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76-572: With regards to separatism from Iraq , the Assyrian Democratic Movement maintains that it does not seek the division of Iraq in order to establish an Assyrian state and states in its manifesto: The national axis in the approach of the Assyrian Democratic Movement has components of the Iraqi people, and to contribute to building the democratic pluralistic federal state and establishing the Iraqi state based on justice, equality and

152-576: A holy war on the British, French and Russian Empires. Ottoman Turkish army and allied Kurdish, Turcoman, Circassian and Chechen militias proceeded to massacre tens of thousands of Assyrians in the Hakkari mountains of Kurdistan (upper Mesopotamia, present-day southeastern Turkey) due to Russia's massacres and hostilities towards Muslim populations in northern Iran (including but not limited to Azeris, Turkmen, and Iranians) in 1911 and onwards. Following

228-594: A Conference with me in Mosul on the 20th October 1931. At this Conference were present the temporal and spiritual leaders of the Assyrian Nation in its entirely as it will be observed from the document quoted above bearing the leaders' signatures." He goes on to say that at the conference, "it was unanimously decided by all those present that it is quite impossible for us to live in Iraq." He added that "together with

304-544: A December 4, 1922, memorandum that the total death toll is unknown, but it estimates that about 275,000 Assyrians died between 1914 and 1918. The Assyrian rebellion was an uprising by the Assyrians in Hakkari that began on the 3rd of September 1924 and ended on the 28th of September. The Assyrians of Tyari and Tkhuma returned to their ancestral land in Hakkari in 1922, shortly after World War I without permission from

380-686: A National Assembly, drafting of a permanent constitution to be voted on by the Iraqi people, and elections to a permanent government. Despite having to answer to the CPA, different factions took on controversial stands. Religious hardliners won a solid victory when Directive 137 was passed on 29 December 2003. Passed by the council in less than 15 minutes, it replaced Iraq's former secular family law code with Shari'a family law. This move met with wide protest among many Iraqi women fearful of how it will affect their freedom to make their own decisions about marriage, alimony, and many other issues where Iraq used to be

456-703: A church. The Russians discovered more than 700 bodies of massacre victims in the village of Hafdewan outside Urmia, mostly naked and mutilated, some with gunshot wounds, others decapitated, and still others carved to pieces. Other leading British and American newspapers corroborated these accounts of the Assyrian genocide. The New York Times reported on 11 October that 12,000 Assyrian Christians had died of massacre, hunger, or disease; thousands of girls as young as seven had been raped in sex attacks, or forcibly converted to Islam; Christian villages had been destroyed, and three-fourths of these Christian villages were burned to

532-732: A few Turkomans . The original Levies were not Assyrians until 1928 when the Levies became entirely Assyrian. As a high British official in Mesopotamia wrote in 1933: "As they became more disciplined they rendered excellent service; during the Arab rebellion of 1920 they displayed, under conditions of the greatest trial, steadfast loyalty to their British officers." In 1931 Assyrian Levies and Iraqi Army units were patrolling Barzan district. Government troops implied government control, which Shaykh Ahmad still wanted to avoid. On October 23, 1931,

608-464: A leader in the Arab world for women's rights . Other legislation passed by the council included declaring the day that Baghdad fell to be a national holiday, voting to establish a tribunal to try former government leaders, and banning television stations which are deemed to be supportive of the resistance. A new flag chosen by the council for post-Saddam Iraq created much controversy, in part because of

684-775: A real prospect of fighting with the Russians to evict the Ottoman forces from Persia, and historic Assyria. The Assyrians, under such leaders as Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba , scored a number of victories over the Ottoman and Turkmen forces despite overwhelming odds during this period, until the Russian Revolution of 1917 dissolved the Russian army. Lacking allies except the British some miles away in Mesopotamia,

760-561: Is a political movement and ethno-nationalist desire of ethnic Assyrians to live in their indigenous Assyrian homeland in northern Mesopotamia under the self-governance of an Assyrian State . The tumultuous history of the traditional Assyrian homeland and surrounding regions, as well as the Partition of the Ottoman Empire , led to the emergence of modern Assyrian nationalism . To this respect, Assyrian independence movement

836-435: Is a "catch-all" term of the collective efforts of proponents of Assyrian nationalism in the context of the modern nation state . As a result of genocide and war , the Assyrians were reduced to a minority population in their indigenous homeland, resulting in political autonomy being unattainable due to the security risks, and the rise of the movement for Assyrian independence as it exists today. The territory that forms

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912-631: Is also represented in the Kurdistan parliament . Party members and Assyrians in general have been the focus of some Islamic insurgent attacks in the time since the fall of Saddam Hussein . The party also operates Ashur TV, Ashur Radio and issues the Bahra newspaper. The party is based in the former headquarters of the Fedayeen Saddam in Zayouna, Baghdad . On July 22, 2023 the party joined

988-519: The Arab League , which agreed to seat its representative in Iraq's chair at its meetings. On 1 June 2004, the Council dissolved after choosing member Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer as the president of the new Iraq interim government . Full sovereignty was transferred to the interim government (and the CPA dissolved) on 28 June. Though subject to the authority of the CPA administrator Paul Bremer ,

1064-875: The Armenians , Greeks and Assyrians of eastern Anatolia, including the Hakkari mountains in Van province, were the subject of forced relocations and executions, a possible cause being religious persecution. The Hakkari region was the main center of Assyrian population in early 20th century. According to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople , there were 18,000 Assyrians in Van Vilayet , 15,000 in Bitlis Vilayet and 25,000 in Diyarbekir Vilayet in 1912/1913. In 1914, Young Turks with

1140-476: The Athra Alliance , a political alliance representing Assyrian interests in Iraq. The party has faced many setbacks since the beginning of the Iraq invasion. The organizational structure of the party is as follows: The party is organized into several branches both in Iraq and in the diaspora. Some of these branches include: Assyrian independence movement The Assyrian independence movement

1216-842: The Catholicos of the Church of the East , Mar Shimun XXI Eshai , and the maliks of the Jilu , Baz , Tkhuma, and Upper Tiyari tribes wrote to the Chairman of the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations to request resettlement out of Iraq, to French Syria or any other country in the League that would accept them as refugees. The Patriarch wrote that: "The Assyrian Nation which is temporarily living in Iraq, ... have unanimously held

1292-1033: The Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Al-Hasakah Governorate in Syria . Mosul and the Nineveh Governorate had a sizable Assyrian presence prior to the takeover and forced expulsion of the Assyrian population by the Islamic State in 2014. In his 53 years as Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East , Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII petitioned the League of Nations , and then the United Nations for an Assyrian Homeland before stepping down as Patriarch in 1973. The assassination of Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII in 1975

1368-695: The Ottoman Empire . For example, the International Association of Genocide Scholars reached a consensus that "the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, Pontian and Anatolian Greeks and Maronites." After this resolution, the Dictionary of Genocide co-authored by eminent genocide scholar Samuel Totten , an expert on Holocaust education and

1444-584: The 19th century with the waning of the Ottoman Empire and rise of European control of the region, notably by the British and Russian Empires, as well as the French Republic . There have been many hindrances to the movement, including events such as the Assyrian genocide , Simele massacre , internal conflicts over naming disputes and Assyrian churches, portrayals in media, and Arabization , Kurdification , and Turkification policies. Most recently,

1520-657: The ADM an officially recognized Iraqi opposition movement. In a December 9, 2002, memorandum, President Bush invoked both articles four and five of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 as a means of allowing the United States government to provide financial resources to the ADM and other Iraqi opposition groups. Kanna himself participated in a September 2002 meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders in New York and addressed

1596-625: The Assyrian Brothers, with the hope of fulfilling the political objectives of the Assyrian people in Iraq , in response to the oppressive brutality of the Ba'ath regime and its attempts to forcibly expropriate ethnic Assyrians from their native lands. The ideology of the movement stemmed from Assyrian cultural awareness that had developed in Urmia and Harput during the Assyrian independence movement . The movement took up armed struggle against

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1672-519: The Assyrian homeland is, similarly to the rest of Mesopotamia , currently divided between present-day Iraq , Turkey , Iran , and Syria . The efforts are specifically in the regions where larger concentrations still exist, and not the Assyrian homeland in its entirety, those regions with large concentrations being Erbil , and the Duhok Governorate in Iraq , the latter two being located in

1748-550: The Assyrian nation died of murder, disease, or exposure as refugees during the war, according to the head of the Anglican Church , which had a mission to the Assyrians. Scholars have placed the number of Assyrian victims at 250,000 to 500,000. Contemporary sources usually speak of the events in terms of an Assyrian genocide , along with the Armenian genocide , Greek genocide and Great Famine of Mount Lebanon by

1824-599: The Assyrians be given autonomy within Iraq, seeking support from Britain . He pressed his case before the League of Nations in 1932. His followers planned to resign from the Assyrian Levies (a levy under the command of the British, serving British interests), and to re-group as a militia and concentrate in the north, creating a de facto Assyrian enclave. In June 1933, the Patriarch was invited to Baghdad for negotiations with Hikmat Sulayman 's government and

1900-544: The Assyrians had survived the Arab, Mongol, and Kurdish conquests in the mountains of Hakkari and northern Mesopotamia , where they had fought to maintain their independence in the nineteenth century. In 2016, the Iraqi Parliament voted against a new Christian province in Nineveh Plains , which was a stated political objective of all major Assyrian political groups and institutions. Assyrians, including

1976-678: The Assyrians planned to follow the Russian lines to the Caucasus, but the Allies (including British , French , and Russian diplomats) urged Mar Shimoun and the Assyrian army to defend the Allied-Ottoman front lines, and enjoy autonomy and independence in the post-war period as their reward. An Assyrian nation under British and Russian protection was promised the Assyrians first by Russian officers, and later confirmed by Captain Gracey of

2052-521: The Assyrians, offering them 20,000 rifles. The Assyrian army grew to 20,000 men co-led by Agha Petrus Elia of the Bit- Bazi tribe, and Malik Khoshaba of the Bit- Tiyari tribe, according to Joseph Naayem, a key witness, whose account on the atrocities was prefaced by Lord James Bryce. The Assyrian Syriac Christians of Diyarbekir Vilayet made significant resistance. Their strongest stand

2128-495: The British Intelligence Service over indigenous Kurdish land. Based on these representations, the Assyrians of Hakkari, under their Mar Shimun XIX Benjamin and the Assyrian tribal chiefs "decided to side with the Allies, first with Christian Russia, and next with the British, in the hope that they might secure after the victory, a self-government for the Assyrians." The French also joined the alliance with

2204-643: The British, Russian and French empires in Asia. In 1914, knowing that it was heading into the war, the Ottoman government passed a law that required the conscription of all young males into the Ottoman army to support the war effort. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I in October 1914 by bombarding Russian ports on the Black Sea . In late 1914 and 1915, the Ottoman Empire under the Young Turk regime declared

2280-884: The Chaldo-Assyrian Students' Union, Hammurabi Scouts, Assyrian Women's Union of Iraq and the Assyrian Aid Society. The ADM has endured a struggle through the sacrifice of its martyrs' in the arena of armed struggle. On 14 July 1984, the Saddam led regime attacked ADM locations in Baghdad, arresting more than 150 members of the movement who were imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison . Twenty-two members were sentenced to life imprisonment, and four were sentenced to death where Yousip Toma , Youbert Shlimon and Youkhana Jajo were hanged on treason charges. Jamil Matti and Sheba Hamey were later killed by

2356-586: The Iraqi Army while safeguarding the villages of Hejerke and Pireka in Simele . Relatives of ADM members were also imprisoned, tortured and murdered for their connection to the movement. Some ADM members were victims of political assassinations such as Francis Yousef Shabo who was allegedly assassinated by Wahid Kovli. Due to successful lobbying from influential Assyrian-Americans and from Congressman Henry Hyde , American President George W. Bush designated

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2432-606: The Iraqi regime in 1982 under the leadership of Ninos Pithyou with the primary focus of defending Assyrian villages, and joined the Iraqi-Kurdistan Front (IKF) in the early 1990s. Since its inception, the ADM have joined with the Iraqi patriotic factions in the fight against dictatorship. The movement has also participated in the political field since 1982 alongside other groups. It started by issuing its central newspaper, Bahra , in June 1982. In 1988, fighter members of

2508-458: The Kurdish chieftain himself managed to flee. The issue between the two in this case was a proxy war between Iran and Russia. The Assyrian National Council stated in a December 4, 1922, memorandum that the total death toll was unknown, but it estimated that about 275,000 Assyrians died between 1914 and 1918. The Times of London was perhaps the first widely respected publication to document

2584-635: The London conference of Iraqi opposition leaders in December 2002. In February 2003, Kanna addressed both Iraqi opposition leaders and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at a conference in northern Iraq. Just hours prior to the American-led war against Iraq in March 2003, Kanna stressed the importance of the coming war for the history of the Assyrian people. He noted that some Assyrians were leaving the cities for

2660-454: The Ottoman forces to their British allies across the border in Mesopotamia. Up to 100,000 Assyrians left Persia in 1918, but around half died of Turkish, Kurdish and Arab massacres and related outbreaks of starvation and disease. About 80 percent of Assyrian clergy and spiritual leaders had perished, threatening the nation's ability to survive as a unit. Hannibal Travis, assistant professor of law at Florida International University , wrote in

2736-583: The Ottomans. The Ottomans, unable to break the Assyrians, then brought in heavy artillery and ammunition that, together with an overwhelming advantage in numbers and supplies, eventually overwhelmed the lightly armed and outnumbered Assyrians. The Russian Army Corps had promised reinforcements, which came too late, leading most of the population of the tribes and districts of JILU , Baz , Tyari , Tkhuma, Tergawar , Mergawar, Bohtan , Barwari , Amadia and Seert to be massacred, including women, children and

2812-542: The Persian border onto the plains of Urmia . In April 1915 the Assyrian nation, led by its main tribal chiefs of Bit- Jilu , Bit- Bazi , Bit- Tyari , Bit- Tkhuma , Bit-Shamasha, Bit-Eshtazin, Bit- Nochiya and Bit-Diz "took arms against the Turks at the request of the Russians and British." Over the summer of 1915 they successfully held off the far larger Ottoman army and 10,000 Turkish militia and tribal forces fighting with

2888-644: The Turkish government. This led to clashes between the Assyrians and the Turkish army with their Arab allies that grew into a rebellion in 1924, it ended with the Assyrians being forced to retreat to Iraq. The Ottoman forces threatened Urmia and northwestern Persia after the Russian Revolution (1917) in October 1917. The Assyrians, led by Assyrian general Agha Petros held them off until June 1918, however their Armenian allies resistance broke and vastly outnumbered, out gunned and cut off from lines of supply, they were again encircled and had no choice but to break through

2964-438: The aid of the Kurds and other Muslim ethnic groups, began to systemically target the ancient indigenous Christian communities of Asia Minor , primarily composed of Armenians , Assyrians , Greeks and to a small degree Georgians . Events such as the Assyrian genocide , Greek genocide and Armenian genocide followed, as did the similarly motivated Great Famine of Mount Lebanon which targeted Maronite Christians . In

3040-514: The banner of [a] free democratic Iraq." The site's declarations include calls for official recognition of the rights of Assyrians and "unity of our people under their several religious identities": the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syriac Catholic / Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East . The group supports the idea of a federal Iraq, and maintains good relations with other Assyrian and Kurdish groups present in northern Iraq, as well as with Shi'a leaders in southern Iraq. The movement

3116-431: The beginning, key Assyrian nationalist leaders and religious figures were wiped out of communities, followed by the systematic massacre and ethnic cleansing by the Turks , Arabs , Kurds , Chechens and Circassians of hundreds of thousands of unarmed men, women and children. At the outset of World War I , almost one half of the Assyrian population lived in what is today South eastern Turkey occupied assyria with

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3192-423: The border to return to their villages in Northern Iraq, where their wives and children had remained. The French , who at the time were controlling Syria, had notified the Iraqis that the Assyrians were not armed; but while the Iraqi soldiers were disarming those whose arms had been returned, shots were fired resulting in 30 Iraqi and Assyrian casualties. Anti-Assyrian and Anti-British xenophobia , apparent throughout

3268-403: The council had several key powers of its own. Their duties included appointing representatives to the United Nations , appointing interim ministers to Iraq's vacant cabinet positions, and drafting a temporary constitution , the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL). The TAL spelled out the provisions which were to govern the Iraqi Interim Government , and the timeline for holding elections to

3344-485: The course of few years." On June 1, 1932, the Assyrian Levies presented a signed memorial to their commanding officer stating that "all the men had decided to cease serving as from 1st July." The reason was Britain had "failed adequately to ensure the future of the Assyrian nation after the termination of their mandate over Iraq." They had dug trenches and were determined on destroying the Assyrians and taking their properties and possessions. Assyrians painfully remembered

3420-430: The crisis, accelerated. Reports circulated of Assyrian mutilation of Iraqi soldiers, later proven to be false. In Baghdad, the government panicked, fearing disaster as the Assyrians presented a formidable fighting force that could provoke a general uprising in the north. The government unleashed Kurdish irregulars who killed some 120 inhabitants of two Assyrian villages in the week of August 2 to August 9 (with most of

3496-401: The elderly. Churches and monasteries were destroyed or converted into Mosques, livestock and possessions were stolen by the Turks and Turkmens, who then occupied the emptied Assyrian towns, villages and farmsteads. Survivors of fighting age joined the Assyrians of northwest Persia, northern Iraq and northeast Syria, including those from Salamas and Urmia to form an Assyrian army , and had

3572-493: The end, around 65 Assyrian villages were targeted in the Mosul and Dohuk districts. The Semele or Simele massacre was the systematic targeting of Assyrians of Northern Iraq in August 1933. This included not only the massacre of Simele, but also the killing spree that continued among 63 Assyrian villages in the Dohuk and Mosul districts that led to the deaths of an estimated 3,000 innocent Assyrians. Iraqi Governing Council The Iraqi Governing Council ( IGC )

3648-437: The fact that 250,000 Assyrians eventually died in the Ottoman genocide of Christians, a figure which many journalists and scholars have subsequently accepted.... As the Earl of Listowel, speaking in the House of Lords on 28 November 1933, stated, the Assyrians fought on our side during the war, and made enormous sacrifices, having lost altogether by the end of the War about two-thirds of their total number. .... About half of

3724-415: The genocide in Darfur , contained an entry on the "Assyrian genocide."[18] The president of Genocide Watch, Gregory Stanton , endorsed the "repudiation by the world's leading genocide scholars of the Turkish government's ninety year denial of the Ottoman Empire's genocides against its Christian populations, including Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians." The death toll of the Assyrian genocide in Turkey alone

3800-496: The ground. In Iraq, the Assyrians joined the Kurds and Arabs in celebrating the Ottoman defeat, and joining the levies of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia . Up to 1921 the Levies had consisted of Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans. Now that an Iraqi Army was to be formed, the Arabs would be required to join it rather than to go to Levies. It was decided to enlist Assyrians in the Levies. In July 1922, orders were issued in which no more Arabs were to be enlisted, as they were required to join

3876-418: The headquarters of the police. There they carried out mass infanticide , leading the poor little things to the top of a mountain known as Ras-el Hadjar and cut their throats one by one, throwing their bodies into an abyss. In October 1914, 71 Assyrian rebels males of Gawar were arrested and taken to the local government centre in Bashkale and killed in cold blood. Also in April, Turkish troops surrounded

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3952-467: The headquarters of the police. There they led the poor little things to the top of a mountain known as Ras-el Hadjar and cut their throats one by one, throwing their bodies into an abyss, according to Joseph Naayem. In April 1915, Ottoman Troops invaded Gawar, a region of Hakkari, and massacred the entire population. In late 1915, Cevdet Bey , Military Governor of Van Province , upon entering Siirt (or Seert) with 8,000 soldiers whom he himself ordered

4028-417: The leader of the Assyrian Christian party Bet al-Nahrain, Romio Hakkari, protested the Iraqi parliament's decision and stated "We do not want to be part of the possible Sunni (Arab) autonomous region in Iraq". Assyrians primarily lived in the provinces of Hakkari , Şırnak , and Mardin in southeastern Turkey, These areas had sizable Kurdish and Armenian populations. Starting in the nineteenth century,

4104-496: The massacre occurring on August 7). Then on August 11, Kurdish general Bakr Sidqi (who had clashed with Assyrians before) led a march to what was then one of the most heavily inhabited Assyrian area in Iraq, the Simele district. The Assyrian population of the district of Simele was indiscriminately massacred; men women, and children. In one room alone, eighty one Assyrians of Baz tribe were massacred. Religious leaders were prime targets; eight Assyrian priests were killed during

4180-420: The massacre of 1933 in Simele and the surrounding villages and pledged "Never Again!". They remembered the raping and pillaging of defenseless Assyrian villagers. In early 1933, the American representative in Iraq, Paul Knabenshue , described public animosity towards the Assyrians as reaching a 'fever' pitch. With Iraq's independence, the new Assyrian spiritual-temporal leader, Shimun XXI Eshai , demanded that

4256-431: The massacre of almost 20,000 Assyrian civilians in at least 30 villages. Cevdet is reported to have held a meeting in February 1915 at which he said, "We have cleansed the Armenian and Assyrian Christians from Azerbaijan , and we will do the same in Van". The following is a list documenting the villages that were attacked by Cevdet's soldiers and the estimated number of Assyrian deaths: The village of Sairt/Seert,

4332-418: The massacre, including one beheaded and another burned alive. Girls were raped and women violated and made to march naked before the Muslim army commanders. Holy books were used as fuel for burning girls. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were flung in the air and pierced with bayonets. Back in the city of Nohadra , 600 Assyrians were killed by Sidqi's men. In

4408-426: The movement and its headquarters as well as the rest of the Kurdish parties were attacked in the Al-Anfal Campaign . ADM participated in the 1991 uprising , then won seats in parliamentary elections for the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 1992. The ADM is credited with the development of education in the Syriac language in both elementary and secondary schools as well as the initiation of different organizations such as

4484-414: The new Iraqi Army , those serving could not re-engage, A 1922 Treaty between Great Britain and Iraq allowed for the continued existence of the Levies as "local forces of the Imperial garrison" and that its members were "members of the British Forces who are inhabitants of Iraq". By 1923 the ethnic composition of the Iraq Levies was half Assyrian and half Kurd , plus an attached battalion of Marsh Arabs and

4560-588: The peer-reviewed journal Genocide Studies and Prevention that the Assyrian city of Urmia was "completely wiped out, the inhabitants massacred," with 200 surrounding villages ravaged, 200,000 of Assyrian dead, and hundreds of thousands more Assyrians starving to death in exile from their agricultural lands. The Associated Press reported that in the vicinity of Urmia, Turkish regular troops and Kurds are persecuting and massacring Assyrian Christians. The victims included 800 massacred near Urmia, and 2,000 dead from disease. Two hundred Assyrians were burned to death inside

4636-426: The primary problem for them has been ISIS , which took over and expelled a massive portion of the population from the Nineveh Plains in Northern Iraq. The Assyrian Aid Society of America has requested that the U.S. government designate these actions as a genocide against Assyrians in these regions. Austen Henry Layard , the British Empire's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, stated that

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4712-417: The remainder living over the borders in what is now northern Iraq occupied assyria north east Syria and north west Iran. The Young Turks , an ultra-nationalist Turkish group, took control of the Ottoman Empire only five years before the beginning of World War I . The Ottomans planned to join the side of the Central Powers ( Germany , the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria ) and join them in dividing up

4788-446: The rights of all components. And the common destiny of our Chaldean Assyrian people with the components of the Iraqi people, national and religious Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians, Sabians, Yazidis and Shabaks. The Assyrian Democratic Movement was founded on April 12, 1979 after several meetings held in secrecy in Kirkuk , Mosul and Baghdad . The party was established among various smaller cultural-political and student groups such as

4864-437: The similarity of color and design with the flag of Israel , and the flag was not adopted. According to the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period , the interim constitution that the Council approved, the Council would cease to function after 30 June 2004, at which point full sovereignty would return to Iraq, and the government will be handed over to a new, sovereign interim government. Instead,

4940-445: The undermentioned signatories being the responsible leaders of the Assyrian Nation" wanted to inform the League that the Assyrians, "which in past centuries numbered millions but reduced to a very small number due to repeated persecutions and massacres that faced us, ... have been able to preserve our Language and Faith up to the present time." He concludes that "WE ARE POSITIVELY SURE THAT IF WE REMAIN IN IRAQ, we shall be exterminated in

5016-405: The unprovoked massacres of tens of thousands of unarmed Assyrian civilians by the Ottoman Turkish Army and their allies, the Patriarch of the Assyrians , Mar Shimun XIX Benjamin, declared war on the Ottomans on behalf of the Assyrian nation. The Assyrian army under General Dawid, the patriarch's brother, led the Assyrians in a successful breaking of an encircling Ottoman army maneuver, and across

5092-438: The village of Tel Mozilt and imprisoned 475 men (among them, Reverend Gabrial , the famous red-bearded priest). The following morning, the prisoners were taken out in rows of four and shot. Arguments rose between the Arabs and the Ottoman officials on what to do with the women and orphans left behind. At about this time, in Seert the Turks and Arabs "assembled all the children of from six to fifteen years and carried them off to

5168-433: The village of Tel Mozilt and imprisoned 475 men, among them, Reverend Gabrial, the famous red-bearded priest. The following morning, the prisoners were taken out in rows of four and shot. Arguments rose between the Arabs and the Ottoman officials on what to do with the women and orphans left behind. At about this time, in Seert the Turks and Arabs "assembled all the children of from six to fifteen years and carried them off to

5244-516: The villages and urged diaspora Assyrians to provide humanitarian aid to their brethren. Yonadam Kanna became the leader of the party in 2001, succeeding Ninos Pithyou. He served on the temporary Iraqi Governing Council before it was disbanded in favor of the elected body formed after the January 2005 Iraqi elections . The party's website, zowaa.org, describes it as "a democratic and political organization -- national and patriotic -- to defend our people and their legitimate rights and to struggle under

5320-421: Was a demoralizing moment to Assyrian freedom fighters, as he was a significant spiritual and temporal leader. The independence movement is active both within the homeland and throughout the global diaspora, with much resistance from the local Middle Eastern states and regions, as well as the Kurdish. The movement has spanned centuries, with the initial conceptualization of modern Assyrian statehood occurring in

5396-461: Was approximately 250,000, according to contemporary and more recent sources. "In 1918, according to the Los Angeles Times, Ambassador Morgenthau confirmed that the Ottoman Empire had 'massacred fully 2,000,000 men, women, and children – Greeks, Assyrians, Armenians; fully 1,500,000 Armenians.' " With 250,000 Greeks among the dead, that makes Ambassador Morgenthau's estimate of Assyrian deaths about 250,000. The Assyro-Chaldean National Council stated in

5472-614: Was at the villages of Azakh , Iwardo , and Basibrin. For month, Kurdish tribes and Turkish soldiers commanded by Ömer Naci Bey were unable to subdue the mostly Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Assyrian villagers , who were joined by Armenian and other Assyrian refugees from surrounding villages. The leaders of the Azakh fedayeen swore We all have to die sometime, do not die in shame and humiliation and lived up to their fighting words. Also in April, Turkmen and Turkish troops surrounded

5548-635: Was detained there after refusing to relinquish temporal authority. Mar Shimun would eventually be exiled to Cyprus , thus forcing the head of the Assyrian Church of the East to be located in Chicago up until 2015, when it was moved to Erbil . In early August 1933, the chiefs of the Tkhuma Tribe and the Tiyari led more than 1,000 Assyrians who had been refused asylum in Syria in crossing

5624-636: Was populated by Assyrians and Armenians. Seert was the seat of an Assyrian Archbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Assyrian orientalist Addai Scher who was helped by local Kurds to flee but was eventually murdered by Ottoman soldiers. On March 3, 1918, the Ottoman army led by Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak , assassinated Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin , one of the Assyrians leaders at that time. The Assyrian leader Malik Khoshaba attacked Simko and sacked his citadel in revenge, however

5700-639: Was replaced in May 2005 by the Iraqi Transitional Government , which was then replaced the following year by the first permanent government). The Council consisted of 25 members. Its ethnic and religious breakdown included 13 Shias , five Sunnis , five Kurds (also Sunnis), one Turkmen and an Assyrian . Three of its members were women. In September 2003, the Iraqi Governing Council gained regional recognition from

5776-543: Was the provisional government of Iraq from 13 July 2003 to 1 June 2004. It was established by and served under the United States -led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The IGC consisted of various Iraqi political and tribal leaders who were appointed by the CPA to provide advice and leadership of the country until the June 2004 transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government (which

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