Assyrians: From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein
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Assyrians: From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein (Second Edition, Third Printing) Purchase Information: |
Book Details
- Paperback: 410 pages
- Publisher: Xlibris
(originally published on
July 20, 2006)
Second Edition, Third Printing (March, 2016) - Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1425712991
- ISBN-13: 978-1425712990
- Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.9 x 9 inches - Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Book Description
Throughout the Christian Era, the Assyrians have faced an immense tragedy through persecution, oppression, and massacres. The Assyrian tragedy in Mesopotamia continued intermittently during the Sassanid Persians (A.D. 226 - 637), Seljuk Turks invasion of the eleventh century, Mongols invasion in 1258, Tamerlane's destruction that began in 1394, the Saffavid Persians in early sixteenth century and during the rule of the Ottoman Turks since the middle of the sixteenth century.
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Turks and Kurds committed numerous massacres against the Assyrian Christians in their secluded mountains of northern Mesopotamia and in Tur Abdin region in modern southeastern Turkey. As the Ottoman Empire entered WWI, it declared jihad (holy war) against its Christian subjects. Backed by Kurds, the Turkish army invaded northwestern Persia (Iran) and committed further atrocities against the Assyrian refugees who fled the Ottoman territories and against Assyrians of Persia as well. The jihad transformed into an ethnic genocide against the Assyrians that was perpetrated by the Turkish state and Kurdish warlords.
This genocide continues to this very day due to the policies of the Kurds in northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, and northeastern Syria. The Assyrians lost two-thirds of their population and most of their homelands in northern Mesopotamia during WWI alone. Since the creation of the modern Middle Eastern states after the partition of the Ottoman Empire post WWI, the Assyrians have faced and continue to face a systematic Arabization, Turkification, and Kurdification policies by Pan-Arab governments, Pan-Turkish governments, and by Kurdish political parties. Hundreds of thousands of Assyrians have fled their homelands seeking shelter in Europe, United States, and Australia. Furthermore, the rise of fundamentalism in the Middle East is posing another serious threat to the survival of the remaining Assyrians and to other Christian communities in the Middle East.
Book Table of Contents
| Background and Introduction | 11 | |
| Chapter One: The Massacres of the Nineteenth Century - A Prelude to Genocide | 19 | |
|
The Massacres of Bedr Khan Beg (1843-1848) |
26 | |
|
The Massacres and Persecutions of 1895 |
33 | |
|
The Coming of the CUP to Power in Turkey |
37 | |
|
The Genocide: Documentation and Definition |
38 | |
| Chapter Two: The Destruction of the Assyrians and their Homeland | 48 | |
|
The Assyrians on the Brink of the Great War |
48 | |
|
The Assyrian Exodus from the Hakkari Mountains |
51 | |
|
Mar Benyamin Shimun Meets the Grand Duke and More Russian Promises |
55 | |
|
The first Russian Retreat from Azerbaijan and the Assyrian Exodus to Russia |
56 | |
|
The Remaining Assyrians in Urmia |
62 | |
|
Atrocities at Gulpashan |
63 | |
|
The Russian Promise |
65 | |
|
The Diyar Bakir and Tur 'Abdin regions |
65 | |
|
Massacre in Kharput |
66 | |
|
The Destruction in Diyar Bakir and Tur 'Abdin Regions |
68 | |
|
The Second Russian Withdrawal from Urmia and the British Promise |
80 | |
|
The Massacre of the Assyrians in Khoi |
85 | |
|
The Massacre of the Assyrians in the French Mission |
88 | |
|
The Massacre of the Assyrians in the American Mission |
90 | |
|
A Desperate Appeal from an Assyrian |
93 | |
| Chapter Three: A Change in the Course of the Assyrians' Modern History | 97 | |
| 97 | ||
| 101 | ||
|
The Exodus from Urmia to Saen Qal'aa and Hamadan |
102 | |
|
The Arrival at Baquba Refugee Camp - Mesopotamia |
109 | |
|
The Transfer to Mindan Camp near Mosul |
114 | |
|
The Assyro-Chaldean Protectorate in Jazira, Syria |
117 | |
| Chapter Four: The Assyrians in the Midst of International Treaties and the League of Nations | 121 | |
|
The Sykes-Picot Agreement (April 26 - October 23, 1916) |
121 | |
|
The 1919 Paris Peace Conference |
124 | |
|
The League of Nations |
127 | |
|
Post Paris Peace Conference |
128 | |
|
In San Remo and the Treaty of Sévres |
132 | |
|
Treaty of Lausanne |
135 | |
|
The Constantinople Conference |
141 | |
|
The Settlement Problem Continues |
143 | |
|
The Permanent Court of International Justice (The Hague) |
145 | |
|
The Assyrian Case Continues |
146 | |
|
The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of Alliance of 1930 |
150 | |
|
Assyrians in the League of Nations Again |
152 | |
|
Opinion of the Permanent Mandates Commission - September 24, 1932 |
154 | |
| Chapter Five: The Path to the 1933 Simmel Massacre | 159 | |
|
The Iraq Levy |
159 | |
|
The Assyrian Levy |
160 | |
|
Testimonies about the Assyrians' Service in Iraq |
162 | |
|
The Mosul Incident of 1923 |
163 | |
|
The Kirkuk Incident of 1924 |
164 | |
|
Setting the Stage for the Simmel Massacre |
165 | |
|
The Detention of the Patriarch |
168 | |
|
Iraqi Government Press Campaign against the Assyrians |
168 | |
|
The Dashtazi Settlement (Z-plan) Forced on the Assyrian Leaders |
171 | |
|
Assyrians Cross from Iraq into Syria |
173 | |
|
The Simmel Massacre - the Documentation |
175 | |
|
Beyond Simmel |
180 | |
|
The Deportation of the Patriarch |
182 | |
|
Was the Massacre of Simmel a Genocide? |
183 | |
|
An Appeal by the Patriarch |
183 | |
|
Mar Eshai Shimun in Geneva with Yusuf Malek, October 1933 |
186 | |
|
The Fate of Those Responsible for the Simmel Massacre |
187 | |
| Chapter Six: After the Massacre - Between Iraq and Syria | 191 | |
|
The Ghab and Khabor (Khabur) Settlement Schemes |
191 | |
|
My Family During These Difficult Times |
198 | |
|
The 1941 Coup d' état |
203 | |
|
The Assyrians Save Iraq from Nazi Germany |
204 | |
|
The End of Rashid 'Ali al-Gaylani |
210 | |
|
What Happened to the British Promises? |
210 | |
| 211 | ||
|
Britain Restores Old Order |
213 | |
|
Beyond World War II |
214 | |
| Chapter Seven: The Assyrians and the Final Exodus | 219 | |
|
Murder, Persecution and Harassment of Assyrians |
219 | |
|
The Issue of "Taba'aiya" in Iraq |
222 | |
|
Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988) |
226 | |
|
The Anfal Campaign |
231 | |
|
Human Rights Violations Against the Assyrians |
236 | |
|
The Impact of the 1990 Gulf War on the Assyrians |
243 | |
|
An Assyrian Family's Experience |
246 | |
|
The Refugee Camps |
249 | |
|
Silopi Refugee Camp |
253 | |
|
The Assyrian Refugees in Jordan |
255 | |
|
Further Persecutions and Human Rights Abuses Against Assyrians |
256 | |
|
The Impact of the 2003 "Liberation of Iraq" on Assyrians |
267 | |
|
Persecution Against Assyrians in Iran, Syria and Turkey |
269 | |
| Chapter Eight: The Kurds and Assyria | 283 | |
|
The Kurds: A Historical Background |
283 | |
|
Kurds Usurp Assyrian lands - Figures and Historical Accounts |
288 | |
| 293 | ||
|
Changing the Demography of Assyria |
295 | |
|
Kurds and Iraq in Modern Times |
301 | |
|
Paris Peace Agreement |
304 | |
|
Ankara Peace Process |
306 | |
|
Revising History and Other Thoughts |
307 | |
| Chapter Nine: Common and Notable Assyrians Affected by the Ongoing Genocide | 310 | |
|
Iskharya Dinkha Sheikhamar |
310 | |
|
Katie Eshoo |
313 | |
|
Tamara Shmuel Warda |
315 | |
|
Isa Zhako |
317 | |
|
Maria Sargis Badal |
319 | |
|
Elisha Peera Aghassi |
321 | |
|
Pidosiya Badal David |
322 | |
|
Shmouel Rouel d' Gawar |
325 | |
|
Giwargis Yonathan |
329 | |
| 331 | ||
|
Hannah Yohannan Yohannan |
333 | |
|
Sherein Sayad Isaac |
338 | |
|
Mary, Juen, and William Yohannan |
342 | |
|
Bato Paul Elias |
345 | |
|
Little Wahida |
350 | |
|
Hazno Hanneko |
352 | |
|
Nancy Abraham Muishil |
355 | |
| Chapter Ten: Final Thoughts | 358 | |
| Bibliography | 365 | |
| Index | 375 | |
| Appendix | 381 |
Book Review
After the establishment of Islam as a state religion in the Fertile Crescent by the 8th century, the ferocious attacks by the Timurids, plundering the region as they descended from Central Asia in the 14th century, drove many Christian Aramaic speakers who did not convert to Islam into the mountains of the Taurus, Hakkari, and the Zagros for shelter. Others remained in their ancestral villages on the Mosul (Nineveh) Plain only to face heavy pressure to assimilate into Arab culture. The greatest catastrophe to visit the Assyrians in the modern period was the genocide committed against them, as Christians, during the Great War.
From the Assyrian renaissance experienced when, miraculously, they became the objects of Western Christian missionary educational and medical efforts, the Assyrians fell into near oblivion. Shunned by the Allies at the treaties that ended WWI, Assyrians drifted into Diaspora, destructive denominationalism, and fierce assimilation tendencies as exercised by chauvinistic Arab, Persian and Turkish state entities. Today they face the growing clout of their old enemies and neighbors, the Kurds, another Muslim ethnic group that threatens to control power, demand assimilation, and offer to engulf Assyrians as the price for continuing to live in the ancient Assyrian homeland. As half of the world's last Aramaic-speaking population has arrived in unwanted Diaspora, some voices are making an impact, including that of Frederick Aprim.
Eden Naby, PhD
Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid (Westview, 2002)
The Assyrian Experience (Harvard College Library, 1999)
About the author
Frederick A. Aprim was born in the city of Kirkuk (the ancient Assyrian city of Arrapha), northern Iraq (Assyria). He is a graduate of Mosul University with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering. Fred's family, like many Assyrian families, experienced its own share of oppression and persecution. While in Iraq, both his father and teenage brother were imprisoned unfairly and tortured. In 2003, he published a booklet titled "Indigenous People in Distress." In December 2004, he published his second book "Assyrians: The Continuous Saga". His third book on the Assyrian genocide and the Assyrian national question "Assyrians: From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein" (First Edition) was published in July 2006, the second edition in January 2007, followed by the second edition third printing in March, 2016.
Fred's many articles are posted on:
• www.atour.com
• www.atour.com/people/fred-aprim
• www.aina.org
• www.bethsuryoyo.com
• www.nineveh.com
• www.zindamagazine.com and other Assyrian websites.