Los Angeles-based record labels, which would help him distribute his album and garner radio play. Right now, he's talking to folks from KMEL -- where his rap career started -- and Wild 94.9-FM. He's got a single, "Too Hot," on stations in smaller markets, such as Reno and San Luis Obispo.

He laughs when he talks about his parents' opinion of his career. "They're like, 'Take care of yourself. It's just a hobby. One in a million people make it,'" he says. "Until you make it, and then you're like, 'The one is me, Mom.' My ultimate goal is to go worldwide."

[Z-info: Check out Kobo’s web site at http://www.calikobo.com/.]

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Thank You!

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Ashor Giwargis (Lebanon)

Petr Kubalek (Czech Republic)

Vasili Shoumanov (Chicago)

Dr. Gabriele Yonan (Germany)

Shlimoon Youkhana (Chicago)

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