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Nisan Shmoel of the Assyrian Patriotic Party Assassinated

(ZNDA: Mosul)  On 1 September 1, during a terrorist attack on the building of the Governorate of Nineveh, Mr. Nisan Sliyo Shmoel's shoulder was injured.  Mr. Shmoel was rushed to a local hospital where he was treated. Mr. Shmoel was then released from the hospital on that same day, only to accost his killers again awaiting his release.  Mr. Shmoel was targeted with a car not carrying plate numbers, used to drive him to the hospital. He died immediately after the second attack.

Martyr Nisan Sliyo Shmoel was 43 and is survived by his wife and 6 children (5 daughters and 1 son). The oldest of his children is 15.

Shortly after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Nisan Sliyo Shmoel joined the Assyrian Patriotic Party (Gabba Atranaya Atouraya). Mr. Shmoel was also a private in the newly- formed Iraqi Army.

Assyrian Girls Killed in Bartella

(ZNDA: Mosul)  According to information posted on www.ankawa.com, on 31 August three Assyrian women - residents of the town of Bartella - were killed in Mosul.  

Tara Majeed Betros Al-Hadaya, Taghrid Abdul-Massih Ishaq Betros and her sister Hala Abdul-Massih Ishaq Betros, were were returning to their homes in Bartilla, from a hospital in Mosul where they worked, when their car was attacked by a group of terrorists who opened heavy fire.

The attack took place in the section between the "television area" and the Kokajli district on the main road between Mosul and Bartilla.

Also injured in the attack was another Assyrian woman, Amera Nouh Sha‘ana who was also returning home to Bartilla and another Assyrian driver, Naji Betros Ishaq.

The three female victims were in their twenties. The residents of Bartilla are followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church, and the town is the birth place of His Holiness Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox
Church.

Beheading of Two Assyrians Not Reported

(ZNDA: Mosul)  The residents of Mosul have complained in the past 3 weeks that a horrific act of the beheading of two Assyrians in that city was not reported by the western media. 

Last month, a group of terrorists left compact discs around the city which contained the filming of the beheading of two Assyrians to further intimidate the Christian population of that city - the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire. 

The western media has not made the beheading of the two Iraqi Christians public as of Zinda magazine's press time.

Assyrian Brothers Killed in Mosul

(ZNDA: Mosul)  Two Assyrian brothers, Khalid, 32, and Hani Boulos, 28, were murdered in Mosul in the Al-Sa‘a district on 2 September.  Both brothers were respected members of the Mosul Christian community and honored for defending and assisting other Assyrians.

According to eyewitnesses a car carrying a group of armed terrorists began firing at Khalid and Hani Boulos, killing them instantly.

Both brothers were employed by a foreign company in Mosul.

Attacks on Assyrian Christians in Iraq have intensified since the bombing of the five churches on 1 August.

Assyrian Killed in Baghdad Bombing

(ZNDA: Baghdad) On 1 September, Mr. Gewargis Youaresh Nisan, an Assyrian living in the affluent district of Karrada (Arkhita) of Baghdad, was killed when a a terrorist bomb exploded.

An Assyrian woman lights candles in front of a picture of the Virgin Mary before a ceremony for the Holy Cross Day at The Church of Saint Bahnam Sheik Matti, an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad. Photo by Allison Long / KRT.

Chaldean Assyrian from Canada Killed in Baghdad

Courtesy of the Globe and Mail
17 September 2004
by Orly Halpern & Joe Friesen

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  In the weeks before he died, Andrew Shmakov had been forced to stay behind closed doors for his own safety.

On Tuesday, when he finally accompanied his business partner Munir Toma to the office, the two were killed in an ambush on a Baghdad street.

The two Canadians were long-time friends, working as civilian contractors in Iraq.

But recently, Mr. Toma's family concluded that Mr. Shmakov's presence was putting them in danger, and they tried to keep him out of sight.

"We felt we were threatened from Andrew's presence," Munir's wife, Baydaa, said in an interview in Baghdad yesterday.

Their plans were to drive to northern Iraq and send Mr. Shmakov home to Canada through Turkey, but he wouldn't listen. "We asked him to go but he refused, and Munir felt embarrassed to tell him again," she said. "Even when his mother and father called him to come home, he would tell them no."

She said Mr. Shmakov, who stood out as a pale-skinned foreigner, had not been allowed to leave their compound for the past month.

"Since they started killing foreigners, Munir would go to work and come home but he kept Andrew here because he was scared for him," Baydaa said.

Mr. Shmakov and Mr. Toma were killed near their Baghdad office. According to Iraqi police, their black Mercedes-Benz was riddled with hundreds of rounds from an AK-47.

A pistol, some cash and a gold cross necklace were recovered from the car, as were their cellphones and a handgun.

"They didn't have time to shoot a shot," an Iraqi policeman said.

Mr. Shmakov moved to Iraq five months ago to work with his friend, who had returned to the country of his birth six years earlier.

Even their closest family members can't say what kind of work they were doing.

"No one really knows what kind of business he was doing in Iraq," said Mary, Mr. Toma's daughter. She confirmed he was a contractor who worked with the Americans. Her aunt, speaking from Mr. Toma's mother's house in Detroit, said Mr. Toma "was working to rebuild Iraq."

Mr. Toma, 40, came to Canada from Iraq in 1984. He had worked as a chef in the Iraqi embassy in Vienna, and after a brief stint in Italy he moved to Canada with his first wife. They settled in Scarborough, and later moved to Kitchener, Ont., where he opened a Dunkin' Donuts franchise.

"He had many businesses," Mary said. She and her two siblings live in Toronto with their mother. She said her father was wealthy and had enterprises in Germany and the United Arab Emirates as well as Iraq.

He often worked with Mr. Shmakov, whom he had met when he first arrived in Toronto.

It's unclear what role Mr. Shmakov played in the Iraqi venture. His fiancée Julie said she was too distraught to discuss the details of his life. Iraqi police say the two men were targeted because of their company's involvement with the Americans.

"I'm sure they were killed by the muqawma [resistance]," said Captain Amin, the police investigator. "They are Canadian and they are working with the Americans, so they were a target. The foreigners are all targets now."

Mr. Toma's sister, however, said they were targeted because they were Christian.

"They are killing Christians all the time in Iraq," she said.

Mr. Toma was a Chaldean Catholic. He married Baydaa, his cousin on both sides, in 1997.

They have one child.

Baydaa now fears for her life. She has never been to Canada, but says her husband made an application for Canadian citizenship on her behalf at the embassy in Jordan. She is now refusing to give up her husband's Canadian passport in the hope that it may help her get one of her own.

"They might come after me and my daughter now. We don't feel safe," Baydaa said.

Her sister-in-law Shary said the group responsible for killing the two Canadians is now patrolling the streets outside the family home in Baghdad.

She said the Canadian government has refused to help them get Baydaa and her child to Canada.

"I have a feeling in my heart that something terrible will happen to them very soon," she said.

Iraqi Christians Determined not to be Driven Away by Attacks

Courtesy of the Knight Ridder Newspapers
13 September 2004
By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

(ZNDA: Baghdad) Gewargis Radif is adamant that he won't be defeated by insurgents targeting Christians in Iraq.

So on Monday - Holy Cross Day for his Assyrian Orthodox sect - the retired defense industry worker lit a blue-bulb cross on his roof, then joined his wife and children on the street below to launch hand-held fireworks into the night sky.

He ignored the danger, of which there is plenty. Last month, a bombing outside a neighboring Roman Catholic seminary killed two family friends and shattered a dozen windows in his home. On Sunday night, an anonymous man phoned in a bomb threat to Radif's church a five-minute drive away.

Iraq's Christian minority has lived in relative peace with Muslim neighbors for centuries. Radif and many fellow Christians - though not all - are determined not to be intimidated or driven away by the current violence, which they're convinced has been launched by foreigners.

The violence sent Radif's Christian neighbor, wife and three kids packing to Syria. The 60 people who attended a holiday Mass at St. Bahnam and Sheik Matti Syriac Orthodox Church on Monday afternoon represented only half the number who attended the previous year, said Radif, who's a deacon there.

But Radif, like most Christian Iraqis in the capital, said Islamic extremists couldn't drive a wedge between them and their faith or their Muslim neighbors. "This is not persecution. These are not Iraqis doing this," said Radif, 55.

Shmael N. Benjamin, a leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said the attacks were being orchestrated from outside Iraq in a bid to fracture their society and cause American efforts in Iraq to fail. The Assyrians are a minority Christian ethnic group in Iraq.

Iraqi Christians are easy targets because they don't have a tribal system that exacts revenge like many of their Arab Muslim counterparts, Benjamin added.

Layla Ayub Salman, a 47-year-old housewife, prays in the sunlight from stained glass during the ceremony for the Holy Cross Day at The Church of Saint Bahnam Sheik Matti, an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad. Photo by Allison Long / KRT

They're fiercely proud of their Iraqi heritage and with rare exceptions during the country's history have coexisted peacefully with Arabs, Kurds and other ethnic groups. Jews also lived peaceably in Baghdad before Israel was created in 1948, after which nearly all of them gradually emigrated.

The Radif family has spent the last 25 years in al Doura, a blended neighborhood of Christians and Shiite and Sunni Muslims who live comfortably amid one another's churches and mosques.

With the U.S.-led invasion and the chaos that ensued, Islamic extremists who were suddenly free of Saddam Hussein's grip turned their attention to eradicating Iraqis who didn't fit their ideal of a majority Muslim country.

Among the first targeted were Christians who sold alcohol. The government under Saddam gave liquor licenses only to non-Muslims. Eventually, churches came under attack, including four in Baghdad that were damaged in car bombings Aug. 1. A fifth church was targeted in Mosul on the same day. The blasts left 11 dead and scores more wounded.

Later that day, Radif's wife, Hayat, 50, said she ran out with several daughters to treat the injured who staggered past their door after a car bomb exploded in front of St. Peter's Seminary 300 yards away. Her husband and a close friend had been sitting in the living room watching the earlier church attacks on the Arabic-language TV station al Arabiya when the windows behind them shattered. Both escaped uninjured.

The blast killed another family friend and his fiancee.

"These are Duraid's and these are Yousef's pieces scattered everywhere," Hayat Radif wrote in a poem for the slain couple. "I ask you the saints of heaven carry these virtuous spirits."

The Radifs say their Muslim neighbors were as shocked as they were at the attacks and came to express their condolences. The prime minister's office extended official apologies and pledged money to repair the damage.

Muslim clerics, including the highest Shiite spiritual leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Husseini al-Sistani, condemned the attacks.

Even now, as church elders in Baghdad install surveillance cameras, put up barricades around churches and send scouts to peruse the vicinity for suspicious people and vehicles before their services, the Christians here are firm in their desire to keep cordial relations with other Iraqis.

Other Christians have chosen to leave, with more than 4,000 families registering as refugees in neighboring Syria, according to U.N. estimates. Hundreds more are returning to their ancestral villages in northern Iraq, Christian officials say. Some church officials in Baghdad report that their printing presses are swamped with baptismal certificates for those leaving so they can join congregations in their new homes.

Iraq's minister for displacement and migration, Pascale Warda, said that as many as 750,000 Christian Iraqis now lived abroad, roughly mirroring the number still in Iraq. She added that the emigration has been gradual over decades and dismissed reports of any mass exodus in recent months.

So do Christian political and religious figures. When Christians leave, it's because of escalating violence affecting all Iraqis, not violence targeting them, said Assyrian Bishop Gewargis Sliwa.

At his St. George church compound, parishioners have blacked out spray-painted graffiti on the exterior walls, although the words "traitors," "America" and "Long live Iraq" still peek through.

Assyrian Compound Attacked in Baghdad

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  On 9 August, an Assyrian compound  located in Baghdad's Zayuna district was attacked by a series of mortar attacks.  The compound has a clinic, a woman's center and a computer lab. Rev. Ken Joseph of the AssyrianChristains.com explains that the Center also provides free telephone calls to all who need it and many other humanitarian relief activities.

The attack follows a series of attacks on five Assyrian-Chaldean and Assyrian-Syriac Churches on 1 August in Baghdad and Mosul.

Rev. Joseph adds:: "The anti-democratic forces in Iraq are trying to start sectarian 'warfare' by attacking the various Assyrian Christian offices because they have failed to generate support from the Iraqi public who have been sympathetic to the plight of the Christians."

"We are calling up on the democratic and Christian majority countries of the world to help us," said a man who identified himself as "Sargon Youkhana" but asked that his real name not be revealed.

"These attacks are simply one in a long string of acts of intimidation directed at our community to force us to leave. We will not be 'ethnically cleansed' - this is our country, and we will not be forced to leave," he continued.

The non-Muslim population of the Middle East, according to some estimates, has dropped from nearly 20 percent a generation ago to now less than 2 percent.

Assyrianchristians.com posts information on recent incidents involving the Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Iraqi Christians Seek Sanctuary in Ancient Homeland

Courtesy of the Reuters
13 September 2004
By Tom Perry

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  Saddam Hussein uprooted Assyrian Christians from their ancient homeland in northern Iraq. Now militants in Baghdad are forcing some to flee again.

"Some Muslims see us as infidels. We are targets. They'll eat us alive," said one of dozens who are planning to move from Baghdad back to villages in the north as soon as possible.

Saddam moved the Assyrian Christians, as he did Shi'ites and Kurds, to break down any opposition to his rule. Fighting between Kurds and the Iraqi government in the north also uprooted members of the sect.

In the security vacuum that emerged from Saddam's downfall, a sporadic wave of Islamist violence has targeted Christians, putting them on the defensive again.

Synchronized bombings struck churches in Baghdad and Mosul last month. Officials blamed al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Another car bomb hit a Baghdad church Sept. 10.

Priest Yousef Adel reads from the Bible during the ceremony for the Holy Cross Day at The Church of Saint Bahnam Sheik Matti, an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad. Photo by Allison Long / KRT

Some Christians, like Iraqis of all faiths, have left for Syria and Jordan to escape the violence.

Others want to return to their ancestral homeland in the north, where they have homes and villages they want to rebuild.

"I want to practice my religion. Since they bombed the churches I haven't even driven past a church, let alone prayed in one," said one Christian, who like others was too scared of being targeted to give his name.

He wants to take his family to Sharanesh, one of more than 120 Christian villages needing reconstruction in the north.

"There's not a single Muslim living there," he added. The village nestles in a region where the ancient Assyrian civilization was centered.

Iraq's Assyrian Christians claim descent from the ancient Assyrians, whose capital Nineveh lies next to Mosul. Assyrians make up the majority of Iraqi Christians, speak Syriac and see themselves as a distinct ethnic group from Arabs and Kurds.

"When I move back to the village, there will be nobody living around me except my relatives. It's better than living among strangers," said another Christian, whose family was forced from Sharanesh to Baghdad in 1986.

He has already put his factory up for sale and is ready to move tomorrow. "We have lands. We'll farm them," he said.

Enemy's Aspirations

William Warda, information officer at the Assyrian Democratic Movement, said the church attacks had made many Christians more aware they were targets.

"The situation has become clear. Before, one Christian would be killed here, two there," he said. "The church explosions threw a lot of light on what is going on," he said.

Prior to the church bombs, which killed 11, violence against Christians had mainly comprised attacks on alcohol sellers and hairdressing salons.

"Many have preferred to go to more secure areas so they can practice their religion with more freedom," Warda said.

The Ministry of Displacement and Migration does not know how many have left Iraq, but says the figure is not significant.

Fear of attacks on Christians prompted one Baghdad television worker to move his entire family to Syria in June.

"The government has not established itself. It is not strong enough to protect the minorities," he said. He still works in Baghdad to support his wife, two sons and daughter.

"I rarely visit my family, once every one or two months. The conditions force you to protect your family," he added. He will decide next June on whether to bring his family back to Baghdad.

Christian leaders say most of the faith who have left Iraq in recent months have only traveled to avoid summer heat and frequent Baghdad power cuts. Most will come back after the summer, they say.

"There may be some who have left, but not that many. Never more than 100 families," said Yonadam Kanna, head of the Assyrian Democratic Movement. "There were a lot of rumors that people fled. Maybe that was the aspiration of our enemies.

"We are trying to encourage them to go back for their villages. It's their homeland. They can invest in their lands and have a good life there," he said, adding that finance was needed for reconstruction of the settlements.

Chaldean Archbishop Says U.S. and Allies Must Defend Christians

Courtesy of Zenit News
10 September 2004

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  Iraqi Christians are a key ingredient for the region's balance, says Archbishop Louis Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Kirkuk who appealed to the Americans and allies to defend them from the attacks of foreign extremists.

This message was sent to a congress held in the Italian monastery of Camaldoli, at the initiative of Il Regno magazine.

After assessing the situation in Iraq, the prelate explained that "Christians are an indispensable elite for the region's balance, given their scientific and moral formation and their tolerance."

According to the Vatican, of the 25 million Iraqis, the Shiite Muslims constitute 62%, the Sunnis 34%, and the Christians 3% to 4%.

Christians "are an important element of that culture of dialogue and reconciliation that is a necessary premise of peace," Archbishop Sako said.

"Their presence is as important for our land as the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is the reason there are four Christians among the members of the National Assembly," he said.

"The attacks against the churches a few weeks ago had the objective of radicalizing the country's de-stabilization," the prelate continued. "To attain this objective, it is useful to explode a hospital in the air, to put a bomb in the market, or to organize an attack against a police station."

"It is a totally political confrontation, as the action undertaken by Muqtada Al Sadr was political," he said referring to the radical cleric.

"Perhaps, in the plan of some [non-Iraqi] extremists, there is the objective that Christians should leave the country so that it will be totally Muslim," the archbishop said.

"I think that the Americans and allies have the obvious responsibility to make every effort to put an end to this absurd situation, thus saving the democratic and representative model that allows Christians to dedicate themselves to the educational endeavor and to the formation of Iraqis in the culture of peace, dialogue and reciprocal respect," he said.

"If this objective is not achieved," he added, "I think that the Americans and allies would lose all respect and credibility in the world."

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Assyrian Village in Tur Abdin Evacuated

Janet Abraham
Society for Threatened People
Germany
Special to Zinda Magazine

(ZNDA: Berlin) After years of occupation by Kurdish village guards, the Governor of Sirnak peacefully evacuated the Assyrian village Sare /Sarikoey on Sunday September 12, 2004. Human Right organizations (among them Sign of Hope and Society for Threatened People) welcomed this development as a positive step in context of Turkeys effort to join the European Union.

About 30 families were living until 1994 in Sare; forced by the terror during the fights of the Turkish Military against the PKK they abandoned the village. The village guards took it over and used it as "small garrison" against the PKK. Over time they moved they families into the houses of the Christians and resisted to leave it as the Assyrians showed increased interest to move back to their houses, when the security situation improved in the region. A last ultimatum was issued by the Governor in July 2004 - which elapsed on July 14th without any reaction. Janet Abraham, member of the Board of the Society for Threatened People, accompanied recently a delegation which visited the Sare without being able to enter it and did meet with Governor Osman Guenes.

The Society for Threatened People highlighted the matter to the EU ambassador and the President of the Society wrote letters to the Turkish Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs. Also the EU envoy Guenther Verheugen, who last week visited Turkey to assess the situation of Turkey prior to the EU decision was informed specifically about Sare. The Society for Threatened People thanked Mr. Verheugen for the advocacy for the Christians in Turkey.

Soener Oender After 13 years of Imprisonment Free!

Janet Abraham
Society for Threatened People
Germany
Special to Zinda Magazine

(ZNDA: Berlin)  On June 22, 2004 Soener Oender left the high security prison of Tekirdag/Istanbul as a free man. He was welcomed by his mother and members of his family.

Soener was detained at the age of the 17 in December 1991, on his way home from the Christmas Mass of the Syriac Catholic Church in Istanbul. He was accused of being involved in a terror attack of the PKK in Istanbul which killed 12 people.

Being born a Christian and in Diyarbakir made him for the security forces an obvious suspect. Various human rights organizations spoke in favor of Soener during his detainment. In a special action in the 1990s for instance the Society for Threatened People handed over 40,000 signed postcards to the President of the German Parliament Rita Suessmuth demanding his release.

AANF Elects New Executive Committee

(ZNDA: San Jose) On Sunday, 3 September, during the meeting of the National Executive Committee with all affiliate delegations present at the Assyrian National Convention in San Jose, California, the new Executive Committee of the Assyrian American National Federation was elected for a new 2-year term.

The following are the members of the 2004-2006 NEC of the AANF:

AUA Delegation Meets with Australian MP

16 September 2004
Assyrian Universal Alliance
Hermiz Shahen
Secretary
Australia Chapter

The Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) has determined that it must continue to do all it can to make the Assyrian voice been heard by the democratic governments and international organizations. This may involve direct dialogue with such governments or with relevant government agencies, organizations and representatives who have specific authority and knowledge of the situation and concerns of national minorities.

We are pleased to announce that an Assyrian delegation met with the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister, The Honourable Alexander Downer MP, on Wednesday 15 September 04, in a prescheduled one hour meeting. The delegate attended this meeting were:

• Hermiz Shahen, Secretary of the Assyrian Universal Alliance –Australian Chapter.
• Mr Younatan Afarin – President of the Assyrian Australian National Federation
• Mr Shamouel Warda, AUA adviser
• Mr Sam Shalalo, prominent Assyrian
• Mr Paul Azzo, prominent Assyrian, member of the governing Liberal Party

During the meeting the delegates expressed their sincere gratitude for the magnificent and tireless efforts by the Prime Minister of Australia, Honourable John Howard, for taking an active part in liberating the people of Iraq from the evil regime of Saddam and being part in the new chapter in the history of modern Iraq. In addition, the delegate stated that the Assyrian people supports Australian policy to fight terrorism and extremism in the world and particularly in the Middle East. In a lengthy one-hour discussion, the delegation briefed the Minister with the latest development in Iraq and the neglect of the Assyrian question after the liberation of Iraq, in which not much attention has been given to their demands.

The delegation debated other related issues and topics of importance and urgency for our people in Iraq, such as the newly adopted Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) of Iraq, also known as the Iraqi Fundamental Law, which recognizes Islam as the official religion of Iraq but does not mention other religions in Iraq. If Iraq is supposed to be a secular nation; there is no need to emphasize and signify one religion over the others, even if that religion is of the vast majority of the Iraqis. In addition, the TAL fails to mention or name the national groups (nationalities) of Iraq. The TAL should stress that Iraqi people comprise many nationalities including Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, Turcomans and others. Recognition of the Assyrian people as a nation and not a community is very important since they are the indigenous people of Iraq and the most oppressed people because of their religion and cultural identity.

The Assyrian Universal Alliance presented the Minister with a submission included compiled report of recent oppression against the Assyrians in Iraq together with other important documents. The delegate appealed to the Australian Government to help our people in the rebuilding of their destroyed villages and the resettlement projects. They stressed about the importance of security to be provided for the Assyrians in a form of safe haven within a federal Iraqi state, in which they can administer themselves and live in peace as proud Iraqi citizens in the land of their forefathers. If this ancient indigenous people of Iraq are decimated, then all other remaining Christians in Iraq will immediately become vulnerable.

This meeting was the third of its kind in one year following the October 2003 visit of AUA delegation headed by the Secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, Senator John Nimrod and presented the honourable Foreign Minister at his office in the Parliament House-Canberra with a submission containing resolutions of the Amsterdam conference regarding the Assyrian demands in post Saddam Iraq. Also the Australian chapter successfully had a short meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia, Hon. John Howard MP, on 28 May 2004 before his June visit to the United State and presented him with a report and briefed him with dangerous situation facing our Assyrian nation in Iraq. The Prime Minister promised to bring this subject up with US secretary of state Colin Powel.

The Assyrian Universal Alliance would like to thank the Honourable Rose Cameron MP, member for Parramatta for his continued support and particularly in conducting this important meeting at his office in Parramatta. Also we would like to extend our special thanks and appreciation for all delegates particularly for our young Assyrian Liberal, Mr Paul Azzo who without his tireless efforts and devotion this meeting would not be possible.

Iran Arrests 80 Evangelicals, New Crackdown on Christians

Courtesy of the BosNewsLife / Compass
10 September 2004

(ZNDA: Tehran)  Iranian police invaded the annual conference of Iran’s Assemblies of God and arrested at least 80 church leaders at the church’s denominational center near Tehran as part of the worst crack down on evangelical believers in a decade..

Security forces raided the meeting "without warning" in Karaj, 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of the capital, after they surrounded the church’s garden property Thursday, September 9.

Assyrian Evangelical Church in Tehran

Eyewitnesses were quoted as saying that all men and women present at the first day of their annual meetings were detained. "The police came from everywhere," an Iranian Christian reportedly said. "There were a lot of them."

The Christian, whose name was not identified apparently for security reasons, claimed that "every single person present was put under arrest, blindfolded and taken in for interrogation."

The detained believers were driven around blindfolded for several hours so they would be unable to understand where they were being taken.

Each of them were reportedly questioned separately by security officials, and the questions revealed that authorities had very precise information about each person, including his or her activities, relatives and other personal data.

Although most of the evangelical leaders were released, ten male pastors were still in custody, and their whereabouts are unknown to their families, who have not been allowed to contact them.

"This is the biggest crisis for evangelical believers in the country since three Protestant pastors were murdered 10 years ago," another unidentified Iranian source commented.

Ordained Ministers

Six ordained ministers were named among the prisoners, identified by their given names of Vartan, Soren, Harmik, George, Omid and Farhad. Another two men serving as pastors and two church elders were identified as Neshan, Hamid, Henry and Robert. The pastors serve in congregations located in Tehran, Urmia, Rasht, Ahwaz, Boshahr and Karaj.

All the evangelicals released Thursday night were forbidden to attend church services Friday, the weekly day of rest in Iran when most churches meet for worship. "Anyway, all their pastors are now under arrest, so there will be no one to preach when the congregations gather for services," its source said.

As the world’s only theocracy, Iran has strictly proscribed the activities of its evangelical Christian citizens,
closing down their churches and arresting known converts to Christianity. Under Islamic law, apostates who leave Islam are subject to the death penalty.

Iranian officials have not commented on the case.

Alleged Saddam Agent Out on $250,000 Bond

Courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times
17 September 2004
By Natasha Korecki

(ZNDA: Chicago)  A Chicago Assyrian living in the Des Plaines suburbs who prosecutors say was an Iraqi spy was freed on $250,000 bond yesterday and ordered confined to his home as he awaits trial.

Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 57, was released after his wife and brother posted their homes as bond. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer sternly warned Latchin that if he flees, he could face additional charges and more than the 10 years in prison he now faces.

"You understand if you flee these innocent people would lose their property?" Pallmeyer asked.

"Yes," Latchin said, speaking through an Assyrian interpreter.

Calling it an "important matter," Pallmeyer quickly scheduled a trial for Jan. 24.

Latchin, who will be placed on electronic monitoring, is charged with lying on his visa application by allegedly failing to disclose his association with the Mukhabbarat, the intelligence agency of the former Iraqi government.

Though prosecutors called him a "sleeper agent" sent by Saddam Hussein's regime to assimilate into U.S. culture, then gather intelligence when activated, he was only charged with visa fraud.

Latchin's attorney, Mary Judge, argued that charge is not enough to keep Latchin in federal prison until his trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Conway argued against releasing Latchin, saying he knows several languages, allowing him to easily flee elsewhere.

Latchin previously worked security and baggage detail at O'Hare Airport and his wife still works as an airport gate agent.

Assyrian Youth from Turlock Dies of Unknown Causes

Courtesy of the Modesto Bee
11 September 2004
By Melanie Turner

(ZNDA: Modesto)  John Tooma, a 22-year-old California State University at Stanislaus student, died early last Tuesday in Turlock after spending Labor Day skim-boarding in Santa Cruz with some of his university fraternity brothers.

The cause of his death is unknown, family and fraternity members said. His sister, Vicky Tooma, said he was healthy, did not take drugs and that an aneurysm has been ruled out.

He “passed out and didn’t wake up,” she said. “Everyone loved this guy, tremendously.”

Autopsy tests are not complete and the cause of death hasn’t been determined.

Tooma, a finance major, was president of the Theta Chi fraternity at Stanislaus and a graduate of Turlock High School. He landed an internship with Merrill Lynch in Modesto this summer and was set to graduate from Stanislaus State in the spring.

Fraternity members are wearing black last week, and a public fraternity ritual was set for 8 p.m. on 11 September on the quad at Stanislaus State. The public was invited.

Brian Rando, 21, is one of about 30 active members of the fraternity. He was Tooma’s roommate.

“He was just awesome, straightforward with everyone,” Rando said.

Another fraternity brother, 21-year-old Oscar Zagazeta of Delhi, said Tooma was never without a smile — except when he was sleeping, which he said he often did on friends’ couches.

Zagazeta was with him in Santa Cruz on Monday.

“He was having a great time. He was having a blast,” he said.

Later that night Tooma visited his girlfriend in Turlock. She was with him when he died, friends said.

When word of Tooma’s death spread, fraternity brothers gathered.

“There were a lot of guys who were crying,” Zagazeta said. “There were a lot of guys who were angry.”

Ninus Michael, 30, said he’s known Tooma since high school.

“He was the greatest guy you could ever meet. Always positive. Always assertive,” said Michael, an alumni of the fraternity who said he attended class for the first time last Thursday since hearing the news.

“He was the driving force behind this fraternity,” Michael said. “He was in the process of setting up his entire life. I just loved him so much and I’m going to miss him.”

Michael said he knew Tooma to be a great son and brother, too.

Tooma’s sister Micky Peters called her brother the most mature of the siblings, one who rose above “little trifles with family members,” never held grudges, and was a self-motivated, hard worker.

“He was an inspiration to all of us,” she said. “He kept everyone going. He could walk into a room and make everyone laugh.”

Tooma is survived by his parents, Khoshaba Tooma and Nami Tooma of Turlock; brother, Michael Tooma of Clovis; and sisters, Micky Peters and Vicky Tooma, both of Turlock.

A mass was held last Saturday at St. Thomas Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church, with burial at Turlock Memorial Park.

Gilgamesh Epic to be Filmed in Turkey, Enkidu Played by a Turkish Actor

Courtesy of CASCFEN
16 September 2004

(ZNDA: Ankara)  The Sumerian epic poem "Gilgamesh" is to be filmed in Turkey by Hollywood director Roger Christian.

Turkish Actor, Kenan Imirzalioglu

Christian, speaking at a press conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Istanbul, said the original story took place around the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and that after much research they had decided to film the movie in Turkey.

He said the movie would be filmed in Istanbul, Capadocia and Antalya, adding that he was very happy to have the chance of promoting Istanbul, which he described as a jewel.

The character Enkidu would be played by his good friend Kenan Imirzalioglu, he announced, adding that they were also looking for an actress to play Enkidu's love interest, Simba.

Christian said the movie would use special effects to show the great flood and the toppling of the Tower of Babel.

The movie's producer, Beni Atoori, also president of Stonelock Picture International, said they had found many things in Turkey that other countries lacked, adding that he was sure Hollywood would start filming many movies in Turkey after Gilgamesh.

Atoori said the Turkish government fully supported their project and was helping them in every possible way.

Filming will start in October and will last 10 to 11 weeks, said Atoori.

The movie, which has a budget of around $20 million, also features such distinguished actors as Omar Sheriff, Peter O'Toole, Leonor Varela and Max Ryan.

Diamanda Galas on Tour Performs from her Genocide Album

Courtesy of the Oregon Live
14 September 2004
By Scott D. Lewis

(ZNDA: Portland)  Diamanda Galas' two weekend shows as part of PICA's Time-Based Art Festival were a study in contrasts. The contrast between intense, and really intense, that is.

Friday night's show nearly filled the Newmark Theatre and was decidedly the more intense of her riveting performances, with Galas plowing through her recently released "DEFIXIONES: Will & Testament" double album. The piece, dedicated "to the forgotten and erased of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides that occurred in Asia Minor, Pontos and Thrace between 1914 and 1923," was performed with Galas clawing at a black grand piano, transfixed at two side pulpits or clenching her microphones and prowling on a runway toward the audience.

The stage was blackened, three candelabras glowed at the back, and Galas, cloaked in layered black gauze, appeared both bewitching and as though caught in a spell.

That spell, which proved itself to be more a case of passionate possession, quickly enveloped the theater's three levels and left nearly all in a sustained, cerebral trance.

Armed with a 31/2-octave vocal range, "six languages and gibberish" and methodically researched and dissected subject matter, Galas shrieked, screeched, growled, hissed and howled the cases of souls slaughtered and forgotten.

And even if her texts are foreign, her pieces are difficult, and her singular, dervish-banshee singing can be unsettling. When Galas performs, her intent is definite, and her delivery is inescapable and unforgettable.

Sunday's show was sold out -- and stunning.

Seated at the piano for the evening, Galas turned toward her dark bluesy side and paced through a gripping set of standards, murder ballads and original songs.

In Galas' hands and throat, the somewhat chipper "My World Is Empty Without You," became turbulent and tortured, sounding as if the world in question was really the underworld.

With her husky, seasoned voice, unique arrangements and absolute focus, Galas sounded like the vampiric lovechild of Tom Waits and Nina Simone, throwing in a few rounds of seizure-inducing screeching for good measure.

Her take on Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" could leave Elvis stirred and shaken, and her version of Shel Silverstein's "25 Minutes to Go" peeled back the campfire favorite to reveal the silly tune for what it really is -- the panic of a person on the way to be executed.

After multiple standing ovations and encores, Galas ended her stellar show with an otherworldly version of "Gloomy Sunday" and made her way to the lobby for a casual meet-and-greet with fans both old and certainly new.

Kerry Promises to Recognize the Seyfo Genocide

Courtesy of the Turkish Daily News
3 September 2004

(ZNDA: Ankara)  U.S. Democrat candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, John Kerry, has said his administration will label the 1915-1918 events as genocide of Armenians by Turks if he becomes U.S. president.

Other previous U.S. presidential candidates had made promises to recognize the alleged genocide, but what differs Kerry from other candidates is his active support in the U.S. Senate for the recognition of the alleged killings, a news report on the private NTV television Web site said yesterday.

Kerry sent a letter to a music festival in Massachusetts organized by an Armenian association in the United States, namely, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"I assure you I will continue struggling against the denial of Armenian genocide as president. My administration will label April 24, 2005, as the 90th anniversary of this violent act, and will work for this crime against humanity to be used to prevent future genocides," the Web-site quoted the letter as saying.

Kerry's remarks caused uneasiness in Ankara, NTV said.

ANCA, known for its hard-line opposition of Turkey and staunch position for recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide, declared support for John Kerry at the beginning of this month.

"For Armenian-Americans the clear choice is John Kerry," said Ken Hachikian, chairman of the hard-line ANCA group. "Senator Kerry has been a friend of the Armenian-American community for over 20 years, with a proven track record of fighting hard for issues of concern to Armenian-Americans across the nation," he added.

Parliaments of 15 countries, including France, have labelled the 20th-century events as genocide, but the United States has so far refrained from doing so, thanks largely to past administrations' efforts. A resolution calling for the recognition of the alleged genocide was shelved at the last minute in 2000 after the then President Bill Clinton intervened.

Karl Suleman Talks About His Feelings For AUA Deputy Secretary

Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph
29 August 2004
By Peter Gosnell & Charles Miranda

He was a high-flyer with an empire worth $138 million, but today Karl Suleman is a convicted fraudster contemplating two fractured relationships with the women in his life.

Underneath the bright neon lights of a busy Kings Cross shopping strip, Karl Suleman seemed to be a man blessed with extraordinary vision and the means to ensure it became a reality.

He was, he said, in the market for a series of hamburger stores, all of which he planned to pay for in cash, before turning them into a popular chain called “WorldBurgers”.

At the time, Suleman’s persuasiveness, coupled with his business acumen, would understandably have impressed some listeners. But under the confident façade lurked a far more insidious reality.

The unglamorous truth was that by then Suleman was already broke – and spending other people’s money – having long since gambled away the fortune netted by the once lucrative Karl Suleman Enterprizes and the Froggy Group of companies.

Just four months later, he was facing a prison sentence for fraud. His $138 million business empire had collapsed. And he was about to go public with his feelings for his high-profile lawyer, Suzy David.

In Suleman’s first interview since being jailed for 21 months in April, the married bankrupt now claims he feels let down by the relationship. He claims he was in love with David but she says the love, if there was any, was purely one-way.

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Suleman says his affections grew for the 44-year-old David who represented him in 2002 and 2003 during a series of examinations by liquidators appointed after the 2001 collapse of Karl Suleman Enterprizes and the Froggy Group of companies. He also claims that as a result of his feelings for David, his wife Vivian threw him out of their suburban home in Hinchinbrook.

David, who is single, denies a relationship but admits she did allow him to stay at her CBD penthouse “in his hour of need”.

“I was friends with Karl Suleman….I gave him all the moral support,” she says.

David has confirmed Suleman did visit and had stayed at the penthouse overlooking Hyde Park that she shares with her sister-in-law Sabrina Jajoo.

“He stayed in the apartment. We weren’t there….he was homeless,” she says.

“He was in a state of going from being a very high guru to a nobody and the people he was always with abandoned him.

“The people who never got anything out of him were the ones left to carry some of the burden.

“You just can’t leave someone totally stranded and abandoned when they are having problems at home.

“You just try to be a friend…..that doesn’t mean you are having an affair with them.”

Suleman made his claims to a Daily Telegraph reporter who visited him at the Kirkconnell Correctional Centre near Lithgow. Suleman claims he first became aware of his feelings for David in 1999 when she asked him to show her over his boat, which was moored at Birkenhead Point. “After that Suzy and I gradually started seeing each other,” he says.

“She used to call me and invite me to dinner and we’d go to the ANA hotel [now Shangri La], the Japanese restaurant there.” Suleman also claims: “I fell in love with her and my wife found out about it. That’s why my wife kicked me out of the house and I started living with Suzy in her apartment.”

Suleman claims the closeness of their relationship is supported by witness statements set to be tendered in forthcoming professional negligence claims against David and her brother Fred.

The Daily Telegraph understands the statements also contain statements that Suleman and David flew in his private plane to Hamilton Island and Melbourne where they stayed at the Crown Casino hotel, as well as references to “kissing” and “hugging.”

In addition to acting as his solicitor, David and her brother were both directors of Froggy Group companies.

Both are awaiting a judgment following a NSW Supreme Court hearing into whether they breached their duty of care when arranging for clients to invest in the Karl Suleman Enterprizes investment scheme, which has since been found to be illegal.

David did not represent Suleman at his criminal trial. Legal Service Commissioner Steve Marks says there is no prohibition on solicitors forming relationships with clients.

“It’s not encouraged, particularly in cases where there is a possible conflict of interest, but there is no rule preventing it,” he says.

Today, Suleman remains bitter about his relationship with David. Although now ended, they still share differing views to its strength of feeling.

Since his interview with the Daily Telegraph, he has been moved from Kirkconnell and is in Bathurst jail, receiving daily medication for depression.

In the meantime, liquidators from Horwath Accountants have successfully untangled his complex pyramid scheme, which left investors in Sydney, Melbourne and the US out of pocket.

From the $138 million involved in the scheme, $91 million was returned to investors, $5 million spent on property and luxury cars and other monies taken as cash and gambled.

But the Daily Telegraph has learned that $28 million originally thought lost in complex and dated banking transactions has almost all been found.

Paul Weston, a liquidator with Horwath Accountants, declined to reveal his next move but said the trail could lead to prosecutions and greater asset recoveries.

“We believe that this [$28 million find] is a significant piece of the puzzle which has been missing now for over a year,” he says.

“There’s still 200 missing cheques that account for a couple of million dollars…..but the Commonwealth bank has been able to locate the rest and they’ve sent them to us and we are filling in the gaps.”

Weston confirmed that he is also now battling the US Attorney’s Office in California, which wants the $US280,000 ($400,000) seized there to be paid to American creditors in Suleman’s scheme – not into a general pool..

Weston says investigators had found that Suleman lost millions of dollars gambling and “living a good life.”

“There’s no evidence that we have gathered that Suleman salted away lots of money. What we’ve established is that there are a lot of agents that received lots of money and we’ve taken action for recovery from those agents.” he says.

“But we have not been able to find hoards of cash salted away – only assets, such as property, homes, mortgages paid out and things of that nature paid out by agents and we have ASIC [the Australian Securities and Investment Commission] freezing orders over those pending recovery action being successful.”

The claims of the creditors, mostly from Sydney’s Assyrian community, are worth $48 million and they could expect to receive about 20 cents in the dollar after the conclusion of legal action. A dividend of 2.5 cents had already been paid. As they wait for their money, others are more circumspect.

Last December, when Suleman was spruiking his plans for a hamburger chain, his former employer, Italian-born businessman Joe Prestia, gave him $120,000 to settle on a couple of business purchases.

But Suleman was already in debt and being chased by the corporate cops, so he did what came naturally – he went to a Brisbane casino and began gambling the money away.

Horwath Accountants discovered the Brisbane bank account, owned by Prestia but operated by Suleman, and immediately froze it. Prestia says that all but $15,000 was recovered and he had written the money and the experience off.

And Prestia says that he had no knowledge of Suleman’s scheme when he gave him the $120,000.

He says had he known Suleman was a gambler he would not have employed him, but he believed that the Assyrian could help him acquire distressed businesses, including Sydney’s cafes, and make them profitable. Suleman in turn cling to his dream of a creating WorldBurgers. “It was just and idea the jailed Suleman now says.

He also wanted to start his own bank to provide quick loans to developers who were happy to pay the higher premiums for the easy cash access.

That idea, like the eateries, never came off.

[Zinda:  Ms. Suzy David remains the Deputy Secretary General, and second in command, of the Assyrian Universal Alliance.]

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Time to Embrace Iraqi Jews and Kurds

Daniel Fullmer
Michigan

It is a shame Iraqi Christians are unable to unite under a common theme. Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Latins, Orthodox, Protestant, the list goes on, cannot put aside their differences.

Look at Iraqi Kurds. They not only have seemed to put their differences behind them, they also have a very strong friend, Israel. It is refreshing to read in Kurdish papers the warm feelings Kurds have for Jews. Iraqi Christians are acting just like their Christians brothers in Lebanon did a few years ago and shunned Israel and Jews. Why can't Iraqi Christians unite with the Kurds and the Jews? Every time I bring this up to Iraqi Christians it is dismissed as "crazy talk."

There needs to be unity when fighting battles, Iraqi Christians cannot fight for their independence alone, as was seen after the first world war. It is time Iraqi Christians embrace Iraqi Jews and Iraqi Kurds as equals.

Look How Today Resembles Yesterday

Edward I. Baba
California

There is an old American saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” The Assyrian nation was seduced into a masquerade ball held by Rasputin, which has led our nation into decades of systematic destruction and fleeing of the homeland. Hitherto, our nation has fallen short of differentiating between religion and politics although both are like oil and water. Politics include various negative things for religion, like the use of deception, military actions, and dirty politics/affairs of the state. However, religion teaches mankind to become frank, make peace, and turn the other cheek. We have not learned from our clumsy mistakes. Take a look at some nations that have succeeded with the law of separation of church and state, like the United States of America, Armenia, Greece, Israel, etc. These nations prospered even more with this separation. The US would not have become a superpower if it did not enter World War II and retaliate against the bombings of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Time has come for the Assyrian nation to wake up and keep the religious leaders in check and show them where their boundaries lie. Let the politicians deal with politics and nurse after the Assyrian cause. You don’t see the Pope representing his country, you see him representing Catholicism. Let our churches complete their own assigned tasks, not those of others.

If the churches want to take responsibility over the nation, they shouldn’t prop up new churches, they should construct Assyrian schools. Living in the melting pot we proudly call America, Assyrian schools become a necessary commodity in our cultural existence for future generations. Unfortunately, they failed to meet the goals they presented themselves with and stranded the Assyrian nation. I always hear the funny sayings of “churches keep our language alive”! What absurd annotations! I take my two children to church to hear the priest recite passages from the Bible in Assyrian. My children hear the language, but there is nothing for them to read and fully become erudite of the Assyrian language. How is that keeping our language alive?

Recently, the big bishop was proudly declaring that he was not going to involve in political affairs on Sargon Dadeesho’s satellite channel. However, at the same time, his representative in Baghdad was pleading with the Iraqi authority to install a marionette to represent them in the future Iraqi Parliament. This is an insult to the Assyrian nation. You’re begging for a piece of your own cake. Is that not being involved in politics? I never knew religious issues also dealt with governmental affairs. Intervening in politics by religious figures causes pandemonium and wrecks the Assyrian case in Iraq. Leave the politics for politicians. Blood was shed by ADM for seats in the parliament, not like a vagrant in the streets of Baghdad.

The big bishop also proudly stated he was solely an Assyrian, inferring the fact that he does not advocate the unity between Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Assyrians. By permitting the destruction of unity, we are bequeathing met objectives for those against us. History is a lesson taught by repetition. Time has come for us to unite with our brothers, Chaldeans and Syriacs, and stand tall against our adversaries. Unity is power; division is destruction. We have to learn from our mistakes and work hard to prevent them from occurring once more.

Machiavelli once said, “Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.”

Assyrian Representation in Iraq Reaching a Catastrophic End

Fred Aprim
California

Latest reports from Iraq indicate that the permanent Iraqi Constitution will reflect two, three, or even four separate designations for the Assyrian people. These designations shall include Assyrians, Chaldeans, ChaldoAssyrians, and even Christians.

The Iraqi authorities have been bombarded with petitions by Abd al-Ahad Afram and few other Nestorian and Chaldean groups based in the United States, some backed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Barazani, to include Chaldeans as a separate designation in the coming Iraqi Permanent Constitution and have separate representation for Chaldeans in the parliament. Other Nestorian Assyrian groups have been pressing for a separate Assyrian designation rejecting the unifying "ChaldoAssyrian" title. While few others have brought up the purely "Christian" designation into the picture.

Assyrians (including Chaldeans and Suryan) stand to lose greatly if this materialized. Assyrians will fail to get any reasonable and effective place in parliament if this representation was based solely on population as a measure for electing such representation. This will greatly weaken Assyrians in north of Iraq and enforces Kurds domination.

If this was to take place, I am not sure how the Assyrian political groups will face the Assyrian people, since it is their irresponsible actions that have taken the Assyrian people to this point.

I believe that common Assyrians should seriously consider filing a lawsuit against every political group in the United States that claims to be representing Assyrians for being involved getting us here. We must force these groups in courts to prove how they got such authority when they do not have a base support from the people and have not undertaken any measures to put any important issues in front of the people to decide. We must pursue this issue once and for all and expose how organizations with ten, twenty or even one hundred supporters can speak on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people. If we do not clean our home from such groups and individuals, we will never get anywhere because these organizations and individuals are not representing the people under any capacity or consideration and are causing more problems than good for the Assyrian cause.

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Meet Samaria Kishto in San Jose

Ashur Radio Staff

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The Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa)-Santa Clara Valley Branch-invites you to a meeting with Mrs. Samaria Kishto, president of the Assyrian Women's Union of Iraq - Nohadra (Dohuk) Branch.

Mrs. Kishto is visiting the Assyrian communities in the United States after having attended seminars and training sessions organized by Women for a Free Democratic Iraq (WAFDI) in Washington D.C.

She will report on the current political climate in our Homeland, and discuss the Assyrian women's accomplishments in developing our national movement and their current involvement in Assyrian national affairs.

Don't miss this important gathering!

Date: Sunday September 19th, 2004
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: Assyrian Hall, 680 Minnesota Ave, San Jose, California.