NEW IRAQ A RAY OF HOPE FOR GREEK ASSYRIANS
By Demetrios Rhompotis
Assyrian International News Agency
Dec 17 2007
New York — Seventy Greek Assyrian families could claim compensation
for lost property in northern Iraq, as reconstruction plans try to
bring justice to oppressed minority groups.
Thousands of Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs, were
driven from the oil-rich area of Mosul in the 1910s. For decades, those
who settled in Greece hesitated to press claims, fearing reprisals
against their compatriots in Iraq. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein
now brings new hope to the cause.
"Our people lived there for thousands of years and they threw them out
violently," says Steve Sorros, whose grandparents were expelled from
the Mosul district. "Of course, we do not wish to return there… but
(we) have every right to be compensated. And our property was where
the oil is."
Sorros, who emigrated to New York in 1976, believes the interests of
oil companies overrode human concerns. He hopes Greek Assyrians will
pursue a class action lawsuit, as Holocaust victims did against Swiss
and German financial institutions, winning $20 billion.
The case has potential, according to lawyers like Nick Karambelas
of the Washington-based law firm Sfikas & Karambelas. "There might
be a strong legal base for compensations," he says. Karambelas has
experience in such matters, representing families that lost property
in the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Assyrians are still classed as foreigners in Greece, which may help
the case, he adds. Six thousand emigrated from Iraq, Iran, Syria and
Turkey. Only around 1,000 are naturalised citizens. The rest have no
papers. Karambelas says this refugee status means they did not give
up rights to their land.
Another Greek American lawyer at one of New York’s largest consulting
firms – who asked to remain anonymous – was even more optimistic. He
estimates desce! ndants o f the expelled Assyrians could demand 20
percent of the profits since oil started to be exploited on their
properties – an amount that could reach billions of dollars.
Greek authorities are largely oblivious to the brewing controversy.
Last November, the Athens News asked Adamandios Vasilakis, Greece’s
permanent representative to the UN, if the government was aware of
the situation – and willing to push it into the global spotlight.
Vasilakis said he had no idea and promised to find out. Nothing has
happened since. The Greek foreign ministry has not commented on the
situation, despite repeated requests.
The time is ripe for political settlement for Assyrians in Iraq and
abroad. They dare not hope for an autonomous state like the Kurds.
Cultural freedom is all they ask, according to Kyriakos Batsaras,
president of Union of Assyrians in Greece. "Whatever the Muslims get,
this is what we also want, nothing more, nothing less," he stresses.
Yet the Assyrians may be excluded from the final settlement in northern
Iraq, sources there claim. Instead of being recognised as a minority
group, they are being dismissed as Orthodox Christian Arabs.
"For a people with 7,000 years of history, it’s ridiculous to call
us that," Batsaras says.
Greek Assyrian odyssey
Today 4.5 million still consider themselves Assyrians. Their empire
once stretched across northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, Turkey
and Iran. Ninevah – the ancient capital near Mosul – may have been
the world’s first city. The kingdom crumbled in 612 BC, scattering
the people into small pockets around the Middle East. They embraced
Christianity in the 1st century AD and still speak Aramaic, one of
Jesus Christ’s languages.
Over the centuries, the Assyrians have been persecuted for their
ethnicity and their religion. The enjoyed some autonomy under
Ottoman rule in the early 20th century, because it was dif! ficult
f or Imperial forces to subdue their militia. This delicate balance
ended when the Ottoman Empire massacred Christians – Assyrians and
Armenians alike – in 1915. Winston Churchill described it as "whole
districts blotted out in one destructive holocaust".
Sorros believes oil-hungry foreigners prompted the attack. "They used
the Muslims to expel the more educated Christians. After they threw
them out, they drilled the oil. Our forefathers did not receive any
form of compensation."
The late Nissan Yaou – president of the Union of Assyrians in Greece
for many years – supported this theory. His written testimony attests:
"Oil was running into the river and people used it to burn wood that
had not yet dried." Locals called the stream "Kriya" (black), because
it brimmed with the crude liquid. During the winter snowfall, the oil
turned to asphalt, which had to be scraped off to cultivate the land.
Yaou documented the expelled Assyrians’ flight. They initially sought
refugee in Iran, then Christian Russia, followed by the Black Sea
port Novorossisk. They decided to return home in 1922, as the Mosul
district was under British rule.
Yet English authorities in Constantinople stopped their ship, claiming
an epidemic had struck their area. The Assyrians were lumped in
with the people fleeing the Asian Minor disaster – and re-routed to
Greece. They landed at Makronessos, which later became a notorious
prison island.
Conditions were rough there. The refugees would draw water and wash
from a big hole, encouraging the spread of disease. Around 10-15
people died each day, among them Yaou’s stepmother. They were moved
several times to Keratsini, a monastery in Poros and the military
barracks of Kalamata, where an estimated 4,000 people perished.
Locals warned them not to drink the contaminated water, but no one
understood Greek, Yaou explained. At the end of 1923, the Assyrians!
finally settled in the Athens suburb of Aegaleo, building a church
in the memory of Saint Andrew.
Further troubles back home
Assyrians who remained in the Middle East suffered as well. They fought
for the Allies in World War I, but were left without ammunition and
support just before the conflict’s end. They fled to Baghdad, losing
one-third of their population to attack, disease and hardships.
Britain, France and Russia promised to help establish an Assyrian
homeland in the Mosul district, but this never came to pass. During the
formation of the modern Iraqi nation in 1933, civilians were massacred
and 60 villages destroyed. Batsaras says that English authorities
moved 80,000 Arabs into the abandoned area, harshly oppressing any
remaining Assyrian resistance.
Iraqi forces razed another 200 towns in the 60s and 70s, as well
as scores of ancient churches. Saddam Hussein’s "Arabisation policy"
forced more people from their homes in the mid-80s. After the Gulf War,
250,000 Assyrian refugees joined fleeing Kurds. Batsaras stresses:
"When you hear about ships full of Iraqi refugees, their majority
are Assyrians."
Search for justice
Both Sorros and Batsaras hope all Assyrians eventually could return to
a safe and tolerant homeland. In the meantime, those in Greece will
pursue compensation for lost lands and revenue. At least 70 families
are eligible.
Sorros plans to push the case through powerful Assyrian organisations
in the US, whose leaders met with the President George W Bush and his
administration in March 2003. "For 70 years big conglomerates drill
oil from my grandfather’s backyard," he says. "At least something
should be given to us."