ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A visiting Assyrian delegation from the United States to the Kurdistan Region told Rudaw that they obtained a landmark approval from Duhok authorities to build a monument in Simele to honor victims of the 1933 Simele massacre.
A delegation of Assyrians from the US visited the Kurdistan Region on Sunday and met with top Kurdish leaders, including President Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, to discuss the current situation of Assyrians in the Region.
Sam Darmo, head of the Foundation of Assyrians for Justice, described the meetings as “very good” and “very fruitful.”
“For the first time in 92 years, finally, we were able to get the approval of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] from the Governor of Duhok, Mr. Ali Tatar, where now a land will be dedicated to the remembrance of the 1933 Simele massacre that happened in Simele by the Iraqi government,” Darmo told Rudaw.
“This will be the first time ever that land was allocated by the KRG so we can build a monument there and also an exhibit,” he added.
Assyrians annually commemorate the Simele massacre of 1933, when thousands were killed by the Iraqi army. Between August 7 and August 11, the armed forces of the Kingdom of Iraq attacked 63 Assyrian villages located in what are now the provinces of Nineveh and Duhok. The campaign left around 3,000 Assyrians dead, according to a 2003 report from the International Federation for Human Rights.
According to Darmo, the main purpose of their visit was to ensure that Assyrians stay in their ancestral homeland and refrain from leaving the country.
“This is our ancestral land,” he stressed, calling for the provision of jobs, Assyrian schools, hospitals, and fair representation in elections for the community.
Since 2003, the Kurdistan Region has served as a sanctuary for many of Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities due to its relative stability and security amid broader violence and sectarian conflicts in Iraq.
Prior to that, the Region’s political system had made institutional efforts to include minorities, most notably through a quota system in the Kurdish legislature. This system reserves a specific number of seats for minority groups, including Assyrian, Chaldean, and Syriac Christians, along with Turkmen and Armenians to ensure their political voice is heard.
More recently, in 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a blitz offensive, seizing large swathes of territory in Iraq’s north and west. The group’s persecution of minority groups, including Christians, Turkmen, Shabak and Yazidis, prompted hundreds of thousands of them to flee, with many settling in the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil and Duhok provinces.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Sam Darmo:
Rudaw: Welcome to Rudaw, I'm very happy to have you here.
Sam Darmo: Thank you.
First, can you tell me about your intention and your goal? What's the reason that you visited Kurdistan? What's the goal behind it?
Well, first of all, I've never been here before, never in my life. So I thought it's time to visit my ancestral land. Second, we had a mission for our people here to build a better relationship between Assyrians in America and the KRG. So that's why we are here.
How did you see it since it's your first time? How was it? Was it close to your imagination?
I never thought it was this beautiful, actually, and the progress that has been made, it's amazing. I was telling my colleagues that it looks like we are in America, we never left America, honestly. So I commend the progress that is made here by the KRG.
You have the chance to do some meetings with, for example, Mr. President [Masoud] Barzani, President Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, and a lot of other people here in Kurdistan. So can you tell me about the outcomes of these meetings?
It was very good meetings and very fruitful. First of all, this is for the first time in 92 years, finally, we were able to get the approval of the KRG from the Governor of Duhok, Mr. Ali Tatar, where now a land will be dedicated to the remembrance of the 1933 Simele massacre that happened in Simele by the Iraqi government, the Iraqi army against unarmed Assyrian civilians. So in 92 years, this will be the first time ever that land was allocated by KRG so we can build a monument there and also an exhibit.
In Simele?
In Simele itself. And that's where the massacre started from. But 62 other Assyrian villages were affected by it, but it started from Simele. So that's it. That was a great accomplishment, and we're very proud of it.
Were there any special requirements about Assyrians here in Kurdistan that you've asked those people and delegations that you've met?
2003, when the war started, right after the war, our population in Iraq has decreased by a huge amount. For example, in Basra, we used to have a church, we used to have a club, now not even a single Assyrian lives in Basra.