Nine Assyrian organizations in Iraq have announced a joint plan to erect a monument in the city of Simele to honor the victims of the 1933 massacre of Assyrians. The plan was outlined in a written statement issued on August 20.
According to the statement, the first step will be a field visit to the land allocated for the monument in Simele by the Nohadra (Duhok) governorate in 2019, in order to survey the site.
As a second step, the signatories call on the diaspora to become involved and support the project financially and in other ways.
The signatories, which include the Assyrian Democratic Movement and its affiliated youth, development, and women’s organizations, aim to have the monument completed in time for next year’s Assyrian Martyrs Day on August 7.
The Iraqi state has yet to officially recognize the Simele massacre.
Saleh Mohammad Muslim, a senior PYD Kurdish leader who has controlled northeastern Syria since 2011, warned that Damascus demanding control of the region would plunge Syria into chaos and civil war.
A ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a Simele massacre memorial was overshadowed by controversial remarks from a Kurdish official and reports of imminent KRG plans to grab Assyrian land in the nearby village of Bakhtme.
Assyrian political parties are sounding the alarm over Kurdish plans to grab land areas belonging to the Assyrian village of Bakhetme in Northern Iraq.
Syria’s interim president has issued a decree formally recognizing Kurdish identity. While welcomed by many, the move has also reignited concerns among Assyrians and others over exclusion from national recognition.
If you have been on the internet in the last 10 years, you might have come across a fascinating cuneiform letter and its recipient merchant, Ea-nāṣir, who lived in ancient Mesopotamia. The letter is a complaint, believed to be the oldest complaint letter ever written, from around 1750 BCE.
Selena Wisnom walks the shelves of King Ashurbanipal’s library, revealing what the books tell us about the ideas circulating in 7th-century BC Mesopotamia.
The Assyria Post
