Posted on 08/31/2013 8:47:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD), a branch of Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK), recently declared that they want to form a Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria... is there any place for Assyrians? Is there room in a future ruled by Kurds, considering what happened in northern Iraq?
Analysts I talked to are optimistic and see a difference from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in north Iraq. Assyrians make up about 30% of al-Jazeera's population and should have better conditions, they say. But the biggest threat to Assyrians is emigration, since many are fleeing to seek a better life in the West.
The city of Qamishle, in northeast Syria, was formed shortly after the 1915 genocide of Assyrians by Turks and Kurds...
Assyrians who fled from Tur Abdin, Turkey after the genocide settled in Qamishle, which became a French mandate until 1946 when the Arab country of Syria was established... The Assyrians were the majority of the city's population, and put their stamp on it. When Egyptian President Jamal Abdel-Nasser visited Qamishle in the late 1950s, he said of the strong dominance of Assyrians in municipal administration "the only thing that is missed is a cross on the roof of the town hall. This is not an Arab municipality, but rather a church." Nasser visited Syria as President of ... a pan-Arab union that lasted from 1958 to 1961. After Nasser's visit systematic persecution of Assyrians began and forced many Assyrians to flee to Beirut. When civil war broke in Lebanon in 1975, they fled to Sweden and other Western countries.
Arab nationalism increased in intensity and opposition voices were silenced effectively by the Baath regime after Hafez Assad took power in a military coup in the 1960s. Starting in the 1970s, Syria experienced a harsh dictatorship and became a police state.
(Excerpt) Read more at aina.org ...
Have a great weekend, all!
The Kurds should have their freedom, and they are among our few allies in the region. But they do need to make accommodations for the Assyrians (or help set up a free homeland for them too) — and the Christians, of course, need to be protected.
Whoops.
The Assyrians and Kurdish Autonomy in Syria
AINA | 8-20-2013 | Augin K. Haninke
Posted on 08/29/2013 9:45:23 AM PDT by Freeport
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3060276/posts
The Assyrians are (mostly) Christian.
The (non-Assyrian) Arab Christians are already protected, hadn’t you heard? The Alawite Moslem Assad’s the big champion of Christianity in the Middle East. /s They need to become responsible for their own security, the same way Israeli Jews have done — that means, they need their own state, I suggest a greater Lebanon.
The largest of the religious minorities in Lebanon is the Christian Lebanese, all of the muzzie sects are smaller. Combined with the Arab Christians currently in Syria, Lebanon would become majority-owned for the first time in its history, and beneficiary of the partition of what used to be Syria.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_sy.html
Population 22,457,336 (July 2013 est.) — Sunni Muslim (Islam - official) 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/countrytemplate_le.html
Population 4,131,583 (July 2013 est.) — Muslim 59.7% (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma’ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Coptic, Protestant), other 1.3%
~ 2,245,733 Christians in Syria
~ 1,611,317 Christians in Lebanon
(this includes Assyrian Christians)
Mostly, and there are other Christians who need protection also.
They need to protect themselves.
For the US to protect them will require boots on the ground.
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