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I wrote this article in 2010, and published it on www.assyriatimes.com, which is now closed down. Therefore I republish it here on my personal blog.

Have you ever wondered why the Assyrians as a people are among the most devoted Christians? In fact, Christianity’s basic foundation is so deeply ingrained in our lives that we often have felt as one with our faith. But why is that? The answer is simple but at the same time a surprise, we have had this same faith for more than six thousand years. When we became Christians we changed the name of various concepts, but continued to practice the same faith and beliefs about the creation of the universe. In other words, the basic ideology of Christianity is based on Assyrian and Sumerian belief.

 “The Assyrians were monotheists before Christ and Christians after him, and the past therefore led on to the present without a break.”[1],according to Patricia Crone and Michael Cook in their book Hagarism from 1977.

The Assyrians believed in the almighty god Ashur, who was formed by nine different characters. They also had the Trinity as the basis of their faith. According to ancient Assyrian belief, it was through the Trinity that the balance of the cosmos was maintained, i.e. through the father and mother in heaven together with the Assyrian king as their representative on earth. When the foundations of Christianity were established during the childhood of the new doctrine, the Assyrian representatives made sure that the Trinity was incorporated into the tenets of the Christian faith. Simo Parpola, Professor of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki, wrote the following on the origins of Trinity in his article Sons of God[2]:

Since the human king, in contrast to gods, was made of flesh and blood, his consubstantiality with god of course has to be understood spiritually: It did not reside in his physical but in his spiritual nature, that is, in his psyche or soul. He thus was an entity composed of both matter and divine essence. This sounds very like the doctrine of homoousios enunciated at the Council of Nicaea in 325, in which Jesus is said to be "of the same substance" as the Father. According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, the eponymous hero, a "perfect king," was two thirds god and one third man.

Ishtar, the divine mother of the king, was the wife of Ashur, the supreme god of the empire, defined in Assyrian sources as the “sum total of gods” and the only true god. Ashur was thus, by implication, the “heavenly father” of the king, while the latter was his “son” in human form. The Father-Mother-Son triad constituted by Ashur, Ishtar and the king reminds one of the Holy Trinity of Christianity, where the Son, according to Athanasius, is “the selfsame Godhead as the Father, but that Godhead manifested rather than immanent.”

In the same manner, the symbols of the four evangelists are directly taken from the most famous Assyrian symbol, the winged bull Lamassu, according to Parpola’s research. The Gospels are commonly ranged in the following order: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are in turn assigned the following symbols (in this exact order): man, lion, bull and eagle - all four creatures in the same order as in the Assyrian original. It may seem like a coincidence, but why was not for example a horse, a lamb or some other popular animal chosen as a symbol unless the intention was to continue the tradition of the ancient Assyrians? Today, only few people are aware of the link between the ancient Assyrian symbols and the current Christian symbols.

Parpola writes the following about the link between the winged bull and the Bible, as well as the Old and the New Testament:

In the royal palace, the king lived in a sacred space designed and built after celestial patterns and guarded against the material world by deities and apotropaic figures stationed at its gates and buried in its foundations. Colossal supernatural beings in the shape of a bull, lion, eagle and man, symbolizing the four turning points, guarded its gates. These apotropaic colossi marked the palace as a sacred space and thus may be compared to the four guardians of the divine throne in Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:76, which later re-emerge as symbols of the four evangelists of the New Testament: Matthew (man), Mark (lion), Luke (bull) and John (eagle).

Another, at least equally interesting, symbol is the cross. A few years ago I was sitting in the living room of an acquaintance, turning some pages in a history book in German called Mesopotamia[3]. I cannot read German and therefore I was mostly looking at the pictures. There, I saw in several places images of clay tablets with the cross in various designs. The caption announced that they were tablets dating back to 4000 BC, i.e. 6000 years back in time. I was puzzled and curious about what our ancestors used the sign of the cross for. The day after, I wrote an e-mail to Professor Simo Parpola, who is the most renowned among all Assyriologists in the world. I wrote among other things the following:

In Turabdin, this kind of sign of the cross often recurs in churches and in church literature and this is surely no coincidence. It must be a direct legacy from our ancestors, just like the Trinity and the Evangelists’ symbols. I would therefore like to ask you if you, as a scientist, have examined or studied the Sumerian crosses and what they stood for; the four cardinal points? the sun? the four elements?

Simo Parpola answered me the following:

Dear Augin,

In the Assyrian empire, the cross as an emblem belonged to the crown prince and his heavenly image, the savior god Ninurta/Nabû, who was elevated to his father’s right hand and omnipotence after his victory over death and the forces of evil and became the proprietor of the “book of life”.

The cross symbolized Ninurta/Nabûs omnipotence as pāqid kiššati, “ruler of the world”, but also his eternity and glory, for it is often depicted in the form of the Maltese Cross, inside the winged sun disk.

Without doubt, this symbolism of the cross, along with many other Assyrian symbols and religious beliefs such as the tree of life, were later adapted by Christianity, which in fact grew on Assyrian ground. A good part of the Assyrian perceptions dates of course back to the Sumerian period.

For details, see my articles and essays[4]

Sincerely,

Simo Parpola

Parpola’s response was a total surprise, especially if you compare the description of the cross bearer, the son of God, Ninurta, with the description of God’s son Jesus in the Creed; “the savior god Ninurta/Nabû, who was elevated to his father's right hand and omnipotence after his victory over death and the forces of evil. It sure sounds familiar. We say about Jesus in the Christian creed; on the third day he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of his Father, God almighty“.

Parpola also writes the following about Ninurta in his article Sons of God:

“The Ninurta myth is known in numerous versions, but in its essence it is a story of the victory of light over the forces of darkness and death. In all its versions, Ninurta, the son of the divine king, sets out from his celestial home to fight the evil forces that threaten his father’s kingdom. He proceeds against the “mountain” or the “foreign land,” meets the enemy, defeats it and then returns in triumph to his celestial home, where he is blessed by his father and mother. Exalted at their side, Ninurta becomes an omnipotent cosmic accountant of men’s fates.”

The cross was thus the emblem of Ninurta. Even today Christians signify the cross as the sign of victory, but there are few linking its significance with Ninurta’s victory over the forces of evil. Not even the Assyrians themselves have been taught this relationship by their scholars. The Christian Assyrian history is full of examples of denial of the pre-Christian era, described as pagan.

But our pre-Christian ancestors were actually no pagans. They believed in an omnipotent god in the same way as the Hebrews did. The Assyrian god Ashur however appeared as nine different characters - all bound together by the love goddess Ishtar. So when the apostle John tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8), it has long been an established truth for the Assyrians, who had spread their ideology to every corner of the empire. 

About this and many other things around the holy tree of life among the Assyrians, can be read in a longer article by Benjamin Daniali (also inspired by Simo Parpola) on the following link: http://www.assyriatimes.com/engine/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3426. (Unfortunately the website is closed down a few years ago. There he explains the numerical system of the different characters of Ashur. Here are some quotations from the article:

“The body of the Assyrian Tree is constructed by nine great gods, all of whom are Ashur’s powers. And Ashur, the creator of himself and the universe is the Almighty God, unseen but existent, Ashur is the source of all manifest divine powers. Ashur could not be known directly neither by human nor even by gods, all of whom he created. His nature is not fully comprehendible, but Ashur is the “sum total” of all gods.”

Concerning the connection between Ashur and the Jewish God, Daniali writes the following:

“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” (Exodus 3:13)

And Lord replies that His name is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Hebrew:  אהיה אשר אהיה). How close the name phonetically could be between Ashur and “Asher”? I strongly believe the three Hebrew letters “Aleph”, “Shin”, “Resh” (אשר) could also be pronounced as “Ashur” as the same case implies to the modern Assyrian language”[5].In the English translation of the Bible, God’s name is completely distorted, while the Assyrian translator has merged the second and third part of the name (see footnote 5). AHYH is also interpreted by some theologians as HUYU, i.e. He who is. In that case, the original meaning may well be: He who is Ashur.

“He is the same God, the God of Assyria, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. His name is Ashur, and hence the monotheistic religion of Assyria”, as Benjamin Daniali wrote. He further calculates the sophisticated balance and the sum of the god Ashur’s different characters in the numeric tree, which was the heart of the Assyrian faith and beliefs about the creation of the universe.

"Ashur" spelled witout waw 

The article above is one of those who have been much discussed among Assyrian youth at the web forum of The Assyrian Youth Federation in Sweden (AUF). Some have pointed out that the word "Asher” in Assyrian means "believe me". Therefore, it can not be inferred to Ashur, although it once might have been borne out by God Ashur.

The person who I quote in my article, Benjamin Daniali on AssyriaTimes.com, is assuming that Asher is the same as Ashur. But he does not explain why he makes the connection. Probably, he makes a logical link without being able to prove it.

However, I think I now retrospectively have solved the riddle and may hereafter prove that Daniali's reasoning is correct, when searching how the word Ashur was spelled at the time of ancient Assyriarns. The evidence is to be found, for example, in the bilingual Çineköy-inscription. It is a description of the same substance in Phoenician and Luwian and dates back to 800 BC. In the Phoenician version Assyria is called ASHUR, while in the Luwian states SUR. But the spelling of Ashur is just as interesting; ’ŠR (i.e with a short A sound, sh-sound and R). Original languages ​​have of course other characters in their alphabet, but it is transcribed by archaeologists and linguists who have just AŠR, without waw (W in transcription).

This is an important clue showing that the vowels a, e or u did not have to be printed. Even today, the Semitic languages, such as Assyrian, Arabic and Hebrew, are in essence consonant-languages where the vowels occur only sparingly. I have also seen the same in a study of ancient scripts from Urhoy (Edessa). In one chapter, the study assembled a group of verbs and nouns that used to be written without the letter waw. The listed words are declared as misspelled, but it might be about an old rule that the researchers do not know.
It, thus, attests that the Hebrew Asher is most likely synonymous with the Assyrian god Ashur.

In the ancient monastery of Mor Augin in Turabdin lives a Syrian Orthodox monk who hates everything called Assyrian. He has recently published a 2,000-page dictionary where the words Assyrian, Assyria, Syria, Suryoyo and Ahiqar got a distorted description. This was recently unveiled in a program in Assyria TV. But this "man of God" showed his revulsion against his Assyrian heritage already 17 years ago in an article, in which he spewed out his bile over a language teacher who had written that the word suryoyo is derived from assuroyo. 

In the late 1990s, a young man named Yoken Unval lived in Holland. He had come from the Assyrian village of Arnas in Turabdin to Enschede, where a large population of Assyrian immigrants has settled. Not far from Enschede was the monastery of Mor Afrem that bishop Isa Çiçek had acquired in the early 1980s. This bishop was known as one of the most ardent anti-Assyrians and backer of an Aramaic identity which denies all connection with ancient Assyrians. Bishop Çiçek (died 2005) and his inner circle have been the main reason for many Assyrians in Central Europe today call themselves Arameans, renouncing Assyrian identity. He was also well known for having forged the contents of old Assyrian books he reprinted, by replacing Assyrian names and evidences of Assyrian identity with other contents.

In this climate young Yoken Unval got his political education. In January 2000, he wrote the following about an Assyrian teacher who a year earlier had written an article in Hujådå and other magazines, claiming that the word suryoyo comes from othuroyo:

"We shall not deny our pre-Christian Aramaic name or recognize the lie that we are the sons of Assyria. It is inappropriate for us to feel proud of our neighbors' name, whom are the enemies of our suryoyo-Aramean nation."

Yoke Unval then moved to the Syrian Orthodox seminary in Damascus. He devoted his life to his Lord and became a monk. Today, he is abbot of the monastery of Mor Augin on IzloMountain in Turabdin. I will return to the events surrounding his article and the reaction of the teacher, but first want to tell you about Yoken’s recently published Syriac Dictionary - Qlido d leshono. The author uses here his family name Beth Yakub as surname (Unval is his Turkish surname. In this article I use both). The dictionary was published in early summer 2016. Shortly thereafter I was contacted by several people in Sweden, Holland and Germany expressing their surprise about the contents of the new lexicon. They also wondered if Assyria TV should not pay attention to this incorrect information. They sent me pictures of some keywords related to the Assyrian identity. It turned out that the author has distorted the Assyrians history of thousands of years. He also equate the name "Suryoyo" and "Oromoyo" which such obvious. His "evidence" is taken from the story of Noah in the Old Testament and some quotations from ancient church fathers like Yakub Bar Salibi who lived nearly a thousand years ago.

Denies new research

Modern research findings from excavations, especially the bilingual Çineköy-inscription​which shows that the word Syria is derived from Assyria, he totally ignores. He writes that the name Syria comes from a mythical king in Antioch called Surus. He denies even half the truth in the story of Noah's son Shem. In Genesis 10:22, we read: "The sons of Shem were Elam, Assur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram." From this piece the author chooses to ignore the fact that Aram also had a brother named Assur. Although this story today lacks scientific relevance, it shows the author's sources are quoted selectively.

As to his large new dictionary, heavy as a concrete slab, it is all through a copy of the Chaldean Assyrian bishop Tuma Audo's great works Simto d leshono Suryoyo (Urmia 1896, reprint Assyrian Federation of Sweden 1979). The difference is that Yoke Beth Yakub has transcript it with the West Assyrian SERTO letters and added the grammatical bending of the verb. But instead of dedicating his work to the Bishop Tuma Audo, whose famous work still is the basis for later Assyrian dictionaries, he chooses to dedicate Syriac Dictionary to the Aleppo Bishop Yuhanna Brahim (kidnapped since 2013). This bishop is regarded as the foremost leader figure of the anti-Assyrian Aramaic faction within the Syrian Orthodox Church, thus revealing Yoken Beth Yakub’s political residence.

Beth Yakub, as I mentioned above, is a product of the intense campaign that some church leaders have conducted against the Assyrian identity since the late 1970s. Bishop Isa Çiçek reprinted also Tuma Audo's dictionary, but in a smaller format. There, he removed a footnote in the foreword where it says the word suryoyo comes from suroyo and assuroyo. Çiçek also forced Patriarch Zakka Iwas to dismiss Abdul-Massih Saadi, who was the rector of the seminary in Damascus in the 1980s, because Çiçek perceived Mr. Saadi as pro-Assyrian.

Hiding his anti-Assyrianism

This monk in Mor Augin appears outwardly to be a low-key, humble and pious hermit who has dedicated his life to serve God. After the monastery was restored and opened to visitors in 2008, thousands of Diaspora Assyrians visited it every year. Most give good donations, also during the events organized by the Mor Augin Associations in Sweden and Germany. All this is aimed to keep the monastery alive after having been closed since the 1980s. Even I have contributed to this by translating the biography of the saint to Swedish, a book which has sold well compared to other newly released books. The money has been donated to the monastery.

On my last visit to Mot Augin Monastery in the fall of 2014, along with my son Nemrud, I got the same impression of this monk as all other visitors; friendly and interested to know the sources when I told him about Assyrian history, for example, why the Assyrian kings had a cross around their necks, which Patriarch urged Senharib Bali's father to name his son after the Assyrian king Senharib to keep the story alive and so on. Nemrud wrote a factual novel about Seyfo after his visit in Turabdin with this monk on the cover. I sent a copy to the monastery and designated him as the guardian of our heritage, but never got a thank you to answer. I could, however, impossibly imagine that he has such a grudge against the Assyrian identity. My impression is that he hates Assyrians has strengthened since I got his article from 2000 in my hand. This was after I did the program in Assyria TV about his new dictionary.

Scrambling ancient Assyrian history

Before I go into the content of his old article from 2000, I want to return to the historical distortions the mentioned dictionary contains. He describes the following words like this:

OTHUR: "an akkadian name of the city built by King Shapur, which is Mosul." There have been two Persian kings by this name in 3^rd  and 4^th centuries. The city of Othur/Assur is about 5,000 years old.

OTHUROYO: Explained with various synonyms, where "enemy" is the most remarkable. No source is given, but the author is likely quoting a 10^th century dictionary by an Arab called Hassan Ibn Bahlul. Beth Yakubs article from 2000 shows that also the author considers the Assyrians as his personal enemies.

ATHURYA: "the Akkadian name of Babylon."

ASHUR: "Parthians and Assyrians, Mosul and Iraq."

AHIQAR: "a wise Aramaic man who served as minister of King Senharib (704-681) and Sarhadum (681-669) ...." Does not even mention that these were Assyrian kings.

SURIYA (Syria), "named after Surus - he who murdered his brother and ruled between the rivers and whose whole kingdom was called Beth Suriya. In the past, Suryoye were called Arameans. When Surus became their ruler got the name Suryoye”. Thus, ignoring the fact that the discovery of the Çineköy inscription has put an end to any doubts among historians and scholars that the word Syria is derived from Assyria.

About ARAM it is said he was the son of Shem son of Noah, but the author avoids, as I mentioned, the part which says that Aram also had a brother named Assur - a deliberate concealment where the author chooses the part which suits his political purposes.

Before I conducted the program on Assyria TV about the new dictionary, I called this monk and asked him if he wanted to participate and explain himself, but he declined. He said that the reason was a comment I had forwarded on social media at the beginning of December 2016, which he perceives as an attack against him. He called my post "dirty words in your disgusting Facebook page," which he had not expected of me. In mentioned post I wrote the following ironizing about his lack of knowledge in history: "It seems that we will not see a greater historian than monk Yoken anymore. His grudge against the Assyrian name has blinded his mind to the point that he falsifies the history this way. Pitty! He should keep serving the language and not interfere into daily politics".

I wrote these lines fully aware of its meaning and my suspicion is now even more confirmed by the contents of his article from 2000, which I did not know about by that time. This man has at least during two decades harboured a hatred towards the Assyrian identity, as strong hatred as we can see by other known anti-Assyrians, for example Assad Sauma Assad (more about him here). In comparison with monk Yoken’s attacks against the Assyrian identity and his insulting of our 6,000 years old history, my comment on Facebook seems as a gust of wind.

Now to the events about Yoken Unval’s attack on an Assyrian teacher. In 1999 this teacher, who today wants to be anonymous, wrote a long article on Assyrian identity and language in Hujådå and other magazines. The article is four A4 pages. We can take only the following quotations:

"We must take care of our ethnic Assyrian name, which is a generic name for different ethnic groups integrated with each others by the Assyrian empire, for example Akkadians, Babylonians and Arameans. At the days of King Senharib the Assyrians spread their culture and language throughout the region with Aramaic script, because the Aramean letters were easier to use. On this basis, the language of the Assyrian empire developed, which by the Jews came to be known as Aramaic, meaning pagan. This did not mean that other languages ​​were eradicated. At that time, the Jews used to label all the peoples who did not believe in one God as “Arameans”, i.e. the pagans. Likewise, their language was called Aramaic by the Jews, and this name was given priority over other language name. The Assyrians themselves called their language othuroyo (Assyrian) which later got the abbreviation of suroyo and suryoyo ".

He then set an example of how the Jews called the language  of the Assyrians “Aramaic” in the story of Isaiah describing when the troops of King Senharibs had surrounded Jerusalem: "Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall” (Isaiah 36:11).

Even Prof. Efrem Yildiz, professor of Semitic languages ​​at the University of Salamanca in Spain, says the same thing about how the Westerners have named our language Aramaic in accordance with biblical sources. I interviewed him during the Assyrian Convention in Gothenburg in October 2016. "The Assyrians themselves have always called their language suraya or suryaya," he said in his East Assyrian dialect. You can see the program here.

Slandering Assyrian teacher

A year after this debate article Yoken Unval wrote a response in the journal of Shushoto Suryoyo released by the Suryoyo Federation in Holland. Already in the title the author is using coarse words about the teacher in question which he also names in the text. The headline is ”Malfone lo mawdyone w shaqore da-shmo wad-leshono oromoyo”. It means "Teachers who are ungrateful and traitors to the Aramaic name and language". Then he starts in the first lines to say; "All the books written in Aramaic language show that the name suryoyo comes from Surus, and that the suryoyo people originally are Arameans and no other people". Then he continues his attacks and explains why he sees these teachers as “ungrateful traitors”. He believes that “they earn their living because they are teaching the Aramaic language" but they betray it by calling themselves the descendants of the Assyrians. After quoting some ancient Church Fathers as proof of his arguments about Aramaic identity, he concludes with the following words:

"We shall not deny our pre-Christian Aramaic name or recognize the lie that we are the sons of Assyria. It is inappropriate for us to feel proud of our neighbours' name, whom are the enemies of our suryoyo-Aramean nation."

The apology in Dutch and Assyrian

Apology to the teacher

I have now in retrospect spoken to the teacher in question. He does not want to appear with his name and believes that the case is closed as far as it concerns him. But he has told me about all the details. When he had read the attack of Yoken Unval, he translated it and his own article to Dutch. He then sought a lawyer to sue Yoken Unval for defamation. The lawyer sent a letter to Unval, who by this time had moved to the Patriarchate in Damascus. Time passed but there was no answer. Then, the lawyer sent same letter recommended. Patriarch Zakka Iwas got in touch with Bishop Çiçek and urged him to ensure that the teacher withdraws his notification. It did not work. Eventually Yoken Unval had to travel back to Holland and apologize. He signed the apology written in two languages ​​in the presence of the lawyer on October 1, 2001. He also paid 5,000 Gulden in legal fees. In his apology, he writes; "I have named his teacher (his name here) deliberately, used harsh words against him, slandered him and caused him harm. I now recognize that it was wrong of me and by this correction I want to show my repentance and recall everything I said about him. I apologize to him”.  This apology was published in Hujådå, where I now have read it, and even in Shushoto Suryoyo, as I remember in my conversation with the teacher.                                                 

In retrospect, one might think that it was a good excuse - although performed under the gallows. After all, it was the words of the teacher himself who had formulated the text in both languages. But a monk who devotes his life to spiritual activity should continue to interfere in political disputes within our collective. Above all, he should not continue to violate the Assyrian identity by falsifying his ancestral heritage which has sat so deep imprint at the civilization of the world.

Ten years ago, he also wrote a new book for elementary teaching of grammar at the monastery of Mor Gabriel in Turabdin. It's called “Skulastiqoyo - Turos mamlo b-leshono suryoyo l-mashqlo qadmoyo da-shnat 2008-2009”. Even here he sneaks the propaganda for the name Aram and Arameans in several places (p. 149/157).

In the future, this monk very well may be ordained as bishop of Turabdin, because he is considered as one of the most educated monks within the Syrian Orthodox Church. It is probably a deliberate move by him and his anti-Assyrian buddies in the Aramaic movement that he chose to settle in such a lonely monastery on a mountain top, instead of life in the big city of Damascus or in Europe. Whatever, he should know that we will continue to pay attention to historical revisionism and violations against the Assyrian identity.

The Kurdish YPG militia was not allowed to participate in recent negotiations in Kazakhstan on a ceasefire in Syria. Nor did it participate in previous peace talks in Geneva. This means the major powers and regional players see Turkey as more important strategic partner than the self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomy in Syria by the PKK Syrian branch PYD. But the infidelity of the PYD towards its best allies Russia and Syria, is also an important reason why the Kurds are offside.

The Kurdish PKK guerrilla movement has traditionally had good relations with Russia and with Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad. The latter harbored the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and his training camps for a decade before Öcalan was arrested. As late as February 2016 PYD opened its first European office in Moscow and in April 2016 also a second in Stockholm. However, PYD soon began to act arrogantly and opportunistic when it tried to play off Russia and the United States against each other by offering its military services to the highest bidder. It started with the US allied with the newly formed militia SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), which in reality is controlled by the YPG. When IS surrounded the Kurds in Kobane (Arabic Ayn al-Arab) in September 2014, and was on its way to take the city, the US gave the Kurds weapons and air support that stopped the attack. The Russians noted the cooperation of the Kurds with the United States but continued to support them. In September 2015 the Russian jets, for example, gave further support to the SDF/YPG in Aleppo.

In October 2015 the United States dropped 50 tons of weapons to SDF/YPG. The Russians began to doubt the honesty of the Kurds. The Russian arm deliveries to the PYD ended up probably after this, but the Russians kept their political contacts with the Kurds. In November 2015 Turkish fighter shot down a Russian jet, which led to a political crisis between Russia and Turkey. The Russians provided the PKK guerrillas shoulder-borne air defence missile which shot down a Turkish helicopter in front of the camera. It was probably a warning to President Erdogan that Russia could intensify its support to the PKK and create more problems for him. Eventually Erdogan was forced to apologize and provide compensation to Russia. He visited Moscow and the two countries began to act in a kind of agreement.

One of Erdogan's main demands was that Russia would close PYD's office in Moscow and stop supporting the Kurds in Syria. As a result of Erdogan's visit to Moscow and Turkey's turnaround on Russia, Erdogan abandoned his support for Islamist rebels in Aleppo, which eventually ended up in the Syrian army's control. When these rebel groups now sit in indirect negotiations with the Syrian regime, they no longer have control over any major city in Syria, while the Kurds are excluded from the talks.

Kurdo Baksi, who acts as a self-appointed spokesman for the Kurdish question in Sweden, wrote an article in the Swedish newspaper Vestmanlands Läns Tidning  the day before the negotiations in Astana would start on January 23, 2016. Under the title, Låt Syrien bli tre stater (let Syria become three states), Baksi complains about YPG has fallen into offside:

"Even if the initiators are Turkey, Iran and Russia, one should not underestimate the dictator Bashar al-Assad's role in shaping the conference. But this spectacle lacks credibility and legitimacy. The initiators are all suspected of war crimes. The tyrants now invite to a meeting without the UN, the EU, the Arab League or the United States have a say in the matter. Even more remarkable is that the group in Syria by far the most successful fighting terror group Daesh (IS) is not invited."

Baksi’s statement about US and the UN is not true. It is the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who handles the contacts between the regime's delegation, headed by Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar al-Jafari, and the armed Sunni groups' delegations. As for the United States the initiators of the meeting wanted to wait out Obama and cooperate with the Trump administration. Obama resigned on Friday January 20, 2016, just three days before the meeting in Astana would start. Thus, the United States is invited at the last moment, according to Finnish Yle Swedish section.

Baksi writes further:

"Kurds, especially Kurdish YPJ-women's heroic efforts has been depicted many times, and should soon be familiar to the Swedish people after the publication of books with YPG-volunteer Jesper Söder, ‘When the world looked away’, and journalist Joakim Medin ‘Kobane’. Despite the Syrian Kurds are living examples of female emancipation, secularism and coexistence between religious and ethnic groups, they are systematically countered.”

No one can deny that Kurdish women are actively involved in the PKK guerrilla movement and its subsidiary organizations. The PKK is of course not the only one to engage female guerrillas. Many other guerrilla movements have done the same. The recipe is also used by the PKK puppets among the Assyrians, the so-called Dawronoye, but in that case it is often about a marginal group of women in PR purpose.

Kurdo Baksi’s assertion that the PYD rule is the best model for coexistence and tolerance for weaker groups, is far from the truth. During recent years of Kurdish dominance in Gozarto region in Syria, we have witnessed many abuses and armed attacks against the Assyrians and other Christian groups; Assyrian military leaders have been executed by the YPG, the Assyrian guards Sootoro/GPF has been attacked by YPG/Asayish (Kurdish police), Assyrian restaurants and public places have been subjects to suicide attacks, Assyrian property has been subject to confiscation, PYD has tried to impose Kurdish curricula on Assyrian schools, Assyrian youth have been forcibly drafted into the YPG militia, Assyrian farmers have been harassed and beaten accused of having voted for Bashar al-Assad, Assyrian attorney who opposes Kurdish grab of Assyrian land has been arrested and harassed. The list is even longer.

The experience of Kurdish rule in Syria, Iraq or Turkey (Turabdin) shows that the alleged tolerance towards Assyrians, Yezidis and other indigenous is only by name. In fact it is about to replace Arab or Turkish fascism with Kurdish fascism. In the case of the Assyrians, Kurdish rulers and academics try to steal not only our country and our land, but our history as well.

The situation in Syria has now come to a point where the Kurdish local administration looks increasingly pressed and neglected by the great powers, regional powers and the Syrian regime. Obviously, Turkey is about to get its will to limit the PYD/YPG would dominate much of northern Syria bordering Turkey. Overall, Syria has a border with Turkey, which stretches nearly a thousand kilometres.

Out of its YPG militia military strength the Kurdish administration shows dissatisfaction with the development and the exclusion of the Kurds from talks in Astana. YPG has declared that it will not respect the decisions taken at the meeting in Astana. According to Russian news website Sputnik's Turkish department YPG says:

“Görüşmelere katılan tarafların ve onların hamisi olan ülkelerin Suriye’deki ciddi krizin bir parçası olduğunu ve Suriye halkının ihtiyaç duyduğu kararlar alamayacağını düşünüyoruz”.

It means: "We believe that the groups involved in the negotiations and the countries that protect them are an important part of the conflict in Syria, and we do not think they will make a decision based on the Syrian people's needs."

Reuters writes: "“The YPG said the solution for the Syrian conflict, which has raged on into it sixth year, would be ‘through democratic autonomous zones that preserve the unity of the Syrian land and that we are applying on the ground’. The warring sides ‘could benefit from this experience that we have established,’ it said.”

The Kurds have now backed from earlier demands and calls no longer their three so-called cantons Rojava. Now they name it “democratic autonomous zones”within a united Syria.

What YPG's statement means in practice remains to be seen. But for us Assyrians and other vulnerable groups in Gozarto it would be a relief if the Kurdish abuses would come to an end and Kurdish rulers would be more humble in their relationship with us. The Kurds must not forget that they are occupiers of someone else's house – no matter what Kurdish names they give Gozarto.

Imagine if a professor of Semitic languages at a European university comes to the country’s Parliament to give a lecture to the Christian Democrats on minorities in northern Iraq. When he speaks of the Kurds, he says "Kurdistan", but when it comes to Assyria he calls it "Atra". How many MPs would understand the word Atra? A similar case has actually occurred in Holland. Our Assyrian leaders and activists must therefore refrain from rewriting the original toponym of their national homeland.

I have often noticed that many Assyrian leaders and activists from Iraqi Assyria nowadays fail to call their occupied country by its real name. Instead, they use alternative terms, which Orwell would criticise as 'political language', like Atra or Beth-Nahren. Likewise, they name the Assyrian people as Bnay Amman (members of our people), Bnay umtan (members of our nation) or Amma diyyan (our people).

Even Assyrian organisations in the Diaspora are using words such as The Homeland in their associations' activities. Recently I read such an advertisement for an Assyrian local association in the United States and wrote to the member who shared it on social media. She agreed with me that it is inappropriate to use the vague term "Assyrians in the homeland", but told me that there are those who insist on avoiding terms such as "A Walk for Assyria" in order not to offend members belonging to churches other than the Assyrian church of the East.

The phenomenon of rewriting Assyria has also reached European Orientalists and experts. Mrs. Attiya Gamri, a former Dutch MP, recently brought one such example to my attention: a few years ago, Herman Teule, professor of Semitic languages, was invited to the Parliament in The Hague to lecture for the party Christen Unie on the situation of the minorities in northern Iraq. He mentioned several times the word "Kurdistan" but when it came to Assyria, he just said "Atra". Mrs. Gamri kindly asked him why he used an expression that no one in the congregation understood. He said that the Assyrians he had met in Iraq used to say “Atra”. So he assumed that the land which they described was called just Atra.

Those who use these rewritings about their ethnic identity prefer to be politically correct in the ongoing name conflict and the divisions between Assyrians of different church affiliations. But the gist of such reasoning is that the Assyrian patriots, who value their ethnic Assyrian identity and nomenclature above their church affiliation, thus are bowing to the misconception that the name Ashuri (Assyrian) applies only to people from the Assyrian Church of the East. This propaganda has been touted by the Syrian Orthodox and Chaldean church leaders since the 1930s, after the Simele massacre, and still creates frictions within the Assyrian community.

In order to reach a political consensus Assyrian organisations from time to time have tried to find a solution to the name issue by merging different names. After World War I, the term Ashur-Chaldo came in use when the Peace Conference would determine the future of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The Assyrians demanded an independent Assyria and submitted a map under the name "La Nation Assyro-Chaldéenne". It failed because the great powers were not interested and the Assyrian delegations were internally divided.

After Saddam's fall in 2003, Assyrian political organisations and churches gathered to a meeting in Baghdad, organised by the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa). The meeting adopted the double name Chaldo-Ashur to be written into the new Iraqi constitution for the people "who spoke Syriac" (in Arabic: al-nateqin bi al-Lugha al-Suryaniyya). Shortly thereafter the unity was broken when the newly appointed Chaldean Patriarch Mar Emmanuel Delli refused to accept the compound term, which included Ashuri, to apply to his denomination. As a reaction, the East Assyrian bishop in Iraq Mar Giwargis Sliwa (now the Patriarch of the AssyrianChurch of the East) wrote a letter to the Constitution Committee and declared that he accepts nothing but Ashuri. The new constitution was adopted in 2005 where the Assyrians are classified as Assyrians and Chaldeans, i.e two different people, who speak Syriac. In February2016 the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Mar Afrem II Karim, was on a visit to Baghdad. He met with the speaker of the Parliament and expressed the wish that the Syrian Orthodox too should be included in the Iraqi constitution, written as Suryani in par with Assyrian and Chaldeans. If this occurs, the Assyrian people will be constitutional classified under their denominational churches and affiliations.

This is what the Kurdish president Massoud Barzani aspires for. Ten years ago he brought Sarkis Aghajan, an Assyrian member of the KDP – a party founded by Massoud's father Mustafa Barzani, to play a central role. Aghajan was presented as a counterweight to well-known Assyrian leaders who had been elected to the political assemblies through legitimate and genuine Assyrian voters. Barzani has a great interest in Assyrian matters because he is occupying their country and would like to assimilate them into a manufactured Kurdistani identity, where they are eventually reduced to mere Kurdish Christians. Therefore, he went into the game to gain a greater grasp of Assyrian politics. He made sure Aghajan was honoured with medals by all Assyrian Patriarchs. Even the Pope and other Christian leaders gave Aghajan medals.

In 2006, Aghajan gathered overall Assyrian organisations to a meeting in Arbil where a new party alliance were formed. They also adopted a new name by merging the triple designation ChaldeanSyriacAssyrian. These three names represent the three largest Assyrian churches with same names in Iraq, ranked by size. TV channels, some funded by Barazani, which had spread widely among the Assyrians were paid to market the new triple designation. Since then the politically correct Assyrian representatives are using this combined name even outside of the context of Iraq.

 The triple name is thus fully inline with Barzani's desire to present the Assyrians as "Christian citizens of Kurdistan" and by extension "Christian Kurds". From his point of view, it is nonetheless an understandable tactic, but from the Assyrian organisations’ side it is a sign of weakness against the de facto power. For a few years, Zowaa and ADO admittedly remained faithful to the compound Chaldo-Ashur term, but then yielded to the triple name, on the grounds that they do not want to stand in the way of Assyrian unity. However, we have not seen any noteworthy unity developing from this yet.

The development of the name issue, however, has taken a new wrong turn when some Assyrian leaders are solely using the term "Christians" when they want to avoid their people's genuine ethnic term. However, the term "Christian" faces criticism by many Assyrian patriots who see their ethnicity eroding and fear that it promotes Barzani's assimilation policy. The Assyrians are proud of their Christianity, but they are not just Christians. They have national and territorial rights in their own country to defend. 

Whatever the reasons are for the renaming of Assyriaand Assyrians, the Assyrian National movement must speak out and call their occupied country by its real name. When, for example, some Swedish-Assyrian politicians use the name Bethnahrin in their speeches in Swedish, it is equally incomprehensible to the Swedish audience just as when the Dutch parliamentarians' confusion the term 'Atra'. We must not be ashamed in saying: we certainly do not have a recognised Assyrian state, but own a historic area that is occupied, named Assyria. 

The astute reader will may criticise our argument, by saying: but the pioneers of our Assyrian national movement both wrote and sang about Bethnahrin (Mesopotamia). It is true, that is what we also have done for decades. But the conditions for using the indigenous name Bethnahrin have changed, now even the Kurdish occupiers of 'Bethnahrin' are claiming Mesopotamia, as their own; both as a geographical area and a toponym. Our pioneers wanted to use the neutral name Bethnahrin to unify a nation split by sectarian schisms, at a time when the Assyrians still populated the Assyrian heartland in upper Mesopotamia. But now the indigenous Assyrians are on the edge of extinction from their homeland. Therefore it is more important to mark our ethnicity by our own country Assyria. It automatically includes the national rights of such an ethnic group. If we as Assyrians accept to be solely called "Christians", these rights will not be obvious under international law. In such a case, we may accept the fact that the state where Assyrians are living guarantees us nothing but civil rights -at best.

Tänk dig att en professor i semitiska språk vid Uppsala universitet kommer till riksdagen för att föreläsa för kristdemokrater om minoriteterna i norra Irak. När han talar om kurderna säger han ”Kurdistan” men assyriernas land kallar han ”Atra”. Hur många svenska riksdagsledamöter skulle begripa ordet Atra? Ett liknande fall har faktiskt förekommit i Holland. Våra assyriska ledare och aktivister måste således låta bli omskrivningar av sitt etniska namn.

Jag har ofta noterat att många assyriska ledare och aktivister från irakiska Assyrien nuförtiden undviker att kalla sitt ockuperade land vid dess rätta namn. Istället använder de omskrivningar som Atra eller Bet-Nahren. Likaså det assyriska folket benämns som Bnay amman (vårt folks barn), Bnay umtan (vår nations barn) eller Amma diyyan (vårt folk).

Assyriska organisationer i diasporan använder också ord som The Homeland (hemlandet) i sina föreningsaktiviteter. Nyligen läste jag en sådan annons för en assyrisk lokalförening i USA och skrev till den styrelseledamot som hade delat annonsen på sociala medier. Hon höll med mig om det olämpliga i att använda det diffusa begreppet ”Assyrians in the Homeland”, men berättade att det finns de som insisterar på att undvika begrepp som t ex ”A Walk for Assyria” för att inte stöta sig med medlemmar som tillhör andra kyrkor än Österns assyriska kyrka.

Fenomenet med omskrivning av Assyrien har även nått europeiska orientalister och sakkunniga. Attiya Gamri, som tidigare satt i det holländska parlamentet, berättade nyligen för mig om ett sådant exempel: För några år sedan hade Herman Teule, professor i semitiska språk, bjudits in till parlamentet i Haag för att föreläsa för partiet Christen Unie om situationen för minoriteterna i norra Irak. Han nämnde flera gånger ordet ”Kurdistan” men när det kom till Assyrien sade han bara ”Atra”. Attiya Gamri frågade honom vänligt varför han använde ett uttryck som ingen i församlingen begrep. Han svarade att assyrier som han hade mött i Irak hade sagt Atra. Så han utgick från att landet som de beskrev hette just Atra.

De som använder dessa omskrivningar om sin etniska identitet vill vara politiskt korrekta i den rådande namnkonflikten och den splittring som råder bland assyrier över kyrkogränser. Men kontentan av ett sådant resonemang blir att assyriska patrioter, som ska sätta sitt etniska assyriska namn högre än kyrkotillhörighet, därmed böjer sig för missuppfattningen att namnet Ashuri (assyrier) gäller endast människor från Österns assyriska kyrka. Denna propaganda har basunerats ut av syrisk-ortodoxa och kaldeiska kyrkoledare ända sedan 1930-talet och skapar fortfarande slitningar inom det assyriska kollektivet.

I syfte att nå politisk enighet har assyriska organisationer från tid till annan försökt hitta en lösning på namnfrågan genom sammanslagning av olika namn. Efter första världskriget kom termen Ashur-Kaldo i bruk när fredskonferensen skulle avgöra framtiden för resterna av det osmanska imperiet. Assyrierna krävde ett självständigt Assyrien och lämnade in en karta under namnet ”La Nation Assyro-Chaldéenne”. Det misslyckades eftersom stormakterna inte var intresserade och assyriska delegationer var inbördes splittrade.

Efter Saddams fall 2003 samlades assyriska politiska organisationer och kyrkor till en konferens i Bagdad, som Assyriska demokratiska rörelsen, ADR (Zowaa), hade organiserat. Mötet antog dubbelbenämningen Kaldo-Ashur som skulle skrivas in i den nya irakiska konstitutionen för det folk ”som talade syriska ” (på arabiska: al-nateqin bi-lugha al-Suryaniyya). Kort därefter bröts enigheten när den nytillträdde kaldeiske patriarken Emanuel Delli vägrade acceptera termen Ashuri om sitt eget samfund. Då skrev även den östassyriske biskopen i Irak Giwargis (som nu är patriark för Österns assyriska kyrka) ett brev till grundlagskommittén och sade att han accepterade inget annat än Ashuri. Den nya grundlagen antogs 2005 och där klassas assyrierna som assyrier och kaldéer, alltså två olika folkgrupper, som talar syriska. I februari 2016 var den syrisk-ortodoxe patriarken Afrem II Karim på besök i Bagdad. Han träffade talmannen och framförde önskemål om att även de syrisk-ortodoxa skulle skrivas in i Iraks grundlag som Suryani. Om så sker kommer det assyriska folket att klassas efter sina kyrkonamn.

Och detta är vad den kurdiske presidenten Massoud Barzani strävar efter. För tio år sedan lyfte han fram Sarkis Aghajan, en assyrisk medlem i partiet KDP som grundades av Massouds pappa Mustafa Barzani. Aghajan skulle framöver framställas som en motvikt till välkända assyriska ledare som hade valts in i de politiska församlingarna med assyriska röster. Barzani har ett stort intresse i assyriska frågor eftersom han ockuperar deras land och vill gärna assimilera dem till kristna kurder. Därför gav han sig in i leken för att skaffa sig ett större grepp över assyrisk politik. Han såg till att Aghajan hyllades med medaljer av samtliga assyriska patriarker. Även påven och andra kristna ledare gav Aghajan medaljer. År 2006 samlade Aghajan assyriska organisationer till ett möte i Arbil där nya partikonstellationer bildades. Då antogs också en ny namnsammanslagning genom trippelbenämningen ChaldeanSyriacAssyrian. Dessa tre namn representerar de tre största assyriska kyrkor med samma namn i Irak, rangordnade efter storlek. TV-kanaler som hade stor spridning bland assyrierna fick betalt för att marknadsföra den nya trippelbenämningen. Sedan dess använder politiskt korrekta assyriska företrädare denna namnkombination långt utanför Iraks gränser.

Trippelbenämningen går alltså helt i linje med Barzanis önskan att framställa assyrierna som ”kristna medborgare i Kurdistan” och i förlängningen ”kristna kurder”. Från hans synvinkel är det ändå en begriplig manöver, men från assyriska organisationers sida är det ett tecken på deras svaghet gentemot makten. ADR och ADO använde visserligen troget namnet Kaldo-Ashur under några år men sedan gav de efter, med motiveringen att de inte vill stå i vägen för assyrisk enighet. Utvecklingen i namnfrågan har dock tagit ett nytt snedsteg genom att en del assyriska ledare säger ”de kristna” när de vill undvika sitt folks riktiga namn. Beteckningen ”de kristna” möter kritik hos många assyriska patrioter som ser sin etnicitet erodera och som är rädda att det främjar Barzanis assimileringspolitik. Assyrierna är stolta över sin kristenhet, men de är inte bara kristna. De har nationella och territoriella rättigheter i sitt eget land att bevaka.

Oavsett vilka orsakerna är för omskrivningar av Assyrien och assyrier, måste assyriska rörelsen säga ifrån och kalla sitt ockuperade land vid dess riktiga namn. När t ex svensk-assyriska politiker använder namnet Bethnahrin i sina tal på svenska, är det lika obegripligt för svensk publik som när holländska parlamentariker får höra namnet Atra. Vi får inte skämmas för att säga att vi visserligen inte har en erkänd assyrisk stat, men väl ett eget historiskt område som är ockuperat och som heter Assyrien.

Den uppmärksamme läsaren kommer att säga att våra assyriska pionjärer både skrev och sjöng om Bethnahrin (Mesopotamien). Det är sant, det har vi också gjort i årtionden. Men förutsättningarna för att använda det inhemska namnet Bethnahrin har förändrats när även de kurdiska ockupanterna gör anspråk på det geografiska område som i omvärlden är känt som Mesopotamien. Våra pionjärer ville använda det neutrala namnet Bethnahrin för att ena en nation splittrad av sekteristiska schismer, i en tid när assyrierna fortfarande befolkade Assyriens kärnland i övre Mesopotamien. Men nu håller den assyriska ursprungsbefolkningen att utrotas från sitt hemland och då är det desto viktigare att markera sin etniska tillhörighet genom namnet Assyrien. Det innefattar automatiskt nationella krav som måste tillerkännas en etnisk folkgrupp. Om vi som assyrier accepterar att bara bli kallade ”de kristna” kommer de rättigheterna inte att vara lika självklara enligt internationell lag. Då måste vi nöja oss med att den stat assyrierna lever i garanterar oss medborgerliga rättigheter - i bästa fall.

I en hyllning till två stora städer som låg varmt om hans hjärta, skrev den assyriske nationalikonen Naum Faiq följande dikt om Nineve och New York. Den är hämtad ut Faiqs tidskrift Bethnahrin och skrevs några år före hans död den 5 februari1930. Som bekant hedrar assyriska organisationer Naum Faiqs minne varje år i början av februari. Vid Naum Faiq-dagen 2004 i Assyriska föreningen i Stockholm framförde min son Nemrud, som då var 12 år, ett utdrag ur nämnda dikt i dess assyriska original. Nedan följer dikten i min översättning:

Jag har stött på två underbara städer i världen

Jag saknar ord för att beskriva deras storhet

Den ena ligger i öster mittemellan floderna

Den andra i väster, är dyrbarheternas moder

Den ena omges av Mesopotamiens land

Den andra omges av Hudson floden

Den ena är ett underverk byggt på torra land

Den andra ligger i havet med enastående förorter

Bägge systerstäder äger skönhet och ära

Av deras kunskap släcker hela världen sin törst

Om du vill veta deras namn;

Nineve och New York – hyllade för sin skönhet

Nineve är assyriernas stora stad

New York är amerikanernas berömda stad

Båda välkända och ärorika städer i världen

Och utstrålar vördnadsväckande storhet   

Assyrierna prydde Nineve med ingenjörskonst

Amerikanerna byggde New York med organisationskonst

Nineve huvudstad för assyriernas städer

New York bruden bland amerikanernas städer

Nineve har gett världen en mångfald av kunskap

New York har uppbringat vetenskapsmän och konstnärer

Båda städer i sin framgång välansedda

Berikade med vetenskap och kunskap i alla former

Låt oss då beskriva skönheten hos var och en

Låt oss utrycka deras respektive ärofullhet

Nineve har tecknat ner skriften åt Assyrien

Och åt mänskligheten berett kunskapens väg

Ingenjörskonsten och läkekonsten

är Nineves gåva som upplyst mänskligheten

Hon har uppfunnit astrologi och stjärnskådning

Ur hennes källa har världen fått civilisationen

Hon var först med att bygga praktfulla städer och fästningar

Med sinne för organisation och administration

Med sinne för militära strategier, handel och jordbruk

Allt detta utvecklades framgångsrikt i denna stad

Välordnade gator, esplanader och lagsamlingar

Och lagar för välfungerande administration

Folkets styre, nationens administration och fosterlandets kärlek

Från henne har allt detta spridits till andra nationer

Grekland, Indien, Fenicien, Etiopien och Egypten

De besökte flitigt Nineve av Mesopotamien

De tog del av dess outsinliga skattkammare

De kom in som fattiga och lämnade henne som rika

I Nineve restes höga byggnader och zikkurat

Otroliga tempelbyggen, paradgator och parker

Nineve - staden som ligger i Mesopotamiens land

Känd bland huvudstäder och full av underverk

Mesopotamien - välsignat och bördigt land

Det är hon som är assyriernas hemland och nation

Det var platsen för vår anfader Adams paradis

Av dess jord skapade Herren honom till sin avbild

Abraham som blev anfader åt hebréernas släkte

Han var en av assyriernas söner

Hans ursprungsland var kaldéernas Ur

Och hans far Tarah, araméernas hövding

I detta land uppdagades Nemrud den hjältemodige

och flera stora kungar på slagfältet

Under Nemruds dagar sköt Babels torn i höjden

Herren nedsteg och splittrade människornas språk

Efter honom kungarna i Babylon och Nineve

Deras avkomma uppnådde stora framgångar;

Teglathplassar, Shalmanassar, Sardanapal

Asarhaddon, Ashurbanibal och Sharkino som är Sargon

Och Sanharib, vars ärorika namn nedtecknats i den heliga skriften.

Naum Faiq

New Jersey 1926-27

Right after the bombing of two Assyrian restaurants in the Assyrian quarter Wusta in Qamishly, Syria, on the evening of December 30, 2015, Reuters referred to the Kurdish YPG militia spokesman Redur Xelil. He called the attacks suicide bombings and blamed it on ISIS: "He said it had most likely been carried out by Islamic State, which the YPG is fighting in Syria's northeast". Xelil was not slow to exploit the opportunity by describing it as an attack on Kurds and Assyrians. YPG and its Dawronoye-puppet did the same thing right after the murder of David Jendo, and also promised to avenge his death. A few days later it turned out that the murder of David Jendo and Elias Nasser (who survived) was performed by leading figures in the YPG. At this writing, there is not as clear evidence regarding the attacks in Qamishly, but suspicion is in a different direction than ISIS.

Even the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Aphrem II Karim and his Syrian Catholic colleague Joseph III Younan have issued statements condemning the massacre, but none of them mentions ISIS. Obviously, they are not convinced that the main candidate behind the attacks is ISIS. Patriarch Younan fears that the attacks will scare the remaining Christians in Gozarto and says: "Now, after this massacre, our fear is that the emigration of Christians will go further and in larger numbers". Patriarch Karim calls the perpetrators enemies of humanity: "The enemy of humanity is spreading its power everywhere in our beloved Middle East…” 

No suicide bombings

Moreover, the attacks were not any suicide bombings, in the contrary to what YPG and various media reports allege. Some testimonies say that a guy who did not differ from the amount arrived at Café Miami and ordered a drink. He had a laptop bag with him. When he had gone, he left the bag under the table. Before anyone could react, the bag exploded and the devastation was total. Ten Assyrians, an employee Kurd and two other Muslims were killed. A large number were injured. Usually, the waiters  in Qamishly are Kurdish. (Rumours say that a couple of the Kurdish employees at mentined café left their job shortly before the explosions and that the Assyrian guards Sootoro has interrogated them. But these are unconfirmed reports). Shortly thereafter a similar computer bag exploded outside the window of the restaurant Gabriel in the same neighbourhood. Three people were killed. Initially even a third explosion at another restaurant was mentioned, but there are no reliable reports of killed or injured. The details of what preceded the explosions are so far not confirmed. But all the witnesses denounce the rumour of suicide bombings.

The city of Qamishly was built by Assyrians who survived the genocide Seyfo, when Syria was a French protectorate. With time, it became an important centre of Assyrian culture and national awakening among the Assyrians. A large number of the Assyrian inhabitants left the city during the ongoing civil war and sought refuge in Sweden and other EU countries.

Motive

The first thing that an investigator usually does is to search for a possible motive behind a crime, by asking who may have the greatest interest in the crime output. Therefore we may now ask ourselves who benefits from the attacks in Qamishly. The testimonies of injured Assyrians and the statements by local Assyrian representatives clearly show that the purpose was to scare away "the disobedient" Assyrians from Gozarto region, whom refuse to accept any forced Kurdish rule. In a statement by Sootoro, which has also been uploaded in a video recording, it is said that "those who are our neighbours want to scare us, but we refuse to bend and will defend our city and our country". A leader of Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF) says to the American Mesopotamian Organization (AMO):  “Although someone claiming to represent ISIS posted a message on social media taking responsibility for the bombs, the types of explosives and the nature of the attacks does not fit the ISIS pattern of violence”.

Which ethnic group is that "lives next door to us"? To my knowledge there are no IS-followers in Qamishly living neighbours with us. Considering recent developments, there is only one answer. But if we can get any evidence, that’s a question which remains unanswered for the moment.

Direkt efter bombningarna av två assyriska restauranger i det assyriska kvarteret Wusta i Qameshlo på kvällen den 30 december 2015, refererade Reuter till den kurdiska milisen YPGs talesman Redur Xelil. Han kallade attentaten för självmordsbombningar och skyllde det på IS: ”He said it had most likely been carried out by Islamic State, which the YPG is fighting in Syria's northeast”. Xelil var inte sen med att utnyttja tillfället genom att beteckna attentaten som ett angrepp på kurder och assyrier. YPG och dess Dawronoye-marionett gjorde samma sak direkt efter mordet på David Jendo och lovade dessutom att hämnas hans död. Några dagar senare visade det sig att mordet på David Jendo och Elias Nasser (som överlevde) var utfört av ledargestalter inom YPG. I skrivande stund finns det inte lika klara bevis när det gäller attentaten i Qameshlo, men misstankarna riktas allt mer åt ett annat håll än IS.

Även den syrisk-ortodoxe patriarken Afrem II Karim och hans syrisk-katolske kollega Josef III Younan har i uttalanden fördömt massakern, men ingen av dem nämner IS. Uppenbarligen är de inte övertygade om att den främsta kandidaten bakom dåden är IS. Patriark Younan befarar att attentaten kommer att skrämma iväg de kvarvarande kristna i Gozarto och säger: "Now, after this massacre, our fear is that the emigration of Christians will go further and in larger numbers" . Patriark Karim kallar förövarna mänsklighetens fiender: "The enemy of humanity is spreading its power everywhere in our beloved Middle East…”.

Inga självmordsbombningar

Attackerna var dessutom inga självmordsbombningar, så som YPG och olika medieuppgifter gör gällande. Vissa vittnesmål från platsen säger att en kille som inte skiljde sig ur mängden kom in på Café Miami och beställde en drink. Han hade en laptop-väska med sig. När han hade gått lämnade han väskan under bordet. Innan någon hann reagera exploderade väskan och förödelsen var total. Tio assyrier, en anställd kurd och två andra muslimer dödades. Ett stort antal skadades. Vanligtvis är det kurdiska ungdomar som jobbar som servitörer i Qameshlo. Rykten säger att ett par av de kurdiska anställda på caféet lämnade jobbet strax före explosionerna och att den assyriska vaktstyrkan Sootoro har förhört dem. Men dessa är obekräftade uppgifter. Kort därefter exploderade en liknande datorväska utanför skyltfönstret till restaurang Gabriel i samma kvarter. Tre personer dödades. Initialt talades det även om en tredje explosion på en annan restaurang men det finns inga säkra rapporter om dödade eller skadade. Detaljerna kring vad som föregicks explosionerna är än så läge osäkra. Men alla vittnesmål avfärdar ryktet om självmordsbombningar.

Staden Qameshlo byggdes som bekant av assyrier som överlevde folkmordet Seyfo, när Syrien var ett franskt protektorat. Med tiden blev den ett viktigt centrum för assyrisk kultur och för nationellt uppvaknande bland assyrierna. Ett stort antal assyriska invånare har under det pågående inbördeskriget lämnat staden och sökt skydd i Sverige och övriga EU-länder.

Motiv

Det första som en brottsutredare gör är att söka efter ett eventuellt motiv bakom ett brott, genom att fråga sig vem som kan ha störst intresse av brottets utgång. Detsamma måste vi fråga oss när det gäller attentaten i Qameshlo. Vittnesmål av skadade assyrier och uttalanden av lokala assyriska företrädare visar tydligt att syftet var att skrämma iväg ”de olydiga” assyrierna, som vägrar foga sig i ett påtvingat kurdiskt herravälde. I ett uttalande av Sootoro, som också har lästs upp i en videoinspelning, sägs att ”de som bor grannar med oss vill skrämma iväg oss, men vi vägrar att böja oss och kommer att försvara vår stad och vårt hemland”. En ledare inom Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF) säger till American Mesopotamien Organization (AMO) att varken det sätt på vilket bombningarna skett eller den sorts sprängmedel som använts liknar IS’ stil.

Vilken folkgrupp är det som ”bor granne med oss”? Vad jag vet finns det inga IS-anhängare i Qameshlo som bor grannar med oss. Med tanke på de senaste årens utveckling finns det bara ett givet svar. Återstår att se om det går att leda i bevis.

Följande gästinlägg är en översättning av en intervju med Ashur, som är talesman för Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF) om bombattackerna mot assyriska restauranger i Zalin-Qameshlo dagen före nyårsafton. Intervjun är publicerad på hemsidan för American Mesopotamian Organization, AMO, den 31 december 2015.

(For English click here)

Onsdagen den 30 december 2015, omkring klockan 21:30, sprängdes tre assyriska restauranger i det kristna kvarteret av staden Zalin (Qamishli) i Syrien. De tre restaurangerna heter Miami, Gabriel och Masaa [arabiska; kväll]. AMO talade direkt till Ashur, militär talesman för Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF) på huvudkontoret i Zalin (Qamishli). Han berättade följande:

"Attackerna var samordnade. Någon gång under kvällen gick en okänd person in på Miami café och restaurang, en plats där man kan äta, ta en drink och spela kort. Denne någon lämnade en väska eller en ryggsäck kvar på platsen. Vid 21:30 exploderade väskan och ödelade restaurangen. Själv hade jag planerat att träffa vänner på restaurang Miami, men jag var sen på grund av arbete. Döden missade mig alltså med några minuter på grund av extra pappersarbete. Omkring klockan 22:00 upptäcktes en laptop-väska utanför fönstret till restaurang Gabriel. Några sekunder senare, innan personalen hann reagera, exploderade den. Sedan vid 22:30 exploderade en annan ryggsäck på restaurang Masaa. Dessa attacker var noga planerade i tid och rum för att göra maximal skada och orsaka stor rädsla i våra assyriska kvarter, säger Ashur till AMO.

Ashur konstaterar att även om någon som påstår sig representera ISIS har postat ett meddelande på sociala medier och tagit på sig ansvaret för bomberna, stämmer inte mönstret och sättet på vilket attackerna utfördes på ISIS’ våld: 

"Attackerna var inga självmordsbombningar och explosionerna var utformade för att endast döda oskyldiga civila, inte förstöra byggnader. När ISIS attackerar brukar de totalförstöra våra företag eller kyrkor".

Dessutom noterar Ashur att den som placerade bomberna måste vara en person som smälter in i mängden bland invånarna i Zalin (Qamishli). Misstanken lutar därför mer åt den kurdiska milisen YPG, som är intimt sammankopplad med terroristgruppen PKK. Vissa säger att de är en och samma organisation. YPG och PKK är hårdföra marxistiska grupper med en lång historia av terror och brutalitet. De terroriserar rutinmässigt den assyriska befolkningen i Syrien, framtvingar pengar från företag och enskilda och även kidnappar unga män för tvångstjänst i sina miliser.

För närvarande ligger dödssiffran på 20 personer och omkring 35-40 sårade. Även om Ashur var nära att omkomma, är han fast besluten att stanna kvar i sin hemstad och stå upp mot dem som terroriserar den assyriska folkgruppen i Zalin (Qamishli):

"Vem som än gjorde detta, är deras budskap till oss att vi bör lämna vår hemstad och våt land. Det är deras sista varning. Mitt svar till dem som placerade bomberna är att detta inte kommer att skrämma oss. Vi böjer oss inte och kommer att göra motstånd mot er", avslutar han.

Kurdiska PKK:s dotterorganisation PYD förnekar övergrepp på assyrier och andra kristna i form av konfiskering och tvångsrekrytering. Deras representant hävdar att en lag är under behandling, men att den är avsedd för att skydda egendom till de medborgare som har flytt kriget. PYD:s Dawronoye-marionett instämmer och hävdar att de är legitima representanter för assyrierna i Gozarto. Den kurdiska administrationen i Syrien verkar trots allt backa efter den massiva kritik som har riktats mot dess övergrepp gentemot assyrier, armenier och andra folkgrupper. Samtidigt hotar PYD de kyrkor som har anslutit sig till kritikerna och säger att de inte ska blanda sig i politiska frågor.

Lördagen den 7 november 2015 gjorde Shinko Dibo, en rådgivare till PYD:s ledning i Syrien, ett uttalande i den kurdiska nyhetsbyrån ANF News som även tidningen demokrathaber.net återger, där han tillbakavisar den kritik som 16 assyriska och armeniska företrädare framförde nyligen mot konfiskering, tvångsrekrytering, kurdisk läroplan och extra skatter. Dibo säger så här om den aktuella lagen: “Özel mülkiyetin korunması konusunda çıkacak olan bir yasanın önceliği de Süryani, Asuri ve Arap halkımızın özel mülklerini korumayı bir görev olarak görür”.

Det betyder: ”Den lag som är på gång prioriterar skyddet av privata egendomar som tillhör våra assyriska och arabiska invånare som sin uppgift”, säger Dibo och hävdar att bakgrunden till det lagförslag som förelåg det lokala kurdiska parlamentet hade sitt ursprung i att skydda egendom som tillhör de assyrier och araber som hade flytt undan IS i områdena Tel Tammer och Tel Hamis. Han säger att invånarna i dessa områden började tvista om vissa egendomar när de hade kommit tillbaka till sina hembyar, efter att kurdisk milis hade drivit IS tillbaka. Dibo motsäger alltså det pressmeddelande som gick från det kurdiska parlamentets presstjänst den 15 september, som sade att den aktuella lagen med 19 paragrafer hade klubbats igenom. Detta måste vara ett tecken på att den kurdiska administrationen backar i frågan genom att hävda att en sådan lag inte har antagits än.

Shinko Dibo förnekar också andra övergrepp som de kristna i Gozarto har protesterat emot. Samtidigt höjer han ett varningens finger mot de kyrkoföreträdare som skrev under uttalandet. Han säger att kyrkor inte ska blanda sig i politiken och nämner för säkerhets skull även moskéer. Det är folkvalda politikers uppgift att sköta politiska frågor och att alla folkgrupper är representerade i kantonstyret, säger Dibo. Så här uttrycker han det på turkiska:

“Kiliselerin işi, politik konularda açıklama yapmak değildir. Aynı şey camiler için de geçerlidir. Yönetim konularında zaten halkların seçilmiş temsilcileri var, onlar karar verir. Kantonlarımızda kanunlar tüm halklardan temsilcilerin katılımı ile yapılıyor”.

Shinko Dibo blundar för att det är både kyrkor och politiska organisationer som har kritiserat de kurdiska övergreppen. Hans uttalande är lika arrogant och missvisande som efter mordet på David Jendo. Då backade YPG när det var överbevisat och när en storm av kritik hade framförts mot mordet. Men man hävdade fortfarande att det var mörka krafter som låg bakom för att så splittring bland olika folkgrupper. Nu angriper kurdiska företrädare saken genom att förringa de politiska och kulturella organisationer som har undertecknat det kritiska uttalandet och samtidigt spela sekulär. När det passar går kurdiska företrädare till kyrkomän för att utnyttja dem i politiska syften. När kyrkomännen ansluter sig till kritikerna får de ett varningens finger. Även tidningen devrimcikaradeniz.com drar samma slutsats som jag och påpekar att det är beklämmande att PYD-kurderna både förnekar övergrepp och hotar på samma gång.

Faktum är att de 16 organisationer och kyrkor som har skrivit under det uttalande som har fått stor spridning på olika språk, är representativa för både assyrier och armenier i området. Den enda assyriska organisation som närvarade men vägrade skriva under är PYDs marionett Dawronoye, som har flera pappersorganisationer. Deras företrädare Senharib Barsum från Syriac Union Party upprepade samma dag allt som Shinko Dibo hade sagt. Han påstår också att de som i uttalandet uppger sig vara representanter för assyrierna ljuger, d v s att hans parti skulle vara den legitima representanten för alla assyrier i Gozarto. Den kurdiska nyhetsbyrån ANHA publicerade Barsums uttalande under rubriken ”Bersûm: Süryanilerin adı kullanılarak geliştirilen iddialar yalandır” och flera kurdiska webbtidningar hakade på.

Kurdiska PYD är väl medvetna om att Dawronoye är en marginell grupp bland assyrierna. De har också fått höra det i olika möten med assyriska företrädare i Sverige och övriga EU. Frågan är hur länge detta förhållande kommer att bestå och hur länge kurdiska företrädare fortsätter med sitt arroganta beteende mot övriga folkgrupper i Gozarto.

The self-proclaimed Kurdish administration in Gozarto, Syria, under the leadership of the PKK's daughter organization PYD, is not making any secret of its chauvinistic agenda towards other ethnic groups. Confiscation of emigrants' property, new curricula in private and public schools, forced recruitment of young people to YPG militia and extra taxes, are some of the latest abuses. The Kurds copy the recipe of intolerance, which Turkish nationalists and Arab Baath Parties have practised during the 20^th century.

While a large part of world leaders are praising the Kurdish YPG militia's alleged successes against IS, the PYD conducts an extremely chauvinistic agenda. Although the PYD does not represent more than 10% of Kurds number in Syria (according to its leader Saleh Muslim’s brother, Mustafa Muslim to tr.sputniknews.com), the PYD violates the rights of the inhabitants of Gozarto, by using its consensus with the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad. Assyrians, Armenians and other Christian groups have had enough of the abuses and have now made a statement denouncing these abuses. The statement is signed by churches, organizations and political parties among Assyrians and Armenians in Gozarto - except for Dawronoye, who are a branch of the PYD. The statement has been published by the Assyrian human rights organization Assyrian Monitor for Human Rights and the large media company alarabiya.net in its Arabic original. It has also been widely spread on social media.

The signatories indicate the following four examples of abuses by the Kurdish PYD administration. I have not translated the contents literally, but summarized the message:

1. The Law of "administration" of the estates belonging to those who fled the war, must withdraw because

a) is contravenes human rights and the individual's right to property

b) it designates the emigrants as traitors

c) the proposed Commission to assess estates is nothing but a way to confiscate the property of others

d) it is a serious threat to the Christian demographics in Gozarto, with the aim to confiscate the Christian’s agricultural land, which currently amounts 35% of the lands of the region. It scares away those who want to return home when the war is over

e) the prohibition for Christians to sell their property or give power of attorney to their relatives increases the risk that they no longer return home.

2. The law of the new (Kurdish) state fees and taxes is unacceptable, because the existing permissions from the Syrian government are still valid. Citizens may not be forced new taxes that they can not handle.

3. The law of forced recruitment into military service constitutes a double coercion to the citizens, when they are recruited by two different military powers.

4. Interference in internal affairs of private schools within the churches, is unacceptable and an obstacle in our children's education.

The statement is signed by the following organizations and associations:

Syrian Orthodox Church, Chaldean Church in Qameshly, Syrian Catholic Church, Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Christian civil assembly, Centre for persevering Christians in Syria, Armenian Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East, National Evangelical Church, Free Aramean Party, Youth assembly Mother Syria, Armenian diocese in Jazeera and the Euphrates, Ancient Assyrian Church of the East, Syrian Orthodox board for citizen-peace, Board of Assyrian peasants,  and Youth organization for national consensus.

More information about the statement and Kurdish abuses is available on Assyria TV, among others, here and here.

Background

For those who do not know the background of the new Kurdish edict in Gozarto, I can briefly summarize it. On September 15, 2015, the Kurdish self-rule parliament issued a law to confiscate the properties that Assyrians and other emigrants left behind. The Kurds themselves do not call it confiscation, but ruther administration of the property, until the owner will come back. But it is a pure lie. It's about the same methods as Turkish nationalists used in 1942, when they put extremely high taxes on the Christians, Varlık Vergisi, which led to the economy, from one day to the next, turned from Christian minorities to the state and its Muslim minions. Kurdish PYD acknowledges in the legislation that most sufferers are Assyrians and says it wants to "administrate" both immoveable and personal estate of those who have been away longer than one year. This applies to house, apartment, car, business, factory, lands and farmland, i.e all of it. A committee has been appointed to value the properties, but has not yet started its work.

As for the PYD's directive for schools, both state and private schools are obliged to teach Kurdish students the newly printed teaching materials in Kurdish, while the Assyrian and Arabic children must study some subjects in Kurdish, for example, social studies and Kurdish history, as well as the main features of Yazidism and Christianity, beside Islam knowledge. They have also the right to learn their own language. But this is just the beginning. If the PYD curricula will succeed, it is a matter of time before all teaching must be in Kurdish. Such claims have already been made against Assyrian schools in northern Iraq as well.

The Assyrian activist Dr. Nicholas al-Jeloo recently wrote following indignant comment on his Facebook about the Kurdish compulsion:

While Chaldean prelates are busy trying to create a "nation" from lies, and divide our already weak ethnic group, the Kurds in Syria are forcing our children to learn Kurdish "history" in Kurdish. Who would have thought that this would be happening in the cradle of Assyrianism - Qamishli itself, the birthplace of the oldest surviving Assyrian political organization. They are making our children learn their history (what damn history?) on our own lands - just because we are now a minority! When I was in Syria in 2009 and 2010, I was taken aback by certain leaders of the Assyrian Democratic Organisation (ADO), who were lamenting the fact that, while Assyrians were allowed to teach Syriac in their private schools, the children of their Kurdish neighbours were not allowed to learn their own language. That's how much the ADO cared about freedom and democracy, and it even joined the Syrian Opposition in order to bring that about. Too bad, their lovey-dovey view of the world backfired on them, and now their own children are being forced to learn their neighbours' language against their will. 

More information on the new Kurdish curricula is available on the website raseef22 in Arabic and AINA in English. What Al-Jeloo is referring to when he criticizes Chaldean prelates, is the fact that Patriarch Sako and some bishops recently encouraged the formation of a Chaldean League in France, which created headlines when they claim that the Catholic Chaldeans consist a separate nation.

The Kurdish project to create their own autonomies and eventually a state of their own is fully ongoing, while different Assyrian representatives go their own way and create more divisions within the group. Many Assyrian observers are convinced that these are in the service of Barzani and other Kurdish political leaders, in order to weaken the Assyrians, because the Kurdish political entities are supposed to be formed on occupied Assyrian land. Regarding Syria, the PYD has demonstrated an unabashed ambition to copy Turkish nationalists and Baath parties in its chauvinistic acts.