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=> Re: Open letter to John Jospeh

Re: Open letter to John Jospeh
Posted by John Joseph (Guest) - Wednesday, November 10 2004, 0:01:32 (CET)
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Dear David, Below is my response to to your Open Letter. I merely wanted to qualify some of your statements. That is followed by a note on your suggestion on an interview:

Open letter to John Jospeh
Posted by Tiglath (Guest) - Thursday, October 21 2004, 8:41:37 (CEST)
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"I seriously believe that the single most important problem facing our Assyrian community and the reasons for our disunity stem from the fact that nobody takes us seriously on the question of our identity--not our friends, not our enemies. Actually, they all seem to know our history better than we do, be they [educated] Kurds or Arabs, the Syrian Orthodox or the Chaldeans , the Iraqi [political] parties or the scholars at Oxford, Harvard, Yale or Chicago, or the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington D.C., let alone the Department of State there.We seem to have an identity crisis and for no reason. We have an illustrious history as Christians, as speakers of the Aramaic language for centuries, as descendants of a number of great nations of the distant past. United with our other Christian brethren, the Suroyo and the Chaldeans, we--who also called ourselves Suraye/Suroyo in my boyhood days [and still do] --can fight for our basic human rights [in the land of our ancestors] and we will be respected for it."

Dear John,

I have only recently begun to understand our true identity. I'm frankly fascinated by your views on this subject. Unlike the "intellectuals" on AINA I believe that identity is a fluid ever changing non-tangible concept that we have yet to come to terms with. [The only thing tangible in our case is language and religon, two important dimensions of identity that have set us apart from both our neighbours and distance cousins.]

Our identity is the strong foundation on which we should build anything that has lasting worth, yet our identity has been hijacked by "historians" like Fred Aprim who mangle history and quotes to suit their myopic religously based agendas.

I believe that ALL the people of Iraq, not just the Chrisitan minority, are the descendants of the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arab and Ottoman Empires that have dominated Mesopotamia for the past 5,000 years.

I believe that we Chrisitian Assyrians were isolated in the mountains of Hakkiari where we were discovered in the 1800s using our religion and the Aramaic language as a barrier against religious and culutral assimilation into our brethren's Islamic majority. [The barrier was firmly established as long ago as the seventh century A,D, by Islam, further consolidated by the Ottomans through the "Millet System" of government. Look that term up in the index of my Modern Assyrians.]

I believe that the modern Kurdish identity is an amalgam of Persian, Arab, Ottoman (Turkish) and ancient Assyrian culture that took shape during the sweep of nationalism at the end of the 19th century. [Our nationalists from the United States who attended the Versailles Conference after the First World War referred to the Yezidis and some Kudish tribes as "Islamic Assyrians"]

Mustafa Barzani's very own father was protected by my ancestors' Tkhumnaye tribe before World War 1 when he was fleeing from the Turks.

So in claiming that when we were first discovered that our religion was Christian making us effectively Christian Kurds does make logical sense. And far from being offended and having an inferiority complex we should attempt to understand our identity more fully before accusing our true historians of working for the CIA. [During the pre-Islamic period many of our ancestors were Kurds. With the passage of centuries after Islam, many of our Christian ancestors converted to Islam; depending on their geographical location, became either Kurds or Arabs; in Iran many became Azeri Turks.]

The truth is that our identity is not so black and white, due to its 5,000 year old depth. Yes we are descendants and related to the succeeding Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Ottomans, Arabs and Kurds. There is no shame in attaching us to all of Iraq's identities.

Once this identity foundation is understood then it becomes possible to move forward and help our people - the Christian minority who have identified with their Assyrians ancestors - in coping with this new paradigm shift. [What makes the Assyrians and others of the ANCINET world the very distant ancestors of ALL of us in the Middle East, is that they were eventually totally absorbed by waves of ethnicites that followed them. This is what makes a DIRECT descendance link between any one ethnic group and the ancient Assyrians impossible. None of the ancients remained who spoke their own mother tongue and they all adopted the cultural identity of others--speaking other peoples' languages and worshiping other peoples' holy writ.]

Our entire strategy.....our entire reason for being then changes dramaticaly not from securing a homeland for the Christian minority and living in a walled off ghettto, like our Israeli co-religionists [ ? ], but in being true and loyal citizens of Iraq where we can become a legacy and not a liability in return for equality and human rights. [very true.]

I would be greatly interested in your thoughts on this matter.
=========================


A word on your latest message:

First, thank you for suggesting the interview. I am glad that you are willing to step forward and am pleased that Wilfred approves.

Regarding Wilfred's suggestion about our "other scholars and researchers," it all depends on who these people are. I have no desire to engage the likes of Aprim in discussion. My book addresses itself to the educated reading public everywhere; it is not written just for the Assyrians, although I have taken their main nationalist positions into consideration.

Wilfred is free to suggest anyone as long as the interviewer is the same person--you, That way there will be little chance for our nationalist 'scholars and researchers' to disregard what I have said on their position. You can always ask the question: how do you answer Joseph's......


Warm regards,
John



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