Aramean Organizations sent a letter to the new elected president of the European Union

Touma Audo

Aramean people: Aramean people (not to be confused with ‘Armenians’) speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Abraham, Moses and Jesus. They are the indigenous people of what was called in ancient times Aram- Nahrin, in our days it is called ‘Mesopotamia’.

Some Arameans today identify themselves with “Assyrians”, because of the spiritual colonial hate generating activities of the Western missionaries and diplomats in the Middle-East in 16th and 19th centuries. Other Arameans became known as “Chaldeans”. However all of them are Arameans.In Turkey, the Arameans are called: Süryani. In Arabic they are called Al- Suryan.

Aramean Organizations sent a letter to the new elected president of the European Union

Dutch Version

EU President Herman Van Rompuy

The Arameans of Aram-Naharaim Organization and the Aramean Democratic Organization sent a letter to the new President of the European Union

On 1-12-2009, the Arameans of Aram-Naharaim Organization and the Aramean Democratic Organisation sent a letter of congratulations to the first president of the European Union, Mr. Herman Van Rompuy.

In the letter the Aramean Organisations ask for the attention of the president to the fragile situation of the Aramean indigenous nation of the Middle-East thereby focusing on their situation in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.

Please find below the letter sent to Mr. H. Van Rompuy.

Nr.: 2009-12-01/10

Netherlands, Sweden 1^st of December 2009

Subject: Re: Your election as the 1^st president of the European Union

The Most Honorable President of the European Union

His Excellency Herman Van Rompuy

Brussels, Belgium

Dear Mr. President,

We, the undersigned, the Arameans of Aram-Naharaim Organization and the Aramean Democratic Organization want to congratulate you with your election as the 1^st president of the European Union.

We wish you much success and wisdom and we hope that under your leadership the European Union will become a close-knit family and a beacon of stability, prosperity, equality, democracy, Human Rights and justice.

Your Excellency, we would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to the fragile situation of the Indigenous Aramean Christian people of Mesopotamia, in ancient times called Aram-Nahrin in Aramaic and Aram-Naharaim in Hebrew. ^[1]

The Aramean people (not to be confused with ‘Armenians’) have been present for thousands of years in this part of the world, also known as the Cradle of Civilization. Since the beginning of the 20^th century this region has been divided into the modern countries Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Aramean people speak Aramaic, ^[2] the language spoken by Abraham, Moses and Jesus, through which they have made a very important contribution to world civilizations. ^[3] This ancient Semitic people, now divided into several denominations and spread throughout the Middle East, amount to approximately 8 million people worldwide.

Our nation is facing difficulties in many areas of the Middle-East, however their situation in Iraq is most severe. ^[4] Contrary to other groups, the Aramean people in Iraq, also known as “Assyrians” or Chaldeans, do not have their own militia to defend themselves and as a consequence they are vulnerable to fanatical groups, ordinary criminals and thieves. Because of the continued threats, abductions, killings and attacks on their sanctuaries, by the forces of intolerance and fanaticism, many of them have left Iraq for surrounding countries and the West. In spite of measures taken by the central government, the situation of our nation in Iraq remains very precarious. In addition, the Aramean nation is not recognized as distinct ethnic minority in the Iraqi constitution.

The situation of the Aramean nation in Turkey is just as critical. ^[5] Since November 2008 the Aramean monastery St. Gabriel in the southeastern of Turkey, situated in Tur Abdin, which is a part of the Biblical Paddan-Aram, ^[1] has been subjected to lawsuits initiated by the Turkish government and surrounding villages who are trying to confiscate the land of the monastery. Not only the land of the monastery, but also the land belonging to the Aramean villages is under threat to be confiscated by the government under the pretext of “wood land”.

In addition the Aramean Indigenous nation in Turkey is not recognized as a distinct ethnic minority and is therefore deprived of basic Human, Cultural, Political and Social rights. Consequently, our Aramean nation is slowly being culturally exterminated.

Compared to Turkey and Iraq, the situation of the Aramean nation in Syria is slightly better. Unfortunately, our nation is not recognized as a distinct ethnic minority and our cultural Aramean heritage is being suppressed under the pretext of “political activities”. ^[6] Furthermore, they are subjected to assimilation with the result that many of them have lost their Aramean roots and have become Arabised.

The marginalization, persecution and exclusion of our nation for hundred of years and their fragile situation in recent times, where they are threatened with ethnic cleansing from the land of their forefathers, is not exclusively due to the forces of fanaticism and intolerance, but it has its roots in the spiritual colonial practices of the colonial powers in the 16^th and 19^th centuries whereby nationalism and fanaticism was brought to the Middle-East. ^[7] In addition to this, we believe that the genocide of 1915 ^[8] which claimed the lives of approximately 600.000 Arameans of different denominations, would have been less severe if the Arameans were united and were not stuck with the hatred that was implemented by the outsiders in the name of “assistance”, “education” and “faith”.

We wish to conclude this letter with the hope that your Excellency has noticed our sincere concerns regarding the fragile situation of the Aramean Indigenous Christian nation of the Middle-East and that the European Union will consider their situation when reviewing its Human Rights policy regarding the Middle-East thereby acknowledging the Aramean Cultural heritage.

We are looking forward to working with your presidency and we would be honored to provide you, where needed, with genuine information regarding the Aramean Indigenous Nation of Aram-Nahrin who has inhabited the Middle-East for thousands of years, but are now in danger of complete disappearance from the lands of their forefathers.

Respectfully Yours,

Gabriel Sengo

Chairman

Arameans of Aram-Naharaim Organization

Gabi Gallo

Chairman

Aramean Democratic Organization

Footnotes:

[1] More on Aram-Nahrin and Aram-Naharaim

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Aramnaharaim.htm

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Interview_Chairmain_Aram-Naharaim_26_6_2007.htm

[2] More on Aramaic

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Interview_Chairmain_Aram-Naharaim_27_6_2007.htm

[3] The contribution of the Aramean nation to world civilizations is well-summarized by a world- renowned Eminent Oxford University Scholar Professor Sebastian Brock, a specialist on Aramaic (Syriac) and Hebrew, who said “Almost all societies are dependent upon the use of writing, but very few peoples realise that the great majority of the world’s scripts can be traced back to a common ancestor, an alphabet invented in the Middle East four thousands years ago, which was subsequently refined by the Phoenicians and the Aramaeans who spread it throughout the known world. It is thus without doubt one of the greatest gifts of the Aramean peoples to world culture.” (Hidden Pearl volume I: Page 27)

“…Nevertheless it is undeniable that the simple Aramaic alphabet of 22 letters has had the most extraordinary impact on the development of alphabetic writing systems throughout the world. Indeed, it is very hard to imagine how human culture and scientific learning could have progressed without (the Aramaic language).” (Hidden Pearl volume I: Page 58)

(Hidden Pearl: http://www.aramnaharaim.org/English/film_arameans.htm)

[4] In several letters to the government of Iraq and the United Nations we have tried to ask for the dire situation of our people:

29-8-2007: Letter to the Iraqi Government: http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/Letter_Iraqi_Government_29_8_2007.htm

22-4-2008: Letter to the Iraqi Government:

http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/ArameanOrganisations_Protection_leaders_Iraq_25_4_2008.htm

10-5-2008: Letter to the United Nations:

http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/ArameansOrganisations_UN_Iraq_Help_10_5_2008.htm

31-10-2008: Letter to the United Nations:

http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/Aramean_Organisations_Letter_UN_31_10_2008.htm

[5] See our letter to the Turkish President and Prime Minister:

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/ArameanOrganisations_President_Primier_Turkey_20_5_2009.htm

[6] See our letter to the President of Syria: