by Uzay Bulut for The Gatestone Institute.
Most Assyrians are Christian and speak Assyrian (also known as Syriac, Aramaic, or neo-Aramaic), one of the world's oldest languages and the language of Jesus.
Assyrians are an indigenous people of what are today Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.... As a result of Muslim persecutions and massacres, Assyrians are now a non-sovereign minority in their native lands. Their situation is also the consequence of the absence of support and protection from the West.
"The refusal to support the Assyrian language in Iraq and Turkey stems from the history of persecution against indigenous minority communities in those countries. Whereas Canada, the USA, and Australia are essentially multicultural nations, they try to embrace and encourage the plurality of their societies.
The opposite is the case in Iraq and Turkey where the ruling groups tend to dominate all aspects of society, including education.... There is also a historical element of eliminating the indigenous link of Assyrians with their homelands through erasure of the ancient language, thus cementing the dominant non-indigenous language as the only linguistic group." — Evon Sworesho, an Assyrian teacher and rights advocate, born in Iraq, and now in Canada.
It is high time Turkey recognized the same rights it demands for the Turkish migrants in Europe for the oppressed indigenous peoples of Anatolia, especially the Assyrians, their culture and "the language of Jesus."
The Assyrian people, who suffered from many crimes including a genocide in their ancestral lands in the Middle East, won a significant victory in the United States regarding their linguistic rights.
Beginning with the 2023-24 school year, Niles North High School and Niles West High School in Illinois will add Assyrian as an accredited option to fulfill the "World Language" requirements for graduation. Also, in November of last year, Assyrian was recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education as an accredited World Language, paving the way for the historic vote of the Niles Township District 219 Board of Education.
Thousands of Assyrians reside in Illinois. Assyrian language courses are also taught at some schools in Canada, Europe and Australia.
Sadly, the Assyrian/neo-Aramaic language is still not officially recognized in Turkey, where Assyrians/Syriacs have lived for millennia. Assyrians in Iraq, Iran and Syria also face severe challenges to their right to education in their mother tongue.
Most Assyrians are Christian and speak Assyrian (also known as Syriac, Aramaic, or neo-Aramaic), one of the world's oldest languages and the language of Jesus.
Assyrians are an indigenous people of what are today Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Tur Abdin, which is the southeast part of Turkey, a name derived from Assyrian, means "mountain of the servants [of God]," and is an ancestral religious and cultural heartland of the Assyrians.
For 300 years, from 900 B.C. to 600 B.C., Assyrian kings ruled the largest empire in northern Mesopotamia that the world had known. The Apostle Thomas converted the Assyrians to Christianity, and by the third century A.D., they became a Christian nation.
Until the Ottoman Turkish genocide on the Assyrians in 1915-23, the Assyrian population formed a significant presence in the region, despite Turkish rule that began in the eleventh century after the Turkish invasion. In the eighth century, Arabs had invaded Assyrian areas in the Middle East, and for centuries the Assyrian community has also been subjected to Kurdish aggressions.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency, every 50 years on average there has been a massacre of Assyrians. As a result of Muslim persecutions and massacres, Assyrians are now a non-sovereign minority in their native lands. Their situation is also the consequence of the absence of support and protection from the West.
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Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. She is also a research fellow for the Philos Project.
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Pictured: The Midyat Virgin Mary Monastery in Mardin, Turkey, originally built in the 6th-century. (Photo by Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images)
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