Assyrians and Two World Wars

Assyrians and Two World Wars
Author: Yaqou D'Malik Ismail
Publisher: Ramon Michael
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1964-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN:

This valuable book has finally been translated in its entirety to English from the original Assyrian language (neo-Syriac). It is an important book because the accounts are mostly from Assyrians themselves. Those who were there at the most critical period in the recent and tumultuous history of the Assyrian people. The author was a warrior, soldier, and a leader of his tribe and was from the well-known Malik Ismael family of Upper Tyareh. It has specific facts and details not found in any other book. It includes a detailed account of the betrayal and murder of H.H. Mar Benyamin Shimun XIX, the Patriarch who was the spiritual and temporal leader of his Assyrian community during WWI. It also includes details of the negotiations between the Assyrians and the British-controlled Iraqi government, which eventually led to what is known as the Simele Massacre by the Iraqi government and the exodus of a part of the community from Iraq to Syria in 1933. This book also includes details of many of the battles during 1914 to 1933 of the Assyrians of the Hakkari mountains in southeastern Turkey and their brethren in today’s northwestern Iran. They fiercely defended themselves and their families against the brutal assaults of the Turks, Kurds, Iranians, and Arabs. They were usually outnumbered and outgunned, but they were often victorious as their enemy broke ranks and ran. They were eventually forced to leave their ancestral homeland in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, where they had lived happily since time immemorial. They were then directed to Iraq, where the British needed their young fighters. This book details the military alliance of those Assyrians with the Russians and then the British and the pledges those governments made and broke repeatedly regarding a semi-independent Assyrian settlement, culminating in the Simele Massacre, a permanent stain on the Iraqi state.

Assyrians and Two World Wars

Assyrians and Two World Wars
Author: Yaqou Bar Malik Ismael
Publisher:
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020-11-13
Genre: Assyrians
ISBN:

This valuable book has finally been translated in its entirety to English from the original Assyrian language (neo-Syriac). It is an important book because the accounts are mostly from Assyrians themselves. Those who were there at the most critical period in the recent and tumultuous history of the Assyrian people. The author was a warrior, soldier, and a leader of his tribe and was from the well-known Malik Ismael family of Upper Tyareh. It has specific facts and details not found in any other book. It includes a detailed account of the betrayal and murder of H.H. Mar Benyamin Shimun XIX, the Patriarch who was the spiritual and temporal leader of his Assyrian community during WWI. It also includes details of the negotiations between the Assyrians and the British-controlled Iraqi government, which eventually led to what is known as the Simele Massacre by the Iraqi government and the exodus of a part of the community from Iraq to Syria in 1933. This book also includes details of many of the battles during 1914 to 1933 of the Assyrians of the Hakkari mountains in southeastern Turkey and their brethren in today's northwestern Iran. They fiercely defended themselves and their families against the brutal assaults of the Turks, Kurds, Iranians, and Arabs. They were usually outnumbered and outgunned, but they were often victorious as their enemy broke ranks and ran. They were eventually forced to leave their ancestral homeland in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, where they had lived happily since time immemorial. They were then directed to Iraq, where the British needed their young fighters. This book details the military alliance of those Assyrians with the Russians and then the British and the pledges those governments made and broke repeatedly regarding a semi-independent Assyrian settlement, culminating in the Simele Massacre, a permanent stain on the Iraqi state.

Iraq Between the Two World Wars

Iraq Between the Two World Wars
Author: Reeva Spector Simon
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2004-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231507003

Why did a group from the Iraqi army seize control of the government and wage a disastrous war against Great Britain, rejecting British and liberal values for those of a militaristic Germany? What impact did these actions have on the thirty-year regime of Saddam Hussein? Departing from previous studies explaining modern Iraqi history in terms of class theory, Reeva Simon shows that cultural and ideological factors played an equal, if not more important, role in shaping events. In 1921 the British created Iraq, and an entourage of ex-Ottoman army officers, the Sharifians, became the new ruling elite. Simon contends that this elite, returning to an Iraq made up of different ethnic, religious, and social groups, had to weld these disparate elements into a nation. Pan-Arabism was to be the new ideological source of unity and loyalty. Schools and the army became the means through which to implant it, and a series of military coups gave the officers the chance to act in its name. The result was an abortive revolt against Britain in 1941. And the legacy of the revolt is still apparent in the next two generations of Iraqi officers that led to the regime of Saddam Hussein. This updated edition locates the sources of Iraqi nationalism in the experience of these ex-Ottoman army officers who used the emergent pan-Arabism to weld a disparate population into a nation. Simon shows that the relationships forged between Iraqi officers and Germans in Istanbul before WWI left deep legacies that go a long way toward explaining the disastrous war against Great Britain in 1941, the rejection of liberal values, the revolution of 1958 in which the military finally seized power, and the outlook of the leadership recently overthrown by American and British armies.

The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East

The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East
Author: John Joseph
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2016-05-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004320059

This is a revised edition of the author's The Nestorians and Their Muslim Neighbors (Princeton University Press, 1961). Early in the nineteenth century, the Aramaic-speaking "Nestorian" Christians received special attention when American Protestant missions decided to educate and reform them to help meet the challenge that Islam presented to the growing missionary movements. When archaeologist Layard further publicized the historic minority as "Assyrians", the name acquired a new connotation when other forces at work in the region - religious, nationalistic, imperialistic - entangled these modern Assyrians in vagaries and manipulations in which they were outnumbered and outclassed. The study examines Western Christendom's current position on Islam, with emphasis on the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches. The revision draws on a wide variety of sources not used in the original.

The Assyrian Genocide

The Assyrian Genocide
Author: Hannibal Travis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2017-07-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351980254

For a brief period, the attention of the international community has focused once again on the plight of religious minorities in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In particular, the abductions and massacres of Yezidis and Assyrians in the Sinjar, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Baghdad, and Hasakah regions in 2007–2015 raised questions about the prevention of genocide. This book, while principally analyzing the Assyrian genocide of 1914–1925 and its implications for the culture and politics of the region, also raises broader questions concerning the future of religious diversity in the Middle East. It gathers and analyzes the findings of a broad spectrum of historical and scholarly works on Christian identities in the Middle East, genocide studies, international law, and the politics of the late Ottoman Empire, as well as the politics of the Ottomans' British and Russian rivals for power in western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean basin. A key question the book raises is whether the fate of the Assyrians maps onto any of the concepts used within international law and diplomatic history to study genocide and group violence. In this light, the Assyrian genocide stands out as being several times larger, in both absolute terms and relative to the size of the affected group, than the Srebrenica genocide, which is recognized by Turkey as well as by international tribunals and organizations. Including its Armenian and Greek victims, the Ottoman Christian Genocide rivals the Rwandan, Bengali, and Biafran genocides. The book also aims to explore the impact of the genocide period of 1914–1925 on the development or partial unraveling of Assyrian group cohesion, including aspirations to autonomy in the Assyrian areas of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and southeastern Turkey. Scholars from around the world have collaborated to approach these research questions by reference to diplomatic and political archives, international legal materials, memoirs, and literary works.

Year of the Sword

Year of the Sword
Author: Joseph Yacoub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2016-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190694742

The Armenian genocide of 1915 has been well documented. Much less known is the Turkish genocide of the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac peoples, which occurred simultaneously in their ancient homelands in and around ancient Mesopotamia - now Turkey, Iran and Iraq. The advent of the First World War gave the Young Turks and the Ottoman government the opportunity to exterminate the Assyrians in a series of massacres and atrocities inflicted on a people whose culture dates back millennia and whose language, Aramaic, was spoken by Jesus. Systematic killings, looting, rape, kidnapping and deportations destroyed countless communities and created a vast refugee diaspora. As many as 300,000 Assyro-Chaldean- Syriac people were murdered and a larger number forced into exile. The "Year of the Sword" (Seyfo) in 1915 was preceded over millennia by other attacks on the Assyrians and has been mirrored by recent events, not least the abuses committed by Islamic State. Joseph Yacoub, whose family was murdered and dispersed, has gathered together a compelling range of eye-witness accounts and reports which cast light on this 'hidden genocide.' Passionate and yet authoritative in its research, his book reveals a little-known human and cultural tragedy. A century after the Assyrian genocide, the fate of this Christian minority hangs in the balance.

Assyrians in Chicago

Assyrians in Chicago
Author: Vasili Shoumanov
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738519081

The pictorial history of Assyrian immigration to Chicago encompasses more than 100 years. Their first pioneers came to the United States in the late 1800s. Eventually, by the turn of the century, they began to reside in Chicago. Following several waves of persecution in their homeland, these indigenous people of Mesopotamia continued to migrate to America, and now the largest concentration of them reside in Chicago. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the evolution of the Assyrian community of Chicago from the late 1800s to the present day. These pages bring to life the people, events, and industries that helped to shape and transform this vibrant ethnic community in Chicago. With more than 200 vintage images, Assyrians in Chicago includes photographs from the collection of the Assyrian Universal Alliance Foundation. This book depicts the many faces of the Assyrian American in various facets of American life interwoven with traditions from their homeland.

Christian Missions and Humanitarianism in The Middle East, 1850-1950

Christian Missions and Humanitarianism in The Middle East, 1850-1950
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2020-09-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004434534

From the early phases of modern missions, Christian missionaries supported many humanitarian activities, mostly framed as subservient to the preaching of Christianity. This anthology contributes to a historically grounded understanding of the complex relationship between Christian missions and the roots of humanitarianism and its contemporary uses in a Middle Eastern context. Contributions focus on ideologies, rhetoric, and practices of missionaries and their apostolates towards humanitarianism, from the mid-19th century Middle East crises, examining different missionaries, their society’s worldview and their networks in various areas of the Middle East. In the early 20th century Christian missions increasingly paid more attention to organisation and bureaucratisation (‘rationalisation’), and media became more important to their work. The volume analyses how non-missionaries took over, to a certain extent, the aims and organisations of the missionaries as to humanitarianism. It seeks to discover and retrace such ‘entangled histories’ for the first time in an integral perspective. Contributors include: Beth Baron, Philippe Bourmaud, Seija Jalagin, Nazan Maksudyan, Michael Marten, Heleen (L.) Murre-van den Berg, Inger Marie Okkenhaug, Idir Ouahes, Maria Chiara Rioli, Karène Sanchez Summerer, Bertrand Taithe, and Chantal Verdeil

Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century

Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century
Author: Sargon Donabed
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2015-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0748686053

Who are the Assyrians and what role did they play in shaping modern Iraq? Were they simply bystanders, victims of collateral damage who played a passive role in the history of Iraq? And how have they negotiated their position throughout various periods of Iraq's state-building processes? This book details the narrative and history of Iraq in the 20th century and reinserts the Assyrian experience as an integral part of Iraq's broader contemporary historiography. It is the first comprehensive account to contextualize this native people's experience alongside the developmental processes of the modern Iraqi state. Using primary and secondary data, this book offers a nuanced exploration of the dynamics that have affected and determined the trajectory of the Assyrians' experience in 20th century Iraq.

Routledge Handbook of Citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa

Routledge Handbook of Citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa
Author: Roel Meijer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 515
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0429608802

This comprehensive Handbook gives an overview of the political, social, economic and legal dimensions of citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present. The terms citizen and citizenship are mostly used by researchers in an off-hand, self-evident manner. A citizen is assumed to have standard rights and duties that everyone enjoys. However, citizenship is a complex legal, social, economic, cultural, ethical and religious concept and practice. Since the rise of the modern bureaucratic state, in each country of the Middle East and North Africa, citizenship has developed differently. In addition, rights are highly differentiated within one country, ranging from privileged, underprivileged and discriminated citizens to non-citizens. Through its dual nature as instrument of state control, as well as a source of citizen rights and entitlements, citizenship provides crucial insights into state-citizen relations and the services the state provides, as well as the way citizens respond to these actions. This volume focuses on five themes that cover the crucial dimensions of citizenship in the region: Historical trajectory of citizenship since the nineteenth century until independence Creation of citizenship from above by the state Different discourses of rights and forms of contestation developed by social movements and society Mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion Politics of citizenship, nationality and migration Covering the main dimensions of citizenship, this multidisciplinary book is a key resource for students and scholars interested in citizenship, politics, economics, history, migration and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa.