How do you narrate Europe when utopias collapse? Deniz Utlu traces paths of migration, memory, and myth—from Mesopotamia to Stockholm, from Pergamon to Södertälje. A poetic essay on language, belonging, and the invisible maps of memory.
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"I recall a trip in the 2000s to Mesopotamia, to Mardin and Midyat, together with my mother and in the company of a journalist and family friend who had written two reports – one about Yazidis, the other about Assyrians. I remember that he travelled to Sweden for the Assyrians. He had written both pieces as a young journalist in the 1980s, at a time when a large wave of Assyrians emigrated from their northern Mesopotamian homeland in Turkey to Sweden, Germany and the US, and had published these pieces in a slim book, which he gave me thirty years later during that trip. I take it out now: Yezidiler ve Süryanileri [i] by Murat Öztemir – a tall man, whose eyes, always half-closed due to a sensitivity in his eyelids, never miss a thing. That’s how I remember him. And that he smiles impishly, even when recounting something painful. His report on the Assyrians begins with a journey to Sweden, because this is where a fragment of Mesopotamia had found its way. What has become of this fragment nearly half a century later?"
On August 7, 2026, Assyrian communities around the world observed the Day of Remembrance for Assyrian Martyrs. On this day, the victims of persecution and mass killings are commemorated, particularly those who perished during the Simele massacre in Iraq in 1933.
The best cookbooks offer more than recipes—they tell the stories of the people behind them, their heritage, and their struggles. That’s exactly what makes The Oldest Kitchen in the World by Matay de Mayee such a treasure.
In a collaboration between Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Baghdad, an ancient Babylonian hymn dating back over two millennia has been rediscovered and fully deciphered.
Assyrians in Sydney marked Assyrian Martyrs Day with a series of commemorative events bringing together community leaders, scholars, clergy, young people, and representatives of the Armenian and Greek communities to remember the victims of the Assyrian Genocide and the 1933 Simele Massacre.
On August 7, 2026, Assyrian communities around the world observed the Day of Remembrance for Assyrian Martyrs. On this day, the victims of persecution and mass killings are commemorated, particularly those who perished during the Simele massacre in Iraq in 1933.
Assyrian Australian organizations are encouraging members of the community to take part in the 2026 Australian Census on August 11, urging Assyrians to ensure they are accurately counted and that their ancestry and language are properly recorded.
Deniz Utlu
