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.
Almost two years after his passing on September 17, 2024, the voice of Evin Agassi still echoes deeply within the hearts of many Assyrians. Agassi was more than a musician; he was a cultural bridge, a storyteller of homeland longings, and a unifying symbol for millions scattered across the globe.
Meet the man who has invested countless hours translating forgotten Assyrian magazines issued more than a century ago, and in the process discovered the thoughts and developments that continue to shape the Assyrian nation today.
A century after its official establishment, Qamishli remains one of the most important reminders of how Assyrians rebuilt their lives after the destruction of their ancestral communities in the Ottoman Empire.
The two oldest Assyrian church rites have been able to preserve their existence for more than fifteen centuries, putting them among the oldest existing organizations in the world.
Deniz Utlu
