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THE SCYTHE OF
THE OTTOMANS
&
THE
DECIMATION OF THE ASSYRIAN NATION
Introduction
The Assyrians had been
the proud inheritors of an ancient and glorious past. In the end,
however, it was the scythe wielded by the Ottomans that cut off the
continuity of this historical nation that had begun with the dawn of
civilization. Its ruthless blade cut them off from their ancestral
lands and reduced them to desperation and annihilation. Although
their property, homes, families, churches and communities were
unjustly broken and scattered like dust to the winds, their spirit
and will to live were not. Ultimately, their steadfast belief in a
merciful God brought them alive through their hellish ordeal and
renewed their belief in themselves and in the power of love to
overcome all obstacles, even the unmerciful peoples who chose and
demonstrated enmity against them.
I will relate the
horrible fate of the Assyrians during World War One. Then I will
demonstrate that it was a peculiar mind set that built up and gained
momentum among the regular and irregular Ottomans against their
Christian subjects, which drove them to the most ungodly acts of
cruelty and oppression against their neighbors and fellow men. Even
the most powerless Christians who had no political aspirations
whatsoever were not exempt from denigrating atrocities.
Geographical
Location of the Assyrians at the beginning of the 20th Century
At the turn of the
century, the Assyrian people, the torchbearers of the earliest
civilization in the world, and the living remnant of over 6,000
years of history in the region, lived under the Ottoman and Persian
Empires. Their region was roughly known as “Northern Mesopotamia,”
which includes: south and southeastern present-day Turkey; [they
were spread from Miyafarqin in the north, Bitlis, Siirt, from Urfa
(Edessa) to Adana, Diyarbekir, Mardin, Nisibin, Tur Abdin (over 100
villages), Bohtan, and in the region of Tiyari and Hakkari from the
Turko-Persian border in the East to Tur Abdin in the West. Under
Persian rule, they were mostly in western Azerbaijan, at Urmia and
the Salamas districts. The other Assyrians (Syriac people) were
spread over places in present day Iraq, mainly in northern Iraq:
through the plains of Nineveh, Hadyab and the mountain region to the
south of Tiyari and Hakkari, Syria, Lebanon, and in the Caucasus
(Georgia, Armenia) which lie outside the scope of study in this
conference.
Ecclesiastical
Diversity Among the Assyrians
Like most peoples, the
Assyrians have various ecclesiastical traditions. The Assyrians of
the Church of the East include: Orthodox (or Nestorians), Catholic
(Chaldeans) and Protestants. Similarly, the Assyrians of the West
Syriac Church encompasses several traditions: Orthodox (or Jacobites),
Catholic, Melkites (Rum Orthodox & Rum Catholic.), Maronites, and
Protestants.
By the turn of the
century, and due to nationalistic awakening, most members of the
above-mentioned churches preferred to be identified with one
nationalistic name, Assyrian, rather than by the various names of
the church traditions.
Generally speaking,
the Assyrians of the Church of the East were distributed in the
Eastern part of “Northern Mesopotamia,” while the Assyrians of the
West Syriac Churches lived in the middle and Western part of
“Northern Mesopotamia.”
Relationship With
their Neighbors
All the areas
inhabited by Assyrians had Muslim populations as their closest
neighbors: Arabs, Kurds, Turks and Persians. While the Assyrians
intermingled with the Ottoman Muslims in the cities and learned
their language(s), the Assyrians of the mountains remained isolated
but still surrounded by Muslims (Turks and Kurds). Over a period of
a few generations, and as a defensive mechanism, most Assyrians of
the cities forgot their own language and used the language and
adopted the customs of their Muslim neighbors.
Although previously
the Assyrian population had numbered in the millions, due to
centuries of persecutions and massacres, they were reduced from
majority of the indigenous inhabitant of the region to scattered
minorities. By the late nineteenth century, the Assyrians in Hakkari,
Salma and Urmia numbered only around 400,000 to 500,000. A similar
number was counted for the Assyrians (of West Syriac traditions) of
Tur Abdin, Mardin and other “western” cities.
Unlike the Kurds,
Arabs and Turks, who share the same religion, the Assyrians remained
distinguished from their neighbors by their own Christian religion.
This distinction was never to their advantage, even in case of the
cities, when the Christians tried to adapt by learning and speaking
the language of their Muslim neighbors. Over a long period of time,
the Christians, as dhimmi, had to observe certain restrictions as a
means of subjugation and to emphasize their status as second class
citizens of the Empire. As a matter of fact, until recently, the
Muslims were calling their Christian neighbors “Gawer,” which
translates as “infidels.” A British consular, who reported on the
Muslim-Christian relationship, said: “During a period of nearly 300
years, Christians were subjected to much oppression and cruelty. For
them, no other law but the caprice of their masters existed.” There
were, however, less strident periods where such restrictions went
uninforced in some localities, and interfaith relations were fairly
cordial.
With the weakening of
the central government in Istanbul after the seventeenth century,
the security of the local Christians was shaken. The only option
open to the Assyrians was to appease the strongest Muslim neighbor
through payments of tribute in exchange for protection. In remote
districts, feudal rights continued to exist until the late
nineteenth century. These so-called “rights” were described by a
British consular as “blackmail.” The Consul Chermside relates that
“the chief alone raises blackmail on Christians; but in other cases,
it is a tribal right, which is asserted by periodical forays; the
tax in some places amounted to as much as one-fourth of the
produce.” The peasants were compelled to be serfs, to cultivate
their Master’s field without any compensation for their labor.
Before World War One,
the Christian population of the Ottoman Empire was terrorized
because of a series of massacres against Christians from the Balkans
to Armenia, Lebanon, Syria including “N. Mesopotamia.” The concept
of Jihad or “the holy war” was exploited by providing excuses for
constant raiding and annihilation of the innocent non-Muslim
villages.
Before World War One,
Russia had advanced in the Persian territories reaching Urmia, where
many of the Assyrians resided. The local Assyrians regarded the new
troops—comparatively speaking-- as liberators. Indeed, the Assyrians
felt for the first time free from paying tribute to the Muslims in
exchange for their shaky security. Moreover, they hoped that the
official “dhimmi” status, and the humiliating label, “Gawer:
Infidel” would be gone forever.
Beginning of W.W.
I, and the Assyrian Dilemma
In November of 1914,
the Ottoman army entered the war on the side of the Central Powers
(Germany and Austro-Hungary). Thus, a new front was opened against
Russia in the East and North. A month later, and under the Ottoman
offensive against Russian forces in northwest Persia, the Russian
forces withdrew from Northwest Persia (including Urmia, Salamas) on
January 2, 1915. For fear of the Ottomans, who either could not or
would not differentiate between the Russians and local Christians,
most of the young Assyrians, estimated at 15,000, accompanied the
Russian troops in their retreat, leaving behind their families,
children and elders spread around 70 villages. Thus, the Ottoman
troops (Turks and Kurds) occupied the whole Azerbaijan region,
including the Assyrian lands. The Ottoman domination of this region
continued for five more months because the Russians re-occupied the
same region.
What Happened During
this Five Months?
An overwhelming number
of documents have been produced about the genocide committed against
the defenseless Assyrians in this region. Immediately after the
retreat of the Russians, 10,000 Kurdish irregulars followed by
20,000 Turkish troops, led by Djevdet Bey, the governor of Van
Province, entered the villages and began ransacking and massacring
the defenseless inhabitants. Thousands left behind everything and
sought refuge at the various missionary compounds of the French and
the Americans. After one month Djevdet Bey declared that: “We have
made a clean sweep of the Armenians and the Assyro-Chaldeans of
Azerbaijan.” The chief English language source covering this period
is The British Blue Book. Of 684 pages of this Book, 104 pages are
devoted to the Assyrian massacres and are divided into 21 documents.
The Blue Book describes such moments, as I quote: “On one side, the
Kurds invaded the plain, followed by the Turkish troops. On the
other side, the Muslim villagers began sacking, massacring and
raping. Those villages, which did not defend themselves, suffered
for the same reason as those who opposed a resistance. A certain
Miss Platt, a missionary in Urmia, witnessed that the Turkish consul
extorted 6,000 Tomans from the Assyrians (Assyro-Chaldeans) in
exchange for their security. A few days later, that very consul
imprisoned all the Assyrians who were refugees in the French
mission; 48 were shot to death and five were hung. The reports even
reached as far away as the U.S.: President Wilson sent a special
demand to the Turkish government that American interests in Urmia,
especially the missionary efforts, not be endangered. The total
number of Assyrians killed in this five month period was 5,000. The
Blue Book concludes: “It is safe to say that a part of this outrage
and ruin was directly due to the Turks, and that none of it would
have happened except for them.”
The Russian
Victory and the Assyrians Further Dilemma
In May 1915, the
Russians recaptured the territories, which they had been lost to the
Ottomans five months earlier (including Urmia and Salamas). The
local Assyrians regained some relief from the atrocities of the
Ottomans. This time, the Assyrians under Russian domination allied
themselves with the Russian forces there. In a real sense, however,
the Assyrians had no choice but to follow the desire of the powerful
Russian forces. And in an act of retaliation, the Ottomans turned
against their Assyrian subjects inside the Ottoman territories. All
the good-will gestures of the Assyrians towards their Ottoman
authorities, and their attempts to distance themselves from the
Assyrians beyond the Ottoman border by means of loyalty and church
affiliation everything proved futile in the end.
The Ottoman Interior
Minister, Tallat, and War Minister, Evan Pasha urged “purification
of Turkey, and in the process, the elimination of the
“unaccommodating” Christians. Thus, Djevdad Bey turned his defeated
forces against local Assyrian Christians. Djevdad, nicknamed Kassab
tabouri (battalion of butchers), massacred the entire Christian
population of Siirt and its environs. Over 70 Christian villages
were sacked and burned, and all the clergy including the famous
scholar Bishop Addai Scheri, fell victim to Djevdad’s sword.
Wherever there was an Assyrian presence, the population was
decimated. This happened from the mountains of Hakkari (which
bordered the newly created Russian frontier) all the way west to Tur
Abdin and Mardin, including Dyarbekir (Amida), Bitlis, Urfa
(Edessa), Adana, Siirt, and Jezirat Ibn Omar. The Assyrians
throughout the region were deported forcibly or massacred, their
houses destroyed, and their churches, monuments and cemeteries
pillaged and desecrated with human excrement. A report in L’Asie
Française of that time is quoted as saying: “The martyrdom of the
Assyrians who have all been virtually massacred in the district of
Dyarbekir and in the region of Siirt recalls in the most vivid way
the Armenian slaughter. … Over 25,000 Assyrians were massacred by
Turks and Kurds, or died of hunger or other causes inflicted on the
deportation routes in 1915.”
In desperation, the
Assyrians of Hakkari (bordering Russian frontier) debated two
choices. The first was to continue to show allegiance to the
Ottomans and endure constant humiliation from the Muslims (Ottomans)
with slower decimation; this choice was represented by Nemrod
Shimmon, the cousin of the Assyrian (Nestorian) Patriarch. The
second was to venture upon a new opportunity of alliance with the
Russians, with the risk of quicker decimation. Under an intense
propaganda of enticement from the Russians, the tribal chiefs
decided to protect themselves by playing the “Christian,” Russian,
solidarity card.
While the Assyrians of
Hakkari, mostly from the church of the East (Nestorians) sided with
the Russians, the rest of the Assyrians throughout the Ottoman “N.
Mesopotamia” had only one choice, that was to demonstrate their
unquestioned allegiance to the Sublime Port.
The Ottoman
Reaction
The response of the
Sublime Port was speedy, first against the Christians of Hakkari.
Regular Ottoman troops, supported by irregular Kurds from the North,
and the Ottoman troops of Hayder Pasha (Mosul governor-general) from
the south simultaneously launched attacks against Assyrians in their
mountain refuges. The furies of their attacks left the Assyrians in
tatters and hurry to their exodus. Thus, a long exodus under heavy,
prolonged attack began from Hakkari toward Salamas (in Persia) to
join their fellow Assyrians under the rule of the Russians. The
hardships of this forced march to safety over 150 miles caused about
one third of them to perish.
For a year and a half,
the Assyrians under Russian domination enjoyed security and even
prosperity. In April, 1917, the American missionary in Urmia wrote
to his Board that the Assyrian church problem was resolving itself.
Moreover, Assyrians felt positive in that they had endured and the
Church had stability.
But what about the
rest of the Assyrians (West Syriac Churches: Orthodox, Catholic,
Protestants & Chaldeans) in the middle and west of “N. Mesopotamia”?
Realizing their
pending fate, the terrified Christians made every effort possible to
appease their Ottoman masters, whether through distancing themselves
from other Christian denominations, namely, the Armenians and
Assyrians, or showing neutrality and loyalty in a variety of ways.
For example, the Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox church wrote a
telegram to the grand vizier, condemning the “Armenian
disturbances,” and thanking “his Majesty for the protection he has
ever accorded to it, as also to our Mussulman compatriots.” Finally,
the Patriarch begged, -- and I quote: “under these circumstances, we
can but appeal to the Sovereign, our sole refuge, to protect us in
his mercy.”
Meanwhile, the
language of “the holy war,” Jihad, aroused Muslims against their
powerless Christian neighbors. Between the so-called “acts of mobs,”
and direct orders of the Ottoman authorities, one third of the
Assyrian people of various denominations were killed. The rest
remained “a hostage people,” subjected to all sorts of humiliation,
dispersion and annihilation. The following Syrian Patriarch, I.
Ephrem, reported (and I quote): “the ‘rumor’ was that the Armenians
had rebelled; in reality the mobs were calling for extermination of
“all the Christians.”
While thousands of
documents and eyewitness testimonies abound, the American newspaper,
New York Times, during W.W. I, contains hundreds of reports about
the Ottoman atrocities against its Christian subjects, and several
U.S. government protests and petitions to the Ottoman authorities
concerning attacks against Christian innocents. Among many such
reports was an item on December 20, 1916, in the New York Times
stating, “Syrian Patriarch Slain: Murdered in His Residence in [Mardin]
by Band of Turks”. Elsewhere, the Newspaper warns that the Christian
population has been terrorized and is in a starving condition.
Russian Final Retreat and the Tragedy of the Assyrians in the East
In October of 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution disturbed the balance
of the allied position in general, and the relative safety of the
Assyrians in the East in particular. In an attempt to contain the
vacuum created by withdrawal of the Russian forces, and to deal with
the Assyrians, a meeting of the allied representatives was held in
Urmia in December 1917. At this meeting, Captain Gracey (of the
British Intelligence Service) pledged to protect the Assyrians and
provide them with autonomy, provided that the Assyrians would fight
and hold to their units until the arrival of the British forces.
The task set for the
Assyrians to accomplish was not easy. While they had not yet been
attacked by regular Ottoman troops, the Assyrians fought
continuously against Turkish and Kurdish irregulars. On February
1918, and on the advice of Captain Gracey, the Assyrian Patriarch,
Mar Benjamin Shammun, sought reconciliation with the Kurdish Ismail
Agha Simko, a former Russian ally. Gracey’s aim was to convince
Simko, the most Kurdish tribal chief in Persia, to side as the
Assyrians with the Allies. Responding to the Patriarch’s
initiative, Simko suggested a meeting. Thus, the patriarch along
with some Russian officers went to the meeting at Simko’s residence.
“Everything seemed to be going fine,” and upon the conclusion of the
meeting, Simko escorted the Patriarch and kissed his hand; but soon
Simko signaled to hidden guards who began firing point blank on the
Patriarch and his companions. The Assyrians reacted to this
treacherous murder of their Patriarch by launching an attack on
Simko’s village. But Simko had anticipated their reaction and had
planned his offensive against the Assyrian villages when their
fighters were away. In Khoy, Simko killed 3,800 women, children and
elders.
Soon after, the
regular Ottoman troops approached the region and began a series of
systematic attacks on Urmia. Surrounded by such adversaries, the
Assyrians had to defend their units until the arrival of the
British. At this time, Armenian refugees arrived to reinforce the
Assyrian units and sided with them for their common defense.
Surprisingly, their desperate resistance succeeded to the extent
that the British troops coming from southern Mesopotamia were able
to establish strategic points in Persia, but they did not make it to
Urmia.
The situation at this
stage reached an impasse. The only choice to avoid extinction was
another mass exodus of Assyrians, directed first toward Hamadan (in
Iran), then to Baquba (in present Iraq) where the British troops
were campaigning. Some 100,000 Assyrians left Urmia, leaving behind
14,000 elderly or indisposed others unable to move, who were
massacred by the Ottoman invaders.
In the aftermath of
the war, the Assyrians were denied the right to settle or even
reenter their ancestral homelands in Hakkari region. In this regard,
the Turkish consul general at Baghdad declared on June 25, 1928:
“The Turkish amnesty law does not cover the Assyrians who would not
be allowed under any circumstances to reenter Turkey; that any
Assyrian who attempts to enter Turkey would be punished.”
Furthermore, the Deputy of Iraq, Chalabi Thabit stated before his
Parliament: “The Assyrians are a despicable and corrupt people, who
have been sheltered and fed in Iraq. The hope was that they would
become loyal and faithful subjects but instead, now sated. They
react to our hospitality with ingratitude by claiming ridiculous
rights from their host. .. We can no longer wait, the cup is full.
We insist that our government adopt appropriate measures to repress
them.”
Conclusion
The Assyrians of the
East had no choice but to work out their fate with the Russians. By
doing so, they lost one third of their people. On the other hand,
the Assyrians of the West Syriac Churches, who until the end
remained loyal to the Ottoman authorities, which was their only
choice any way, were humiliated, dispersed and also lost one third
of its people. Finally, when Syria was under the French mandate, the
Turks granted “permission … to all Christians” to leave Turkey,
creating another flight of refugees. Assyrian Christians (of East
and West Syriac Churches) in large numbers fled their land, bringing
to an end their centuries old history in Tur Abdin, Mardin, Adana,
Urfa, and others. The vast majority of them were helpless victims,
and innocent of all political ambitions.
Partially, this is the
story of the Assyrian victims by their Ottoman victimizers. The
whole story, however, stems from wrong political and religious
practice. In this case, it was the Ottomans, their desire to rule by
purity of race and elimination of perceived opposition with all its
dangerous consequences, but it could be any country of any religion.
Through intentional education which perpetrates the inherent
superiority of one race or religion over coexisting races and
religions, the group in power assumes control by establishing a
relationship of servitude among its minority groups. It thereby
justifies any action that serves its interest and most especially
those actions which reinforce the master/slave or superior/inferior
status. When resources are short, or situations direful, the
superior group will always feel justified in plundering and even
eliminating the inferior groups, whether by perceived divine right
or simply by perceived threat to their own existence. In this
context, any discussion of “equality” is a meaningless bandying of
semantics. The Assyrians are not the first victims in history, and
unfortunately, they will not be the last. The Assyrians hope that
countries harboring such a past, anywhere, and of any religion,
would create a team of experts and objective scholars not
ambitious politicians or apologists, to carve out new spaces for
peace and reconciliation between their peoples and religions. As
such, the scythe can clear away the dead, useless material and make
ready for new life. With objective and humanitarian evaluation of
the past, future evils may be forestalled and a peaceful global
civilization prevail.
Responses to
Detractors
In response to one
questioner who dismissed the genocide because “of the kind nature of
the Turks,” the author commanded the kindness of most of the Turks,
as it is the case among all people of the world. However, the
kindness does not dismiss the fact of the Ottoman genocide against
Assyrians and others. Moreover, the kind Turks and the Turkish
authorities are required to stop the negative rhetoric against other
people in the days of peace. For example, the following extracts are
taken from an article by Nihal Atsiz published in the June 1967
issue of the nationalist journal, Otuken. I quote: “We Turks have
shed rivers of blood to take possession of these lands; we had to
uproot Georgians, Armenians and Byzantine Greeks.. The Turkish race
is very patient, but when it is really angered it is like a roaring
lion and nothing can stop it. Ask the Armenians whom we are, and let
them draw the appropriate conclusion.”
Another questioner
argued that mostly they were the Kurds and not the Turks to be hold
responsible for the Assyrian genocide. The author responded that all
the Turks, Kurds and Christians were part of the Ottoman Empire and
under its authorities; in effect, the Kurd’s role against Assyrians
was encouraged and supported by the Turkish authorities.
Other responses to
the denial:
Denial is the last
stage of genocide. It provides a moral justification for its
possible repetition.
The denial of genocide is deeply rooted in the human psyche, but the
danger of denying it is the possibility of its recurrence. I hope
that God strikes us with genocidal amnesia so that people could
forget and forgive; the problem, however, unless it is consciously
and properly solved, the genocidal cycle will not be prevented. E.
Southgate, Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobite] Church of
Mesopotamia (New York: Appleton, 1844) 87.
Among many sources
in different languages:
Cf. A. Yohannan, The
Death of a Nation: The Ever Persecuted Nestorians or Assyrian
Christians (New York and London: Knickerbocker, 1916) 85-88.
British Consul James
Zohrab reported to his ambassador in Constantinople on July 22,
1860; Cf. Bat Yeor, 25. See also John Joseph, The Nestorians and
their Muslim Neighbors: A Study of Western Influence on their
Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961) 130; Joseph
drew his source from “Correspondence Respecting the Constitutional
Movement in Turkey, 1908,” Parliamentary Papers, 105 (1909), Cmd.
4529, no. 99; Roderic H. Davison, “Turkish Attitudes Concerning
Christian-Muslim Equality in the Nineteenth Century,” The American
Historical Review 59 (1954) 844-864.
British Government,
enclosure 4 in no. 103 (Diarbekir, 20, April 1882) 146; Cf. J.
Joseph, Muslim-Christians Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries in
the Middle East: A Case of the Jacobites in an Age of Transition
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983) 26. I. J.
Benjamin, Eight years in Asia and Africa from 1846-1855 (Hannover:
1859) 96, 102-3.
In the national
archives of the British, French and American states, there is a
large collection of documents related to the genocide against
Assyrians. The Diplomatic French archives, for example, included 45
volumes on the Assyro-Chaldean question from 1915 to 1940. Document
entitled, “Arnold Toynbee Papers and Documents on the Treatment of
Armenians and Assyrian Christians by the Turks, 1915-1916, in the
Ottoman Empire and North-West Persia.”
Eyewitnesses in Urmia,
Salamas, Hakkari, Bohtan and Tabris report all the documents. The
eyewitnesses include seven American missionaries, three American
consular representatives, two American journalists, one British
missionary and four Assyrian personalities.
Blue Book, 102. Blue
Book, 131. Blue Book, 134.
“Urmiah,” The
Independent, 82 (1915) 57, Cf. John Joseph, The Nestorians and Their
Muslim Neighbors, 133.
Blue Book, 103.
Blue Book, 104.
He was the military
governor of Van and brother-in-law of Enver Pasha. L’Asie Française,
August-November (1919) 238. See also Andre N. Mandelstam, Le sort de
l’Empire Ottoman (Paris: 1917) 335.
Surma d’Bait Mar
Shimun, Assyrian Church Customs and the Murder of Mar Shimun (n.p:
1983) 72-73.
Letter to the Board,
dated April 17, 1917; quoted from J. Joseph, The Nestorians, 137.
Echos d’Orient, 424,
no. 187. Concerning the Patriarch, it was reported that he was
collaborator with the Ottoman authorities who helped him elected as
a Patriarch; See J. Joseph, Muslim-Christian Relations, 92-93.
Two Documents in the
Archive of the British Foreign Ministry; Cf. Y. Ibrahem, Mar
Ignatius Ephrem (Damascus: 1996) 68-69.
I. Ephrem Barsum,
Tarikh Tur Abdin [in Syriac], translated into Arabic by B. Bahnam,
(Lebanon: 1963) 366; Cf. I. Armalah, al-Qasara fi Nakabat al-Masara
(np.: nd) 43.
See the attached
report, New York Times, July, 7, 1916.
See the attached
report, New York Times, Dec. 20, 1916.
New York Times, Dec.
20, 1916, p. 4, col. 1.
See G. M. Dooman, Who
are These Assyrians? (London: 1942) 19-20; Gracey letter reads:
"Dear Friends, This is
the first opportunity I have had to have the honor of being present
with you. I wish now to speak to you with reference to the purpose
and the plan of the Allied powers, concerning the small and
oppressed nations such as yours. This great war that has now raged
for so long, and is still raging at tremendous cost in blood and
material to the Allies, has but one main object, and that is, the
emancipation of small and oppressed nations such as yours. You have
been oppressed beyond measure. You have now come to the verge of
extinction as a people and as a language, thanks to the misdeeds of
the Turks, assisted by their allies, the Germans. I have come to
tell you that, inasmuch as the great allied powers are making
tremendous sacrifices, and are shedding streams of blood for the
sake of saving you, and making you free, it is your duty also as a
small Christian Nation to continue in the war, and fight as you have
so splendidly fought in the past. I have been sent by my government
to declare to you as well as to other small nations, that you are
all fighting for your own freedom. I have said the same thing to the
Armenians. I have just come from Van. They are continuing in their
struggle for their freedom. You must all unite under one head, and
do the same. And so far as the feelings of the Persian Government
are concerned, you leave that matter to our legation, and to the
legations of the Allied powers in Tehran.
Furthermore, all the
expense of your army will be paid by the Allies. It has already been
arranged with the new government of Caucasia that you shall receive
all guns and ammunitions you need, and even military assistance, if
you require any.
Freedom is a very
precious and costly possession. It has always been bought by
sacrifices. You must also be willing to do the same if you wish to
possess your fatherland, where honey and milk flow.”
J. Joseph, The
Nestorians, 132.
Lady Surma, Assyrian
Church Customs, 81; Surma relates an eyewitness account of the
Russian Major Kondratoff.
L. Surma, 82-83.
League of Nations :The
Settlement of the Assyrians, a Work of Humanity and Appeasement,
Geneva, 1935, Information Section, 12.
Al-Istqlal, no. 1929,
June 29, 1933.
Abdul-Massih
Saadi
Chicago
This paper was read by Mr. Abdul-Massih
Saadi, Director of the Institute of Syriac Studies in Chicago, at
the Genocide Conference organized by Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia.
Published by
Zinda Magazine
Volume V. Issue 31
November 9, 1999
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