...How miserable we look in self-presentation! We never hold a rank among other nations so we never enjoy a vote in the council of all nations even on questions that bear on us. Our land is alien, our unity is disintegration, our unanimity is hatred that sweeps us all over, our weapon is obedience, our defense is fligh, our originality is adaptation, our future is tomorrow. ...Among many shelter-homes we have long learned to seek, but we need only one where we could secure us political rights. See for yourself; and God will be with you!

Over the two last thousand years the ethno confessional identity of Assyrians has featured many common things such as origin, beliefs, historical paths, language, and more importantly inhabitation. In the 19th century the complexity and dissipation of spiritual life and apparition of new confessions in the whole Assyrian world resulted in somewhat losing its confessional identity. On the other hand, moments of nationalism strengthened in a way this ethnic identity. The immigration at the end of the 19th century as well as the national calamity in the first imperialistic war years brought altogether about the loss of one of the essential features of the national Assyrian identity, namely, the loss of territories ("homeland", or "attra"). Assimilation be- came the decider of the national fate. Besides, various forms of identity erosion can be traced in communal concentrations as well. A high level of adaptation and paternalism determines the most typical form. This factor inevitably deprives Assyrians of their national identity. Relying upon the power of the world authorities entirely Assyrians have lost belief in their own capabilities, and on the other hand, have developed in their mentality a feeling that all their national problems could be solved by someone's authority or power in the latter ultimate goodwill and decision. To the credit of Assyrians their paternalism, as a rule, features an extremely high loyalty.

This feature apparently has very deep historical roots. L. N. Goumilev also noted, that "Romans even in the time 'of their supreme power failed to take over in the land between Two Rivers. The local people actively supported Parphenians and then Persians. For their loyalty Iranian shahs favored them. Nestorians in Mesopotamia and monotheists in Armenia enjoyed benefits for their resistance to the King of Byzantium".1

The growth of national identity at the be- ginning of the 20th century seemed to make it clear with the ideological aspect of the Assyrian national onset. But alongside the people who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the national cause, there are always ambitious people who only seek personal power and success and who are ready for this to be- tray national interests and even to destroy its integrity. Losing support and encouragement among Assyrians who fell into different political groups, these ambitions leaders tried to find support with the powers which pursued certain political and economic interest in the given region.

As a result, Assyrians lacked centralized leadership so they had to consider at various stages of their struggle for self-determination (1900 to 1933) other nation's influences and pursuits. Therefore, the decisions they made at the time were in line with the interests of Russia, Britain and France. The current situation in the Assyrian national movement is even more pitiful. All political forces in Bet-Nahrein and Diaspora are: sick with paternal- ism. Arab or Kurdish, American or Russian interests are imparted to Assyrians for they have illusions about support or good action from any authority or power. In the end, when nothing works indeed, there is always hope for God. In the absence of production Assyrian activity could well be described with words, said by prophet Isaiah.

The year of 1882 was obviously the departure of the Jewish national movement2, when the physician from Odessa, Yeguda Leib Pinsker published a book in Berlin in German language under the title II Auto emancipation" with the subtitle II Appeal of the Russian Jew to his nation". He was the first author who called Jews for self-liberation brushing away the idea of emancipation from the powers. Then he criticized the so-called struggle for human rights and for rights for national and religious minorities. He pointed out, "Jewish people want to be given equal political and citizen's rights, but it is not enough to increase their role in the world history. This could only happen if they enjoyed their national integrity in their own land.

And this would lead to their auto emancipation and give them equal rights eventually along with other nations II.

Dr. Theodore Hertzle “The state of Jews II who also was the founder of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) formulated the similar ideas in the book. The first WZO Congress was held in August 1897 and 50 years later the Jewish state Israel was largely invested by the rich Jews and some powers as well primarily by the USA. But it should be noted that shortly after the first WZO Congress everyone who wanted to participate in the movement had to pay the entrance dues, a conventional shekel coin which was used in the ancient Jewish land long before. Two years later the Jewish Colonial bank was established. Its funds were based on Jewish shareholders all over the world. Those shares are valid to the day for this bank became the national bank of Israel. In 1901 the Jewish national foundation was established to buy out lands in Palestine and to finance first Jewish population there. The land was viewed as the treasure of the entire nation so that settlers were allowed to rent it only. This way the land was to be in the national possession all along.

Whatever plans Assyrians could make or whatever ways they would try to find against assimilation and eventual annihilation, we have before us the way the Jewish people have walked from Pinsker and Herzle to the establishment of their own state. And this ex- ample deserves to be taken because all the other ways seem either to lead to calamity or at least to the blind alley instead.

The history of the Assyrian nation seems to repeat that of the Jewish people. The latter suffered a lot from all kinds of persecution and genocide that caused them to immigrate and dissipate in the world. Like them Assyrians suffered as much in Hakkjari, Simel, in the war between Iran and Iraq in the recent times. And also, there has always been a strong tendency to immigrate. Only Jews in times of trouble always stuck together in mercy and solidarity, while Assyrians very often-ignored even attempts to be merciful or charitable due to indifference and lack of national integrity. Extensive flight of Jews from Eastern Europe and Germany in the first half of the century propagated the decision of many to move to the land of ancestors. Un- fortunately Assyrians never had a feel like that. Jews want to move to Erez Israel in a sacred land, because it's God that wants it. That is why there was no stopping them in an attempt to find them a national hearth. Since 1881 till 1939 the Jewish population in Palestine increased by 28,000 to 475,000 and by the day Israel was proclaimed its population was 600,000. Now days if only Iraqi Assyrians will concentrate in the so-called Assyrian triangle, there will likely be a national hearth with elements of cultural and religious autonomy. The organization of ethnically homogeneous settlements of Assyrians at the joint of Arab and Kurdish regions of Iraq can be quite feasible. Just like it was before when the first world war was on Turks in Palestine forbid Jews to buyout land, Iraqi government produced legal acts to bar Assyrians from returning to homeland and settle down densely in districts where Arab and Kurds had just recently moved in. Anyway obstacles could be overcome if the Assyrian people will be haunted just by the one idea, if all national organizations will act as one, if ethnic and confessional identities will go along together so that any deviation from Assyrian- ism or assimilation should be associated in every Assyrian mind with apostasy. Now we must remember that ethnic identity is much easier to get than the religious one. Various confessions should apparently come a long way before they remember their origins, and ideological and brotherly unity of all Christians in the East.

In case of the Jewish flight from Egypt Moses led his people during 40 years in the desert before he brought them eventually to the land of Promise. Freedom waits for a new generation to come free from slavish mentality. It would be just unfair to think that Assyrians are afraid to unite now, and so the national movement is not possible. Our slavery that prevents us from being a free, self-determined nation is paternalism. We have become a relic ethnos to be registered in the Red Book and to be treated with care. We are 10 sing the need and capability to change our life for the better. We are too humble and adaptable to any circumstances in whatever culture. We just lack in resistance, and a high level of receptivity to different mentalities leads to further conflicts and strives inside the nation, to contradictions that will tear us all apart and destroy us completely in the melting pot of assimilation.

Auto emancipation is the only way to keep the nation, who has known neither identity nor rights; self -determination in the last 2,500 years, for it can only be secured in its hearth. So may every Assyrian heart sing out the slogan from the wonderful poet and patriot Rabbi Jean Alhaz, "Kum! Dur! Ta!"

1 L. N. Goumilev. Ethnospere. The human history and the world of nature. M. Ekopros 1993.

2 Jewish National Movement in 1870 to 1914. Jerusalem. Alia Library, 1994.