Meltha Magazine Online

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Our correspondence

To: Foreign Minister. Of Russian Federation

Academician, Dr. E. M. Primakov January 15,1998

Dear Evgenij Maksimovich,

In view of the extremely difficult situation for the Christian population in Northern Iraq we would like you to pay your heeds to terror and violence in this region. Basically it is Assyrians who have constantly been victimized. Like Kurds Assyrians have sustained all forms of repression from Saddam Hussein. But after UN sanctions were imposed the situation in Northern Iraq became much worse. Namely, the feuds between the groups led by Jalal Talabani and Mossud Barzani came first, then violent raids of gunmen from the Kurdish Workers Party who recently penetrated into Northern Iraq from South-Eastern Turkey.

Assyrians of Northern Iraq, a part of whom is the parish of the Apostolic Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church 'and Orthodox Syriac Church are the native population in this region which is formerly a Mosul vilajett of Ottoman Empire. This is just the place where one can find the ruins of Nineveh, the last Assyrian stronghold in the past.

As a result of genocide in 1914 to 1918 Assyro-Chaldeans of Persia and Ottoman Empire are found to be largely dispersed in the world whereas some of them still remained in Mosul as a highly compacted community. Following this situation the question of Autonomy to Assyro-Chaldeans in Northern Mesopotamia was repeatedly put on the agenda of the Versailles Conference in 1918 as well as at the League of Nations venues. In May 1997 the Assyrian National Congress (ANC) submitted a report on Assyrians in Iraq at the sitting of UN non-governmental committee. This re- port aroused a considerable interest among many UN country-members representatives. Shortly after ANC forwarded a memorandum to the Iraqi government in request for another consideration of Assyrian demands. Currently the most serious situation occurs in Northern Iraq where many conflicting parties are equally ignoring the legitimate interests of ethnic and religious minorities. The local authorities never come to terms with the fact that Northern Mesopotamia used to be the homeland for Assyrians who stood at the roots of civilization both in the Near East and in the World at large as well. Assyrian nationalistic organizations both in the homeland or in Diaspora have repeatedly attempted to tackle urgent situations peacefully but all in vain. The current situation is fraught with global escalation of the religious conflict between Kurds and Arabs on the one hand, and Assyrians, on the other hand.

In this appeal to you we are hoping that the highest authority of Russia in the world will playa powerful role in maintaining peace for all the peoples both in Northern Iraq and in the Near East where densely populated Christian communities are still deprived of many a legitimate right as they live a life of miserable people in the hostile Muslim surrounding.

S. G. Osipov, M.D., Ph.D.

Vice-president of the ANC