Iraqi Assyrians
Being Subjected To Two Concurrent Genocides
9-8-2014
The Iraqi Assyrians of the Nineveh Plain region, a region where Assyrians have clung on to since the fall of their empire in 612 BC, are currently being uprooted from their lands and murdered systematically by the terrorist group known as ISIS. They are being targeted because of their ethno-religious identity which is distinct from Arabs, Kurds and other Iraqi ethnic groups. This ongoing genocide has slowly gained worldwide attention over the past few months which has prompted humanitarian intervention from several countries, the foremost being the US. Unfortunately, however, Iraqi Assyrians are at the same time being subjected, in my opinion, to a second genocide, or to be more precise, an ethnocide, which is more subtle yet just as destructive. The ethnocide that I am referring to is the consistent and blatant avoidance of reference to the ethnic identity of Assyrians as “Assyrians” by the major news outlets and some governments worldwide including the government of Iraq itself. Time and again, Iraqi Assyrians are referred to diminutively as just “Iraqi Christians” by international news outlets such as CNN and powerful political leaders such as US President Barack Obama, thereby relegating them to the status of a religious minority.
If Assyrians were just a religious minority, there would obviously be no problem with such a designation. However, for anyone who can read, there is an innumerable wealth of academic resources on Assyrian history, culture, language and ethnic identity which has existed for more than five thousand years. In fact, Assyrians were instrumental in the formation of the modern state of Iraq in 1921 and have struggled since WWI politically and militarily to defend their ethno-religious rights and national aspirations for self-determination.
In 2003, in a pro-Iraq invasion speech, US President George W. Bush identified Assyrians as one of the ethnic groups to be liberated by the US-led invasion of Iraq alongside Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others. Since 2003, however, little or no mention of Assyrians, as an ethnic group, was made publicly by the White House or State Department and the Assyrian plight in Iraq and in Syria for that matter, has been largely ignored by major news outlets like CNN, Fox News, and Russia Today etc. One must ask the question, how can it be, that in ten years, no media commentator or political figure has publicly, even accidently, referenced the persecution of Assyrians in Iraq as a distinct ethnic group? If and when any situation concerning Iraqi Assyrians is designated as important enough to be reported by major news networks, as if ethnic cleansing and genocide aren’t important issues for humanity, they are as I mentioned earlier diminutively referred to as “Iraqi Christians.”
In the last few days, for example, CNN has finally decided that the ongoing genocide of Iraqi Assyrians and other ethno-religious minorities by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in the Nineveh Plain region is “important” enough to be reported, Assyrians are simply reported as “Iraqi Christians” with no mention of who Iraqi Christians are while a cultural report is given on the Yazidi community and all other Iraq’s ethno-religious groups are explicitly referred to by their names. Why this unfair and skewed approach? This distortion of cultural identity by CNN and other major news networks becomes even worse when one realizes that the Christians who have inhabited the Nineveh Plain region since time immemorial that are being driven out and murdered by ISIS are entirely Assyrian, leaving no reason to collectively designate them as Iraqi Christians which by definition includes Iraqi Armenians, a distinct ethno-religious minority themselves that do not reside in the Nineveh Plain region.
The same news networks have no reservations, however, when it comes to reporting anything about Iraqi Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis; in fact, because of consistently skewed reporting, the general public thinks Iraq is made up of just Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. If we apply the same logic that CNN or President Obama are utilizing when referring to Iraqi Assyrians as “Iraqi Christians” to Iraqi Kurds, for example, then Iraqi Kurds should be called “Iraqi Sunnis” since they are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
9-8-2014
The Iraqi Assyrians of the Nineveh Plain region, a region where Assyrians have clung on to since the fall of their empire in 612 BC, are currently being uprooted from their lands and murdered systematically by the terrorist group known as ISIS. They are being targeted because of their ethno-religious identity which is distinct from Arabs, Kurds and other Iraqi ethnic groups. This ongoing genocide has slowly gained worldwide attention over the past few months which has prompted humanitarian intervention from several countries, the foremost being the US. Unfortunately, however, Iraqi Assyrians are at the same time being subjected, in my opinion, to a second genocide, or to be more precise, an ethnocide, which is more subtle yet just as destructive. The ethnocide that I am referring to is the consistent and blatant avoidance of reference to the ethnic identity of Assyrians as “Assyrians” by the major news outlets and some governments worldwide including the government of Iraq itself. Time and again, Iraqi Assyrians are referred to diminutively as just “Iraqi Christians” by international news outlets such as CNN and powerful political leaders such as US President Barack Obama, thereby relegating them to the status of a religious minority.
If Assyrians were just a religious minority, there would obviously be no problem with such a designation. However, for anyone who can read, there is an innumerable wealth of academic resources on Assyrian history, culture, language and ethnic identity which has existed for more than five thousand years. In fact, Assyrians were instrumental in the formation of the modern state of Iraq in 1921 and have struggled since WWI politically and militarily to defend their ethno-religious rights and national aspirations for self-determination.
In 2003, in a pro-Iraq invasion speech, US President George W. Bush identified Assyrians as one of the ethnic groups to be liberated by the US-led invasion of Iraq alongside Shiite and Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others. Since 2003, however, little or no mention of Assyrians, as an ethnic group, was made publicly by the White House or State Department and the Assyrian plight in Iraq and in Syria for that matter, has been largely ignored by major news outlets like CNN, Fox News, and Russia Today etc. One must ask the question, how can it be, that in ten years, no media commentator or political figure has publicly, even accidently, referenced the persecution of Assyrians in Iraq as a distinct ethnic group? If and when any situation concerning Iraqi Assyrians is designated as important enough to be reported by major news networks, as if ethnic cleansing and genocide aren’t important issues for humanity, they are as I mentioned earlier diminutively referred to as “Iraqi Christians.”
In the last few days, for example, CNN has finally decided that the ongoing genocide of Iraqi Assyrians and other ethno-religious minorities by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS in the Nineveh Plain region is “important” enough to be reported, Assyrians are simply reported as “Iraqi Christians” with no mention of who Iraqi Christians are while a cultural report is given on the Yazidi community and all other Iraq’s ethno-religious groups are explicitly referred to by their names. Why this unfair and skewed approach? This distortion of cultural identity by CNN and other major news networks becomes even worse when one realizes that the Christians who have inhabited the Nineveh Plain region since time immemorial that are being driven out and murdered by ISIS are entirely Assyrian, leaving no reason to collectively designate them as Iraqi Christians which by definition includes Iraqi Armenians, a distinct ethno-religious minority themselves that do not reside in the Nineveh Plain region.
The same news networks have no reservations, however, when it comes to reporting anything about Iraqi Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis; in fact, because of consistently skewed reporting, the general public thinks Iraq is made up of just Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. If we apply the same logic that CNN or President Obama are utilizing when referring to Iraqi Assyrians as “Iraqi Christians” to Iraqi Kurds, for example, then Iraqi Kurds should be called “Iraqi Sunnis” since they are predominantly Sunni Muslim.