Sixty six years ago today, on 2 February 1932, the Assyrian military hero and commander of the united Assyrian forces during the First World War, General Agha Petros de Baz, died in France- away from his beloved homeland of Bet-Nahrain.  His body was found at a railway station in Paris, France.  To date the cause of death remains officially unknown.  No Assyrian in the 20th Century has been revered and eulogized as has Agha Petros who chivalrously fought the Moslem forces of Turkish and Kurdish rebels in the First World War, guided nearly a million Assyrians through the Great Exodus of 1915-18, worked as the Ottoman Consul in Urmie, established a prosperous business as a rug merchant in New York, and spoke as the chief Assyrian negotiator from 1919 until 1923.  In his final efforts after the 1923 Lousanne Conference General Agha Petros wrote a letter to the British officials in London hoping to rekindle the forgotten promises for the establishment of an autonomous State for the Assyrians in Northern Bet-Nahrain.  This week, on the eve of perhaps another war in our homeland in Bet-Nahrain and in remembrance of the legacy of General Agha Petros, ZENDA publishes His Excellency's "Your Smallest Ally" letter written from his hotel in London on 26 October 1923:  

Dear Sir,

We beg to call your attention to the fact that our Nation, Assyro Chalde, fought throughout the War on the side of Great Britain, and lost more lives and property than any other nation, in proportion to its population.  Also after the Armistice, our brave army fought side by side with the British in their Campaign in Mesopotamia, and at the present time we have five battalions under British officers in the North of Mosul, besides Gendarmes and Police.  We are recognised as "The Smallest Ally."

We greatly fear the consequences of a British withdrawal form Mesopotamia.   Being scattered among our war enemies, a British withdrawal would probably be followed by a massacre of all Christians.  Therefore, we ask that the territory of our ancestors be "A CHRISTIAN AUTONOMOUS STATE UNDER A BRITISH MANDATE." The land we claim is our ancient land, which lies between the Rivers Tigris and Zab, and Mount Zinjar on the North side of Mosul.  We had our own independence prior to the war in the North of this country.  There is neither Turk nor Arab, but a few friendly Kurds and Yezidies, who ar of the same race as ourselves.  We are the largest in population, and will make a strong Buffer State between Turks and Arabs.

We do not expect, and indeed do not ask for, financial or military help.  We wish to stand on our own feet, in our own homeland, to defend our families, and live in peace with our neighbours, and offer in exchange our loyal services in the interest of His Britannic Majesty's Government, from whom we have received so many kindnesses in the past.

We have had long conversations with members of high standing in the Foreign Office and Colonial Office, who have shown great interest in our cause.

We need your help and we are sure you will use your influence to get justice for our homeless people, who have been so sorely tried since the outbreak of the Great War.

Another Massacre like those which have taken place in the recent past, and the Assyrian Nation will cease to exist.

We ask you to help our nation, which has in the past defended Christianity against every assault from the Moslem world.  We claim to be the oldest Christians in the world.  Can you, as Representatives of Christian Peoples, see this Christian remnant of a great Empire dispersed or effaced?  We believe you can not, and will not.

We are, Sir, Your Obedient Servants,
General Agha Petros
Commander-in-Chief of the Assyro-Chaldean Forces
President of the National Council

Soon after, the British and Iraqi governments exiled the Assyrian General to France where he lived until his death at the age of 52.   Only one year after His Excellency's death  thousands of  Assyrians were slaughtered during a series of indiscriminate killings known as the Semel Massacre.

ZENDA

(ZNAK:  Rome) The Foreign Affairs committee of the Italian parliament met with Assyrian and Kurdish representatives last week. The talks were attended by Kurdish representatives Zubeyir Aydar,  Necet Buldan, Mehmet Balci, Kazim Baba, and the Assyrian delegate George Aryo.  Achillo Occhetto, chair of the Italian Foreign Affairs committee, said that the decisions made at the meeting followed on from earlier representations from talks held on the 10th of December. He went on to stress that the Italian parliament will do everything within its powers to help bring about a solution to the "Kurdish question."  Speaking on behalf of the Kurdish and Assyrian delegation, Mr. Aydar called for economic and political pressure to be placed upon the Turkish government, in pursuit of a resolution to the issue of the Kurds, and other oppressed ethnic groups in Turkey.  The Assyrian delegate George Ayro also took the opportunity to call for the cessation of the oppression of  some 150,000 Assyrians who live within the borders of the current Turkish state.  An Italian Foreign Affairs committee spokesperson later described the meeting as very beneficial and called for the recognition of the Kurdish and Assyrian representatives within the International community.

(ZNAF:  Geneva)  The World Council of Churches Friday recommended that its 300 members urge their governments to oppose threats of military strikes against Iraq in the UN arms inspections crisis.  In a statement issued by its headquarters in Geneva, the council said seven of its members who went to Iraq this month were concerned that a military strike "would only increase the suffering of innocent people."  The mission's report said UN sanctions in force against Iraq "seriously violate the basic rights of vast sectors of the population to properly feed, lodge and care for themselves," and asked for a "careful re-examination" of the sanctions.

"I am the Chief Editor of a magazine named AssyrianNews, mainly in swedish.  We write about our people in the world, mostly news from Bet-Nahrain.  But I see some very good news in Zenda. So I am asking you if it is okey
to translate some of your news into Swedish and publish it in AssyrianNews for Swedish readers.  Those Magazines which have news from Zenda, I can send to you .

Ahiqar DeBasso
Stockholm, Sweden

News & information printed in ZENDA is currently used in several American, European, Australian, and Russian printed magazines, radio and television programs.  ZENDA is a source of Assyrian news and information and with proper reference to our name any part of our printed material may be used in bringing information to any Assyrian community around the world.  Our best wishes for the success of your online magazine!

Youkhanna Khzyran
Toulouse, France

Adrin Takhsh
Berlin, Germany

Albert Issaco
Sutter Creek, California

Lena Mushell
San Jose, California

The Annual General Meeting of the Assyrian Society of United Kingdom took place on Sunday, 25 January 1998.  Minutes of the previous year's Annual General Meeting held at the Assyrian House on 26 January 1997 were available at the entrance.

The Committee had taken the opportunity to renew the annual memberships at the door.  The membership fee being £25.  The meeting commenced after 4:00 p.m. instead of the announced commencement time of 2:30 p.m.  Presumably, the aim was to ensure that all attendees were in fact members otherwise they would not be eligible to take part in voting.  The Committee may actually have good reasons for not issuing membership cards but I am not aware of them.  Membership cards however could have reduced the waiting time considerably.

The unbelievably patient members took the opportunity to mingle and socialise as is the case in any Assyrian gathering regardless of the occasion.  There were children running around playing games in a hall full of smoke.  When finally everyone was asked to take their seats, and children restrained as much as children can be, the meeting commenced.

The Committee members took their places on the stage facing the crowd.  President David Michael started the proceedings. Following a short prayer by Priest Stephanis Yalda, the minutes of the previous General Meeting were read by one of the members of the Committee.

A number of motions which had been seconded were proposed as amendments to the present constitution.  One of these was a motion to introduce a minimum five year consecutive period or selection as a  member of the Committee. Previously no such restriction existed.  Apparently the hidden agenda in respect of this motion was to try and stop one particular member from being elected because the current members of the committee did not personally like him. The committee did in fact manage to get the motion passed but only to a 3-year period and thankfully not to 5.

The method by which the Committee introduced this particular amendment to the constitution was questionable.  At first the members were asked for a show of hands if they thought that this amendment should be introduced.  The response to this seemed to be about 50% although no count was made.  The second question was if the period required should be 3 years or 5 years.  There were only a handful of members interested in the 5 year "ban", therefore 3 year "ban" was declared passed.

Comments from the Committee and the floor of the house seem to suggest that the Committee is looking for successors and they are not forthcoming.  From what was being said it appeared that the Committee members had not changed much for the past 5 years.  At the same time the Committee is making it very hard for anyone who does not frequent their closed circle to become a member of the Committee.  Does this make sense?

One member pointed out that there are Assyrians who travel from one country to another, they do good work for the community and they should not be barred from being a member of the Committee for such a long period should they have enough supporters to get elected.

The question of references was raised.  Amid cheers from the floor of the house, it was suggested by a member that if a candidate was not recognised for his good work to the Community, naturally he would not get the vote of the members.

What was totally undemocratic was when one of the members from the floor stood up and presented an amendment to the motion in question to the effect that any Assyrian who has resided in the U.K. for 5 years or more and who has not yet become a member cannot become a member of the Committee.  There was no response from the floor of the house to this, however the President David Michael took it upon himself to unilaterally amend the motion and see to it that that clause would be included but unfortunately didn't seem to think it necessary to put the amendment to the vote.

Yours truly, although totally unprepared for a speech, could not stand by and see the democratic rights of the members of Assyrian society (society with a small ‘s’), not to mention the rights of the members of the ASUK, being manipulated so simply and without a fight.  Particularly as the ASUK is the only formal representative of the Assyrian people in the U.K.  So I plucked up the courage to stand in front of the hall full (or rather half-full) of
attendees and say the following:

I have lived in the U.K. for 20 years and I have not been a member of the ASUK before today.  There are many good reasons for this and there are many people like me who do not come to the ASUK gatherings and are not members, but that does not mean we don't care for our community and that we don't want to work for our people.  The numbers of the ASUK’s members are dwindling, the number of activists are even fewer.   Those children who have got themselves a University education are not joining, there will be others who will follow them.  Others will not join because of the hostile rules laid down as we have seen here today and the numbers gathered here today will gradually die out.  If we are making rules we must make them in a way to get more people to come to ASUK and join and not to run away from it.

I can see from the Income and Expenditure figures published from the minutes of the previous year's meeting that the amount of income derived from Social Functions has declined from £48,000 in 1994 to £20,000 in 1997, this figure has obviously dropped so drastically because people are not willing to take part and to follow where the committee leads.  I would like to know what if anything has the Committee done in terms ot join its Society?

Another point which warrants mention was that the minutes of the previous meeting showed that Mr. Isaac Asia complained that in 1997, the Assyrian Cultural and Advice Centre received a financial grant of £5,250.00 under the heading "Women Development Grant" and that this money rightly belongs to the Ladies Group.  He was told that he was out of order because he didn't have proof, and when he provided proof, he was again told he was out of order because the money was donated 6 years earlier.  This amount was actually received in 1990.  Apparently if you cover up something long enough all is O.K. even if you are exposed in public.

Another motion passed was to increase the membership fee by £5.00 every year until it reaches £50, which received a favourable response from the floor of the house.  Exempting the pensioners from the membership fee was the subject of yet another motion.  One objection to this was that often the older members are the wealthier ones and they should not be exempt purely on an age basis.  After this motion was passed, members from the floor of the house then got a chance to debate it.  A clear case of the cart before the horse.

The last item on the Agenda was "Any Other Business".  A lady speaking in an elegant voice described how she met a couple of English ladies at a restaurant.  As it turned out one of these ladies lives in the same Road as the home of the Assyrian Society, Temple Road, in Ealing.  The Assyrian lady could not have apologised enough for the complaints from the two ladies over the amount of noise from the Assyrian Society which apparently goes on until 7:00 every morning.  The question was, what is anybody doing in this Hall every night until dawn?  There were disapproving voices to her question from a few younger Assyrian men who obviously thought there was nothing wrong with this type of behaviour.

The members listening to this lady felt for her as she voiced her disapproval of the way the Committee has refused to send her a copy of the Constitution out of order.  The Committee members then started talking and laughing amongst themselves throughout the remainder of her speech.  When she pointed out the dangers of smoking, in a Hall with no windows there was loud laughter and whistling from all quarters, from of course the smoking members.

Another member advised that at the age of 70+ he has been allowed by the organisers of the London Marathon to join in and raise funds for the needy Assyrians in the Middle East, and called for support from the members.

After a short recess, the proceedings for elections to the ASUK committee began.

The President Mr. David Michael pointed out that, according to the constitution, members are not allowed to vote in these elections for their first year of membership but that this rule has always been bent in the past, and that there were two members who have joined recently who were present.  His question was should they be allowed to vote tonight.  He then called upon the active Committee members of the time when this part of the constitution was written to clarify the point.  Of the Committee members from that time who were present (5 of them),  all agreed that the rule should not be bent.  Mr. David Michael decided their approval was not good enough and invited members from the floor to voice their opinion in favour of his proposal which was that a precedent should take priority to a constitutional rule.  He then declared (unilaterally again!) that a quick agreement does not seem forthcoming and the audience would be kept for as long as such time that it took to reach an agreement.  His word or nothing else, it appears.

Being one of the two members who had joined recently I decided I had witnessed enough of the proceedings and as I did not know the candidates, I called it a night and left the Hall.

 In case you are wondering what happened to the member whom the current Committee members did not want elected to their ranks, I am informed that he declared his distrust of the proceedings and then left the meeting.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS OF THE ASSYRIAN SOCIETY OF UNITED KINGDOM (JAN - DEC 1998)

Wilson Jaso                     President
Aram Varda                    Vice President
Benjamin David              Treasurer
Romeo Raphael-Khan    Cultural/Art Secretary
Yako MarYako               Social Secretary
Tony Solaymani              Sport Secretary
Albert David                   Club Manager
Daniel Benjamin            Club Managers
David Michael               Auditor
Nabil Touma                  Auditor

 1997 COMMITTEE MEMBERS

David Michael              President
Nabil Touma                 Vice President
John Michael                General Secretary
Wilson Jaso                   Treasurer
Osho Sulaiman              Social secretary
William Kakoo              Sports Secretary
Tom Khoshaba              Public Relations Officer
Daniel Benjamin           Club Manager
Emmanuel Oraha          Club Manager

Ninva Ponsonby
United Kingdom

(ZNDA:  Chicago)  The Assyrian Academic Society in conjunction with North Park University Center for Middle Eastern Studies is presenting a lecture on the "Effects of the US/UN Embargo On Iraqi Civilians" by Michael Bremer and Rev. Bob Bossie of the Voices in the Wilderness.  The seminar will be held on Sunday, 15 February, at 6:00 PM in the Isaacson Chapel, 5100 North Spaulding, Chicago.  Voices in the Wilderness campaigns to put an end to the US/UN sanctions against the peoples of Iraq.  Michael Bremer and Rev. Bob Bossie have visited Iraq on several occasions and have first hand reports on the conditions in Iraq.

(ZNAF:  Baghdad) Iraq has executed 10 men for dismembering a massive 2,700 year-old Assyrian winged-bull statue of in a bid to smuggle it out of the country.  The men had decapitated the statue and broken the head into pieces in order to smuggle it out of the country.  The statue's head weighed almost a ton by itself and had been smashed into 11 pieces. The Iraqi government has adopted tough laws against the smuggling of artifacts, a practice that has grown because of the poverty
inflicted on Iraq by seven years of UN sanctions.

ENGLISH	MODERN ASSYRIAN	GENDER	EXAMPLE
Prescription	noo/saakh/ta	Fem.	Noosaakhta d'asya:  Doctor's Prescription
Copy	aa/saakh/ta	Fem.	Ana sneeqewin l'treh asaakhteh:  I need two copies.

               

BC (770's)

Argistis I, king of Urartu (later Armenia), annexes all the lands around Lake Urmie, interrupting the flow of goods and metals from Afghanistan and Iran to Assyria.  This also stopped the supply of horses for the Assyrian cavalry.  Such deprivation causes unrest throughout the Assyrian empire and a due to a weak royal leadership, Assyrian kingdom began to fragment.  In 745 B, in a bloody coup which eliminated the Assyrian royal family, governor of the city of Calah (Kalhu) elevated himself to the kingship.  He called himself Tiglath-Pileser III.  By the time of his death in 727 BC Tiglath-Pileser had extended the boundaries of the empire to the widest extend yet seen to date.  He re-introduced the policy of mass deportation of populations moving tens of thousands of people from one corner of his empire to another.

The Ancient Assyrians, Healy & McBride

Nowhere does a minority need more protection than our persecuted people...In both the first and the second World Wars our people fought heroically for democracy and their Christian faith, the very nations who exploited us ruthlessly made us enemies with all our neighbors an then left us at their mercies.  The United Nations has completely neglected her duty to protect the persecuted minorities.  I feel they have neglected their duty to mankind itself.  Even the World Council of Churches spends millions for Moslems and others, yet nothing for the Assyrian Church and nation, forgetting only yesterday, our homes were open for the first Christian missionaries of Western Churches.  We made them feel always at home, indeed, the best o everything was laid at their feet.

 Fred Tamimi
Assyrian Scholar and Activist

February 6, 1930:  dies, Naom Faiq, Assyrian linguist, teacher, journalist, political activist.  Faiq's writings have inspired generations of Assyrian nationalists since his death under conditions of extreme poverty.

 .

Reverend Samuel Dinkha of the Assyrian Church of the East's Mar Yosip Parish in San Jose, California has recently completed his book entitled:  "Sha-bikh ya Ga-Nee" or "Praise, O My Soul" in the modern Assyrian language.  This 200-page, soft-cover book, is a beautiful collection of one hundred and forty hymns and spirituals written by Rev. Dinkha since 1991.

Rev. Dinkha's hymns express the different dimensions of the nature of Man and God.  They speak to different personalities and eloquently satisfy our simple hunger for the deeper understanding of Truth.  The second part of his book include spirituals entitled "The Alphabetical Meditations" which challenge our understanding of Christian life and help us acknowledge the limitations of our mental and physical strengths.  This is a must-read book for "Assyrian" readers prepared to re-discover a thoughtful perspective on the Assyrian hymnal traditions.

Some of Rev. Dinkha's other books include "The Church & the Festivals of the Assyrian Church of the East", "The Epic of Gilgamesh", "The Teachings of Mar Addai the Apostle", "A History of Assyrian Literature (2 Volumes)", and "Poems Dedicated to Man, Land, and Life."  A serious scholar of Assyrian language and literature, Rev. Dinkha continues to spiritually guide his congregation in San Jose, California and offer his knowledge of Assyrian language to all interested.   Rev. Samuel Dinkha lives with his wife, Maqdonya; his daughter, Reema, and his son, Raymond who designed the cover of his father's recent book.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTS  

UNIVERSITY ACCOUNTS
                                                       University of Exeter, United Kingdom                           
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
                                                      Santa Barbara, California
                             

This Week's Contributors:

Ahiqar DeBasso	Stockholm, Sweden	Assyrian Surfing Posts
Francis Sargis	Santa Barbara, California	Assyrian Surfing Posts
Raman Mikhael	Chicago, Illinois	Surfers Corner

               

Thank You For Referring ZENDA to a Friend:

Francis Sargis

Santa Barbara, California

                                             ---

The Directory of ZENDA News Sources

ZNAA (Assyrian Academic Society-Chicago)
ZNAD (Assyrian Democratic Organization)
ZNAF (Agence France-Presse)
ZNAK (American Kurdish Information Network)
ZNAM (Archeology Magazine)
ZNAP (Associated Press International)
ZNBN (Bet-Nahrain Inc/ KBSV-TV "AssyriaVision")
ZNCO (Compass)
ZNCN (ClariNews)
ZNIF (Iraq Foundation)
ZNDA (Zenda: zenda@ix.netcom.com)
ZNIN (Iraqi National Congress)
ZNLT (Los Angeles Times)
ZNMN (San Jose Mercury News)
ZNMW (Mideast Newswire)
ZNNQ (Nabu Quarterly)
ZNNV (Nineveh Magazine)
ZNQA (Qala Atouraya- Moscow)
ZNRU (Reuters)
ZNSH (Shotapouta Newsletter)
ZNSJ (San Jose Mercury News)
ZNSM (Shufimafi Lebanese News)
ZNTM (Time Magazine)
ZNUP (United Press International)
ZNUS (US News & World Report)