U.S. Troops Accidentally Shoot & Kill Assyrian in Kirkuk

(ZNDA: Kirkuk) In Kirkuk, persistent fuel shortages in the oil city sparked rioting in which one person was killed and four wounded, prompting the authorities to impose an overnight curfew.

On 1 January during one such demonstration in the quarters of Raheem Awa in Kirkuk, Mr. Youkhana Yaqo Youkhana, 69, from the Assyrian village of Deri, was accidentally killed by American troops who were shooting to clear up a demonstration protesting the high prices of fuel.  Youkhana was heading home from his work when he was caught in the middle of the demonstration.

Mr. Youkhana Yaqo in traditional Assyrian customs

Assyrian Killed in Dora District on First Day of New Year

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  Mr. Ayad Loqa Lazar, 43, born in Kirkuk, and a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, was attacked and murdered on 1 January at 7:00 a.m. by terrorists while on duty in Baghdad's Dora district. Ayad is survived by his wife and two children.

Ayad Loqa Lazar

The Killing of the Assyrian Interpreter, Allan Enwiyah

Courtesy of the Washington Post
"In Ambush Lasting Seconds, U.S. Reporter in Iraq Becomes Hostage"
10 January 2006
By Ellen Knickmeyer

(ZNDA: Baghdad)  The call came from reporter Jill Carroll's cell phone, from a young, wary-sounding Iraqi man who said he had just picked up the phone from a sprawled body on a Baghdad street. "The person this phone belongs to was just killed," the caller said.

The caller was wrong. The body was that of interpreter Allan Enwiyah, 32, who had just become one of thousands of Iraqis to be killed in nearly three years of war in Iraq.

The phone belonged to Carroll, a 28-year-old freelance reporter with hennaed hair who minutes before had become the first female American journalist to be kidnapped in Iraq.

Allan Enwiyah is shown in Iraq with his son in this undated photo. Enwiyah, working as an interpreter for Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was killed by unknown gunmen in Baghdad Saturday morning, Jan. 7, 2006,. (AP Photo/Christian Science Monitor, Howard LaFranchi.)

Carried off in the Red Toyota Cressida of her driver, who escaped unharmed, she became the latest of more than 400 foreigners and more than 30 journalists to be abducted in Iraq's pitiless violence. Thousands of Iraqis have been abducted in the same period. Numerous Westerners remain in captivity, including four members of the activist group Christian Peacemaker Teams who were taken late last year.

"All together, it didn't take 10 seconds," Carroll's driver said Monday night, two days after she was kidnapped in a west Baghdad neighborhood seen as heavily sympathetic to insurgents.

"I always talked to her, told her Iraq is a place where reporters don't feel comfortable now," the driver said. "She always said, 'No, if there is a place I feel comfortable in, it's Iraq.' "

Carroll, a native of Michigan, was on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor, a Boston-based daily newspaper that has long carried extensive overseas coverage. Carroll had come to the Middle East in October 2002 and reported for Jordanian, Italian and American news organizations, including for The Washington Post in Baghdad for a few weeks in early 2003.

Carroll's kidnapping occurred in the same part of Baghdad as that of Margaret Hassan, an aid official believed killed by her abductors in 2004. Numerous foreign men have been killed by their kidnappers since 2003; of the several Western women who have been kidnapped, Hassan is the only one believed to have died at the hands of her captors. Iraqi officials say as many as 30 Iraqis a day are reported kidnapped in Baghdad. The abductions are part of the rising lawlessness accompanying the country's political unrest. Some Iraqi hostages are freed for ransom gathered by friends and families; others are dumped out on roads, dead.

In a statement, the Monitor called Carroll an "established journalist" experienced in the Middle East. "In recent months, the Monitor has tapped into her professionalism, energy, and fair reporting on the Iraqi scene," the newspaper said. "It was her drive to gather direct and accurate views from political leaders that took her into western Baghdad's Adil neighborhood on Saturday morning.

"The Monitor joins Jill's colleagues -- Iraqi and foreign -- in the Baghdad press in calling for her immediate and safe release," the statement said.

Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim said in the statement: "Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release."

Unlike most Western reporters in Baghdad, Carroll spoke Arabic well enough to easily talk to ordinary Iraqi people and interview Iraqi officials. She had picked up the language while working as a business reporter in Jordan and, in the days before her abduction, had renewed a plea to her Iraqi interpreter and driver to speak only Arabic to her as they traveled so she could improve her fluency, colleagues said.

In a scholarship application filled out shortly before Saturday's kidnapping, Carroll outlined proposals for reporting projects in Iraq. In them, she showed a keen understanding of the country.

She wanted to spend six months of the fellowship making her Arabic better still, she wrote in the application. "In this poorly understood region, where so much is at stake, important stories are lost everyday because the foreign press corps doesn't speak Arabic," Carroll wrote. "Journalism is a public service and readers are best-served if I and the people I am writing about speak the same language."

A Westerner in jeans, T-shirts and sweaters while at her place in Baghdad, Carroll slipped out into the city and much of Iraq wearing the black, enveloping abaya and head scarf of Iraqi women. Even with her red-frame glasses, she could walk unnoticed down a Baghdad street.

With violence roiling Iraq, a sizable number of foreign reporters largely restrict themselves to armored cars shuttling between hotels and the American-controlled Green Zone. They cover American officials and the isolated authorities of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

Carroll went out in unarmored vehicles, without bodyguards or follow-up security cars.

On Saturday, her abductors were able to stop her car without firing a shot, her driver said.

The Washington Post is withholding his identity, as well as that of the person who received the cell phone call, for security reasons.

Carroll had gone to the office of Adnan Dulaimi, a white-haired Sunni Arab politician. Carroll believed she had a 10 a.m. appointment, colleagues said. She arrived early. Workers in the office kept her waiting 10 to 15 minutes, then told her Dulaimi was busy, the driver said.

Dulaimi denied after the kidnapping that there had been an appointment. At 10 a.m., he was at a scheduled news conference elsewhere with a secular Shiite politician, former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi.

Coming out of nowhere Saturday, clean-cut, well-dressed men with pistols swarmed Carroll's car as she left the failed interview. The ambush happened within a few hundred feet of Dulaimi's office, the driver said; he hadn't gone far enough to shift the car beyond third gear.

One attacker planted himself in the car's path, screaming at the driver to stop. The driver said he initially thought the men were guards clearing the route for a convoy going to or from the office of Dulaimi, like hundreds of armed convoys bullying their way through Baghdad daily. The driver stopped.

The men pulled the driver from the car. Cursing, one man fired a shot toward the driver where he had fallen to his hands and knees on the pavement. The rest piled into the car, with Carroll and Enwiyah still inside. The gunmen were shouting too loudly, the driver said, for him to hear anything Carroll or Enwiyah said.

Enwiyah's body was found in the same neighborhood. The Monitor said he had been shot twice in the head.

The first calls on the cell phone came within half an hour. The man on the other end said he had picked up the phone from Enwiyah's body, dumped in the Adil neighborhood. He called three or four more times, urging that someone be sent to pick up Enwiyah's body. It lay in the street for hours.

Enwiyah, a husband with young children, had that day shown a colleague a music CD by a band he once belonged to, the colleague recalled. All the other band members had since escaped to England, he told his colleague.

"I told him, 'This is your destiny,' " the colleague said. "He said, 'Yes, the most important thing is we're safe.' "

Other colleagues recalled Carroll saying something similar. "My fate is in Iraq," she told an Iraqi friend.

No public demands or assertions or responsibility have emerged in the kidnapping.

In the Adil neighborhood on Monday, graffiti made clear the sentiment toward Americans. "Get out," the words painted in English on a concrete wall declared. "We hate you."

A convoy of men in civilian BMWs and Opels made their way through traffic in the neighborhood. The men, wearing civilian clothes, openly held their Glock pistols and AK-47 assault rifles in view of other drivers. A wedding car draped in wreaths drove past, trailed by a van of clapping, singing women celebrating the union.

The quiet street where the kidnapping took place was partially blocked to traffic by broken concrete barriers. A dozen or so neatly dressed, clean-cut men in leather jackets milled together outside Dulaimi's office, the only signs of life on the street until the wedding convoy turned in to it.

Christians Trying to Find a Place in War-torn Iraq

Courtesy of the Star (South Africa)
28 December 2005
By Cyrille Cartier

A little boy with a Santa Claus hood sat bewildered in a truck in his uncle's arms. It was Christmas Eve and loud Christmas music played as the truck roared through the streets of Hamdaniya, a predominantly Christian village about 20km from Mosul.

For Rody Raad this was a Christmas unlike any other. It was the first without his father. Several weeks before, Raad Ayoub (28) was killed by insurgents in neighbouring Mosul. The 2-year-old's uncle was part of the Santa Claus Family, a volunteer group of eight men who were getting ready to distribute presents worth $5 000 (R31 500) to the town's children.

Christians have had a hard time in the new Iraq. As a small minority - about 2% of Iraq's 26-million - they are sometimes lost in the discussions of Iraqi sectarian divides. They often categorise themselves religiously as either Assyrians or Chaldeans, Eastern Orthodox or Catholic, though the passing of time has faded some of the original divides.

Since 2003, however, the differences between them and the Arab Muslim majority have grown. Ironically, said one man in Hamdaniya, before the US invasion, there was peaceful cohabitation between Christians and Muslims. Now many Muslims have left his town, and Christians are wary of wandering beyond their area.

Karam Hasou, leader of the Santa Claus Family, is one of the few who dare to go beyond the "safe zone", as he calls it. He goes to Mosul to attend university, a trip that used to take 15 minutes before the war. Now with all the checkpoints it takes hours - it he can get there at all.

He takes a bus and tries to come back before nightfall, but even during the day, the same bus has been caught in the crossfire between Iraqi army or police and the insurgents. He has come close to death when roadside bombs have exploded, a common weapon used against coalition and Iraqi forces.

In Mosul, a city that thrived with different communities of Arabs and Kurds, Christians and Muslims, the fabric that held them together is being torn apart by the violence. Christians and Kurds are not only being targeted, like some Arabs and Muslims, for collaborating with foreigners: they are also targeted as minorities.

Since 2003, thousands of families have left the Mosul area in search of a safer life. Many have left the country, and according to some estimates, those living outside the country make up two-thirds of the entire Iraqi Christian population. Others with less means have headed to the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Ankawa, a Christian enclave near Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, is a popular refuge.

"We're against Christians leaving Iraq and we encourage them to unite in Kurdistan," said Nenif Matran Hariri, an Assyrian Christian who came back to Iraq in 2003, having lived most of his life in England.

"If any more leave, there won't be any left." Hariri is working as an adviser on Christian affairs with the Kurdistan regional government and is trying to get Christian families from Baghdad and Mosul to relocate here.

"There's no future for Christians outside of Kurdistan," Hariri believes. "I don't think they can live with Arabs anymore."

Sherzad Kanoon Hanna, a Chaldean living in Ankawa, said: "We regard ourselves as part of the Kurdish people. We get more rights than under other dictatorial successive regimes in Iraq."

But not all Iraqi Christians are united in their view. Some support a united Iraq instead of the popular Kurdish aspiration to independence. While some say the Christians' best option is to support the Kurds, others, like Chaldo Soroot, of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), think Christians must make their own way.

ADM, a political party that started in 1979, joined the Kurdish list in the January elections but established their own in this month's elections.

"We are the original people," Soroot said. "We are a small group but we must have our voice in the new political map." On Christmas Eve, the young men of the Santa Claus Family, most of them in their 20s, donned the red-and-white suits over their long-sleeved shirts with their logo on it: an outline of the map of Iraq with a comic Santa face next to the Iraqi flag. "Merry Christmas" was written in English. Other messages were in Arabic but the name of their group was written in Assyrian, a language written and spoken here only among Christians.

The group has existed for the past seven years. With the help of parties like ADM and donations from abroad, Santa's coffers have grown and six more places have been added to the Christmas Eve tour.

"There should not only be bombs for the children," Hasou said. "When I find a smile on a child's face, it's a lot of happiness for me and my group." - Independent Foreign Service

Sponsored by Zinda Magazine

Christian Believers in Iran Face Constant Surveillance
by the Islamic Republic

Courtesy of the Guardian Unlimited
27 December 2005

At first sight, the house of worship bears all the Persian architectural hallmarks of a classically Iranian mosque. But the religious symbol accompanying the sky-blue dome is a cross, not a minaret, and the holy book sacred to the faithful inside is the Bible rather than the Qur'an.

This is the Church of St Simon the Zealot, an Anglican church built in the late 1930s by an English missionary, Rev Norman Sharp, who went to Iran to spread the Christian faith.

Hidden behind a high wall in a narrow back street, it is now a haven to the tiny beleaguered Christian community in Shiraz, about 500 miles south of Iran's capital, Tehran.

Every Sunday, its 30-member congregation gathers in lamb-shaped pews - designed to symbolise Jesus' flock - to sing traditional hymns such as The Lord Is My Shepherd and hear sermons from a Farsi translation of the New Testament by the church's lay pastor, Stephen Kambiz Jaeintan.

Two days ago, this hardened society of believers met for a special Christmas Day dinner, having prepared and brought their own food. To inject an extra dose of festive cheer otherwise lacking in Iran's staunchly Islamic setting, a fully-dressed Santa Claus handed out presents.

In staging this hearty celebration of the birth of Christ, the congregation was risking the wrath of Iran's Islamic authorities, whose intelligence services keep a watchful eye on the church on such occasions. The entire flock has converted to Christianity from Islam, apostasy in a country whose population is 99% Muslim. Under Islamic law, such conversions are potentially punishable by death.

"We have big problems with the government," said Mr Jaeintan, 33, a once-devout Muslim who converted 14 years ago. "The authorities monitor the church to see who goes into the services. The entry of non-Christians is strictly forbidden.

"We are suffering repression for worshipping a God and the problems are getting worse. I am not allowed to travel abroad to study to be ordained as a priest. The most important thing for the authorities is that Iran remains an Islamic republic, with the Islamic part being more important than the republic.

"I was called into an interrogation with the intelligence service. They told me that the period when people were killed for being Christian is past but that I might find myself with two kilos of heroin in my possession. The punishment for that is life in prison or death. They told me they won't make a hero out of me."

Iran's constitution grants protection to Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, as well as to Jews and Zoroastrians. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa ordering that Christians and Jews be treated with respect as "people of the book".

However, the edict does not sanction the conversion of Muslims to another faith, which is seen as a threat to the Shia Islamic foundations of the state.

At the very least, such conversions can damage work and educational opportunities. Workers in Iran's large public sector are screened for adherence to Islam while university applicants have to state their religion before being admitted. As a result, many converts feel compelled to hide their changed religious convictions.

"I work for the government in a job where you are required to carry out Islamic prayers every day. It's torture for me," said Nathaniel, 42, whose former Islamic beliefs were shaken after reading the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew. "I feel increased pressure every day. There is an ever present threat, but I feel when God is with me, who is against me?"

Despite being legally prohibited from actively seeking new members or publicising his services, Mr Jaeintan says the number asking to join his flock is increasing. Many are formerly observant Muslims like Nathaniel who have begun to question Islam; others are secular Iranians claiming to have experienced a spiritual awakening. Some, whom Mr Jaeintan says he rejects, want to become Christians as a means of seeking political asylum.

The repression of Christians in Iran predates the seventh-century arrival of Islam. Christians were brutally purged by the ardently Zoroastrian Sassanian dynasty during the third and fourth centuries. The Shiraz church is named after Simon the Zealot, a Christian patriarch put to death in 339AD by order of the country's rulers.

The US State Department has published reports on religious freedom lamenting the closure of many Iranian churches and noting the murders of several evangelical Christians in the 1990s. There were once several Anglican churches throughout Iran, most of them designed by the Rev Sharp. Today, the Church of St Simon the Zealot is one of Iran's few remaining centres of active Anglican worship.

Weeks after the revolution, the church's then pastor, Parviz Sayaphsina Arastu, was beheaded in the churchyard by religious extremists who accused him of carrying out baptisms.

More recent baptisms have been conducted in secret by pastors visiting from Britain and elsewhere. Mr Jaeintan is unqualified to baptise converts because he is not an ordained priest.

His lay status has also denied the church other basic Christian services such as Easter mass. Holy communion has been staged just once in the past year, with the help of a visiting Anglican priest.

Mr Jaeintan, however, remains defiant in his religious beliefs. "I'm proud of being a Muslim-born Christian living in Iran," he said. "My God has given me birth here, so it means I have a mission in Iran."

To visit the official website of the Assyrian Evangelical Church of Tehran, Iran - Allap u Tav - click here.

Family Appeals for Pope's Help to Get Sick Tariq Aziz Freed

Courtesy of the Associated Press
14 January 2005

Pope John Paul II shakes hands with Iraqi Tariq Aziz in the Pope`s private library in February 2003.

(ZNDA: Mosul)  The family of former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has asked Pope Benedict XVI to intervene with US authorities so the detainee can be released to receive medical care abroad.

Mr Aziz's son, Ziad Aziz, said lawyers had sent a letter addressed to the pope to the Vatican's embassy in Baghdad. Mr Aziz, a Chaldean Catholic, met with the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in February 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, in a bid to head off the conflict. Mr Aziz was arrested after the overthrow of Saddam's regime in 2003 but has not been formally charged.

The Vatican declined to comment.

Lawyer Badie Arif Ezzat (L), said Aziz was weeks from death.

According to Al-Jazeera News, Tariq Aziz may have less than a month to live after suffering a cerebral embolism, his lawyer has said.

Badie Arif Ezzat told the Al-Hayat Arab newspaper on Thursday that Tariq Aziz, one of the most recognizable figures from Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime, is "in agony and I do not expect him to live more than an month" following the cerebral embolism and heart problems.

Ezzat said Aziz was now being held by U.S. forces in a room "reserved for dogs" that measures just two meters long and a meter wide which he is only allowed to leave for brief periods.

Death of Samuel Elma Leaves Assyrian Community in Shock

Abraham Beth Arsan
Holland

With the sudden passing away of Samuel Elma, 48, of Badebe, Tur Abdin , the Assyrian community loses yet another leader. Recently Bishop Cicek died of a heart attack. Now there comes a notice from Istanbul, where the colourful Elma died in the same way as the Bishop, in a hotel room from a heart attack.

Assyrian political activist Samuel Elma passed away earlier this month at the age of 48.

In 1977 Samuel Elma came as a refugee to the Netherlands, where he almost continuously lived in Enschede, Holland. On his arrival in the Netherlands he instantly started to study social sciences. By doing so he became the first Assyrian who obtained a degree in social sciences. In the '80 he inspired many Assyrian youth to follow suit.

Except from being a social worker, he was one of the first full blooded political activists in the Assyrian community, and later a businessman in the then very conservative Assyrian community, which was very indifferent towards politics. It was he who led the occupation of the Saint Jan Basilica in Den Bosch in 1978. Together with his people he pressured the Dutch government to provide asylum to the large group of the Syrian Orthodox refugees.

During the occupation of the Saint Jan, Elma did everything to encourage his people. His famous slogan was: "We once had one of the greatest Empire realms in the world as our fatherland, now we have this small place to call our motherland." He compared the ancient Assyrian Empire realm to the outline of the Saint Jan. The occupation of the Saint Jan was a success because all of the occupiers where given asylum in the Netherlands.

After the occupation of the Saint Jan Elma returned to Enschede and there he and some of his comrades took the first political steps within his community. He funded the Mesopotamian Information Centre Foundation in 1984, and in an interview to the Twentsche Courant he stated that he wasn't a Christian Turk, but that Mesopotamia was his motherland.

In 1987 he was one of the people who established the Assyrian Mesopotamian Society in Enschede, he was the chairman for 2 years. The present chairman of the society, Aziz Abdo said: "We are deeply shocked by the passing of our former chairman. Until his death he was a member and a haven of peace within our Society. He was a most appreciated advisor to our society.

His death is a great loss, in the first place for his family. The news of his death came as a cold shower to our society. We will be eternally grateful for everything he did for our society, and other institutions within our community who fight for the rights of our people."

Besides being a political activist Elma was a businessman for years. His former companion Iskander Mirza speaks of a great loss: "He was a great man who did not hurt anyone."

The Assyrian member of Holland's provincial Parliament of Overijssel Attiya Gamri, praises the unbound optimism of Elma: "Thanks to Elma I became a politician myself; it was he who gave me the first political periodical of the Dutch political party PvdA in 1988.   He was member of PvdA.  He was a great inspiration to our youth to go to school, and to be active within society. I'm really sad because he died so young. He had so many plans left for his life."

Elma was buried last Saturday, 12.00 o'clock in the monastery in the Dutch village of Glane.  The Assyrian community comprised of over 2000 family members, friends and guests from Twente and Germany were present at his burial. Elma is survived by his wife and 6 children.

GHB Press Release from 2nd Congress

Official Press Release
The MUB Board
3 January 2006
Södertälje, Sweden

LINDA BADALOF New Year's Special Take Advantate of My Gold Package RE/MAX Santa Clarita Licenced Buyer Agent for Monica Barkley www.scvproperties.com Fluent in Assyrian COMPLIMENTARY • 1-Year Home Buyer's Home Warranty Service • Two-Months Maid Service • Two-Months Gardening Service • $200 Donation to Charity of Choice Call for details - Gifts not to exceed $1,000.00 - Provided at the close of escrow. 25101 The Old Road Santa Clarita, CA Direct: 661.284.5097 Cell:    661.645.4290 Yahoo ID: LindawithREMAX lbadalof@sbcglobal.net

The Bethnahrin Freedom Party (GHB) held its second congress from the 28th to 29th of December 2005 in the Swedish city of Södertälje. More than 160 delegates took part in this congress. According to the global changes and new political challenges, the general assembly of GHB decided to build a new national-political assembly under the name “Bethnahrin National Council (MUB)”. This new institution consists of different political parties, social organizations and institutions of the Assyrian-Aramean-Chaldean-Syriac people.

The Bethnahrin National Council (MUB) follows the political heritage of GHB and is aiming to coordinate and to develop the national and social movement of this people.

Other aims of the MUB are:

• Struggling for the national unity of this people.
• Demanding and defending the geographical, cultural, historical and social rights of this people.
• Working for the global acknowledgement of the national identity of this people.
• Constructing Middle East in terms of economy, democracy and peace.
• The fulfillment of economical projects in order to restrict the emigration from the ancestral homeland.
• The fulfillment of re-migration projects for this people.
• To increase the principles of democracy among this people.
• To strengthen the equality of privileges between man and women.
• To solve the problems of the young.
• To develop the social-economical level of this people according to the circumstances of the regions in which they are.
• To develop the justice among this people.
• To strengthen the mass media of this people.
• To solve the ecological problems in the ancestral homeland of this people and to create relevant solutions.
• To work for the peaceful co-existence of the peoples.
• To solve the different questions of this people by means of international courts.

The basic principals of the MUB are:

• Taking the Human Right Charta of the United Nations as a guide.
• Working in a modern and democratic way.
• Defending friendship and peace among the peoples.
• Supporting the integration of this people with the civil world.
• MUB is linked to the historical and cultural values of this people.
• Handling the names and confessions of this people equally.

Courtesy of the Qenneshrin Newspaper

Humanitarian Organizations in Germany Focus
on Assyrian Minority Rights

Zinda report prepared by Dr. Tuma Abraham in Germany

The quarterly magazine of the Pan European Union reported in its recent issue the event organized by the 14th European Days and the Centre International de Formation Européene (CIFE) in Andechs, Germany.  The event took place under the slogan of "Diversity as a Problem, Displacement as a solution". The event has been organized in cooperation with . Both organizations demand legal guaranties for the minority rights and their establishment in an European legal framework.

The Pan European Union has existed since 1922 as a politically independent organization working for a united Europe based on the Christian-humanitarian values and the maintenance of the ethnical and cultural diversity in Europe.

Among the invited panelists were well known personalities as Bernd Posselt (a member of the European Parliament), Dr. Ortfried Kotzian (Historian and Director of the House of East) and Bishop Walter Mixa (Catholic Bishop of Augsburg) along with Janet Abraham (Executive Board Member of the Society for Threatened People) and Anastasia Dick (Chairlady of the Pontos Greek Association).

Ms. Janet Abraham gave an overview about the historical and current situation of the Assyrians in their home countries.  She further emphasized the importance of the negotiations for a possible accession of Turkey into the European Union for the Christian communities remaining in Tur Abdin.

In the same issue a review of the minorities in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey appeared by Prof. Rudolf Grulich. He outlines the history of the Assyrians during the beginning of the 19th Century and describes the Genocide against the Assyrians. He also briefly explains the raising of the cross-denominational Assyrian national movement in the same time.

Worthwhile to mention is an article appearing in the magazine of the Swiss Section of the Society for Threatened People (Vielfalt #57 Nov 2005), co-authored by Ms. Janet Abraham.  After a short summary of the political developments in Tur Abdin, Turkey, the article describes the current projects for re-building villages and initiatives for the repatriation and also points to the problems Assyrians face today.

Assyrians in Modesto Make Sure Iraq Pays Attention

Courtesy of the Modesto Bee
27 December 2005
By Christina Salerno
Photos by Naomi Brookner

(ZNDA: Modesto)  For many Assyrians, the recent Iraqi election was more than simply choosing a new government. It was an opportunity to have a voice in their homeland, a place, they say, where their voices have been drowned out for too long.

Assyrians with Iraqi roots living in Stanislaus County and throughout the United States turned out en masse to vote in the Iraqi election from Dec. 13 to 15.

Their support helped a slate of Assyrians receive the most ballots in the United States — 6,857 votes, or 26percent — narrowly defeating a Shiite Muslim coalition.

Batta Younan, organizer for the Assyrian Democratic Movement, included the party's logo in an Iraqi stone carving at her Modesto home. She says one seat in parliament is better than nothing.

But despite the popularity of the slate in the United States, it did not fare as well in Iraq, and the group might receive only one seat in the 275-member parliament.

For people who never have had much representation in the Iraqi government, one seat is better than nothing, said Modesto resident Batta Younan.

Younan fled Iraq in 1980. She is an activist who worked to support the Assyrian Democratic Movement slate, or ADM. The party also is known as Zowaa, which means "movement."

Assyrians are a Christian minority in Iraq and make up less than 3 percent of Iraq's population of about 26 million.

Thirty thousand to 45,000 Assyrians are thought to be living in Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, making the region home to one of the largest such populations in the United States.

Younan, an ardent supporter of President Bush and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said she believes democracy is taking place in Iraq for the first time.

"If, someday, democracy comes to Iraq, this is going to be the party to bring it," she said.

Fred Aprim, another party activist, said he fears the Shiite majority will impose Islamic law in Iraq.

"We must have at least one vote in parliament, because whatever comes out of parliament will be shown on national TV," he said. "Our voice will not be lost completely because there will be someone there who will always be heard."

A former Modestan, Aprim lives in Hayward. He fled Iraq in 1980, and recalled his father and teenage brother being imprisoned and beaten under Saddam Hussein's rule.

"Most of the people came here after 1970 and really understand what is at risk," he said. "We never knew what voting was until we came here."

U.S. citizens who were born in Iraq and hold citizenship there were allowed to vote in the Iraqi election. Iraqis born in the United States who could prove their fathers are Iraqi also were allowed to vote.

Other parties supported

The ADM party doesn't have the support of all Assyrians. There are political factions within the Assyrian community, and support is split among several parties.

Sargon Dadesho is president of the Bet-Nahrain Assyrian Cultural Center in Ceres and founder of the Assyrian National Congress.

He organized a caravan of about 150 people to go to the polling station in Pleasanton during the election. Their votes did not go to the ADM party, he said.

"The ADM has given up on its original objective to get back our national rights in Iraq," Dadesho said. "They are not asking for our national rights anymore, they are only asking for educational and administrative rights in Iraq."

Younan distributed promotional materials such as these in support of the Assyrian Democratic Movement. Despite its popularity in the United States, the party didn't do well in Iraq's parliamentary vote.

The Assyrian empire, which fell in 612 B.C., covered parts of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. Assyrians remain a minority in the predominately Islamic Middle East.

Many Assyrians suffered under Saddam's regime, watching as their villages were razed and family members were imprisoned. Others say they weren't persecuted, but were treated like second-class citizens because they were Christian.

Tens of thousands of Assyrians have fled Iraq over the past 20 years, relocating to the United States, Australia and Europe.

Many Assyrians say they feel they have been ignored by the media, while the Kurdish plight has received widespread attention.

"Everybody is looking at the Kurds, but the Assyrians are never mentioned," Aprim said. "We want people to understand why we are here and why this happened to us."

The ADM party was started on April 12, 1979, in Baghdad, Younan said. In 1984, three of its founders were hanged by Sad-dam, according to Younan.

The slayings created sympathy for the party, she said, and drew attention to Assyrian suffering.

The party was driven underground. Leaflets and pamphlets were distributed secretly by party supporters.

The party's goals are to unite Assyrians and help preserve their culture, she said. In the past 20 years, the ADM party has grown and gained significant support in the Assyrian community, Younan said.

U.S. Bishop Urges "Responsible Transition" in Iraq

Courtesy of the Zenit
12 January 2006

(ZNDA: Washington D.C.)  A key bishop in the U.S. episcopal conference is calling for a national civil dialogue that will lead to a responsible transition in war-torn Iraq.

Bishop Thomas Wenski, the chairman of the U.S. episcopate's Committee on International Policy, said such a dialogue could help the nation chart a course of action that meets both the "moral and human dimensions of the situation in Iraq."

"Our nation cannot afford a shrill and shallow debate that distorts reality and reduces the options to 'cut and run' versus 'stay the course,'" said Bishop Wenski of Orlando, Florida.

"Instead we need a forthright discussion that begins with an honest assessment of the situation in Iraq and acknowledges both the mistakes that have been made and the signs of hope that have appeared," he added.

"Most importantly, an honest assessment of our moral responsibilities toward Iraq should commit our nation to a policy of responsible transition," the prelate said. "Our nation's military forces should remain in Iraq only as long as it takes for a responsible transition, leaving sooner rather than later."

Bishop Wenski's statement, "Toward a Responsible Transition in Iraq," was made public today.

At a crossroads

"The central moral question is not just the timing of U.S. withdrawal, but rather the nature and extent of U.S. and international engagement that allows for a responsible transition to security and stability for the Iraqi people," said Bishop Wenski, 55.

"Our nation is at a crossroads in Iraq," he continued. "We must avoid two directions that distort reality and limit appropriate responses. We must resist a pessimism that might move our nation to abandon the moral responsibilities it accepted in using force and might tempt us to withdraw prematurely from Iraq without regard for moral and human consequences.

"We must reject an optimism that fails to acknowledge clearly past mistakes, failed intelligence, and inadequate planning related to Iraq, and minimizes the serious challenges and human costs that lie ahead."

Bishop Wenski noted that "our bishops' conference repeatedly expressed grave moral concerns about the military intervention in Iraq and the unpredictable and uncontrollable negative consequences of an invasion and occupation. …

"At the same time, our nation cannot just look back. The intervention in Iraq has brought with it a new set of moral responsibilities to help Iraqis secure and rebuild their country."

A responsible transition in Iraq means establishing a series of basic benchmarks, including: "achieving adequate levels of security; establishing the rule of law; promoting economic reconstruction to help create reasonable levels of employment and economic opportunity; and supporting the development of political structures to advance stability, political participation, and respect for religious freedom and basic human rights," Bishop Wenski said.

Four key challenges to a responsible transition cited by Bishop Wenski include: terrorism, and the United States' response to it; violation of the human rights of persons in the custody of U.S. and Iraqi forces; threats to religious liberty and religious minorities in Iraq; the plight of refugees; and meeting other responsibilities of the United States.

Terrorism

"Our conference unequivocally condemns all terrorist attacks, especially those that target civilians," Bishop Wenski said. "When tactical military responses are required, we must never forget that the wider struggle with terrorism, together with our basic moral commitments and legal obligations, demands respect for human rights."

"In light of deeply disturbing and continuing reports of persistent violations of the human rights of persons in the custody of U.S. military and … the reconstituted Iraqi forces, our bishops' conference once again urges immediate steps be taken to end these violations, to prevent future occurrences, and to discover how they came about," the bishop said.

Religious freedom

Bishop Wenski said religious liberty is a "foundational freedom that is critical to a just and lasting peace in Iraq. Full religious freedom for all persons and all religious bodies in Iraq would contribute to stability and help avoid sectarian conflict," he said.

"Without guarantees of religious freedom, the ability of minority religious bodies to bridge sectarian divisions, which they have often done in the past, and to contribute to the rebirth of a democratic and prosperous Iraq could be undermined. … A truly democratic Iraq must continue to accommodate its religious, especially Christian, minorities."

Refugees

Concerning refugees, Bishop Wenski said that "The war and ongoing instability in Iraq have resulted in a significant flow of refugees from Iraq, especially among Christians and other religious minorities who suffer attacks and discrimination."

He noted that Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad has pleaded with Western governments to protect Iraqi refugees.

"Our conference urges the United States and the international community to provide greater support and attention to the plight of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers," Bishop Wenski said. "We continue to believe that U.S. policy toward Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers is too restrictive."

Other U.S. responsibilities

"The very costly conflict in Iraq demands a major commitment of human and financial resources, but Iraq cannot become an excuse for ignoring other pressing needs at home and abroad, especially our moral responsibilities toward the poor in our own nation and in developing countries," Bishop Wenski stated. "Our conference reiterates the need to protect the poor at home and abroad in setting our national priorities."

World's Largest Chaldean Church Opens in Michigan

Courtesy of the Source
11 January 2006

After four years of construction and a cost of over $8 million, St. George’s Catholic Chaldean Church held its first Mass at its new Shelby Township facility in Macomb County, Michigan on Friday, Dec. 23. St. George’s is the first Chaldean church in Macomb County and the largest in the world.

The church, which is located on Dequindre north of West Utica Road, is a branch of St. Joseph’s Chaldean Church in Troy. Growth in attendance and a large Chaldean population in Macomb County made it necessary for the church to begin looking for an additional location in 2001. Shelby Township was chosen because of its large Chaldean community and its strategic location in northern Macomb County.

“We don’t have room in the church in Troy,” said Nick Najjar, the church’s spokesman. “And we have a big (Chaldean) community in Shelby Township. This church will serve the needs of our members north of 18 Mile.”

The church seats 1,350 people under a 40-foot ceiling. The balcony alone can hold 225 people and there is a separate room for parents with young children that seats 125. The church is handicap-accessible with heated entryways on each side of the sanctuary. The church is brightly lit with skylights and a state-of-the art sound system was installed to ensure that every member can clearly hear the sermons.

“We installed the best sound system in the world,” Najjar said. “”We didn’t spare any dollars on this.”

On the days prior to the church’s first mass, congregants were still busy assembling pews, vacuuming the carpet and finishing decorations to ensure that everything would be ready for Christmas services. Najjar said more than 200 people showed up to put the finishing touches on the church.

“Everybody worked on Thursday. We were here from 10 a.m. until 4 a.m.,” Najjar said. “We had over 200 people cleaning and scrubbing and getting everything ready.”

One task that had to be completed Thursday night was the assembly of the massive cross that stands at the front of the sanctuary. The cross was shipped in from the Philippines and made of wood that is over 100 years old, Najjar said. It stands 28 feet high and weighs 250 pounds.

“We were here from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m. with about 30 people putting the cross together,” Najjar said.

Despite the last-minute finishing touches, the church opened on time for its Christmas Masses, which were attended by officials from Shelby Township and Sterling Heights. Najjar said the church was filled to capacity even then.

“We had three Masses on Christmas Eve and three Masses on Christmas Day,” he said. “They were all filled. We had to pull out extra chairs to seat everyone.”

The church will be staffed by three priests from St. Joseph’s in Troy who will rotate duties between the two congregations. Najjar said the new building will not only attract new members from northern Macomb County, but it will also allow congregants from the Troy building a place to worship comfortably. He said the members have been amazed at the new building.

“Everyone was saying wow’ for two reasons. One, the church itself and two, it gave them room,” Najjar said. “They can come and sit with no problem.”

Construction on the church’s rectory and parking lot still needs to be finished, which Najjar said will hopefully be done by the spring. The church will hold three Masses each Sunday. He said the church could not have opened on time were it not for the help of local government.

“We’d like to thank every neighbor and all of the officials of Shelby Township for their support,” he said. “They were perfect.”