New Iraq a Ray of Hope (that didn’t come) for Greek Assyrians

I did this story about 10 years ago. Today Mosul is again on the forefront of international news. Yet, the international community hasn’t done much for the Assyrians and neither Greece has actively supported the legitimate claims of a group of her citizens.

by Demetrios Rhompotis

Seventy Greek Assyrian families could claim compensation for lost property in northern Iraq, as reconstruction plans try to bring justice to oppressed minority groups. Thousands of Assyrians, also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs, were driven from the oil-rich area of Mosul in the 1910s. For decades, those who settled in Greece hesitated to press claims, fearing reprisals against their compatriots in Iraq. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein now brings new hope to the cause.

“Our people lived there for thousands of years and they threw them out violently,” says Steve Sorros, whose grandparents were expelled from the Mosul district. “Of course, we do not wish to return there… but (we) have every right to be compensated. And our property was where the oil is.”

Sorros, who emigrated to New York in 1976, believes the interests of oil companies overrode human concerns. He hopes Greek Assyrians will pursue a class action lawsuit, as Holocaust victims did against Swiss and German financial institutions, winning $20 billion. The case has potential, according to lawyers like Nick Karambelas of the Washington-based law firm Sfikas & Karambelas. “There might be a strong legal base for compensations,” he says. Karambelas has experience in such matters, representing families that lost property in the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Assyrians are still classed as foreigners in Greece, which may help the case, he adds. Six thousand emigrated from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Only around 1,000 are naturalised citizens. The rest have no papers. Karambelas says this refugee status means they did not give up rights to their land.

Another Greek American lawyer at one of New York’s largest consulting firms – who asked to remain anonymous – was even more optimistic. He estimates descendants o f the expelled Assyrians could demand 20% of the profits since oil started to be exploited on their properties – an amount that could reach billions of dollars.

Greek authorities are largely oblivious to the brewing controversy. The Greek foreign ministry has not commented on the situation, despite repeated requests.

The time is ripe for political settlement for Assyrians in Iraq and abroad. They dare not hope for an autonomous state like the Kurds. Cultural freedom is all they ask, according to Kyriakos Batsaras, president of Union of Assyrians in Greece. “Whatever the Muslims get, this is what we also want, nothing more, nothing less,” he stresses. Yet the Assyrians may be excluded from the final settlement in northern Iraq, sources there claim. Instead of being recognised as a minority group, they are being dismissed as Orthodox Christian Arabs. “For a people with 7,000 years of history, it’s ridiculous to call us that,” Batsaras says.

Greek Assyrian odyssey

Today 4.5 million still consider themselves Assyrians. Their empire once stretched across northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, Turkey and Iran. Ninevah – the ancient capital near Mosul – may have been the world’s first city. The kingdom crumbled in 612 BC, scattering the people into small pockets around the Middle East. They embraced Christianity in the 1st century AD and still speak Aramaic, one of Jesus Christ’s languages.

Over the centuries, the Assyrians have been persecuted for their ethnicity and their religion. The enjoyed some autonomy under Ottoman rule in the early 20th century, because it was dif! ficult f or Imperial forces to subdue their militia. This delicate balance ended when the Ottoman Empire massacred Christians – Assyrians and Armenians alike – in 1915. Winston Churchill described it as “whole districts blotted out in one destructive holocaust”.

Sorros believes oil-hungry foreigners prompted the attack. “They used the Muslims to expel the more educated Christians. After they threw them out, they drilled the oil. Our forefathers did not receive any form of compensation.”

The late Nissan Yaou – president of the Union of Assyrians in Greece for many years – supported this theory. His written testimony attests: “Oil was running into the river and people used it to burn wood that had not yet dried.” Locals called the stream “Kriya” (black), because it brimmed with the crude liquid. During the winter snowfall, the oil turned to asphalt, which had to be scraped off to cultivate the land.

Yaou documented the expelled Assyrians’ flight. They initially sought refugee in Iran, then Christian Russia, followed by the Black Sea port Novorossisk. They decided to return home in 1922, as the Mosul district was under British rule.

Yet English authorities in Constantinople stopped their ship, claiming an epidemic had struck their area. The Assyrians were lumped in with the people fleeing the Asian Minor disaster – and re-routed to Greece. They landed at Makronessos, which later became a notorious prison island.

Conditions were rough there. The refugees would draw water and wash from a big hole, encouraging the spread of disease. Around 10-15 people died each day, among them Yaou’s stepmother. They were moved several times to Keratsini, a monastery in Poros and the military barracks of Kalamata, where an estimated 4,000 people perished. Locals warned them not to drink the contaminated water, but no one understood Greek, Yaou explained. At the end of 1923, the Assyrians! finally settled in the Athens suburb of Aegaleo, building a church in the memory of Saint Andrew.

Further troubles back home

Assyrians who remained in the Middle East suffered as well. They fought for the Allies in World War I, but were left without ammunition and support just before the conflict’s end. They fled to Baghdad, losing one-third of their population to attack, disease and hardships.

Britain, France and Russia promised to help establish an Assyrian homeland in the Mosul district, but this never came to pass. During the formation of the modern Iraqi nation in 1933, civilians were massacred and 60 villages destroyed. Batsaras says that English authorities moved 80,000 Arabs into the abandoned area, harshly oppressing any remaining Assyrian resistance.

Iraqi forces razed another 200 towns in the 60s and 70s, as well as scores of ancient churches. Saddam Hussein’s “Arabisation policy” forced more people from their homes in the mid-80s. After the Gulf War, 250,000 Assyrian refugees joined fleeing Kurds. Batsaras stresses: “When you hear about ships full of Iraqi refugees, their majority are Assyrians.”

Search for justice

Both Sorros and Batsaras hope all Assyrians eventually could return to a safe and tolerant homeland. In the meantime, those in Greece will pursue compensation for lost lands and revenue. At least 70 families are eligible.

Sorros plans to push the case through powerful Assyrian organisations in the US, whose leaders met with the President George W Bush and his administration in March 2003. “For 70 years big conglomerates drill oil from my grandfather’s backyard,” he says. “At least something should be given to us.”

Amanda Castleman contributed to this report.