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Assyrians: From Bedr Khan to Saddam Hussein

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This book is the story of the Assyrian Christians and the destruction of their communities that began in the late 19th century and have not ceased to this day. In Iraq after 2003 more than 40 churches have been bombed and Assyrians are murdered and kidnapped daily. This book is a wonderful testament to this ancient community of Christians who have existed in along the Tigris and Euphrates since the birth of Christ. The book is full of wonderful, never before published, photographs.

The story is a chronological history of the Assyrians from the Ottoman massacres of 1895 to the reign of Saddam Hussein. It is primarily a story of misery. The Assyrians were often promised their own state and help from Russia, the British and others but time and again the international community and foreigners have betrayed them or looked the other way as they were destroyed. In Turkey the persecution and destruction of the Assyrians went side by side with the destruction of the Armenians and later the oppression of the Kurds. By the end of the First world war the once sizable Assyrian community in Turkey had been destroyed. Many refugees fled over the mountains to Syria and Iraq. In Iraq in the 1920s they were trained the British into the famed Assyrian Levies, army units. They then became accused of `collaboration' with the British and in 1933 a general genocide of them was committed. The survivors clung on in the mountains of what is now Kurdistan. The coming to power of the Baath did not help them. Any Assyrian leaders who dared to voice support for some autonomy or pride in their nation were murdered or assassinated. Later the Anfal campaign in the North and the Arabization plans of Saddam led to the destruction of more Assyrian villages. Assyrian refugees fled once again to Jordan, Turkey and Syria. However in Turkey the slow destruction of Assyrians continued as their low birth rates and the imposition of Kurdish migrants made their communities extinct or simply led to their overall demographic disappearance. This is one of the few books on this subject and the historical photographs make it a must own. Hundreds of photos show families and ruined villages. Anyone interested in the Middle East should learn this story, for it is the real story of the Middle East, not the story of the Sunni Arab elites usually presented in the western classroom.

Seth J. Frantzman