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The Assyrians had been
the proud inheritors of an ancient and glorious past. In the
end, however, it was the scythe wielded by the Ottomans that
cut off the continuity of this historical nation that had
begun with the dawn of civilization. Its ruthless blade cut
them off from their ancestral lands and reduced them to
desperation and annihilation. Although their property, homes,
families, churches and communities were unjustly broken and
scattered like dust to the winds, their spirit and will to
live was not. Ultimately, their steadfast belief in a merciful
God brought them alive through their hellish ordeal and
renewed their belief in themselves and in the power of love to
overcome all obstacles, even the unmerciful peoples who chose
and demonstrated enmity against them.
I will relate
the horrible fate of the Assyrians during WWI. Then I will
demonstrate that it was a peculiar mindset that built up and
gained momentum among the regular and irregular. Ottomans
against their Christian subjects, which drove them to the most
ungodly acts of cruelty and oppression against their neighbors
and fellow men. Even the most powerless Christians who had no
political aspirations whatsoever were not exempt from
denigrating atrocities.
Geographical Location of the Assyrians
at the Beginning of the 20th Century
At the turn of
the century, the Assyrian people, the torchbearers of the
earliest civilization in the world, and the living remnant of
over 6,000 years of history in the region, lived under the
Ottoman and Persian Empires. Their region was roughly known as
''Northern Mesopotamia," which includes: south and
southeastern present-day Turkey, [they were spread from
Miyafarqin, Hakkari, Bohtan, Tur-Abdin (over 240 villages),
Nisibin, Mardin, Urfa (Edessa) all the way to Adana West; in
the north, from Siirt, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Malatia. Under
Persian rule, they were mostly in western Azerbaijan, at Urmia
and the Salamas districts. The other Assyrians (Syriac people)
were spread over places in present day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,
and in the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia).
Ecclesiastical Diversity among the
Assyrians
Like most
peoples, the Assyrians have various ecclesiastical traditions.
The Assyrians of the Church of the East include: Orthodox (or
Nestorians), Catholic (Chaldeans) and Protestants. Similarly,
the Assyrians of the West Syriac Church encompass several
traditions: Orthodox (or Jacobites), Catholic, Melkites (Rum
Orthodox & Rum Catholic), Maronites, and Protestants.
By the turn of
the century, and due to nationalistic awakening, most members
of the above-mentioned churches preferred to be identified
with one nationalistic name, Assyrian, rather than by the
various names of the church traditions.
1 Generally speaking,
the Assyrians of the Church of the East were distributed in
the Eastern part of "Northern Mesopotamia," while the
Assyrians of the West Syriac Churches lived in the middle and
Western part of "Northern Mesopotamia. "
Relationship with Their Neighbors
All the areas
inhabited by Assyrians had Muslim populations as their closest
neighbors: Arabs, Kurds, Turks and Persians. While the
Assyrians intermingled with the Ottoman Muslims in the cities
and learned their languages, the Assyrians of the mountains
remained isolated but still surrounded by Muslims (Turks and
Kurds). Over a period of a few generations, and as a defensive
mechanism, most Assyrians of the cities forgot their own
language and used the language and adopted the customs of
their Muslim neighbors.
Although
previously the Assyrian population had numbered in the
millions, due to centuries of persecutions and massacres, they
were reduced from majority of the indigenous inhabitant of the
region to scattered minorities. By the late nineteenth
century, the Assyrians in Hakkari, Salma and Urmia numbered
only around 400,000 to 500,000. A similar number was counted
for the Assyrians (of West Syriac traditions) of Tur-Abdin,
Mardin and other "western" cities.
Unlike the
Kurds, Arabs and Turks, who share the same religion, the
Assyrians remained distinguished from their neighbors by their
own Christian religion. This distinction was never to their
advantage, even in case of the cities, when the Christians
tried to adapt by learning and speaking the language of their
Muslim neighbors. Over a long period of time, the Christians,
as dhimmi, had to observe certain restrictions as a means of
subjugation and to emphasize their status as second class
citizens of the Empire.2 As a
matter of fact, until recently, the Muslims were calling their
Christian neighbors "Gawer," which translates as "infidels." A
British consular official, who reported on the
Muslim-Christian relationship, said: "During a period of
nearly 300 years, Christians were subjected too much
oppression and cruelty. For them, no other law but the caprice
of their masters existed.''3
There were, however, less strident periods where such
restrictions went unenforced in some localities, and
interfaith relations were fairly cordial.
With the
weakening of the central government in Istanbul after the
seventeenth century, the security of the local Christians was
shaken. The only option open to the Assyrians was to appease
the strongest Muslim neighbor through payments of tribute in
exchange for protection. In remote districts, feudal rights
continued to exist until the late nineteenth century. These
so-called "rights" were described by a British consular
official as "blackmail." The Consul Chermside relates that
"the chief alone raises blackmail on Christians; but in other
cases, it is a tribal right, which is asserted by periodical
forays; the tax in some places amounted to as much as
one-fourth of the produce.''4 The
peasants were compelled to be serfs, to cultivate their
Master's field without any compensation for their labor.5
Before WWI, the
Christian population of the Ottoman Empire was terrorized
because of a series of massacres against Christians from the
Balkans to Armenia, Lebanon, and Syria including "N.
Mesopotamia." The concept of Jihad or "the holy war" was
exploited by providing excuses for constant raiding and
annihilation of the innocent non-Muslim villages. Russia had
advanced in the Persian territories reaching Urmia, where many
of the Assyrians resided. The local Assyrians regarded the new
troops--comparatively speaking-- as liberators. Indeed, the
Assyrians felt for the first time free from paying tribute to
the Muslims in exchange for their shaky security. Moreover,
they hoped that the official "dhimmi" status, and the
humiliating label, "Gawer: Infidel" would be gone
forever.
Outbreak of WWI and the Assyrian
Dilemma
In November of
1914, the Ottoman army entered the war on the side of the
Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary). Thus, a new front
was opened against Russia in the East and North. A month
later, and under the Ottoman offensive against Russian forces
in northwest Persia, the Russian forces withdrew from
Northwest Persia (including Urmia, Salamas) on January 2,
1915. For fear of the Ottomans, who either could not or would
not differentiate between the Russians and local Christians,
most of the young Assyrians, estimated at 15,000, accompanied
the Russian troops in their retreat, leaving behind their
families, children and elders spread among 70 villages. Thus,
the Ottoman troops (Turks and Kurds) occupied the whole
Azerbaijan region, including the Assyrian lands. The Ottoman
domination of this region continued for five more months
because the Russians re-occupied the same region.
What Happened During These Five
Months?
An overwhelming
number of documents have been produced about the genocide
committed against the defenseless Assyrians in this region.6
Immediately after the retreat of the Russians, 10,000 Kurdish
irregulars followed by 20,000 Turkish troops, led by Djevdet
Bey, the governor of Van Province, entered the villages and
began ransacking and massacring the defenseless inhabitants.
Thousands left behind everything and sought refuge at the
various missionary compounds of the French and the Americans.
After one month Djevdet Bey declared that: "We have made a
clean sweep of the Armenians and the Assyro-Chaldeans of
Azerbaijan."
The chief
English language source covering this period is The British
Blue Book.7 Of 684 pages of this
Book, 104 pages are devoted to the Assyrian massacres and are
divided into 21 documents.8 The
Blue Book describes such moments, as I quote: "On one side,
the Kurds invaded the plain, followed by the Turkish troops.
On the other side, the Muslim villagers began sacking,
massacring and raping. Those villages, which did not defend
themselves, suffered for the same reason as those who opposed
a resistance.9 A certain Miss
Platt, a missionary in Urmia, witnessed that the Turkish
consul extorted 6,000 Tomans from the Assyrians (Assyro-Chaldeans)
in exchange for their security.10
A few days later, that very consul imprisoned all the
Assyrians who were refugees in the French mission; 48 were
shot to death and five were hung.11
The reports even reached as far away as the U.S.: President
Wilson sent a special demand to the Turkish government that
American interests in Urmia, especially the missionary
efforts, not be endangered.12 The
total number of Assyrians killed in this five month period was
5,000. 13 The Blue Book
concludes: "It is safe to say that a part of this outrage and
ruin was directly due to the Turks, and that none of it would
have happened except for them.’’14
The Russian Victory and another
Assyrian Dilemma
In May 1915, the
Russians recaptured the territories, which they had been lost
to the Ottomans five months-earlier (including Urmia and
Salamas). The local Assyrians regained some relief from the
atrocities of the Ottomans. This time, the Assyrians under
Russian domination allied themselves with the Russian forces
there. In a real sense, however, the Assyrians had no choice
but to follow the desire of the powerful Russian forces. And
in an act of retaliation, the Ottomans turned against their
Assyrian subjects inside the Ottoman territories. All the
goodwill gestures of the Assyrians towards their Ottoman
authorities, and their attempts to distance themselves from
the Assyrians beyond the Ottoman border by means of loyalty
and church affiliation proved futile in the end.
Ottoman Interior
Minister, Tallat, and War Minister, Evan Pasha urged
"purification" of Turkey, and in the process, the elimination
of the "unaccommodating" Christians. Thus, Djevdad Bey
l5 turned his defeated forces against local Assyrian
Christians. Djevdad, nicknamed Kassab tabouri (battalion of
butchers), massacred the entire Christian population of Siirt
and its environs. Over 70 Christian villages were sacked and
burned, and all the clergy including the famous scholar Bishop
Addai Scheri, fell victim to Djevdad's sword. Wherever there
was an Assyrian presence, the population was decimated. This
happened from the mountains of Hakkari (which bordered the
newly created Russian frontier) all the way west to Tur Abdin
and Mardin, including Dyarbekir (Amida), Bitlis, Urfa (Edessa),
Adana, Siirt, and Jezirat Ibn Omar. The Assyrians throughout
the region were deported forcibly or massacred, their houses
destroyed, and their churches, monuments and cemeteries
pillaged and desecrated with human excrement. A report in L 'Asie
Fram;aise of that time states: "The martyrdom of the Assyrians
who have all been virtually massacred in the district of
Dyarbekir and in the region of Siirt recalls in the most vivid
way the Armenian slaughter. … Over 25,000 Assyrians were
massacred by Turks and Kurds, or died of hunger or other
causes inflicted on the deportation routes in 1915.’’16
In desperation,
the Assyrians of Hakkari (bordering Russian frontier) debated
two choices. The first was to continue to show allegiance to
the Ottomans and endure constant humiliation from the Muslims
(Ottomans) with slower decimation; this choice was advocated
by Nemrod Shimmon, the cousin of the Assyrian (Nestorian)
Patriarch. The second was to venture upon a new opportunity of
alliance with the Russians, with the risk of quicker
decimation. Under an intense propaganda of enticement from the
Russians, the tribal chiefs decided to protect themselves by
playing the "Christian," Russian, solidarity card. While the
Assyrians of Hakkari, mostly from the Church of the East
(Nestorians) sided with the Russians, the rest of the
Assyrians throughout the Ottoman "N. Mesopotamia" had only one
choice that was to demonstrate their unquestioned allegiance
to the Sublime Port.
The Ottoman Reaction
The response of
the Sublime Port was speedy, first against the Christians of
Hakkari. Regular Ottoman troops, supported by irregular Kurds
from the North, and the Ottoman troops of Hayder Pasha (Mosul
governor-general) from the south simultaneously launched
attacks against Assyrians in their mountain refuges.
17 The fury of their attacks left
the Assyrians in tatters and hastening to their exodus. Thus,
a long exodus under heavy, prolonged attack began from Hakkari
toward Salamas (in Persia) to join their fellow Assyrians
under the rule of the Russians. The hardships of this forced
march to safety over 150 miles caused about one third of them
to perish.
For a year and a
half, the Assyrians under Russian domination enjoyed security
and even prosperity. In April 1917, the American missionary in
Urmia wrote to his Board that the Assyrian church problem was
resolving itself. Moreover, Assyrians felt positive in that
they had endured and the Church had stability.18
But what about the rest of the Assyrians (West Syriac
Churches: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestants & Chaldeans) in the
middle and west of "N. Mesopotamia?"
Realizing their
pending fate, the terrified Christians made every effort
possible to appease their Ottoman masters, whether through
distancing themselves from other Christian denominations,
namely, the Armenians and Assyrians, or showing neutrality and
loyalty in a variety of ways. For example, the Patriarch of
the Syrian Orthodox church wrote a telegram to the grand
vizier, condemning the "Armenian disturbances," and thanking
"his Majesty for the protection he has ever accorded to it, as
also to our Mussulman compatriots." Finally, the Patriarch
begged, -- and I quote: "under these circumstances, we can but
appeal to the Sovereign, our sole refuge, to protect us in his
mercy.''19
Meanwhile, the
language of "the holy war," Jihad, aroused Muslims against
their powerless Christian neighbors. Between the so-called
"acts of mobs," and direct orders of the Ottoman authorities,
one third of the Assyrian people of various denominations were
killed. The rest remained "a hostage people," subjected to all
sorts of humiliation, dispersion and annihilation.20
The following Syrian Patriarch, I. Ephrem, reported: "the
'rumor' was that the Armenians had rebelled; in reality the
mobs were calling for extermination of all the Christians.’’21
While thousands
of documents and eyewitness testimonies abound, the newspaper
New York Times, during WWI, contained hundreds of reports
about the Ottoman atrocities against its Christian subjects,
and several U.S. government protests and petitions to the
Ottoman authorities concerning attacks against Christian
innocents.22 Among many such
reports was an item on December 20, 1916, in the New York
Times stating, "Syrian Patriarch Slain: Murdered in His
Residence in [Mardin] by Band of Turks".23
Elsewhere, the Newspaper warns that the Christian population
has been terrorized and is in a starving condition.24
Final Russian Retreat and the Tragedy
of the Assyrians in the East
In October of
1917, the Bolshevik Revolution disturbed the balance of the
allied position in general, and the relative safety of the
Assyrians in the East in particular. In an attempt to contain
the vacuum created by withdrawal of the Russian forces, and to
deal with the Assyrians, a meeting of the allied
representatives was held in Urmia in December 1917. At this
meeting, Captain Gracey (of the British Intelligence Service)
pledged to protect the Assyrians and provide them with
autonomy, provided that the Assyrians would fight and hold to
their units until the arrival of the British forces.25
The task set for the Assyrians to accomplish was not easy.
While they had not yet been attacked by regular Ottoman
troops, the Assyrians fought continuously against Turkish and
Kurdish irregulars. On February 1918, upon the advice of
Captain Gracey, the Assyrian Patriarch, Mar Benjamin Shammun,
sought reconciliation with the Kurdish Ismail Agha Simko, a
former Russian ally.26 Gracey's
aim was to convince Simko, the most Kurdish tribal chief in
Persia, to side - as the Assyrians - with the Allies.
Responding to the Patriarch's initiative, Simko suggested a
meeting. Thus, the Patriarch along with some Russian officers
went to the meeting at Simko's residence. "Everything seemed
to be going fine," and upon the conclusion of the meeting,
Simko escorted the Patriarch and kissed his hand; but soon
Simko signaled to hidden guards who began firing point blank
on the Patriarch and his companions. 27
The Assyrians reacted to this treacherous murder of their
Patriarch by launching an attack on Simko's village. But Simko
had anticipated their reaction and had planned his offensive
against the Assyrian villages when their fighters were away.
In Khoy, Simko killed 3,800 women, children and elders.
Soon after, the
regular Ottoman troops approached the region and began a
series of systematic attacks on Urmia.28
Surrounded by such adversaries; the Assyrians had to defend
their units until the arrival of the British. At this time,
Armenian refugees arrived to reinforce the Assyrian units and
sided with them for their common defense. Surprisingly, their
desperate resistance succeeded to the extent that the British
troops coming from southern Mesopotamia were able to establish
strategic points in Persia, but they did not make it to Urmia.
The situation at
this stage reached an impasse. The only choice to avoid
extinction was another mass exodus of Assyrians, directed
first toward Hamadan (in Iran), then to Baquba (in present day
Iraq) where the British troops were campaigning. Some 100,000
Assyrians left Urmia, leaving behind 14,000 elderly or
indisposed others unable to move, who were massacred by the
Ottoman invaders.
In the aftermath
of the war, the Assyrians were denied the right to settle or
even reenter their ancestral homelands in Hakkari region. In
this regard, the Turkish consul general at Baghdad declared on
June 25, 1928: "The Turkish amnesty law does not cover the
Assyrians who would not be allowed under any circumstances to
reenter Turkey; that any Assyrian who attempts to enter Turkey
would be punished.'' 29
Furthermore, the Deputy of Iraq, Chalabi Thabit stated before
his Parliament: "The Assyrians are a despicable and corrupt
people, who have been sheltered and fed in Iraq. The hope was
that they would become loyal and faithful subjects but
instead, now sated. They react to our hospitality. with
ingratitude by claiming ridiculous rights from their host. We
can no longer wait, the cup is full. We insist that our
government adopt appropriate measures repress them.’’30
Conclusion
The Assyrians of
the East had no choice but to work out their fate with
Russians. By doing so, they lost one third of their people. On
the other hand, Assyrians of the West Syriac Churches, who
until the end remained loyal to the Ottoman authorities, which
were their only choice any way, were humiliated, dispersed and
also lost one third of its people. Finally, when Syria was
under the French mandate, the Turks granted "permission ... to
all Christians" to leave Turkey, creating another flight of
refugees. Assyrian Christians (of East and West Syriac
Churches) in large numbers fled their land, bringing to an end
their centuries old history in Tur Abdin, Mardin, Adana, Urfa,
and others. The vast majority of them were helpless victims
and innocent of all political ambitions.
Partially, this
is the story of the Assyrian victims by their Ottoman
victimizers. The whole story, however, stems from wrong
political and religious practice. In this case, it was the
Ottomans, their desire to rule by purity of race and
elimination of perceived opposition with all its dangerous
consequences, but it could be any country of any religion.
Through intentional education, which perpetrates the inherent
superiority of one race or religion over coexisting races and
religions, the group in power assumes control by establishing
a relationship of servitude among its minority groups. It
thereby justifies any action that serves its interest and most
especially those actions, which reinforce the master/slave or
superior/inferior status. When resources are short, or
situations direful, the superior group will always feel
justified in plundering and even eliminating the inferior
groups, whether by perceived divine right or simply by
perceived threat to their own existence. In this context, any
discussion of "equality” is a meaningless bandying of
semantics. The Assyrians are not the first victims in history,
and unfortunately, they will not be the last. The Assyrians
hope that countries harboring such a past, anywhere; and of
any religion, would create a team of experts and objective
scholars - not ambitious politicians or apologists, to carve
out new spaces for peace and reconciliation between their
peoples and religions. As such, the scythe can clear away the
dead, useless material and make ready for new life. With
objective and humanitarian evaluation of the past, future
evils may be forestalled and a peaceful global civilization
can prevail.
1 E. Southgate,
Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobite} Church of
Mesopotamia (New York: Appleton, 1844) 87.
2 Among many sources in different
languages, Cf. A. Yohannan, The Death of a Nation: The Ever
Persecuted Nestorians or Assyrian Christians (New York and
London: Knickerbocker, 1916) 85-88.
3 British Consul James Zohrab
reported to his ambassador in Constantinople on July 22, 1860;
Cf. Bat Yeor, 25. See also John Joseph, The Nestorians and
their Muslim Neighbors: A Study of Western Influence on their
Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961)
130; Joseph drew his source from "Correspondence Respecting
the Constitutional Movement in Turkey, 1908," Parliamentary
Papers, 105 (1909), Cmd. 4529, no. 99; Roderic H. Davison,
"Turkish Attitudes Concerning Christian-Muslim Equality in the
Nineteenth Century," The American Historical Review 59
(1954) 844-864.
4 British Government, enclosure 4
in no. 103 (Diarbekir, 20, April 1882) 146; Cf. J. Joseph,
Muslim-Christians Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries in
the Middle East: A Case of the Jacobites in an Age of
Transition (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1983) 26.
5 I. J. Benjamin, Eight years
in Asia and Africa from 1846-1855 (Hannover: 1859) 96,
10223.
6 In the
national archives of the British, French and American states,
there is a large collection of documents related to the
genocide against Assyrians. The Diplomatic French archives,
for example, included 45 volumes on the Assyro-Chaldean
question from 1915 to 1940.
7 Document entitled, "Arnold
Toynbee Papers and Documents on the Treatment of Armenians and
Assyrian Christians by the Turks, 1915-1916, in the Ottoman
Empire and North-West Persia."
8 Eyewitnesses in Urmia, Salamas,
Hakkari, Bohtan and Tabris report all the documents. The
eyewitnesses include seven American missionaries, three
American consular representatives, two American joumalists,
one British missionary and four Assyrian personalities.
9 Blue Book, 102.
10 Blue Book, 131. 11 Blue Book,
134.
12 "Urmiah," The Independent,
82 (1915) 57, Cf. John Joseph, The Nestorians and Their
Muslim Neighbors, 133.
13 Blue Book, 103.
14 Blue Book, 104.
15 He was the military governor
of Van and brother-ill-law of Enver Pasha.
16 L' Asie Fran~aise,
August-November (1919) 238. See also Andre N. Mandelstam, Le
sort de l'Empire Ottoman (Paris: 1917) 335.
17 Surma d'Bait Mar Shimun,
Assyrian, Church Customs and the Murder of Mar Shimun (n.p:
1983) 72-73.
18 Letter to the Board, dated
April 17, 1917; quited from J. Joseph, The Nestorians,
137.
19 Echos d,Orient, 424, no. 187.
Concerning the Patriarch, it was reported that he was
collaborator with the Ottoman authorities who helped him
elected as a Patriarch; See J. Joseph, Muslim-Christian
Relations, 92-93.
20 Two Documents in the Archive
of the British Foreign Ministry; cr. Y. Ibrahem, Mar Ignatius
Ephrem (Damascus: 1996) 68-69:
21 I. Ephrem Barsum, Tarikh Tur
Abdin [in Syriac], translated into Arabic by B. Bahnam,
(Lebanon: 1963) 366; Cf. 1. Armalah, al-Qasara fi Nakabat al-Masara
(np: nd) 43.
22 New York Times, July 7,
1916. 23New York Times, Dec. 20, 1916.
23 New York Times, Dec.
20, 1916.
24 New York Times, Dec.
20, 1916, p. 4, col. 1.
25 See G. M. Dooman, Who Are
These Assyrians? (London: 1942) 19-20; Gracey letter reads:
Dear Friends,
This is the first opportunity I have had to have the honor of
being present with you. I wish now to speak to you with
reference to the purpose and the plan of the Allied powers,
concerning the small and oppressed nations such as yours. This
Great War that has now raged for so long, and is still raging
at tremendous cost in blood and material to the Allies, has
but one main object, and that is, the emancipation of small
and oppressed nations such as yours. You have been oppressed
beyond measure. You have now come to the verge of extinction
as a people and as a language, thanks to the misdeeds of the
Turks, assisted by their allies, the Germans. I have come to
tell you that, inasmuch as the great allied powers are making
tremendous sacrifices, and are shedding streams of blood for
the sake of saving you, and making you free, it is your duty
also as a small Christian Nation to continue in the war, and
fight as you have so splendidly fought in the past.
I have been sent by my government to declare to you as well as
to other small·· nations, that you are all fighting for your
own freedom. I have said the same thing to the Armenians. I
have just come from Van. They are continuing in their struggle
for their freedom. You must all unite under one head, and do
the same. And so far as the feelings of the Persian Government
are concerned, you leave that matter to our legation, and to
the legations of the Allied powers in Tehran.
Furthermore, all the expense of your army will be paid by the
Allies. It has already been arranged with the new government
of Caucasia that you shall receive all guns and ammunitions
you need, and even military assistance, if you require any.
Freedom is a very
precious and costly possession. It has always been bought by
sacrifices. You must also be willing to do the same if you
wish to possess your fatherland, where honey and milk flow."
26 J. Joseph, The Nestorians,
132.
27 Lady Surma, Assyrian Church
Customs, 81; Surma relates an eyewitness account of the
Russian Major Kondratoff.
28 L. Surma, 82-83.
29 League of Nations: The
Settlement of the Assyrians, a Work of Humanity and
Appeasement, Geneva, 1935, Information Section, 12.
30 Al-Istqlal, No. 1929,
June 29, 1933.
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