The Genocide and the problem with the name change

[Enki]

My friends,

In 2004, at Queen's Park (Provincal Parlement) in Downtown, Toronto, the first ever Assyrian Genocide Awareness day was held. (http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/2004/8.6.04/Graphics/Pix_ThisWeek/AGAD_3.gif)(You can read about how it came to be and the activities taken place here: http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/2004/8.20.04/index_fri.php )

On what began as a clear, sunny afternoon, over 600 people arrived in bus loads to attend this ceremony. A ceremony by the end of the night, had not only been on display for the 600 Assyrians in attendance, but to the many hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists and Torontonians who flock to Queen's park ever day. A ceremony which brought tears to many peoples eyes.

It was definatly a ceremony to remember. One to take pride and show respect to those fallen for our lives to live today.

Images: http://www.nohra.ca/gallery/agad%20gallery.htm
Short Clip: http://www.nohra.ca/gallery/m1.avi

My reasoning for this post is a simple yet complex one.

To ACSSU and other organizations with the combined name, this is in no way shape or form aimed at disrespecting your organizations. I know there are many talented and educated individuals in these organizations and I do not want to take anything away from that.

Having said this, I'm still confused as to why we have to use this name to remember those fallen during the great Seyfo, Simile, and Turkish Genocides. Last year at the FIRST ever Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Genocide Awareness Day, the speaches were again beautifully done and historcially accurate. But my issue stemmed from when they were reading OLD articles and OLD accounts and then reading the "NEW" ones. In all the old articles FROM THE TIME OF THE MASSACRES, we read "Assyrian villages", "Assyrian men and women", "Assyrian....", "Assyrian....", etc. Yet in the new ones, "The Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac villages", "The Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac people", etc. To me, its a serious flaw.

Granted we are all one people. We've gone over this a million times. But if we REALLY are ONE people, why do we have three names? Don't tell me Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac or ChaldoAssyrian-Syriac is 1 name, its 3 names thrown into a blender...aka jibberish. I'm all for uniting our people under one name, but not like this! For the billionth time, the name ASSYRIAN comes from the LAND ASSYRIA! We were never from a land called ChaldoAssyria-Syria....lol thats just retarded.

You aim at unifying the youth and the new generation yet you do nothing but seperate them more. This obsurd conjoined name does nothing but reinforce the misconception that an Assyrian is only from the Church of the East and if you're from the Catholic church you HAVE to be Chaldean because you can't be an Assyrian from that church...and so forth. I mean lets be real here. This is a question to ACSSU and all conjoined named organizations.

How has this name change aided not only your membership, but attendance?

From by own personal experiance, when we had the ASSYRIAN Genocide Awareness Day at Queen's Park, we had 600+ people. Last I remember from last years event was 150-200 TOPS! I'm curious about this years turn out too.

What happened to the United ASSYRIAN Organization of Canada? What happened to the whole "lets be one" motto? What happened to the idea that the first ever AGAD was the turning point in Assyrian social affairs in Canada; that we had finally taken a large step forward in this fair country? What happened to all that?

To answer my own questions....they vanished; *POOF*; gone with the ZOWAA wind. Gone with the IRAQI POLITICAL affairs.

But, they will be back. We can no longer continue, nor AFFORD to take one step forward and 3 steps back. No! Its time we took steps forward, before we too end up like our brothers.....the MUSLIMS! A civilization living in the time before Christ.....

If you got to here, tap yourself on the back, I didn't expect many to read this entire post. It was ment as a vent of frustration at the lack of understanding of how detremental this name really is to our society as a whole. Feel free to openly write your opinions here. But again for all those involved, this is not a direct attack at your work. Your intentions are extraordinary (unless you seek to undermine the Assyrian cause, in which case :beee: ) and your work is tireless. I applaud all of you involved in ANY Assyrian organization. Just understand my side and remember when I say this.....

I am a citizin of Canada. I am a Canadian.
I am a citizin of America. I am an American.
I am a citizin of Australia. I am an Australian.
I am a citizin of ASSYRIA. I AM AN ASSYRIAN!

 

[~*Merooona*~]

:yourock:

I AGREE WITH YOU 100000000%

I was there in 2004 and it was all beautifully done.. I only wish I made it earlier so that I wouldn't miss a thing.

We are ASSYRIAN.. no if, ands, or buts about it. period.

 

[Nina]

Anki,

Now you're talking ... Cheboo.

I will tell you what happened to Assyria it went with the winds of self and individual interests in order to supposedly bring in those who won't accept the Assyrian name,what kind of ill twisted mentality is this to sacrifice a nation in order to self serve individual interests.

Till when will this betrayal of the Assyrian Cause and nation continue?

Till when we will keep obscuring our true identity as Assyrians for the sake of those who till the very near past and even today are still proud to be called Arabs,kurds, christian-arabs and christian kurds but they show their short comings when it comes to any thing Assyrian?

Nothing was gained from all the mess of distorting the Assyrian name and that is the truth.

 

[Xpander]

While I support the Assyrian name I think our case is a little far off and chances of it getting fixed is pretty slim...

Here's what I think, if you decide to stick all names together (Chaldo-Assyrian-Syriac) then you have a chance of getting some of those from the Chaldean and Syriac churches to unite, at the same time not all of them will want that since some of them are hard headed just like those who want to keep the Assyrian name only (Like you guys pretty much), on the other hand you can keep the Assyrian name and hopefully some of them will come (I'm pretty sure you have some Chaldeans and Suryoyos who call themselves Assyrian), but either way it's gonna be the same thing as the first part and that is not all of them will call themselves Assyrian....

Having said that, if we stick to the Assyrian name only then Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs will be nothing but three different nations in the eyes of the world, it's all fine and dandy that you would include them under the Assyrian name but in reality they will deny it and call themselves Chaldean or Syriac, that way reality says we're different groups no matter how hard you try force them under the Assyrian name, and the saddest part of all is that there's no solution or hope at all because we're a washed up people, this is a fact.

 

[Enki]

In THEORY you're correct. In THEORY this was supposed to have happened at the election. But from my eyes and the eyes of reality, this is not happening. It has done nothing more than solidified their claims that they are indeed a seperate, ethnic group.

To me, if they wish to believe it, so be it. It will not harm me.

You might think I'm crazy for saying this, but an ASSYRIAN is not just someone from the Church of the East or Catholic Church or Orthodox Church. An ASSYRIAN is defined as being a person from the ancient land of ASSYRIA. Granted, we are more similiar to the Assyrians of history because of our language and our customs, but we are still recognized as Assyrians because we come from that land.

By this I mean, although we are the original inhabitants, that does not mean that the Turkomen or the Yezidi or the Arabs that have been living there beside us for hundreds of years, are not Assyrian. Think about how many civilizations have passed through there. Romans, Greeks, Mongols, Persians, the list is huge. How do we know for certain we are 100% "Assyrians" in every sence? We don't know. We base it on the land we come from and the customs we've maintained.

But lets stick with the curernt argument that by using a conjoined name, we'll unite the other two segments of this nation.

First off, the name was designed to unite them all under one organization in Iraq for the betterment of the people. Did this work?

Well, if you consider 1 seat as a job well done, then I guess it was a job well done. Otherwise, it was a failure.

So what was the domino effect of this sudden name change? All those that backed it all of a sudden withdrew their support with ADO, the other largest Assyrian power in the Middle East, being amongst the first to withdraw support. Why?

How can so many organizations leave if this name was ment to unite? There must have been a flaw!

Having seen this dispersal, that name should have been thrown out the window and a new agenda should have been written its simple. If a Chaldean was going to vote for Zowaa, he was going to vote for them no matter the name change. If he wasn't, and instead wanted to vote for...I dunno...Alawi's group, he or she was going to do this. The name change wasn't gonna change their minds. Policy, action, and change would have.

If these people see the action and work that Zowaa puts out every day and recognize that THERE IS INDEED HOPE, then they would have voted Zowaa.

But my problem once again, is not the Iraqi election but rather the spread of this disease to international communities outside Iraq. Assyrians in Toronto were perfectly fine without the name change. Assyrians and Chaldeans mixed regularly. Syriacs on the otherhand were brought in to try to mix, but language and lack of acceptance (also distance) drove them away. We need to do something for everyone to bring them but not risk losing our identiy.

Things we can do for instance are attend other churchs and make friends with the youth in their congregation. Invite them to social events. Its not an easy process and it wont happen over night. Things like this take years to bloom, but boy what a beautiful flower it becomes.

Don't ruin our identiy. Build unity. Build friendship. Build Assyria!

 

[Xpander]

There's no problem mixing with each other or visiting each other's churches, but that will not change the fact that we are 3 separate groups in the eyes of the world and there's no solution for it because we're too far off in this issue, these 3 names (Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac) are all pretty etablished in their communities and chances of dropping the other 2 for the first one are slim to non-existant...

There's only one solution and that is to have an Assyrian state, but since our people in the middle east are fleeing like no tomorow there's no hope for this one either.

Personally I've given up on this name issue, the cow has been wipped enough and it's time to move on to more important issues in life like trying to build our personal lives rather then waste time on a dead issue....

 

[Had]

If you got to here, tap yourself on the back, I didn't expect many to read this entire post. It was ment as a vent of frustration at the lack of understanding of how detremental this name really is to our society as a whole. Feel free to openly write your opinions here. But again for all those involved, this is not a direct attack at your work. Your intentions are extraordinary (unless you seek to undermine the Assyrian cause, in which case :beee: ) and your work is tireless. I applaud all of you involved in ANY Assyrian organization. Just understand my side and remember when I say this.....

I did read the whole thing.  Only because I totally share your frustration on this issue.

I think the compound name should only be used where necessary, in Iraq.  It was not meant to be used by these ridiculously named organizations here in the west that you were talking about.  Or in the martyr's day titles.  They are encouraging division between people, plain and simple.

In fact the slashed naming system was only meant to be used by zowaa in Iraq originally.  Before that it was used in the American census bereau because some chaldean organizations in detroit applied for separate status, but a bunch of well-meaning people from both sides petitioned against it.  Then, more well-meaning people started using it in the names of their organizations.  Only there was no point for the last group to do it. 

Thats the problem in my opinion.    Not so much the compound/slashed name itself, as much as the wrong and unnecessary usage of it by many Assyrians. 

 

[Carlo]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the compound name is gibberish. Seriously, can supporters of the compound name provide examples of other ethnic groups whose title is comprised of 2+ other names? It's disgusting. People are laughing at us already.