It takes courage and guts to admit in public the pathetic reality of our Assyrian nation. The Assyrian political groups are mainly paper-like run by the Kurds, the church leaders are polarizing the people and are seeking self glorification, and do not have cooperation as the main goal of their activities. The main goal of these groups and leaders is not Assyria – they claim so though.
How could any true Assyrian accept the following public conversation between Mar Meelis, the Archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East and Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region at the time during a recent synod of the Assyrian Church of the East in Arbil, northern Iraq?
“Mar Melis: All Assyrians have a special love in their hearts for your Excellency. Masoud Barzani: By God, that is a mutual feeling. Mar Melis: This feeling is from the days of Mar Dinkha who had a good relationship with you."
Did ALL Assyrians give Mar Meelis the permission to express such praise to the enemy and oppressor of the Assyrian people? Did the Chaldean Catholic Assyrians give Mar Meelis the permission to say this? Did the Orthodox Assyrians give Mar Meelis that permission? Did the Presbyterian, Protestant, or the atheist Assyrians give Mar Meelis such permission? The answers are emphatic no, no and no. Mar Meelis is a bishop with the Assyrian Church of the East and he has perhaps a limited permission from within his own church congregation to speak on their behalf, because some members within his own church do not agree with his statement.
We have to look at ourselves and say why have Assyrians not advanced the national cause even after 100 years since WWI Genocide. The reason is that the individuals or paper-like groups that are representing, or speaking on behalf of, the Assyrians, rightly or forcefully, are not genuine in their work and are under the influence of the Assyrians’ enemies. The Assyrians have hundreds of religious, civic and political institutions, but they have for all practical purposes one main Assyrian international satellite.
The Assyrians must empower ANB Sat because it is a true secular voice of the oppressed Assyrians in the Middle East that spreads truth, exposes oppression and challenges Assyria’s enemies. Why would bishops from the Assyrian Church of the East incite the congregation to boycott a secular TV station? ANB Sat has a major conflict with the Kurdish authorities within the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The Kurdish security forces, Asayesh, and the Kurdish Interior Ministry have shut down the doors of ANB Sat in Arbil. Think about it.
Do not be tribal and do not be sectarian. Be true Assyrians, secular Assyrians and open your minds and hearts to the truth.
Assyria
\ã-'sir-é-ä\ n (1998)
1: an ancient empire of Ashur
2: a democratic state in Bet-Nahren, Assyria (northern
Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey and eastern Syria.)
3:
a democratic state that fosters the social and political rights to all of
its inhabitants irrespective of their religion, race, or gender
4: a democratic state that believes in the freedom of
religion, conscience, language, education and culture in faithfulness to the
principles of the United Nations Charter —
Atour synonym
Ethnicity, Religion, Language
»
Israeli, Jewish, Hebrew
»
Assyrian, Christian, Aramaic
»
Saudi Arabian, Muslim, Arabic
Assyrian
\ã-'sir-é-an\ adj or n (1998)
1: descendants of the ancient empire of Ashur
2: the Assyrians, although representing but one single
nation as the direct heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire, are now
doctrinally divided, inter sese, into five principle
ecclesiastically designated religious sects with their corresponding
hierarchies and distinct church governments, namely, Church of the
East, Chaldean, Maronite, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic.
These formal divisions had their origin in the 5th century of the
Christian Era. No one can coherently understand the Assyrians
as a whole until he can distinguish that which is religion or church
from that which is nation -- a matter which is particularly
difficult for the people from the western world to understand; for
in the East, by force of circumstances beyond their control,
religion has been made, from time immemorial, virtually into a
criterion of nationality.
3:
the Assyrians have been referred to as Aramaean, Aramaye, Ashuraya,
Ashureen, Ashuri, Ashuroyo, Assyrio-Chaldean, Aturaya, Chaldean,
Chaldo, ChaldoAssyrian, ChaldoAssyrio, Jacobite, Kaldany, Kaldu,
Kasdu, Malabar, Maronite, Maronaya, Nestorian, Nestornaye, Oromoye,
Suraya, Syriac, Syrian, Syriani, Suryoye, Suryoyo and Telkeffee. —
Assyrianism verb
Aramaic
\ar-é-'máik\
n (1998)
1: a Semitic language which became the lingua franca of
the Middle East during the ancient Assyrian empire.
2: has been referred to as Neo-Aramaic, Neo-Syriac, Classical
Syriac, Syriac, Suryoyo, Swadaya and Turoyo.
