Assyrian community speaks Aramaic, provides a warm welcome to Israelis

JTA.org ^ | February 27, 2003 | Gil Sedan

[WaterDragon]

Assyrian community speaks Aramaic, provides a warm welcome to Israelis

ADABASHI, Turkey, Feb. 27 (JTA) — I never intended to visit Adabashi. I was heading toward the border crossing between Turkey and Iraq, hoping to get to northern Iraq before the widely anticipated war began.

But the Turkish border authorities would not hear of any journalists running around in that Kurdish-dominated part of Iraq. Not just Israeli journalists, any journalists.

As a result, I and a group of fellow journalists found ourselves traveling along the long Turkish border between Iraq and Syria — until we spotted a church tower off the main road.

A church? In the heart of this Muslim Kurdish part of Turkey?

It was almost mid-day during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha. The village appeared deserted. The muddy streets were empty.

But then, out of nowhere, appeared Hanna Durdu, an old man with deep blue eyes. He greeted us warmly in a strange language.

Only a few minutes later, when he took us to “someone who can speak American,” did we realize that a short detour off the main road had taken us centuries back in history — to a small community of Christians who live as a tiny island within an ocean of Muslims, Turks and Kurds.

They are referred to by a name straight out of millennia past: Assyrians.

As I greeted the “American”-speaking guy with the traditional Arabic, Salam Aleikum, he looked almost offended.

“Here,” he said, “we say shlomo.”

“Shlomo?” I was not quite sure I heard correctly.

“Yes, shlomo,” he insisted.

It is the Aramaic word for the Hebrew “shalom.”

It turns out that the tiny village of Adabashi on the Turkish-Syrian border is one of the few places in the world where people still speak Aramaic, the language of Abraham the Patriarch, the Talmud and Jesus....(snip)

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE, PLEASE.

[a_Turk]

Thanks for posting this. There are a ew telling paragraphs regarding the PKK:

But then they became victims of the bitter conflict between the Turkish authorities and the Kurdish underground, the PKK.

PKK fighters used to enter the village, asking for shelter, food, supplies—and money. (in other words robbery.. snip!)

Eventually, Abraham and his family moved to Adabashi, close to the border, where a Turkish military presence deterred PKK activities.

This is as close as you'll get to the truth on this matter.

Also, alow me to post these two maps to help put the WW1 massacres into perspective. They don't show up sometimes, so if you're having trouble seeing one or the other, right-click, select properties, and copy the link to the address bar of the browser.

Greater Kurdistan:


Greater Armenia:


Two overlapping maps...

[MEG33]

Very interesting .May God keep them safe.

[DonQ]

Aramaic is the language of much of the Talmud, and a good deal of the Jewish prayerbook, so rabbinical students would presumably have at least a nominal knowledge of it. I would imagine, though, there is a tremendous linguistic gulf between people who only read a very limited number of very ancient texts in that language, and people who have been using that language for daily affairs right into the 21st century.

[tictoc]

Good article, thank you.

[k2blader]

Bump for later read.

[patricia]

George M. Lamsa, an Assyrian whose mother-tongue was Aramaic, was born in this part of Turkey. Because of his intellect, as a young boy, he was selected to leave his village and go to Turkey to be educated in the Archbishop of Canterbury school.
Fleeing Turkey just before the beginning of WWl, Lamsa's sojourn of the world ended in the USA.
Lamsa translated the Old and New Testaments from Aramaic directly into English.

[WaterDragon]

Wow! That's impressive!

[Dec31,1999]

I never intended to visit Adabashi. I was heading toward the border crossing between Turkey and Iraq, hoping to get to northern Iraq before the widely anticipated war began. But the Turkish border authorities would not hear of any journalists running around in that Kurdish-dominated part of Iraq. Not just Israeli journalists, any journalists.

The article reads like some New York Times nonsense.

[eleni121]

The Christian Assyrian people will never forget the genocide perpetrated against them by the Muslim Turks.
http://www.aina.org/martyr.htm

[Clemenza]

Where are our Greek allies? Oh, burning the American flag!

[eleni121]

Although I cannot speak for all Greeks, most are pro America, just tired of the American government being bamboozled by the Turks for billions and no respect.

Greeks are faithful allies - always there for the west unlike the Turks who tend to fight on the wrong side.

During the stupid protests last week, there were about 500 Greek commies marching in Athens - now what was it in Muslim Turkey? Millions?

[Michael Sidiropoulos]

Don't forget, some Americans burn their flag too. Greece has a long tradition of pro-American and pro-Western policies. Unfortunately the country has been under a leftist/socialist spell in the last 20 years or so. But the true feelings of the Greek people are pro-American.