Posted by parhad (158.252.219.172) on September 29, 2001 at 11:49:00:
I feel sorry for this poor fellow, but he has a thorny shoulder to cry on in Ghassan. It is frustrating, Ashur knows, but then it's a far larger challenge than any of us dreamed of. It requires people we don't produce now, people who know how to get down to work, to see what counts from what glitters, people who don't embrace the past because they fear the present and have no hope for a future. Hang in there Nikko....
Written by NIKKO on 28 Sep 2001 11:15:18:
As an answer to: Re: Chrsitianity in Kurdistan (history, link)
written by Ghassan on 27 Sep 2001 21:11:35:
Dear Ghassan,
I don't know how people can take Dr. Mehrdad Izady's shite
seriously. He says almost exactly the same thing about Armenians living
in "Kurdistan".
He also draws parallels between Yezidism and ancient Mesopotamian
religion, but makes them out to be Kurds as well as Syriac-speaking
Jews!
I've browsed through his book "The Kurds, A Concise Handbook" and
it is nothing but a crock of shite. But people will believe what he says
because
he's from Harvard. Not that we dont have Assyrians at Harvard, but
because Dr. Eden Naby specialises in Central Asian studies and not "Near
Eastern Languages and Civilisation" and because of that no one will
take much of what she says seriously.
Why dont we have specialists that will write books and talk about
our national struggle in terms of us
(Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs/Arameans) as one
nation? Why are the only good academics we have in this field so
few and far between and little published? Where is Prof. Abdulmassih
Saadi or Prof.
Efrem Yildiz or Prof. Amir Harrak when you need them? They cant be
everywhere can they?
Thats why Im studying what Im studying, but why is it only me in
our people scattered throughout the whole world? I feel so alone...
But Ghassan... here's the truth: as long as our nation doesnt know
what to call itself, it will always be divided and devoured by our more
numerous
neighbours.
We MUST re-establish the meaning of our national struggle and what
we want from this god-damn world! Who are we? Where are we from? What
do we want?? What is our struggle?? Where is our action??
Where are the academics steeped in our nationalist ideology that
will write a book titled "The Assyrians, A Concise Handbook" or "The
Chaldeans..."
or "The Syriacs..." or "The Assyro-Chaldeans..." or "The
Arameans..." without resorting to sectarianism or mud-slinging at our
different but beautiful
national names?
Who will take seriously a nation that still sees itself in terms of
religious denominations? Who will take seriously a nation that still
disputes its own
ancestry - where the Arameans claim Assyrians died out and
Assyrians claim Chaldeans died out!? Who will take seriously a nation
that cant decide
whether its language is Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac or Aramaic? Who
will take seriously a nation that still doesnt know what to call itself
- torn between
religious, linguistic and factional names - Syriac, Aramean,
Chaldean, Syrian? Who will take seriously a nation with a hyphenated
name? I know of no
existing nation today with a hyphenated name...
Ghassan, why are our people too blind to see that we are our own
enemy, that we are creating the "majaal" for Kurds, Arabs and Turks to
successfully
(at least in the international arena) claim that we = nothing but
"Christian" + whatever they are?
How long are we gonna keep fighting ourselves until we realise that
we have bigger and more dangerous enemies to fight!?
Im sad Ghassan. Im sick. Im tired. Im angry. Im tired of being
angry. Im tired of being everyone and everything. Im tired of not being
listened to. Im
tired, Im tired, Im sick, Im sad, Im angry and Im tired!
Ive had enough!
What do u think?
NIKKO