ATTEMPTS TO REWRITE ASSYRIAN HISTORY — AGAIN
by Fred Aprim
Assyrian International Press Agency
Nov 15 2007
Beginning in the early 1990s when Mehrdad Izady finally got his
degree at Harvard University, he has launched on an on again off
again campaign to rewrite history in Northern Iraq and elsewhere with
special relevance to Assyrians. He has passed himself off as a Harvard
professor when he was a drill instructor in Persian and his dealing
with established and reputable Kurdish organizations have been less
than honorable.
Now, he has leashed his venom on Assyrians, yet again, from what corner
of employment it is not clear, but certainly not from any academic
establishment that is known to anyone. That KurdishMedia.com chooses
to disseminate his writings is not to its credit. On March 27, 2003,
Mr. Izady proceeded to corrupt northern Mesopotamian history and
falsified other issues relating to Kurdish population and Kurdish
ethnic and historical origins.
Falsifying Geography
In his article, attacking the recently established Kurdish Parliament
in Exile, first held in 1995 in The Hague, Izady condemns the Kurdish
leadership for settling for too little. He chooses intentionally to
ignore some 5000 years of northern Mesopotamian Assyrian history and
what the region of today’s northern Iraq was always known as and in
a deplorable way he depicted the demographic map of northern Iraq,
southern Turkey and northeastern Syria as "Kurdish," based on a map
by the British colonies less than a century old. He writes: "A large,
mufti-color sheet map drawn by the British Royal Geographic Society and
published in 1906 depicted Kurdish majority areas with such accuracy
that even today–93 years later–it remains virtually peerless."
Referring to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and the failure of the
Kurdish delegation to propagate this sudden historic British map,
he writes: "Naturally putting first the interests of their own people
before those of others, the Armenian delegation to the conference fully
ignored this map and presented one of their own for the boundaries of
an independent Armenia. The Armenian delegation’s map included all of
present Kurdistan of Turkey, chunks of Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan,
and large areas populated by Turks, Turcomans and Arabs thrown in
for good measure."
First, the malicious effort to ignore the Assyrians’ presence in the
north of Iraq and southeastern Turkey is obvious in Izady’s writing.
Second, the Kurds were not alone in the Paris Conference. All the other
minorities of the Ottoman Empire were present in one way or another,
including the Assyrians and the Armenians. The Assyrian delegations
presented their own demands including an Assyrian territorial map in
which parts of northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey were claimed
as Assyrian regions (Werda 1990, 199-220). What makes the Kurdish
map more legitimate than that of the Assyrians, especially when the
Assyrians have rooted historical legitimacy in the region?
There are many issues involved when discussing the subject of Kurds
in the Assyrian heartland (north of Iraq). Such issues do involve
migration and forced occupation of land, among others. Historically,
there is ambiguity when addressing the consistent presence of people
known strictly as Kurds in northern Mesopotamia. For one, Kurds
variously trace themselves to Medes, then to Hurrians, and at other
times to others. To present a historically reliable picture, Izady
and others must investigate linguistic, cultural, and religious and
any other common factors such as geographic density. A reasonable
question arises that if the Kurds actually existed in this area,
what was the relationship between the Kurds and the ancient people
for whom archeological evidence exists. How did a Mede or a Hurrian
become a Kurd? Mere bluster is not evidence.
>From antiquity, people living in different regions have produced
different crafts, building materials, ceramic styles, monuments and
cultic installations. In very limited fashion, some of these traits
and habits are alike, but very seldom we find that all these traits
when incorporated with elements of language, culture, and religion,
remain similar among the various ethnic groups. Northern Mesopotamia
(Assyria) was always Assyrian in essence and the numerous excavations
and discoveries in the region is a solid and overwhelming proof to
this fact. Have any excavations in north of Iraq uncover artifacts
that are coined Kurdish? I challenge Mr. Izady to list any for us.
The region of north Iraq was known as Assyria even in later historical
Parthian references, centuries after the fall of Assyrian political
system. It kept its Syriac name "Athur", i.e. Assyria (Parpola
2000). During early Christianity, the region of northern Iraq was
named Adiabene. Gibbon, the eighteenth century British historian
and one time Parliamentarian, writes: "Ammianus remarks, that the
primitive Assyria, which comprehended Ninus (Nineveh) and Arbela,
had assumed the more recent and peculiar appellation of Adiabene,
…" (Gibbon 2001, 292). The people of Adiabene (Arbil, Kirkuk, and
Mosul) were called the Adiabeni, and by the term Adiabeni, for the
first century A.D. well-known Jewish historian Josephus, it was meant
Assyrian (Whiston 1999, 543). Then the region went under Islamic Arab
domination until the fall of the Baghdad Caliphate in 1258 and the
coming of the Mongols. However, northern Iraq remained predominantly
Christian until the destructions of Tamerlane in 1401. The region’s
main language was Aramaic (Syriac) well into the ninth and tenth
centuries. Arabic began to take over at the time since it was the
language of the Koran, the holy book of the newly spreading religion
of Islam, which began in the seventh century.
During the second half of the 2nd millennia, under Ottoman rule
(about 450 years), the north of Iraq was called "Mosul Vilayet"
(Mosul Province) until 1921 when the region was separated from the
Ottoman Empire and made part of what became known as Iraq.
My question is from where and when did this Kurdistan come? Well, since
the turn of the twentieth century the Kurds have entered northern Iraq
in great numbers from both Iran and Turkey. This migration intensified
after WWII when the Persian Army put down the Kurdish rebellion in
northwestern Iran and crushed the Mahabad Republic that Kurds had
established in 1946, which had existed for a few months. Furthermore,
Kurdish society sets little store in educating its women, and
thus Kurds worldwide have one of the highest reproductive rates
in the Muslim world. This factor alone has increased their numbers
exponentially during the past fifty years in northern Iraq.
I challenge Izady to furnish census records justifying his claims
for a Kurdish majority in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey up
to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Based on his exaggerated notions of Kurdish population in the early
twentieth century, Izady brags about what he calls "Kurdish generosity"
at the Paris Conference because they did not demand larger deserved
regions in Syria, "from Van to Ardahan, from Mush to Maku," mostly
Iranian Kurdish territories and he goes on adding more regions.
I do not understand the logic of this supposed historian, Izady. Is
he implying that history has no affect in determining a region’s
background? Is he implying that all decisions must be made based on
what the fact is on the ground at this moment regardless of how that
fact came to be? Is Izady ignoring acts of genocide, oppression,
forced deportations, persecution and harassment the powerful can
inflict on the weakened and emphasizing only the game of numbers?
Did this supposed historian forget that in late 1914 the Kurds backed
by Turks forced some 150,000 Assyrians out of their homes in the
Hakkari mountains, in present-day southern Turkey and into Urmia
region, in northwestern Iran? And later, in May 1915, these Kurds,
aided by the Turks again and certain fanatic Persian Muslims, pushed
over 10,000 Assyrians from Urmia to flee their homes and villages
and seek refugee status in Russia? As the remaining Assyrians fought
for months and lost thousands, the Russians returned to Urmia to
establish some peace in the region. But in January 1918, the most
horrifying tragedy was perpetrated by the Kurds, Turks and certain
Persian elements, as some 100,000 Assyrians, including some Armenians,
were forced again to flee as the Russians withdrew for the second
time. This time this forced migration directed the Assyrians into Iraq,
as these Assyrians of Turkey joined their brethren Catholic Assyrians
of the Mosul Plain (also known as Chaldeans) in 1920 after spending
over two years in refugee camps in Baquba and Mindan. Let me remind
the professor that in all, and between 1914 and 1925, records show
that some 300,000 Assyrians were either killed or incapacitated at
the hands of the Kurds and Turks (Malek 1935).
Fanatical Kurd Izady Attacks Kurdish Parliament
Izady’s malice against any Kurd who attempts a fairer portrayal of the
Assyrian situation jumps from the venue of the Paris Peace Conference
to The Hague meeting in 1995 of the Kurdish Parliament.
Article I of the Declaration of the Founding of the Kurdish
Parliament in Exile entitled "The Peoples of Kurdistan and Religious
Congregations," reads: "In addition to the Kurds, there are the
Assyrians and the Armenians living in Kurdistan. They too have
suffered at the hands of the invading forces. Subjected to the
policies of divide and rule, the people of Kurdistan have, at times,
fought one another and forced one another to migrate from the common
homeland. These factors have kept the population of Assyrians and
Armenian slow. Today, in Kurdistan, they constitute a figure of some
10% of the total population. The people who live in Kurdistan have
differing faiths and various religions. A vast majority of believers
are Muslims. This diversity of beliefs has enabled the occupiers of
Kurdistan to pit one group of believers against the other, to their
mutual detriment…"
While Assyrians agree that this statement should be supplemented
by a broad apology and indemnity to Assyrians for the Genocide,
Izady castigates the Kurdish Parliament for making this bow in the
direction of historical fact. After playing around with figures,
Izady finally concludes that even if the Kurds were considered to be
as conservative as 25 millions, then the 2.5 million (10%) Armenians
and Assyrians, in the region he calls Kurdistan, is ridiculous.
Juggling sarcasm and ethnic hatred, he reaches the conclusion that
the Assyrians and Armenians make up 1% of the population of northern
Iraq. Izady flatly denies historical accounts that it was the Kurds who
inflicted most atrocities against the Assyrians. Need we remind this
fanatical throwback to the butchers of World War I as described in
one whole chapter of the well-known Blue Book, referring in details
to Kurds as the prime perpetrators of those atrocities? Need we
remind the self-proclaimed historian by the diaries and numerous
correspondences of foreign officials and European and American
missionaries regarding the horrifying accounts Kurds have committed
against the Assyrians? Close to one hundred and twenty pages speak
of these atrocities in Ara Sarafian’s edited yet uncensored version
(Bryce and Toynbee 2000). Izady sees the Kurdish parliament as a
defender of Assyrians’ rights while neglecting the rights of the
Kurds. He goes on to declare the oil wealth of Kirkuk as a Kurdish
commodity and that Turkey has no right to re-open the Mosul Vilayet
(Mosul Province) issue again. Of course opening the Mosul Vilayet
will eventually bring the Assyrians in the political picture again.
Let me remind the Harvard produced historian that after the mandate
of Iraq in 1921, there were 400,000 non-Moslem minorities in Iraq
according to the British civil administration. It is safe to say
that three-quarters of these 400,000 were Assyrian Christians and
lived predominantly in northern Iraq when the Kurdish population was
estimated around 800,000 in the same period (Malek 1935, 22). This
means that eighty years ago, Assyrians formed 33% of the population
of Northern Iraq. Would this fanatic describe for us what accounts
for this dramatic decrease in Assyrians and the increase of Kurdish
population in northern Iraq in a matter of eighty years? And if
the Assyrian population has fallen to 10 to 20 % who is responsible
for that?
Kirkuk Claims
Basing himself on the unsubstantiated claim that somehow Hurrians
are the ancestors of the Kurds, Izady claims that Kirkuk was built
and named Arrap’he over 3,800 years ago by his "ancestors". Ignoring
the well-attested fact that northern Iraq was entirely Semitic by the
early Christian period, and Aramaic speaking, he claims that Sassanid
sources (known to him only?) show that "Yazdankart (Domitianus),
the king of Kirkuk and Sulaymania, felt sufficiently "Kurdish" to
participate in the defense of other Kurds…" Additional reminder here
is due since throughout the early medieval historical sources "Kurd"
is used as a generic term for "pasturalists." Fanatical Izady’s claims
cannot replace historical facts no matter to what level of sarcasm
and invention he resorts.
It would be foolish to talk about Kirkuk and not mention the Assyrians
and Turkomans. Although it is hard to say whether the Seljuks left any
Turkish trace in Mesopotamia, we know that the Seljuk Turks revolted
and had attacked many quarters of Baghdad, including the Christian
quarter in A.D. 1054. This means that they were there. Still, the
invasion of Tamerlane in 1401 could have brought in some Turks. We know
furthermore that during A.D. (1410 1508) the Turkomans Black Sheep
and White Sheep dynasties ruled Iraq; hence, there are reasonable
chances that their descendents have survived since then.
Additionally, Kirkuk was known as Arrapha (Arrapkha) during the
Assyrian Empire. After the Assyrians adopted Christianity beginning
in the first century A.D. and the Greeks began their rule of today’s
Iraq in A.D. 331, the city took the Christian name Karka d’ Bet Sloke
(a Syriac or Assyrian name, and not Kurdish, meaning "walled city
of the Seleucus house"). The word Sloke is a corrupted version from
the Greek king "Seleucus" one of Alexander’s generals, who ruled
the region. This Karkha d’ Bet Sloke was the center of one of the
important Metropolitan (bishop) centers of the Nestorian Assyrians for
centuries. Assyrian Church records, and other records, indicate that
some 152,000 Nestorian Assyrians were slaughtered in Kirkuk (Karka d’
Bet Sloke) by the Sassanid Persian Yezdegerd II in A.D. 448 (Wigram
1910, 138). This proves that there were many Assyrians in Kirkuk at
that time still.
Who Are The Kurds?
I need to stress the fact that there is no single universally
agreed-upon meaning for the term ‘Kurd’. Discussing what he called the
‘vague and indiscriminate use of the term Kurd’, Vladimir Minorsky
underlines the extent of the confusion, by citing remarks by the 10th
century Persian historian, Hamza Isfahani: ‘The Persians used to call
Dailamites ‘the Kurds of Tabaristan’, as they used to call Arabs ‘the
Kurds of Suristan’, i.e., of Iraq. Other Arab and Persian authors in
the 10th century mean by Kurds any Iranian nomads of Western Persia,
such as the tent-dwellers of Fars (Minorsky 1982/1943, 75).
Another contemporary scholar has drawn attention to his own
observation, during field research in Kurdish areas, that the word
‘Kurd’ may simply indicate the language that one speaks. He stated,
thus: "When I asked people in ethnically mixed areas whether they were
Kurds of [sic] Turks or Persians, I frequently got answers such as
‘I am Kurd as well as a Persian and a Turk’. The author concluded,
"When I insisted and asked what they originally were, some answered
‘my father speaks all three languages’." (Van Bruinessen, 1978,
Utrecht: footnote 102: 430)
The Kurds might call themselves whatever they want and claim
whatever they need, but this must not mean infringing on the rights
of others; it must not come on the expense of other people, including
the Assyrians, who have historically the same if not deeper rooted
rights in the land many people share today.
What Assyrians Can Learn From Izady?
Izady strongly rejected his cooperation with an Armenian group
before the latter issued statements rejecting the ethnic cleansing
of Kurds in Armenia and Azerbaijan. He continues to state: "Perhaps
the Kurds–first the citizens and only then the leaders–should try
the novelty of placing their own nation’s priorities ahead of those
of other peoples."
Indeed, Assyrians should learn a thing or two from this statement. In
1961, the Kurds began their large-scale organized rebellion in
northern Iraq and ever since they have continued their persecution
and harassment of the peasant Assyrians even when many Assyrians
had joined them and backed their struggle. The Assyrians were under
the impression that the Kurds would help them since they were both
fighting against common Iraqi oppressive practices inflicted on
non-Arab ethnic minorities. But thousands of Assyrians were forced to
evacuate their villages and move south into large cities like Mosul,
Kirkuk and Baghdad while, with time, the Kurds moved in and controlled
the Assyrians’ villages.
After the establishment of the Northern no-fly zone and the so-called
democratic Kurdish government in northern Iraq in 1992, the atrocities
against Assyrians increased dramatically as Kurds attempted to purge
the region >from the remaining Assyrians.
Assassinations, rape, harassment and oppression against Assyrians
have continued. Please visit () for detailed description.
This has been the Kurdish policy since 1921 when Iraq was being
established. That explains why the Assyrians have continued to leave
northern Iraq, leading to the increased percentage of the Kurdish
population in the region.
Human beings in today’s world can no longer afford to live in the
dark allies of bigotry and fanaticism. I call upon the moderate Kurds
to reach for all the Kurdish people, educate them, and address the
legitimate case of the Assyrians in northern Iraq, their ancestral
lands. There is no reason why different ethnic groups cannot live
side by side, each respected, protected, and its culture and heritage
preserved.
Bibliography:
Gibbons, Edward. "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire", Edited and abridged by David Womersley, Penguin Books, 2000.
Hitti, Philip. "History of the Arabs," 10th ed., New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1970.
Malek, Yusuf. "The British Betrayal of the Assyrians," Chicago, 1935.
Parpola, Simo. "Assyrians after Assyria", Journal of Assyrian Academic
Studies, 2000.
Bryce, James and Arnold Toynbee. "The Treatment of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916". Ed. Ara Sarafian, Princeton Gomidas
Institute: Taderon Press, 2000.
Werda, Joel E. "The Flickering Light of Asia," First ed. 1924, second
ed. Chicago, 1990.
White, Paul. "Ethnic Differentiation among the Kurds: Kurmancî,
Kazalba§ and Zaza.
Whiston, William. Trans., "The Works of Josephus", Hendrickson
Publishers, 14th printing, 1999.
Wigram, W. A. "History of the Assyrian Church", London, 1910.
Fred Aprim was born in the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. He is a graduate of
Mosul University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Fred’s family,
like many Assyrian families, experienced its share of oppression
and persecution. While in Iraq, both his father and teenage brother
were imprisoned and tortured. In 2003, he published a booklet titled
Indigenous People in Distress. In December 2004, he published his
second book Assyrians: The Continuous Saga. His latest book, Assyrians:
>From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein, was published in 2006.
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