Subj: ZENDA I (Vol III,#4 ; 3/10/97) Date: 97-03-10 04:47:01 EST From: zenda@ix.netcom.com (ZENDA) To: zenda@ix.netcom.com Aadaar 10, 6746 March 10, 1997 zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zz z zzzzzzzzz z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z zzzzzzz z z z z z zzzzzzz z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz z zz zzzzzzz z z Volume III, Issue 4 A Weekly Online Publication of ZENDA Assyrian Newsagency -Section 1 of 2- =========================================================================== T H I S W E E K I N Z E N D A =========================================================================== -Section One- The Lighthouse...................... The Nameless Gates of Gods Good Morning Bet-Nahrain............ More on the Shaqlawa Murder Case Saddam's Massacre of Shiites Turkish Premier Gives in Surfs Up............................ "put these people where they belong." Surfers Corner...................... Novelist Seeks Information New Opportunities in Canada News Digest......................... Pope's Visit to Lebanon Iran's Presidential Elections Syria's Political Prisoners Germany's New Immigration Law -Section Two- Ziggurat............................ Die "Assyrer" wer sind sie? Calendar of Events.................. Several New Entries for March & April Entracte............................ No New Entries Intelligentsia...................... New Classes in San Jose & Harvard Assyrian Surfing Posts.............. MIT Videos Pump up the Volume.................. Editorial & Article Back to the Future.................. Hammurabi's Year of Ascension The Assyrian National Petition Literatus........................... A Sumerian Father & Son Talk This Week in History................ The First Assyrian School for Girls Bravo............................... Salma Hayek The Directory....................... News Sources Bshena.............................. Software Technologies Salute.............................. Adrin, Lorine, Esha, & Ramin :) [With this issue we introduce the new ZIGGURAT section. Nearly half of our readers live in countries where English is not a primary language. We hope that ZIGGURAT can bring our Latin American and European readers closer to the readers of ZENDA in their own communities. Another Assyrian Community Networking Conference is scheduled during the Assyrian State Convention of California in Turlock. Please note the textfile invitation and registration form entitled "ACNC97.TXT" attached to ZENDA II. If you experience technical difficulty in decoding this file please contact us at zenda@ix.netcom.com . For more information see: http://www.nineveh.com/acnc97.htm .] =========================================================================== THE L I G H T H O U S E =========================================================================== THE NAMELESS GATES OF GODS Come with me to a land far away into our past. Leave your stuffy office room and fly with me to Babylon, the greatest city ever built in the ancient world. Our Mesopotamian fore-fathers built it in the form of a crooked rectangle, about a mile and a half from east to west and four-fifths of a mile from north to south. The river Euphrates flowed through this most magical city from north to south, dividing it into the New City on the west and the Old City on the east. The bigger streets were named for the ancient gods of Bet-Nahrain- Marduk Street, Shamash Street, Adad Street and so on. The most important street was the so-called Processional Way, running north and south through the Old City four or five hundred yards from the river. Its true name was "The Street on Which May No Enemy Ever Tread." Processional Way was paved with limestone, sand, and asphalt. Along this street, wagons bearing the images of the gods were wheeled during religious processions. These parades seem to have been the Babylonians' main public amusement. In the city of Ashur, the processional way had a pair of grooves in the pavement for the wheels of the sacred wagons, to assure the gods a smooth, safe ride. This was the world's first railroad track. Eight fortified gates were embedded in the inner wall of Babylon. The center gate on the northern side was the famous Ishtar Gate, the grandest structure of its kind. It comprised a square tower of brick, about 70 feet high. Cutting through this tower was a vaulted passage, which could be closed off by two pairs of huge wooden doors. On the northward side of the gate, stood two tall and two smaller towers. The entire structure was finished with enameled bricks, blue on the towers and green and pink on the connecting walls decorated with brightly colored animals, driving away supernatural forces. Come through the Ishtar Gate; don't be afraid! See, you're standing at the paved Processional Way now. The two high brick-walls, decorated with life-sized lions in bright enameled brick relief, are majestic- aren't they? Red-maned yellow lions and yellow-maned white lions. To your right are the walls of the fortified section of the city. They extends from the Processional Way to the Euphrates. Wow, look at the palaces, the barracks, and the humongous administrative offices. Imagine this place when if was brimming with people, everyone speaking Akkadian, all of them proud to be Bet-Nahranaye. Slowly walk back and turn around! There, aren't they amazing? I'm always at a loss for words when I see them. That's right, they're the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Trees and shrubs are planted atop a pleasure house. The roof over the gardens is waterproofed by layers of asphalt and sheet lead. The word "hanging" or Assyrian "telye" can be misleading as if the gardens were suspended by chains or cables. They should really be called "raised" or "elevated." A little further up is the famous bridge over the river Euphrates. Except for Sennacherib's aqueduct at Jerwan, this 380 feet long bridge is the oldest stone bridge of which there is any record. It was built by King Nabopolasser. It stood on seven piers of baked brick, stone, and timber. A drawbridge is taken up at night to keep outsiders from using the bridge. Let's walk south through the Processional Way. I said "walk" not run! You almost missed the Ziggurat of Etemenanki. Did you ever think it was this beautiful? As high as a 30-story building back home and hued in all different colors of rainbow. To your left are the houses where the civilians live. Some of those homes are four stories high. Let's turn right on Adad Street and walk toward the river. I always dream of a day when I bring my newborn to this river and baptize her in these holiest of all waters. That over there is Esagila, the temple of Marduk. If we walk a little further you'll notice that it's really an L-shaped building. It occupies a square about 500 feet on each side. Greek historian, Herodotos, said that the 18-foot statue of Marduk, housed inside Esagila, was of solid gold. Our Babylonian parents used to carry it through this same Processional Way during the New Year's Festival of Akitu, much like the processional of the Assyrian floats through the streets of Chicago on Kha b'Neesan Day. In 482 B.C. King Xerxes of Persia attacked this beautiful city and tore down the great walls. Babylonians were never again able to defend themselves against their enemies. That's why Xerxes did it and as a souvenir he took the golden statue of Marduk to his Persian palace and melted it down for his treasury. Later a stiff Persian taxation caused the people of Babylon leave this place. Even the Babylonian priests could no longer afford to repair their decaying buildings. Much like the Assyrian churches throughout the Christian period, the Babylonian temples crumbled into nothingness. Let's sally on away from the inner city and get closer to the narrow alleys, where the Babylonian children played and sang the Sumerian school rhymes. Let's end our journey here and head back home away from home! Now let me show you some pictures! These are the photographs of the gates and towers built on the ruins of Babylon by a modern conquerer. He's trying unsuccessfully to identify himself as the new monarch of Babylon. But all he has done is to erect some new structures upon the ruins of the old. Ironically it is said that the Assyrian engineer-king, Sennacherib, had placed posts along the Processional Way on which was inscribed "Royal Road. Let No Man Lessen It." He had decreed that any violator should be slain and his body impaled on a stake before his house. All seven conquerers of the world that have passed through the gates or ruins of Babylon- the Medes, Persians, Macedonians, Arabs, Mongols, British, and Germans- have been impaled on the iron pole of history. Saddam, the new ruler of Babylon, is no exception. Until the Golden Statue of Marduk is returned to the great temple of our conscience, all intruders will continue to regret their parade along the Processional Way of our forgotten people's homeland. Wilfred Alkhas [Information on the technology advances of ancient Babylon was adapted from "The Ancient Engineers" by Sprague de Camp, 1993] =========================================================================== G O O D M O R N I N G B E T - N A H R A I N =========================================================================== NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SHAQLAWA MURDERS CASE An Assyrian International News Agency Press Release (Chicago) March 1, 1997 aina@wwa.com Regarding the most recent killing of the two Assyrians in Shaqlawa, the Kurd who was found murdered, has been identified as Mohamed Babakir. He was the kidnapper of the daughter of Lazar Matti, the Assyrian who, along was with his son Havel Lazar, was butchered by the Kurdish mob. However, it is generally agreed that the families had met years ago and resolved the matter. There was reportedly no remaining animosity between them. The local government has not begun any investigation into the initial killing or the subsequent massacre. Additionally, the father was born in 1943 and the son in 1972. To his credit, Barzani came to Shaqlawa and reportedly condemned the killings. In addition, in his statement, he acknowledged recent acts of violence, burglaries, and arson by Kurds against Assyrian homes and shops in the Shaqlawa area. He noted a pattern of intimidation on the part of Kurds in the area. As usual, though, neither he nor the local government have taken any concrete steps to investigate and seek justice in this case of extrajudicial killings. The Kurds have never punished one of their own when the victims have been Assyrian. It is generally believed that the recent rhetoric is simply that. Only international pressure from organizations and governments can help to reduce these acts of persistent, recurrent, and premeditated terror. SADDAM HAS KILLED OVER 250,000 SHIITES SINCE GULF WAR, GERMAN TV REPORTS (ZNUP: London) The Kuwait News Agency says a German TV program has accused Iraq's government of killing a quarter-million people in southern Iraq since the Gulf War. The report from Bonn says President Saddam Hussein's forces target Iraq's Shiite minority in the southeastern marshes with chemical weapons that ensure the people cannot reestablish their villages. The agency says the program documented the environmental damage that government forces have inflicted on the marshes near the Iranian border, including the effects that chemical arms have had on children. The report was monitored in London. An escaped woman prisoner told the program guards in Iraqi jails interrogate Shiite women by day, then torture them by night with hose beatings and electric shocks. The broadcast aired after the U.S. State Department said Wednesday that Hussein still intended to dominate the Gulf region and was hiding weapons to enforce that ambition. TURKEY'S PRIME MINISTER SIGNS SECULARISM LIST (ZNUP: Ankara) Turkish news media says Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan has signed a list of recommendations on secularism drawn up by the military. His signature late Wednesday ended his five-day standoff with the strongly secular Turkish armed forces. Some news reports said Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Ciller persuaded Erbakan to sign, despite his winning office on a platform of moving Turkey away from secular rule. Turkey's high command had drawn up the 20-point list in reaction to what they saw as Erabakan's drift toward rule by Muslim law, or sharia. The recommendations included: -- Close supervising of religious instruction -- Outlawing Muslim groups -- Enforcing bans on Muslim attire in government offices Political analysts said these measures would cause considerable political difficulties for Erbakan among his Welfare Party supporters. =========================================================================== S U R F S U P ! =========================================================================== "The letter (who wrote it?) addressed to "Fellow Assyrians...." said the letter they are going to send to the State Department is reproduced below, but I did not see it. And a comment to pump up the volume section: to end in English is the root of the verb, in Assyrian is EQRA and it is the third person of the verb: to end khatem to begin shaareh What you have for the Assyrian are gerunds (a verbal form that functions as a noun) I think we call them MLAT-SHEMA in Assyrian (should check with Robi Simono). ending khtamta beggining shaareta Rita Pirayou San Jose, California [The message was sent from the Assyrian International News Agency or AINA, a Chicago-based group. At press time ZENDA has not received any further correspondence. Our reader is correct in analyzing the different forms of the verbs. It must be noted that all verbs mentioned in the PUMP UP THE VOLUME section are described in their non-root form or in this case the gerund form.] ************** "It really breaks my heart to see well educated Assyrians putting so much energy into hurting each others , I just can not imagin myself going to bed and resting my head in peace knowing that I with something I did have hurt another Assyrian somehow someway. You the educated ones are the best breed of us, and this nation's hope for prosperity & wellbeing. Instead of being the creaters & worthy leaders of united orgnizations, you are turning to followers of some unworthy, selfish & careless people who are doing so much damage to this nation that the next generations of Assyrians will suffer as the result of their actions, a damage may be beyond repair if we let this to continue. The time is now to put these people where they belong , the time is now my friends to create that environment where all Assyrians can live together united so our children can be proud of being Assyrians. And God help us all if we just stood there & watched this division tearing this small nation apart." Frederick Aprim =========================================================================== S U R F E R S C O R N E R =========================================================================== ZENDA readers are invited to respond to the following request(s) by either directly writing to the author or sending a reply to ZENDA. *************************************************************************** NOVELIST SEEKS INFORMATION ON ASSYRIANS AND SAMARITANS My name is Dale Blanchard, I'm a member of the Religious Society of Friends in the US. For several months I've been doing research for a fictionalized story I am writing about the woman at the well, John 4:1-42. Because she was a Samaritan, and because Samaria had been taken over in the centuries preceding Christ's coming, I am searching for information about the Assyrians (pre-Christianity) and more specifically, the beliefs and practices of the early Samaritans. Would you have any suggestion as to where I could find such information? I've found a little in the library, but precious little. If you can help, I thank you in advance. If not, thank you for reading my message. Dale Anne Blanchard DaleAnne@aol.com IN CANADA... Would you like to help in forming an Assyrian Student Association at either McMaster University or Mohawk College? Please contact Christine Sarkis McMaster: Contact Christine Sarkis at sarkisc@muss.cis.mcmaster.ca Mohawk: Contact Simon Malek at ashour@ican.net Volunteers are needed for the two-hour Assyrian Voice of Canada radio program. Contact Simon Malek at (905) 318-8283 or ashour@ican.net =========================================================================== N E W S D I G E S T =========================================================================== POPE JOHN PAUL II's VISIT TO LEBANON (ZNRU: Vatican City) Pope John Paul II will make a long-awaited visit to Lebanon on May 10-11, three years after cancelling a planned trip for security reasons in the wake of a church bombing. The visit will be the first by a Pope to the country in modern times. The Pope would preside over the ceremonial close of a synod of the Lebanese Church held at the Vatican in 1995 during his two-day weekend visit to Beirut. The Vatican called off a planned five-day Papal trip in May 1994 after the bombing of a Maronite church north of Beirut in which 11 Sunday worshippers were killed and 59 injured. The Pope had been expected to visit the Biblical cities of Tyre and Sidon during the coming trip. The visit would include a mass and a meeting with young people. The Polish Pope, who often speaks out in favor of Middle East peace and dreams of visiting the Holy Land by the year 2000, is expected to call for a comprehensive settlement. The Vatican is opposed to both the Israeli and Syrian military presence in Lebanon. IRAN'S MAY 23rd PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS (ZNRU: Tehran) Iran will hold the seventh presidential elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution on May 23 to elect a successor to President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Conservative Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri appears to be the front-running candidate in the elections, in which Rafsanjani is constitutionally barred from running after serving two consecutive four-year terms. Hardline conservative Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, a former internal security minister, and former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Khatami, who is backed by radical Islamist intellectuals, are among others who have announced their candidacy. Rafsanjani's centrist backers are still to announce a candidate in the polls to replace the outgoing president, whose term ends August 3. All Iranians, including Assyrians, aged 15 and older in the country of about 60 million are eligible to vote. The candidates still have to be approved by the Guardian Council, a body of lawyers and Shiite Muslim clerics that supervises elections. INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF SYRIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS (ZNRU: Paris) The Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights in its annual report for 1996 notes that the number of political prisoners in Syrian jails rose to 2,800 in 1996, about a hundred more than the previous year. The increase was the first since 1989 in the number of political prisoners in Syria, which had steadily fallen for the previous six years. The increase was due to the arrest of more than 100 individuals during the year due to their political beliefs, while just five were released, said the Paris-based group. Those being held included Lebanese and Palestinians, as well as Syrians, it said. Under martial law in effect since 1963, Syrian citizens "do not have the right to form associations, organizations or political parties in order to express or defend their opinions." The Assyrian Democratic Organization (Takasta), has been operating under such conditions since its establishment in the late 1950's. GERMANY IMPOSES NEW IMMIGRATION RULE ON FOREIGN CHILDREN (ZNUP: Berlin) Under a new German rule, children under 16 from Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco and former Yugoslavia now have to apply for visas to visit relatives in Germany and those already living in Germany must obtain a residence permit. The 2.2 million members of Germany's Turkish community do not have German citizenship, meaning their children now have to apply as "foreigners" for permits. The law equally applies on all Assyrian children from Turkey, both born in Turkey or those escaping Iran, Syria and Iraq. The government insists the measure was necessary because foreigners were abusing its previously relaxed stance on children visiting relatives in Germany by staying permanently. Protest organizers said students in Recklingshausen, Bielefeld, Aschaffenburg and Essen had taken part in the schools boycott. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -End of Section 1 of 2 ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- From zenda@ix.netcom.com Mon Mar 10 04:46:39 1997 Return-Path: zenda@ix.netcom.com Received: from dfw-ix9.ix.netcom.com (dfw-ix9.ix.netcom.com [206.214.98.9]) by emin13.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id EAA16866; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 04:46:37 -0500 Received: (from smap@localhost) by dfw-ix9.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id BAA01489; Mon, 10 Mar 1997 01:29:58 -0600 (CST) Received: from unknown(139.87.93.19) by dfw-ix9.ix.netcom.com via smap (V1.3) id sma001407; Mon Mar 10 01:28:44 1997 Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970309232950.006b806c@popd.ix.netcom.com> X-Sender: zenda@popd.ix.netcom.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 Demo (32) Date: Sun, 09 Mar 1997 23:31:34 -0800 To: zenda@ix.netcom.com From: ZENDA Subject: ZENDA I (Vol III,#4 ; 3/10/97) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"