Recognition of the Simele Massacre of 1933
by Assyrian Policy Institute , July 16, 2018.
Posted: Monday, July 16, 2018 at 07:22 AM UT
In August 1933, the Iraqi Army systematically targeted and massacred thousands of its Assyrian citizens across northern Iraq. Learn more about Iraq's first genocidal campaign and the struggle for recognition.
The Simele Massacre, known to Assyrians as Pramta d’Simele, was a massacre committed by the armed forces of the Iraqi state (founded in 1932) systematically targeting the indigenous Assyrian population
R E L A T E D I N F O R M A T I O N
“Our Smallest Ally is now homeless, and dependent on our charity at Baqubah , for its lands and villages have been utterly destroyed, and it has the further mortification of seeing - from reasons beyond our control - that although it threw in its lot with the ultimately victorious side, Kurds, and others of the defeated enemy, are in practical possession of its ruined homesteads.” — H. H. Austin, Brigadier-General
“Can Great Britian, now that she is responsible for order in the country, afford to neglect so valuable a military asset as this nation has proved itself to be? ”
Our Smallest Ally : A Brief Account of the Assyrian Nation during the Great War
Assyrians were the victims of Iraq’s first genocide in between 7 and 16 August 1933 . The ten-day killing campaign conducted by Iraqi troops, under direct government command, resulted in the slaughter of around 3,000 innocent civilians in and around the town of Simel. It also led to the destruction of more than 60 settlements, the vast majority of which were never resettled. While the preamble of the Iraqi constitution mentions the persecution and massacre of every other ethnic and sectarian group in the country, this tragic episode of Iraqi history was left out of the new national narrative. Assyrians continued to suffer displacement from their villages in the northern governorates of Nineveh , Dohuk and Erbil throughout the period of conflict between Kurdish rebels and the central government between 1961 and 1988, losing scores of settlements. Amongst the 4,500 villages obliterated by the end of the Anfal campaign in 1988, for instance, more than 150 of them were Assyrian settlements containing more than 60 historical churches. Between 1991 and 2003, Assyrians were also among those in the country who were adversely affected by the government’s policies of “Arabisation” and “Nationality Correction .”
The Assyrians in Iraq currently number between 300,000 and 450,000. In 2003 theirchurches , businesses and homes throughout Iraq becoming the target of coordinated attacks . Kidnappings, as well as verbal and written threats to convert to Islam, pay jizyah (an extortion tax imposed upon non-Muslims), leave the country or else suffer death, have also been commonplace. In February 2008, the Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Mar Paulus Faraj Rahho, was abducted and killed . Other priests and religious figures have also been murdered or kidnapped. In total, more than 413 Christians were killed between 10 April 2003 and 23 March 2012, and 46 churches were attacked or bombed, leaving 95 dead.
The Assyrian Statehood : Yesterday’s Denial and Today’s Moral Obligation
Transient | a Story of Assyrian Iraqi Refugees (film)
Recognition of the Simele Massacre of 1933 (PDF, 3MB, 11 pages)