Finland is located between Sweden and Russia where the mean temperature is typically a few degrees higher than that of Siberia and Greenland.  Finland is the land of 5 million sauna users, thousands of lakes, and presently, home to two hundred and forty five Assyrians.

Most of the Assyrians in Finland speak their mother tongue at home and live in four distinct geographical areas: these are the cities of Helsinki (the capital) ,Turku , Jyväskylä and Oulu.  They have immigrated from either Iraq or Iran.

In April 1994 seventy-five Assyrians in the city of Oulu founded the Assyrian Society of Finland.  They also belong to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church.  The Society organizes national and cultural Assyrian events and festivities.  The Society also organizes the Assyrian language classes and coordinates public events in cooperation with the local Finnish groups.  No Assyrian organization should ever be without athletics; ASF is no exception as it sponsors a few sports games for the enjoyment of its members and their families and friends.

In 1997, Diocesan Bishop Mar Odisho Oraham from Sweden visited the Assyrians of Finland.  Most church services in Assyrian language are held by the clerics of the Assyrian Church of the East from Sweden.  They visit Finland three or four times in a year or as may be needed for special occasions.  The members of the Chaldean Catholic Church attend a Catholic church in Oulu where the services are conducted by Italian priests in the Finnish language.

ASF’s activities are mainly held inside the building of a Lutheran Church in Oulu. The Lutheran and Orthodox churches of Oulu have been very supportive of the Assyrian community's plans and activities (i.e. Mass Services, cultural programs).  In return the Assyrians of Finland, especially those belonging to the Church of the East, have continuously demonstrated their appreciation for the generosity of the Finnish churches in Finland.

Rol Yacoub Youkhanna
Oulu, Finland

The University of Helsinki's "Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project" founded in 1986 is among the most promising research initiatives on the history and archaeology of the ancient and post-Christian Bet-Nahrain.  For more information CLICK HERE.

The following article by David Nissman appeared in the April 16th issue of RFE/RL's Iraqi Report:

(ZNRF: Prague) A planned census on the territory of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) continues to spark debate precisely because so much rides on its outcome: the future course of interethnic dialogue, water rights, property and grazing rights, and the political balance. Indeed, as its organizers have suggested, the purpose of this head count is to determine who will be allowed to vote in elections for the KRG parliament.

An article by Alexander Sternberg in the 12 April edition of "Zenda" about the census operation promises to heat up this discussion further. Earlier, Sternberg had issued his comments via the Internet, but in his article, he goes even further and suggests that problems with the census will almost certainly result in a delay of the elections until at least the fall.

Sternberg knows whereof he speaks. He has been a regular visitor to the region since 1963 and knows almost all the key players. He has even compiled a database on the region. According to his count, there were some 38,000 Assyro-Chaldeans and approximately 58,000 Turkomans. This is out of a total estimated population of between 3.7 to 3.9 million in KRG territory. While these groups find such figures far too low, Sternberg suggests they may be an exaggeration.

Only a professionally conducted census, under UN or some other internationally-recognized supervision, will satisfy the various factions concerned. Its findings may match those of Sternberg, but in the minds of many, such an internationally supervised count would be seen as more acceptable.

To subscribe to Iraq Report CLICK HERE.  The Iraq Report is a biweekly review of developments in Iraq. It is available free
via email and on the Web.

(ZNAF: Canberra)  According to Dr. Sue Wareham, president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War, between 4,500 and 6,000 children are dying each month in Iraq from lack of food and medical care as a result of UN sanctions.  Dr. Wareham spent eight days in Iraq and warned the human cost of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia would be just as high.  "The sanctions represent a form of silent and ongoing warfare and are contrary to all medical and humanitarian principles," she said.

Wareham was part of a delegation which delivered medical supplies and shared its expertise with Iraqi doctors on the ground.   Most deaths are from treatable or preventable illnesses such as gastrointestinal and respiratory infections resulting from malnutrition, Wareham said.  Even though food and medicine are exempt under the sanctions imposed in 1990, the Iraqi people cannot afford to purchase any.  Last week the Iraqi dinar to the dollar exchange rate broke through the 2,000 barrier.  Wareham said the situation in Iraq held important lessons for the current NATO bombing of Serbia.

(ZNDA:  Worcester)  Francis E. Hoyen Jr., 69, of 14 Kinney Drive, senior deacon of St. Mary's Assyrian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Assyrian National Congress, died last month at home. He was born in Worcester, son of Francis E. and Elizabeth (Donabed) Hoyen, and earned a bachelor of science degree in Education in 1950 and a master's degree in Counseling in 1977, both from Worcester State College.  While working as a substitute teacher, he was working toward his master's degree in Education at Worcester State College.

Mr. Hoyen was a substitute teacher in the Worcester Public School System and previously was a senior clerk in the Worcester Assessors Department.  He was a member and former senior deacon of St. Mary's Assyrian Orthodox Church, Shrewsbury.  This church was named after the Mart Maryam Church in Harput, Turkey.  The Assyrians of Worcester, Massachusetts immigrated from Harput in the early part of this century. The first church in Harput was built in 179 A.D.

An avid reader of the Assyrian periodicals Mr. Hoyen consistently promoted the issues pertaining to Assyrians in the local media and government offices.  Mr. Hoyen leaves two sisters, Margaret J. Hoyen of Worcester and Marion H. Charlesworth of Haverhill; nephews and nieces; grandnephews and grandnieces.

Source:  Telegram & Gazette Worcester, MA ; 3 March 1999

"Thank you for another bumper issue of ZENDA.  I am printing my copy right now.  I notice that you are still using Assyrian Year 6748.  Should not you change it to 6749?

Philimon Darmo
Australia

We stand corrected and the error has since been amended.

Kristiyan D. Assouri
California

"Comments such as this one made by Mr. Sternberg: 'A census certainly would mean a sobering shock to some propagandists or dreamers and to some megalomaniacs amongst these minorities, which explains their fears,' are uncalled for.  Speaking out against a corrupt system, such as that of the Kurdish Authority in NORTHERN IRAQ, does not make one a 'megalomaniac.' The fact is that numerous Assyrian villages just outside the "Kurdish administered areas" are excluded for the purpose of marginalizing the Assyrian community. Interestingly, it was the late Francis Shabo, the Assyrian representative to the Kurdish parliament in NORTHERN IRAQ who was originally in charge of this affair, i.e., collecting complaints from various Assyrian/Chaldean villages, conducting census in those areas, and handling such related matters. After his assassination by members of the military wing of the KDP (who, of course, like all other Kurdish murderers of the Assyrian/Chaldean community of NORTHERN IRAQ were never arrested nor charged for their crime) Barazani chose to put you, Mr. Sternberg, in charge of these matters. Why? Were there no other members of the Assyrian/Chaldean community competent enough to handle these affairs? And now you provide us with these fabricated numbers and then have the gall to question why we are mistrustful of the Kurdish authority. You are supporting a system that has cried foul when they were the victims of such political maneuvering, yet are so transparently repeating those injustices to the minorities in their controlled regions. How sad."

Elki Essa
California

"These days the world leaders are criticizing the Serbians of ethnically cleansing the Muslim Albanians from their homeland and are forcing the Serbians to pay a high price for their actions. The Assyrians were unfortunate in that the "Christian" West was not as kind and responsible in preventing the Kurds and Turks (and later on the Arab government of Iraq ) from ethnically cleaning the Assyrians from their homeland.  This took place continuously for at least 150 years.

My great grand parents from my mother side fled "Solduz" and came to Urmi in the 19th century. Solduz is now purely Kurdish because the Assyrians were completely cleansed from that region some 100 years ago. This story continues from Urmi and Salamas to Jilu, Gawar, Tergawar, Margawar, Mar Bishoo, Hakiari, Tiari, and hundreds of valleys and regions in Northern Bet-Nahrin. The Kurds are currently claiming all these areas as their own and call them their homeland. See for example the maps provided by the PKK and the other Kurdish political parties.

Mr. Alexander Sternberg only provides statistics and the population numbers of present-day northern Bet-Nahrin and ignores all the historical facts of the past 100 years.  He is misleading his readers by mentioning that the Assyrians should think that they do not live in "the Assyrian empire" period. No, Mr. Alexander! We know that we are not living in the Assyrian empire period, but we also know that we have a right to our lands and villages that were taken from us unlawfully and brutally by the Turks and the Kurds in this century- through their acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. It is a historical fact that the Assyrians were totally cleansed from their homeland. The present demographically distribution of the so called "Kurdistan" does not undermine the Assyrians' claim on their natural and historical rights to their homeland. Any representation of the various ethnic groups in northern Bet-Nahrin region and any distribution of power will only be fair and democratic if it considers the demographic distribution of the region in a historical context. Otherwise, the recent attempts can only be seen as cleansing the Assyrians from their historical homeland. If the Kurds and their leadership are seeking a solution to their question clearly they must also admit to the rights of the Assyrians to their homeland and at least admit a partial return of the Assyrian lands as inclusive in the solution to the Kurdish question. Otherwise no one would believe that the Kurds are seeking a truly democratic and civilized solution to their question and to the natural rights of all inhabitants of northern Net-Nahrin. Playing the game of numbers and demography by Kurdish leaders makes us only more suspicious of the Kurdish agenda toward Assyrian national rights in northern Bet-Nahrin."

Tony Khoshaba
Chicago

"The April 12 issue of Zenda features an essay by a Mr. Alexander Sternberg who offers an approximate nose count of Assyrians in north Iraq. First of all, I want to thank Zenda for being willing to bring this subject to its readers. I can't imagine any piece of information more essential to a realistic evaluation of the various proposals generated within our community. Yet because many of our political activists prefer bombast over facts, this subject has been more or less taboo. It is a scene where, as the Chinese say, when the finger points at the moon, the idiots look at the finger.

I also want to convey my thanks to Mr. Sternberg, a non-Assyrian, who was  interested enough to invest a great deal of his time studying this subject. The seriousness of his undertaking is self-evident. All too often, we are quick to blame the messenger when we do not like the message. When the messenger is non-Assyrian, our coterie of bull slingers erupts with unbridled paroxysm.

I wish to briefly address Mr. Sternberg's methodology. He admits himself that his canvassing techniques were not exhaustive. The fact is that nowhere in the Middle East can a census be conducted according to Western standards. The most obvious reason for this is the lack of sufficient funds to pay for the training and involvement of hundreds of census takers and canvassers. But what is astonishing to me is that Mr. Sternberg's findings generally concur with my own findings over 5 years ago.

At that time, I was in North Iraq for a two-week visit, a trip which I undertook strictly on my own. During that period I met personally with leaders of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, with clerics of the Church of the East and those of the Chaldean Catholic community, with the directors of the principal Assyrian social club (located in Dohuk), and with a variety of other activists. I have  maintained a number of these contacts since my return. One of my main interests was to assess the probable population of our people in north Iraq.

My findings at that time placed the Assyrian population of north Iraq between 35,000 and 45,000. While I believe that continued emigration out of the region in the past five years has probably reduced that number, those figures were based on the distillation of my interviews with "Assyrian leaders and local experts", and an amalgamation of their opinion. My findings were also based on documentary materials.
Mr. Sternberg fails to mention one particular source of information which is highly credible and which corroborates his figures. I am referring to the popular election of May 1992 in north Iraq, the only general plebiscite which has occurred there to date. (The purpose of the election was to select a Parliament and a 'supreme' leader). To summarize, the vote in the three provinces of north Iraq (Dohuk, Arbil and Suleimaniya) shows that approximately 1 million Kurds cast a ballot, as against a total of 13,000 Assyrians. If anyone wishes to have a further breakdown of these figures, they may be obtained from the Kurdish Parliament office in Arbil, or from the A.D.M. In addition, independent observer groups such as the International Human Rights Law Group possess this information in great detail.

I was informed by many Assyrian political figures in north Iraq that prior to this election, there had been a very intensive canvassing of our people, by our people; and that in order to show as big a turnout as possible, there was a significant Assyrian 'get out the vote' effort on election day. Not a single Assyrian with whom I spoke suggested any irregularity in the fundamentals of election. I hasten to add that the general reliability of these voting figures is further attested by the hundreds of Western monitors present in north Iraq at the time of the election, to assure the freedom of the ballot. Their reports endorsed the integrity of the process.

I am assuming that Kurdish families are at least as large as Assyrian families. Therefore, if we multiply the voting figures of the two communities by 3.5, we arrive at a Kurdish population of 3.5 million, and an Assyrian population of 45,500. Stated another way, one could say that if we combine Kurds and Assyrian populations, the Assyrians comprise about 1.3% of the composite group.

Mr. Sternberg should be thanked not only for his population study but also for his sensible advice. He exhorts Assyrians "to turn from metaphysics to politics, from mystification to real-politik, and from megalomania to moderation". Because of our limited population and our scant resources, we are already facing long odds in the world of public opinion. A jingoistic failure to recognize our limitations does not shorten those odds. Unfortunately, however, it interferes with a sober and realistic plan of action."

Francis Sarguis
Santa Barbara

I have been informed by The Mohawk College station manager, Mr. Andy Posthumus, that CRTC puts language restrictions on Mohawk College Radio's ethnic programs.  According to the station manager one of the CRTC's conditions in order to grant a license to Mohawk College radio is that three-quarters of the ethnic program must be produced in English.  I mentioned that many Assyrians, especially seniors, do not understand English. The Assyrian community in Hamilton has already experienced the meltdown of their language in the Third World countries, such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Likewise in such countries the use of the native languages is proscribed in the media. I requested to have the ratio of spoken words in English reduced to 25%, but I was then not allowed to run the program. I requested to have our Assyrian radio program to be at least 50% in English and 50% in our native language, but my request was denied by the station manager.

Then how can the Assyrian Students' Association of Mohawk College serve our people, especially the seniors?  It seems that our rights to freedom of speech are limited.  I pray to our Lord Jesus for my Assyrian people to survive their last promised land of freedom."

Simon Ashur Malek
Secretary
Assyrian Students' Association of Mohawk College

Daniel Khano
N/A

For information on the nearest Assyrian market place contact your local AANF affiliate:  CLICK HERE

Yesterday at the church I heard something that caught my attention.  It wa not a new concept, only a new way of presentation.  The service was in the memory and honor of a lady whose daughter and son-in-law are members of our church.  It was a somber service.  No smiles as you could tell that everyone is remembering their own loved ones that have departed to be with the Lord.  It was so sad that the Pastor began the sermon with a joke so to pull the congregation out of this spiritual depression.  He said" as Assyrians we mourn when a loved one passes away. As Christians we should be glad that they are at home with the Lord Our Father.  We should remember we do not belong to this world; our home is in heaven, of where we are true citizens."

I know how important "citizenship" is.  In some of the countries that belonged to our ancestor, Assyrians were and are treated as second-class citizens, at best.  We who live in the United States have personal experience of how precious citizenship is here.  A large number of people spent a fortune to come and live here, and became part of this nation.  As a Christian I know I am a passenger in this world and on my journey home I am passing through this life.

When I was younger my dream was to see the Great Wall of China or visit Machu Pichu on top of the Andes.  As years have passed my targets have changed.  Now I want to see my birthplace, may parents' birthplaces in Urmia.  Despite hearing that the villages I visited in my childhood are empty of our people and that I will do better in remembering those wonderful childhood memories and of what once was I wish to go back, away from the reality of today.

I dream of visiting Bet-Nahrain and put a place with the name.  Why is it that I am in such conflict with my heavenly and earthly homes?  This troubles me.  Then I remember the words of a wise believer from my church who said: "I became a better 'oomtanaya' when I became a Christian!'"  I remember the words of an Assyrian poem by my cousin, Simon Amrikhas, that translates as this: "God created the Garden of Eden in the land of the rivers.  After thousands of years, when it vanished by storms and floods, He created Bet-Nahrain in the same place;  And gave it to my fathers."

Germaine Merza
California

J'ai 20 ans. Je suis née à Montréal, Canada tout en étant d'origines Assyriennes. Mise à part mes études, je suis bénévole auprès des enfants de l'Hôpital Ste-Justine. Je consacre une certaine portion de mon temps au Parti Libéral du Canada puisque j'apprécie la politique.
 

Personal Website:      Click Here
Email:                         younan@sprint.ca
 
 

Assyrian personal web sites are popping up everywhere and ZENDA can hardly keep up with the demands of these Assyrian netizens.  Send us information about yourself and your online masterpieces before our staff finds you first.  Tell us about yourself, your community, hobbies, and anything that gets you going in the morning (black chai doesn't count).

BC (2nd & 1st Millennia)

The idea of "history" was quite important in the view of the ancient Assyrian kings.  It was essential to maintain a sense of continuity between the past and the present for the future generations.  Their rebuilding of ancient temples is an important example of such a thought process.  Shalmaneser I, for example, rebuilt the Temple in the city of Ashur, which had already been rebuilt by Irishum I, and Ushpia before him.  The same temple was also restored by Shamshi-Adad.  In the 20th century the carbon-dating of the Temple in Ashur became the basis for the construction of the Assyrian calendar currently in use.

Ancient Mesopotamia, Speiser (dates of Temple reconstruction only)

Negib Assoury (Azoury), a Christian from Syria, founds Ligue de la Patri Arabe in Paris and began publishing a monthly periodical called L'Independance Arabe.  In 1905 he publishes a book in French entitled Le Reveil de la Nation Arabe in which he asserts that an Arab nation must include both Christian and Moslem contstituencies.  He writes that the religious differences between the two populations are due to external forces and defends the use of Arabic in Orthodox Churches against the wishes of the Greek hierarchy.  He calls for Arab, Armenian/Assyrian, and Kurdish uprisings against the Ottomans whom he believed had destroyed the Arab culture.  Three decades later, Mishel Aflaq,  another fellow Christian from Syria revives similar sentiments in Damascus and Beirut which he dubbed as Baathism.

Arabid Thought in the Liberal Age, Hourani

I came upon a couple of strange words which surely you would find interesting too.  Allow me to share them with you.

Sometime in the past I was researching the names of the colors in Syriac, in order to establish the full spectrum of different names used by our people in both the eastern and western dialects, and surprisingly I came upon the following two strange words:  susgawno and ismanjoni.

Susgawno refers to the color blue in the Syriac Language.  Upon closer examination of this word you will find that it is a compound name consisting of sus & gawno.  The first part means "horse" and the latter "color".  Together it would literally mean the "color of the horse".   Sounds strange, doesn't it!  Furthermore a "blue horse" would not make any sense, simply because there is no such thing as a "blue horse"!   But if you study Assyrian art, you will find that in many Assyrian "horses and chariot" scenes, the horses were colored in blue.  Indeed there is one such wall painting of the "blue horses" in the museum of Aleppo, Syria.  The pieces of the puzzle slowly began to fall in place, and Susgawno became the color "blue" of a shade similar to that of an "Assyrian blue horse".

Another interesting color is ismanjoni alluding to the "sky-blue color".   This one is used in the Arabic language.   If you analyze the name you will find that it too consists of two parts, isman and joni.  As you may already know, the letter 'j' in Arabic corresponds to 'g' in Syriac; consequently, the origin of the second part, goni,  can be traced to the origin of gawne, or "color" in Syriac.  Similarly in isman the 's' in Arabic corresponds to 'sh' in Syriac, and the first part can be thought to have been derived from ishman or more realistically from shmay which indeed is the "sky" in Syriac (the vowel at the beginning was added by the Arabs since according to their grammar the first letter of every word should always be mutaharrek, i.e. la tabda' bi saken).  Hence, the Arabic word ismanjoni meaning "sky blue" was originally derived from the Syriac compound word shmay-gawne or "color of the sky" and that is exactly what it was intended to mean.

Hanna Hajjar
California

April 20, 1652:  dies in Rome, Pietro Dlavaleh , an Italian royalty and the special envoy of the Pope to Persia.  Dlavaleh was married to an Assyrian and was a pioneer in the science of Assyrian archaeology.

ZENDA wishes to thank Mr. Hannibal Gewargis of Tehran, Iran for his life-long compilation of much of the information noted under this section.  Mr. Gewargis' entries and historical factoids are often visible in the Assyrian publications, calendars, and  books around the world.  THIS WEEK IN HISTORY may as well be called THIS WEEK IN HISTORY ACCORDING TO HANNIBAL GIWARGIS.

One of the most popular Assyrian web sites is soon to become even more popular.  Robert Oshana's LEARN-ASSYRIAN ONLINE has moved to a new site and it offers more linguistic delicacies than ever before.  The sound bites from today's Assyrian pop vocalists that have made this site so popular are now in streaming audio.   A forty-one page Adobe file (pdf) of the entire LEARN ASSYRIAN ONLINE site is a charming introduction to learning modern Assyrian language.  Note that the entire site has been re-typed in a more professional format and includes many more words and phonetic spellings of the Assyrian vocabulary.  An impressive feature is the "animated pencil" that is both educational and entertaining.

Also included are the following goodies:

The Assyrian Screensaver Program
A History of the Aramaic Language

and of course the very popular Assyrian Songs

AAC = Ancient Assyrian Church of the East
ACE = Assyrian Church of the East
CCC = Chaldean Catholic Church
COP = Coptic Church
MCC= Maronite Catholic Church
MSO = Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church
SCC = Syrian Catholic Church of Antioch
SKC = Syrian Knanaya Church
SOC = Syrian Orthodox Church

ZENDA Magazine is published every Monday. Views expressed in ZENDA do not necessarily represent those of the ZENDA editors, or any of our associated staff.  This publication reserves the right, at its sole discretion, not to publish comments or articles previously printed in or submitted to other journals. ZENDA   reserves the right to publish and republish your submission in any form or medium. All letters and messages  require the name(s) of sender and/or author. All messages published in the SURFS UP! section must be in 500 words or less and bear the name of the author(s). Distribution of material featured in ZENDA is not restricted, but permission from ZENDA is required.  This service is meant for the exchange of information, analyses and news. To subscribe, send e-mail to: zenda@ix.netcom.com.

The Directory of ZENDA News Sources
ZNAA (Assyrian Academic Society-Chicago)
ZNAD (Assyrian Democratic Organization)
ZNAF (Agence France-Presse)
ZNAH (Al-Ahram Newspaper, London)
ZNAL (Al-Hayat, London)
ZNAI  (Assyrian International News Agency)
ZNAK (American Kurdish
ZNAM (Archeology Magazine)
ZNAP (Associated Press International)
ZNBN (Bet-Nahrain Inc/ KBSV-TV "AssyriaVision")
ZNCN (ClariNews)
ZNIF (Iraq Foundation)
ZNDA (Zenda: zenda@ix.netcom.com)
ZNIN (Iraqi National Congress)
ZNLT (Los Angeles Times)
ZNMN (San Jose Mercury News)
ZNMS (Mar Shimun Magazine-Canada)
ZNMW (Mideast Newswire)
ZNNQ (Nabu Quarterly)
ZNNV (Nineveh Magazine)
ZNNY:  New York Times
ZNPR:  Palestinian Review
ZNQA (Qala Atouraya- Moscow)
ZNRF (Radio Free Iraq)
ZNRU (Reuters)
ZNSH (Shotapouta Newsletter)
ZNSJ (San Jose Mercury News)
ZNSM (Shufimafi Lebanese News)
ZNSO (Syrian Orthodox News "SOCNews")
ZNTD (Turkish Daily News)
ZNTM (Time Magazine)
ZNUP (United Press International)
ZNUS (US News & World Report)
ZNCW:  Catholic World News