Principal Reasons proving The Claims of the Assyrians to Autonomy in Asia-Minor and showing the necessity as well as the advantages of this autonomy

   Firstly:  During the war, the Assyrians were the only nation of the Middle-East who officially threw their lot in with the Allies and took arms against the enemies of the Entente, they have been denominated by certain authors as "our little ally."
   Secondly:  They lost proportionately more people, money and properties than any other of the belligerent nations.
   Thirdly:  They are only asking for their own national territory, peopled with Assyrians, Allied Yezidis and Kurds, and here there are no Turks and never have been any.
   Fourthly:  All the other small peoples who, before the war, were under Turkish domination, have already obtained their autonomy (Arabs, Israelites, Armenians, Kurds, Georgians, and the people of Azerbedjian); why not the Assyrian people?
   Fifthly:  Their neighbors, the Armenians, the Kurds, etc., see no objection to the recognition of this Assyrian autonomy, (The Mohammedans would see this autonomy with sympathy.  Moslem papers, published in Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, have expressed such an opinion), because the Assyrians in the past have always maintained good relations with their Moslem neighbors, and also because the Prophet Mohammed wrote a letter of recommendation in favor of this people.  This document is well-known throughout the Islamic world, and is kept at the present moment in the National Museum at Constantinople.
   Sixthly:  The number of (Assyro-Chaldeans) at present is about two millions (2,000,000).  They form one single nation, one same race, all speaking the same language and having the same civilisation.  If they were to be left dispersed among their enemies, they would lose their nationality.
   Seventhly:  If they are left in their present state of dispersion, among their Moslem enemies of the great war they will not fail to be again massacred, and if their national territory were recognised to them, they would all return to it and would organise themselves in such a way as to insure their future safety.
   Eighthly: All the territory claimed by the Assyrians has been watered by their blood during the war, and during the war the Assyrian forces took a great part of it out of the hands of the Turks.
   Ninthly:  The recognition of this autonomy would not cause any expense, either military of financial, to the Allies.  On the contrary, in the future- when it will have been organized, the Assyrian nation will be able to render appreciable services.
   Tenthly:  It is in the interest of the Allied Powers that there must be a Christian organization separating the one from the others the different Moslem States, for the maintenance of peace and order in South East Turkey.
   Eleventhly:  Before the war, though nominally under the sovereignty of Turkey, one part of the Assyrian nation was already independent (Asherat) in reality-the Turkish authorities never having penetrated on their territory nor levied either taxes or soldiers, and that since centuries.
   Twelfthly:  The Assyrian people possess sufficient military forces to defend their territory alone if it were to be recognised by the Allied Governments; furthermore, there are enough citizens, who have received education in Europe or in America, to organize the country politically.
   Thirteenthly:  If this autonomy were not recognised to the Assyrians on their own territory (see map) the Turks would lay hold of all the mineral wealth which is there: oil, coal, gold, silver, iron, etc., and they would oblige the Assyrians to work for them without any pay.
   Fourteenthly:  SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR UNTIL NOW, ASSURANCES AND PROMISES HAVE BEEN GIVEN AND MADE TO THE ASSYRIAN PEOPLE, EITHER IN WRITING OR VERBALLY, BY THE ALLIED AUTHORITIES.

SPECIAL POINTS

Firstly.  The request presented by the Assyrians people for an autonomy within the limits of the map annexed hereto, necessitates the right of passage towards the seas.  If this be possible, they request that the Conference kindly recognise them by Alexandretta (Mediterranean) and by Basso rah (Persian Gulf).
Secondly.  The inhabitants of Azerbedjian, during the war, did not remain neutral towards the Entente.  Under the command of their chiefs, Arshad Homayon, Medjid el Saltanah, and Simko (the murderer of the Nestorian Patriarch) aided by Turkish and German officers, well supplied with cannons and machine-guns, they fought the 5th Russian Regiment Zabekalski.  Besides that all the Christian Assyrian refugees at Koi, Salmas and Urmia, although they were placed under the protection of the French and the American flags, were massacred to the number of 17,000 by the Persians of Azerbaijan, together with Mgr.  Sontag, the Apostolic Delegate for Persia, and Mr. UH6telier, both of French nationality.  The Allied Missions were reduced to ashes as well as the dwellings of  the Assyro-Chaldeans.  The region of Urmia and or Salmas is at this moment still in the hands of Simko.  The Persian Government is not able to insure order and quiet there.
In view of all these facts, Urmia and Salmas could be included in the Assyrian autonomy, this in the interest of the peace in the future, as well as a compensation for all the material losses and all the losses of human lives of the Assyrians, and of the Allies, and also because: Urmia and Salinas being situated on this side of Lake Urmia, are entirely outside of the Persian territory.
Moreover, the English, Russian, Turkish and Persian Delegates, in 1914, designated to determine the Turco-Persian frontier, have rectified this frontier almost entirely in conformity to this request.
The Assyrian people, after all they have suffered, deserve their definite separation from the Turks and Persians with whom they, however, desire to live in a perfect state of peace.
 

CONCLUSION

The independence which the Assyrians are seeking to obtain, is not requested as a charity, they have fought for it, they have paid for it with streams of their own blood which was shed on the battlefields, in Kurdistan, in Turkey, in Persia, in Russia, in Poland and in France.  A nation who has lost, owing to the role played in the world-war, one third of her numerical forces,-should certainly be entitled to the recognition of her independence.  She requests it by making an appeal to the sentiment of justice and equity of the Allies.
The above claims are in perfect agreement with the desires expressed by all the religious, military and civil personages and all the population composing the Assyrian nation.
 

NOTICE
LOSSES OF THE ASSYRIANS IN HUMAN LIFE AND MATERIAL

The Great War has cost the (Assyro-Chaldean) people about:

  1. 275,000 persons killed, massacred, etc.
  2. 2 million pounds sterling, war expenditure,
  3. 8,700,000 pounds sterling loss for burning of houses, and destruction, theft of jewels and goods, etc., and loss of revenue from property.
  4. 2 milliards pounds, price of lands, towns and villages which the Assyrians had bought and paid for in gold.
   If their autonomy were not recognized to them, the Assyrians would have no other resource, for the security of their lives, than to abandon these properties and flee to Europe or America; who would reimburse them the tremendous loss thus undergone?

15th of April 1922.
ASSYRIAN DELEGATION, 12, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris.

Despite the fact that the Treaty of Lausanne did not explicitly grant the Assyrians their promised national rights, it was a significant step in that it appointed a committee to lay down the frontiers between Turkey and Iraq and it was hoped at that time that special considerations will be given to the lot of the Assyrians.  In addition, the Treaty defined the nationality of all the peoples under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.  For the first time the Assyrian name was mentioned in this international Treaty.  However, the wording of Article 3 was not clear and this led to conflict between Britain and Turkey which resulted into the "Mosul Controversy."