This short response is to an article written in Syriac, which appeared on page 32 from Nineveh Magazine, third Qtr., Vol. 23, No. 3, originated by a so-called preparing committee in Diaspora.
The statement of Lieutenant Colonel Abd al-Salam Mohammad Aarif on July 14, 1958 as he and his unit sieged the Iraqi broadcasting station announcing the military coup that ended the monarchy era in Iraq.
Translation of the statement:
In his statement after controlling the Iraqi Broadcasting station on July 14, 1958, Abd al-Salam Aarif said: "… Our brave nation, our fighting nation, was looking forward to this day. Abd al-Ilah (the regent of Iraq), is the enemy of God, is the slave of the imperialists, he fights (unclear) and he is in conformity with Mar Shimun …"
The article included much untruthful and deceptive information. First, the article claimed that Yousip Khoshaba (died in 2000 in Baghdad) was elected by heads of church and tribes as "archana d' Atourayeh" and then as the official head of the Assyrians after the death of his father Malik Khoshaba. The question is, who were these claimed heads of church and Maliks who elected Yousip as so? The truth is that it was the Iraqi government which was behind such appointments! Secondly, the article claimed that, in 1964, Assyrians elected Yousip as "archana" for them (their head or representative)! Again, who were these Assyrians who elected Yousip as such, since I was very involved in Assyrian church matters those days and personally imprisoned for that reason and do not remember Assyrians electing Yousip to such position? And thirdly, the article claimed that Yousip was elected around 1999 as president of a mysterious "Assyrian supreme committee" by the so-called Assyrian preparing committee in Diaspora to demand national rights for Assyrians in Iraq, since Yousip was a son of one of the good Assyrian heads (referring to Malik Khoshaba)! Who is this preparing committee and who gave it the authority to elect Assyrian representatives? And who is behind it? Is it not the Iraqi government?
Every single Assyrian who lived in Iraq, during the period 1960 to 2000, knows well the unpatriotic role and divisionism that Yousip Khoshaba played. He was a person who worked faithfully for the policies of the Iraqi government. He was behind the persecution of many Assyrians in Iraq during the height of the turbulence when the Church of the East adapted the Gregorian calendar. Yousip was a major player in the very sad events that led to the creation of yet another split in the Church of the East in 1968. Nobody can deny the role Yousip's father, Malik Khoshaba played during World War One and beyond. But, and as they say, people change and so did Malik Khoshaba when he began to take part in the Assyrians' communications with the Iraqi government regarding the Assyrians settlement in late 1920s. In 1932, all Assyrian Maliks, including Malik Khoshaba himself, many clergymen and notables met in Sar Amadiya and agreed to send His Holiness Mar Eshai Shimun to Geneva to represent the Assyrians in the League of Nations. It was Malik Khoshaba among very few others who supplied the Iraqi government, immediately after that meeting, with the letter, which was used by the Iraqi representative in the League to undermine the representation of the Mar Shimun. It was in that letter where Malik Khoshaba claimed that Assyrians were happy with the treatment of the Iraqi government and that the Mar Shimun was not their representative. That letter and the stand of Malik Khoshaba was one of the main reasons for the failure of the Assyrian mission in the League.
Yousip Khoshaba followed in his father's footsteps. He was a pro-Iraqi government in every action he took in the last forty years in Iraq. It is unbelievable how today few are trying to glorify him.
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.
