The following is an excerpt from Mar Dinkha IV's speech delivered upon his return from a visit to the Middle Eastern diocese and Russia in 1998.  His Holiness is the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East.

On the 10th of September, after our return to Beirut, we called upon the following prelates: (1) Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church and (2) Patriarch of the Syrian Catholic Church. On the 11th of September, the following personalities came to meet with us at our Bishopric in Beirut: (1) Very Reverend Archdeacon Gewargis of our Syrian Diocese, (2) member of the Central Committee of Syria and (3) Mr. Zaia De Malik Ismayil. At this meeting, various subjects were discussed among them, the general affairs of the diocese and the completion of the Hassaka Church.

On the 12th of September, we drove to Kasra, a suburb of Zahla, where some eighty Assyrian families reside. Here, a very beautiful church has been built by our parish in Kasra with generous donations from the Church faithful throughout the world. We declared the Church open under the name of Mar Zaya, one of our revered saints. There were many distinguished guests attending this opening ceremony, including a minister representing the President of Lebanon, the hierarchs and clergy of all Christian denomination of Lebanon, the Papal Nuncio, several members of parliament, high government officials and, of course, all the prelates, clergy, deacons and parishioners of our Church. At the end of the religious part of the ceremony, the presidential delegate unveiled a large plaque depicting the grand opening of this magnificent edifice of worship.  The following day, being Sunday, consecration rites were performed followed by mass. In the evening, a banquet was given at the Sheraton Hotel for more than 200 guests as a climax to this great event of which we are proud for such a wonderful achievement. Late in the night, we retired to St. Albair Monastery in Beirut.

On the 14th, the Patriarchal Synod began its first session with all of the eight prelates present attending. The synod lasted two full days in which the affairs of our universal church were studied at length and we concluded that the Church activities ought to be strengthened in the following areas: (a) Catechism is to be taught to all members, (b) Aramaic classes to be introduced in all parishes, (c) Teaching of modern Syriac to be extended to adults as well, (d) Clergy are to be instructed to preserve the originality of the ritual and liturgy with no variation whatsoever, (e) Scriptures are to be read only in Aramaic, (f) We need to establish more seminars to educate future generation clerics, (g) Services of learned educators with extensive knowledge in theology, philosophy and church doctrine are to be sought to teach in our seminaries and (h) To call for generous donations to help in the establishment of such institutions.

On the 16th, members of a joint Moslem/Christian Committee of Lebanon met with us in the monastery to discuss steps to be taken to unite the people of Lebanon as one nation with no prejudices and free of sectarianism the only means that will bring stability to the country.

On the 17th, the members of the Patriarchal Synod met with their counterpart, the Chaldean Prelates to evaluate the progress achieved and what else is needed to be done to expedite the realization of the anticipated reunion. As a result of this review, the following four committees were established to speed up the process: (1) The Educational Committee – Members: Mar Aprim Khamis, Assyrian Church of the East and Mar Avrahim Avrahim, Chaldean Church, (2) The Catechism Committee – Members: Mar Aprim Khamis and Mar Emmanuel, Assyrian Church of the East, and Mar Emmanual Dalli, Chaldean Church, (4) The Clerical and Laity Committee – Members: Mar Bawai Soro and Mar Odisho, Assyrian Church of the East and Mar Yosip Tomas, Chaldean Church and (5) Secretaries: Mar Avrahim Avrahim, Chaldean Church – U.S.A., Mar Bawai Soro, Assyrian Church of the East – U.S.A., Mar Gewargis Sliwa, Assyrian Church of the East – Iraq and Mar Gewargis Garmo, Chaldean Church –Iraq. At the end of this historical conference, a declaration was issued by both Patriarchs – Mar Dinkha IV and Mar Raphael II and this was published in many newspapers and magazines.

Originally, these two Churches were one before the split of some 400 years ago and were known as the Church of the East. During this span of four centuries, some revisions were introduced by the part which joined the Roman Catholic Church as a uniate member, therefore, it is not feasible to bring about a complete reunion in the course of just a year or two. It is most encouraging that the first step in this direction has been embarked upon, thus we have great hopes that this ultimate goal shall be reached eventually as we both, bilaterally, have the honest intentions of working diligently to make our efforts succeed.

The road we are about to retrace has been neglected for so long, thus, we have to move very cautiously to avoid the obstacles we will encounter. Our final destination is “unity” and with the grace of God Almighty and our Savior Lord Jesus Christ we shall be there sooner or later. We are not only one Church but also one nation. In 1403, the center of our universal church was Alqosh under the leadership of one Patriarch.

We are delighted and heartened that the entire hierarchy of the Chaldean Church acknowledge this fact and the most zealous among them is my beloved brother, Mar Raphael, who has deep faith in his eastern roots and is greatly inspired by his nationalistic tendencies. This latest conference in Lebanon elated our spirits and reinforced our conviction that there is no retreat from the righteous path we have chosen until one people and one Church are no longer divided but united as before.  This will gladden the heart of Jesus who is the master of this, the most ancient of Christian Churches.

As it is prescribed in the gospel of Apostolic Luke, the then unbelieving Hebrew leaders asked Jesus to silence the great crowds of his followers who were chanting, “Praised be the Lord Almighty and blessed is the king who is coming in His name,” Jesus said unto them. If these are silenced, the stones will cry out in their place affirming what has been prophesied. Thus, we are also reiterating to those who are telling us not to say we are Assyrians, we shall emphatically state with vigor and pride that we are of one nation – Assyrians, Ninevites, descendants of the Assyrian race of Nineveh, we shall not shut up for if we do, stones and tablets from Ashurbanipal Library will loudly proclaim and testify on our behalf that we are true Assyrians, also the people of Alqosh, Telkaif, Qaraqosh, Bartelli, Sapna, Aradin, Duhuk, Zakho and other communities of Bet Nahrain have always been our brethren in blood, of one nation brought up in one cradle of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East. There is no doubt, whatsoever, that we all belong to one Divine Church, one nationality speaking the same language. We are hopeful that his undeniable fact will eventually enlighten the opinions and impress upon the hearts of every Assyrian irrespective of where he or she may be standing on this issue.

On September 17th, this monumental conference of the two hierarchies of the same church came to an end and immediately afterwards, we had a cordial meeting with the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Sheikh Rafiq Al Hariri. In the evening, all prelates came together for a dinner given by His Holiness Mar Raphael at his residence.

Speech translated by Shimshon Rasho, editorial staff of the Voice of the East Magazine
Voice of the East
P.O. Box 25264
Chicago, IL 60625
For the complete speech see:  Voice of the East, Vol 17, # 3 & 4

 (ZNAI:  Chicago)  According to a press release published in the Kurdistan Observer on October 24, The 12th Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has issued a final statement in which it promises "tolerance and full respect for all religions and the right to worship...and cultural rights of the Turkomans, Assyrians, and Chaldeans."  By noting the Assyrians and Chaldeans as two separate identities, the KDP has once again evoked the anger of the Assyrian activists in the West- a move surely expected to further strain the Assyro-Kurdish relations.  As reported in last week's Zinda Magazine, KDP is accused of blockading roads to eight Assyrian villages in northern Iraq and undermining the unity of the Assyrian-Chaldean population in Iraq.

Printed with permission from the BBC News, October 26, 1999

(ZNDA:  London)  The first farmers grew wheat and rye 13,000 years ago in Syria and were forced into cultivating crops by a terrible drought, according to UK archaeologists.

Professor Gordon Hillman, at University College London, has spent over 20 years investigating the remains of ancient food plants at a unique site at Abu Hureyra, in the middle Euphrates.

"Nowhere else has an unbroken sequence of archaeological evidence stretching from hunter-gatherer times to full-blown farming," he told BBC News Online.

The evidence for cultivated crops comes from seeds carefully sifted from the material excavated at Abu Hureyra. These had survived because they had been accidentally charred in domestic fires before eventually becoming buried.

Many years of ecological field work assessing present day vegetation was also necessary to provide a basis for interpreting the material found.

"What we expected to find from the hunter-gatherer levels at the site was lots of wild cereals. These are characteristically very skinny and we found plenty of them," explains Professor Hillman.

"But then, at higher and later levels, we found things that did not belong there. There were these whacking, great fat seeds, characteristic of cultivation."  The cultivated seeds found at Abu Hureyra are the oldest yet found.

Professor Hillman and his team found that, as they looked through the archaeological record, the wild seed varieties gathered as food gradually vanished, before the cultivated varieties appeared. Those wild seeds most dependent on water were the first to die out, followed one by one by the more hardy ones.

This was a clue to why the hunter-gatherer people turned to cultivating some of the foods they had previously collected from the wild, and prompted Professor Hillman to look at independent climate records for the period.

What he found was evidence for a terrible drought: "It was very sharp and would certainly have been felt within a human lifetime, perhaps even in the space of 10 or so years."

Geologist call this period the Younger Dryas, a 1000-year spell of cold and dry weather with interrupted the planet's gradual warming from the last ice age.

Professor Hillman's team suggest that as the wild grasses and seeds that the people relied on for food died out, they were forced to start cultivating the most easily-grown of them in order to survive.

Professor David Harris, also at UCL, said: "There came a point when this community had no option - they were stuck with agriculture."

The archaeologists found no evidence that the irrigation was used to grow the first crops as the drought set it. Professor Hillman explains: "What they did was to take seed of the wild cereals from higher areas to the West, and sowed it close to Abu Hureyra in areas such as breaks in slope, where soil moisture was greatly enhanced naturally."

"Wild stands of these cereals could not have continued to grow unaided in such locations because they would have been out-competed by dryland scrub. Therefore, these first cultivators had to clear the competing vegetation."

Honorable Madelene K. Albright
Secretary of State
2231 C Street NW
Washington DC 20520

We write to express our concern about the upcoming meeting of the Iraqi national Assembly planned for October 29 through November 1, 1999.  We urge you to use all the resources of your office to ensure that this meeting will include a diverse group of representatives of the various factions opposing Saddam Hussein's regime.

This historic meeting is expected to include close to 300 representatives of groups who oppose the brutal rule of Saddam Hussein.  Unfortunately, it appears that the process of selection has been skewed to prevent the participation of certain ethnic and religious groups.  In particular, we fear that the Assyrian community of Iraq has been grossly under-represented.  Assyrians make up close to ten percent of the total population of Iraq and are the most significant Christian minority there.  Despite this, the Assyrian community has been told that it can only send token representation to the Iraqi National Assembly.  The exclusion of the coalition of the three major Assyrian organizations further stifles the voice of the Assyrian community.

The Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-338) requires that organizations that receive support from the United States government, "include a broad spectrum of Iraqi individuals, groups, or both opposed to the Saddam Hussein regime," and "are commited...to fostering cooperation among democratic opponents of the Saddam Hussein regime."  It would seem that the current configuration of the Iraqi National Assembly violates this principle, first by not permitting the Assyrian community a number of seats in the Assembly proportional to their population in Iraq, and further by only permitting Assyrian representatives appointed or selected by the Iraqi National Congress to participate in the Assembly.

We feel strongly that the Iraqi National Assembly cannot be considered a truly representative body unless the full diversity of people in Iraq is represented.  The Iraqi people must make the decisions that will guide their future.  But since the United States government is footing the bill for this event, existing laws require that the United States ensure that the Iraqi National Assembly is a truly representative body.  We urge you to ensure that that Iraqi National Assembly include ample representation for all four major Assyrian organizations so that the Iraqi Assyrian community can be properly represented.

Thank you for your consideration.  We look forward to hearing from you prior to October 29, 1999.

Sincerely,

Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress

Rod R. Blagojevich
Member of Congress

Frank R. Wolf
Member of Congress

(ZNDA: New York)  Last week, several Iraqi opposition parties, including the World Assyrian Federation called for the boycotting of the meeting of the opposition groups to Saddam Hussein.  They declared in a statement circulated in London on Tuesday that the representatives invited to this conference "do not represent the Iraqi people and its national forces and it does not guarantee an independent Iraqi decision."  The statement was signed by a certain Behram Zaya of the World Assyrian Federation.

Meanwhile, some 300 delegates attended the four-day conference at New York's Sheraton Hotel, the largest such gathering in seven years.  The group discussed strategies to overthrow Saddam Hussein and establish a new Iraqi political, economic, and military structures.

The conference opened last Friday evening with addresses from David J. Scheffer, U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes, and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska urged the Iraqi opposition delegates to unite.  "We say to the people of Iraq that we have no desire to own you. We have no desire to claim territory. We are not a colonizing power. This is about you. This is about giving your country back to you."

One day before the commencement of the conference, U.S. defense officials announced that the first direct military training of the anti-Saddam forces would begin on November 1 when four Iraqis take a 10-day training course for officers from Arab and Central Asian countries.  The course at a U.S. air base in northwest Florida combines civilian and non-combat military training.  The United States has pledged to disburse 97 million dollars in military assistance.

Yesterday, a seven-member leadership of the INC was elected:

Dr. Ayad Allawi of Iraq National Accord
riyad al-Yawar, Independent
Sharif Ali bin Al Hussein, Constitutional Monarchy Movement
Dr. Ahmed Chalabi, Independent
Sheikh Mohammed Mohammed Ali, Indpenendent Islamic
Dr. Latif Rashid, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Hoshyar Zibari, Kurdistan Democratic Party

Sources:   Agence France-Presse, Reuters, & PR Newswire, all rights reserved, 1999.

Courtesy of Archaeology Magazine:  written by Spencer P.M. Harrington

Twenty baked clay balls with Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions may represent a heretofore unknown record-keeping system in ancient Mesopotamia. The balls, which measure an inch in diameter, were recovered by a French expedition at Tell Mohammed Diyab in northeast Syria. They carry symbols for words like "bird," "slave," and indications of time like "the third day" and "month," all written in the southern Mesopotamian cuneiform style of the second half of the third millennium B.C. Jean-Marie Durand of the Collège de France in Paris says some of the etched symbols were filled with red ochre, while other balls were notched with fingernail marks, possibly numerical notations. He adds that previous excavators in the region probably mistook the balls for sling stones. While other notation systems on clay disks and crescents have been found in the region, nothing so far is comparable to the Tell Mohammed Diyab balls.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the great job that you are doing with the zenda publication, I believe its of great importance to our community to have an informative medium such as the zenda publication... Taodi saki...basima raba."

Nineb Tooma
n/a

Paul Newey (Polus Nweeya)
Chicago

S.D. Kumbera
n/a

Maybe I'm the only one who's not as open minded as the Shotapoota of San Jose.  However, I wanted to share my personal opinion about such an important issue.  My only advice to all of the Assyrians who have pure Assyrian blood running through their veins is not to support such a shameful event."

Atour Daniel
California

As is indicated in our CALENDAR of EVENTS section, The Assyrian American Association of San Jose will be hosting the "Year 2000 Dinner Dance" with Assyrian entertainer, Ogin, & the Armenian-Iranian singer, Martik, at the Westin Hotel, in Santa Clara, California.  According to sources in the executive committee of the AAA of SJ, Mr. Martik will receive $35,000 while his Assyrian counterpart will be compensated one-third of this amount.  The Executive Committee believes that with the funds raised at the "Gala of the Millennium", numerous cultural and educational programs can be offered in the coming year.  While a few Assyrians including the Editor of Zinda Magazine are boycotting this event, at presstime over 800 anxious Assyrians from San Jose and the Bay Area have already purchased their tickets to this year's New Year's Eve party.

From Social Clubs to Educational Centers
From Adult Activities to Youth Enrichment
From Despair and Loss of Youth to Pop Culture to Hope and Sound Community Planning

According to government statistics:

• 1 in 4 high schools students are functionally illiterate
• A recent comparative study of student performance in several countries revealed that American students are behind all European and several Asian countries
• Daycare centers are increasingly replacing parental care of babies and young children
• Gang violence, drugs, and firearms threaten the safety of children at school

PROPOSAL

Assyrian-American Associations were first established as social clubs to bring together up-rooted families.  They have served their purpose well.

But now, conditions have changed and these associations must be re-oriented in their goals to respond to new and urgent community needs.

Assyrian children today are at risk with respect to their identity and physical and mental safety.

Therefore, the Assyrian American Associations must change from social clubs to educational centers.  Their focus should be on Assyrian children and youth.  They must offer classes in Assyrian language, history, and social studies to instill the family and community values which are proven to be more effective in raising mentally and physically healthy and stable young adults than experiments with the "Brave New World" techniques that have had disastrous results as reflected in current statistics.

Please urge your local association to become an educational center dedicated to the Assyrian children and youth.

Dr. Arian Ishaya
California

BC (734)

Assyrians destroy the city of Megiddo in the Holy Land.  Most scholars believe that the word Armageddon is a Greek corruption of the Hebrew Har-Megiddo, "the mound of Megiddo."

Archaeology Magazine, Nov-Dec 1999

British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, promises to allow 25 per cent French participation in the oil from Bet-Nahrain in exchange for the French departure from Mosul.  The French premier, Clemenceau, accepted.  This arrangement was approved at the San Remo Agreement of April 25.

The Tragedy of the Assyrians, Stafford

November 1, 1849:   The first issue of the Assyrian newspaper, Zahrire d'Bahra, is published in Urmia, Iran.  Zahrire d'Bahra was the second newspaper published in the history of Iran and the first to utilize modern press type.

I am the Lady of Arbela.  Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, fear not!
I will annihilate whatever enemies you have.
As for you in your palace:
I will reconcile Assyria with you.  I will protect you by day and by dawn and your crown.
Like a winged bird over its young I will twitter over you and go in circles around you.
Like a beautiful lion cub I will run about in your palace and sniff out your enemies.

I will keep you safe in your palace;
I will make you overcome anxiety and trembling.
Your son and grandson shall rule as kings before Ninurta.

I will abolish the frontiers of all the lands and give them to you.
Mankind is deceitful; I am one who says and does.  I will sniff out, catch and give you
    the "noisy daughter."

As for you, praise me!  Gather into your innards these words of mine from Arbela:
The gods of Esaggil languish in the steppe of mixed evil.  Quickly let two burnt offerings be sent out to their presence, and let them go and announce your well-being!

From the mouth of La-dagil-ili of Arbela.

State Archives of Assyria, Volume IX (Assyrian Prophecies),  Simo Parpola.

The ancient Assyrian city of Arbela is the present-day city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
 

By Alex Rodriguez, Chicago Sun-Times, October 1, 1999

Evanston resident Helen James Schwarten was 7 when she fled Iran with her mother and siblings during World War I to join her father in Chicago.

The three-year trek took her from her hometown of Urmia to a British refugee camp; Baghdad; Bombay; Trieste, Italy, and eventually Ellis Island. It was an arduous, trying journey that would later move her to volunteer for a lecture program that helped Assyrian immigrants start a new life in the United States.

"She loved this country; she thought it was the best place in the world," her son Edward James said. "She wanted to help everyone she could, but because she was from Iran she helped those people coming out."

Mrs. Schwarten died Tuesday at Evanston Hospital. She was 88.

Mrs. Schwarten and her family were Assyrian Presbyterians living in Iran, and had to leave because "the protection they had received as Christians in a Muslim world was falling by the wayside," James said.

Some years earlier, her father had left for Chicago so he could get a better job and send money back to the family in Urmia.

With their belongings slung on a donkey, the family fled to a British refugee camp in Ba'qubah, then with the help of the British government was eventually reunited with Mrs. Schwarten's father on the North Side.

After high school, Mrs. Schwarten began working at a local bank as a teller. She met her first husband, a plasterer and painter named Jerry Sargis James, at the Assyrian Presbyterian church they attended.

When Jerry James died in 1958, the couple's two sons took over their father's business, and Mrs. Schwarten started her own travel agency. In 1964, she married her second husband, John H. Schwarten Jr., an executive vice president at City Products Corp., a furniture company.

Mrs. Schwarten is survived by her brother, former state Sen. John J. Nimrod; two sons, Kenneth and Edward, and seven grandchildren.

Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1999

As a young girl, Helen James Schwarten fled what was then Persia on a donkey with her mother and two siblings, sharing in a family dream to build a prosperous new life in America.

After much stress and strain, her family finally made it to Ellis Island, and later Mrs. Schwarten's husband became an American immigrant success story, creating commercial contracting and real estate development businesses from seemingly nothing.

And although she eventually became a wealthy woman because of her husband's success, Mrs. Schwarten never forgot her own experience as a young Assyrian struggling to create a new life in America. As a result, she became one of the biggest financial and emotional supporters of the Assyrian community here, sponsoring cultural and educational programs for hundreds of adults from her homeland and more than 900 scholarships to Assyrian high school graduates.

A resident of the Presbyterian Home of Evanston, Mrs. Schwarten, 88, died Tuesday in Evanston Hospital.

Family members said Mrs. Schwarten was motivated to help fellow immigrants because of her love for America and her deep religious faith. A Presbyterian, she served for 45 years on the board of the Presbyterian Homes and was a board member of the McCormick Theological Seminary.

"Her goal was to help people who were struggling in the community and were being persecuted and wanted to start a new life," said her son Edward James. "She wanted to help them get motivated and integrated into our society. She just had a great character, a great love for country, and she was very religious and loved her family."

Assyrian immigrants who benefited from her work said she was an invaluable supporter. She took immigrants to Chicago restaurants, showed them around the city, and often paid for their rent or electricity bills if they needed help. Recently, she helped form a new museum and library with thousands of books and manuscripts at the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation in Chicago.

"She had a very big cultural influence on this community," said Vasili Shoumanov, an Assyrian who received one of her scholarships and works at the foundation's library. "She was a very great philanthropist and she was a very dedicated person."

Mrs. Schwarten fled Persia in 1917. After three years traveling through Iraq and India, she and her family flew from Italy to the United States, and later she met her first husband, Jerry Sargis James, at their Presbyterian church here. Following his death, she encouraged their sons, Edward and Kenneth, to follow in their father's growing real estate development business. Today, the James brothers are among the Chicago area's most prominent home builders.

After marrying her second husband, John Henry Schwarten, Mrs. Schwarten helped him develop a lecture program for continuing education of adults in Delray Beach, Fla. She also remained active on the board of the Presbyterian Homes, and is considered one of the "all-time greats" because of her many contributions, said Allen Kimble, a past board president.

Despite the challenges she faced as a child, Mrs. Schwarten's strong character was always a hallmark, family members said.

"She rose from humble beginnings but was not afraid to be strong-minded," said her son Kenneth James. "She considered the things that she did as her duty."

In addition to her two sons, she is survived by three stepsons, Dr. Donald Schwarten, Thomas Schwarten and John E. Schwarten; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; eight stepgrandchildren; and a brother, former State Sen. John J. Nimrod.

Former State Senator, John Nimrod, is the Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance.

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