ASSYRIANS IN IRAQ SHOULD GO FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
Assyrian International News Agency AINA
sept 23 2014
By Yeghig Tashjian
Posted 2014-09-23 18:57 GMT
An Assyrian family from Baghdede who fled to Ankawa, Iraq.(AINA) — As
World War I broke out, the Turkish government implemented the plan to
destroy the Christian communities within its empire. Around 2 million
(1,500,000 Armenians, 750,000 Assyrians and 500,000 Pontic Greeks)
were massacred and others deported from their ancestral lands.
Churches were burned, some were converted into mosques, memories were
uprooted, and lands confiscated. Some Christian villages rebelled
against the Ottoman Empire’s advance, some succeeded and others did
not, but always with arms in their hands. Today, as history repeats
itself, what can the Assyrian Christians of Iraq learn from their
century old history, and how can they prevent this catastrophe?
Local, Regional and International Silence
In my interview with David William Lazar, the chairman of the American
Mesopotamian Organization, regarding the fall of Mosul, he stated that
the Maliki government was partly to blame because of the sectarian
policies that have marginalized the Iraqi Sunni Arab minority,
the Kurds and the Iraqi army for refusing to fight ISIS, and the
West for not preventing the flow of money from the Arab Gulf states
to terrorist groups. For the first time in history, the Christians
of Mosul had to evacuate their city, as the Arab world, Arab League
and rebel Iraqi Baathists sat by and watched it happen. Nineveh, the
ancient capital of the Assyrians was emptied of its indigenous people.
Moreover, David W. Lazar stated that the Assyrian Diaspora, and
specifically the Assyrian Aid Society of America, already started to
mobilize and raise funds for local NGOs to help the refugees.
The United Nation Security Council UNSC has condemned the persecution
of minorities in Iraq. Meanwhile, France declared it is ready to
provide asylum for Iraqi Christian refugees. However, it has become
clear that the international community will not provide aid unless
the Iraqi Christians mobilize an army and take action.
Organizing Delf-Defense Units
Under authoritarian rule, and the lack of a strong Christian political
force, the church has taken on the religious, social and sometimes
political role. A similarity can be drawn both between the Armenian
and the Assyrian churches. During the Ottoman era both churches
were pessimistic and against revolutionary movements within their
communities. Within the Armenian community, the shift occurred
only after the conference of Berlin in 1878, when Father Khrimian,
the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, later Catholicos of all
Armenians, delivered his famous speech titled “The Paper Ladle,”
urging the Armenian nation to rely on itself to defend its land, and
fight against oppression. He gave the following speech in the church:
Dear Armenian people, could I have dipped my paper ladle in the harissa
[porridge]? It would have become wet and stayed there. There, where
guns talk and swords make noise, what significance do appeals and
petitions have? But alas, all I had was a paper petition, which got
wet in the harissa and we returned empty-handed.
And so, dear and blessed Armenians, when you return to the Fatherland,
to your relatives and friends, take weapons, take weapons and again
weapons. People, above all, place the hope of your liberation on
yourself. Use your brain and your fist! Man must work for himself in
order to be saved.
After a decade Armenians, realizing that diplomacy failed, took up
arms and with a high price independence was declared at the end of
WWI. The Christians of Iraq should stop waiting for the international
community to take action and follow in the footsteps of the Armenians
by taking up arms, and fighting for their land.
Recently, many voices were raised within the Christian community
in Iraq to organize volunteer units. Already videos are showing some
Assyrians and Armenians are armed. David Lazar believes that Christians
and Yazidis should also arm themselves. Lazar stated:
The Federal government in Baghdad is not able to protect its citizens
and the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] will only protect its
own areas as it have stated openly, regardless of what happens to
the rest of Iraq. The immediate reaction of the Kurdish militias when
ISIS and Baathist took over Mosul was to immediately occupy what they
refer to as “Disputed territories,” which are mainly Kirkuk and the
Nineveh Plain. Of course now the KRG claims that it is defending the
Christians of the Nineveh Plain, because if they were not there ISIS
would have occupied the area and expelled the Christians, Yazidis
and Shabaks from there.
Meanwhile, the Christian block within the Iraqi Parliament suggested
that the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) start training the Christians to defend their villages and repel
future attacks by ISIS. Already the Assyrian Democratic Movement
started to recruit volunteers in Iraq and organize self defense
units. In this task, both the church and Christian political parties
in Iraq should participate. It is imperative that they start working
together and to unify their efforts to fight ISIS and demand the
formation of autonomous administrative region in the Nineveh Plain,
where Assyrians would be able to preserve their culture and have
security forces.
The Establishment of Iraq’s Nineveh Plain as an Autonomous Region
Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution states:
This Constitution shall guarantee the administrative, political,
cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities, such
as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents, and
this shall be regulated by law.
The Nineveh Plain, which is rich in agricultural lands and petroleum
fields, brought economic competition between Kurds and Sunni Arab
tribes in Mosul. This caused Assyrians to become targets of violence.
Thus, without the Nineveh Plain autonomous administration,
the indigenous Assyrian presence in its ancient homeland may be
endangered. On January 21, 2014 the Iraqi government declared that the
Nineveh Plain would become a new province, which would serve as a safe
haven for Assyrians. Yet David W. Lazar argued that the Christians are
not asking for political rights as Christians, instead they want to be
recognized as an ethnic minority that is indigenous to Northern Iraq.
He stated: “Although our Christian identity is also extremely
important, our national identity comes first and often we endure
discrimination because of our Assyrian ethnic identity rather than
our Christian faith. A good example was during Saddam’s period. The
Baathists tolerated Christians as long as people referred to themselves
as Arab or Iraqi Christians. However, we were oppressed as Assyrians
because we were not allowed to teach our language, give our children
Assyrian names and definitely not allowed to form political parties
or ask for any type of autonomous rule in our ancestral lands.” Lazar
also claimed that Christians want to be part of Iraq, because they
believe in a united, democratic and Federal Iraq with a strong Federal
capital in Baghdad. This is referred to as Centripetal Federalism,
where there is a strong Federal government and weaker provincial or
regional governments. The KRG, on the other hand, prefers the opposite,
Centrifugal Federalism, which means stronger provincial or regional
governments and a weaker federal government.
Many would assume that the Arab world is disintegrating into small
states and this is part of foreign conspiracy. Some say this is a
Western-Zionist plan to divide the Arabs and divert their attention
from the Palestinian cause, others may argue it’s an Iranian plot to
weaken the Sunnis. In reality the political mistakes of Arab leaders,
with the inability of their governments to protect their ethnic and
religious minorities, pushed the non-Arabs to distance themselves
from the Arab reality. Unfortunately, multiculturalism is failing
in the Arab World. The pogroms against the Iraqi Jews in Baghdad are
still fresh in the memories of people. Today, Iraq is devoid of Jews.
Hopefully, the Christians will not face a similar and tragic ending.
The idea of introducing decentralization and federalism should not
be alarming to the Arabs, it can actually solve many socioeconomic,
cultural and political problems.
Yeghig Tashjian is a Lebanese Armenian. He holds BA in Political
Science from Haigazian University and is a research assistant at the
Armenian Diaspora Research Center at Haigazian University, where he
conducts research on minority rights and Middle Eastern conflicts.
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