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Sonyel "Assyrians of Turkey" -Part I
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ATATURK SUPREME COUNCIL FOR CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND HISTORY
TURKISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATONS
Serial: VII - No. 168

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY : VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY
By: SALAHI R. SONYEL

OSMANLI DEVLETI~NIN
700. KURULU$ YIL DONLIRRU
TURKISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRINTING HOUSE - ANKARA
2001


Sonyel, Salahi R.
The Assyrians of Turkey victims of major power policy l
Salahi R. Sonyel: - Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, 2001. xi,
228, [53] s. ; 24 cm.--( Atattirk Supreme Council for Culture,
Language and History Turkish Historical Society publications
Serial VII -No. 168 )
Bibliyografya ve indeks var.
ISBN 975 - 16 - 1296 - 9
1. Jon TUrkler- Suryaniler- Osmanli Imparatorlugu,
1876-1914. 2. Siiryaniler- Osmanli imparatorlugu, 1914-1918. 3.
Suryaniler-Tiirkiye, 1919-1923. I. E.a. 11. Dizi.
956.101543
ISBN 975-16-1296-9

Reporter: Prof. Dr. Ercumem KURAN

CONTENTS
Abbreviations VII
Note on the Turkish Alphabet and names IX
Preface XI
Chapter 1 - The Assyrians 1
Who are the Assyrians? 18
The religion of modern Assyrians 24
Population Statistics 29

ABBREVIATIONS
AP
C.E
conf.
CP
disp
.
DM
I
doc.no.
D.S.
ed.
ff.
FO
GHQ
GOC
HM
Ka%arh
Ka§garh
1
Lamsa
Lamsa 1
Mumcu
Mumcu 1
n.d.
PID
Accounts and
Papers circa
Common Era
Colonial Office
confidential
Confidential
Print
dispatch Director of Military
Intelligence document
number
Deparment of
State editor
and the following pages Foreign
Office General Headquarters
General Officer
Commander-in-Chief
His or Her
Majesty India
Office
Mardio ve yoresi Kilikya tabi
Ermeni Baronlugtt The
secret of the Near East The
oldest Christian people
Kiirt-Islam ayaklanmasi
Kazim Kaiabekiranlaayor
note
no date
Political Intelligence
Department


Rev.
Sonyel
Sonyel 1
tel.

Vol.
Wigram
Wigram 1
Wigram 2
Wig-ram 3
Wilson
Wilson 1
WO

CONTENTS
Reverend The Ottoman Armenians
Turkish Diplomacy Telegram volume
TheAssyrian Church The cradle of
mankind The Assyrians and their
neighbours Assyrian settlement
Mesopotamia: a clash of loyalties The
crisis in Iraq War Office

NOTE : The surnames of writers stand for their respective works as listed in
alphabetical order in the 'Sources'. Crown-copyright records in the Public
Record Office appear by permission of the Controller of HM Stationery
Office.

NOTE ON THE TURKISH ALPHABET AND NAMES
Throughout this book modern Turkish orthography has been used in
transcribing Turkish names and place-names except when quoting from
non-Turkish sources, for example Istanbul and not Constantinople, Ankara and
not Angora, Kayseri and not Caesarea, and so on.
The pronunciation of the following Turkish letters used in this volume should
be noted: c - j as in jam
- ch as in chart g - g with an upturned comma as in agha
(aga) i - i without the dot as in sadik (faithful) o - French eu
as in deux or seul, or German o as in &ffnen s - sh as in shall
u - French a as in lumiere, or German a as in schiitzen.

PREFACE

A number of Assyrians, particularly a few extremists, who have
emigrated to West Europe and North America from Turkey, mainly
for economic reasons, have indulged in propaganda, spreading
rumours intermittently that they were compelled to leave their
homeland because they were oppressed by the Turkish authorities.
They also draw parallels between themselves and the Armenians of
Turkey, and claim that they have shared the same fate with them.
Apparently some of these extremists are cooperating with
numerous secessionsist and terrorist organisations whose aim is to
destabilise and dismember Turkey. They are supported and aided in
this venture by some Turcophobe organisations. In this book I
shall try to relate the history of the Assyrians in Turkey,
particularly since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, in the
light of archival sources, in order to bring to light the actual
relationship between them and the Turks. The reader will then be
in a better position to judge whether the above accusations
levelled against Turkey and the Turkish people are true or false.
Dr. Salahi Sonyel
(Visiting Professor, Near East
University, Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus)

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 1

CHAPTERI - THE ASSYRIANS

Who are the Assyrians?

The Assyrians have been variously described as a people of 'uncertain racial origin'',
and as 'a Christian element of a most ancient and illustrious tradition'2, 'the spiritual
descendants of the pioneer missionaries of the East'3, who maintained their separate
religious identity throughout centuries by 'a resolute adherence' to their faith. They have
also been described as a Semitic people`'; or a people with racial affinities with the
ancient Turks. Ataturk described them as 'a scion of the Hittite Turks''.
The Assyrians themselves claim to be 'the most God-fearing and peaceloving
people on earth', 'the descendants of the ancient Assyrians'''. Heazell and Margoliouth,
however, observe that they 'probably compare favourably with anybody of Western
Christians in morals, with the exception of certain, special defects, of which the most
prominent are jealousy of each other, and quarrelsomeness - universal faults amongst
the Eastern Christians, whilst the Bishop of Gibraltar wrote about them as follows:


----(Footnotes)----
I Chamber's Encyclopaedia, viol. 1, London 1973, p. 719.
2 David Barsum Perley: Whither Christian Missions? Assyrian National Federation, 1946, p. 2.
s Athra, a fortnightly political review, no. 15, Beirut, 15.2.1939.
4 Yalgn Dogan: Milliyet newspaper, Istanbul, 25.7.1990; Prof. Dr. Mehlika Aktok Kaggarlt: Mai-din vie yoresi halktndan
Turko-Semider (Turco-Semites among the people of Mardin and its region), Kayseri 1991, who describes them as TurcoSemites,
pp. 7 and 9.
5 Ya;ar Kalafat's letter to the author, Ankara, 9.10.1990; see also Mithat Sertoglu: Suryani Turklerinin siyasi vie i~!timai
tarihi (the political and social history of the Suryani (Assyrian) Turks), Istanbul, 1974, p. 5.
6 A.J. Oraham: Assyiian English Dictionary, Chicago 1943, preface, p. 5.
7 FO 371/4177/110919: Memorandum by the.Assyro-Chaldean delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, entitled La
question Assyro-Chaldeenne deviant la Conference de la Paix, 16.7.1919; FO 371/10089/E 8457: Agha Petros to the President of
the Society (League) of Nations, Geneva, letter, 27.9.1924; see also Austen Henry Layard: Nineveh and its remains, viol. 2,
London 1929, p. 178; Perley, p. 2; see also Denis Cecil Hills: My travels in Turkey, London 1964, pp. 233 1f.
-------------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 2

"As to the Syrian people, 1 lost my heart to them completely;
and 1 think there can be no question that they are a finer race
than the Armenian, the Georgian, and indeed any other of the
peoples in that part of the world's."

Some of these descriptions do not reflect the reality, as it will
presently be evident.
The Assyrians are better known by their ecclesiastical
designations representing the three main religious sects into which
they were divided after their schism in 1551 C.E.9, namely: (a)
Nestorians (Nesturi), or East Syrians, although they prefer to call
themselves Assyrians'°; (b) Chaldeans (Keldani) , or East. Syrian
Uniates; and (c) Jacobites (Yakubi), or West Syrians who are
Orthodox. Uniate churches are in communion with the Roman
Catholic Church". In addition to these sects, they also lay claim to
'the Assyrian Maronite element', the Iranian, Russian, and Egyptian
Assyrians12, the Assyrian Melkides, and the Assyrian Protestans.

They speak mainly a modenised version of Aramaic, its ancient
version being the language in which Christ is believed to have
delivered his message to his followers1s. They use the ancient
language in their liturgy'; but according to Turkish researcher
Mehlika Ka§garli, for a long time their liturgy was in Greek. As many
Assyrians did not understand this language,

----(Footnotes)----
a Reverend F.N.Heazell and Mrs. Margoliouth (eds.): Kurds and Christians, London 1913, pp. 15 and 193,
9 C.E. stands for Common Era.
10 FO 371/3060/189280: Deaconess Esther Abraham to Arthur James Balfour, letter, Edinburgh, 22.9.1917.
n FO 371/5127/E 13595: India Office to Colonial Office disp., 2.11.1920; A Handbook of Mesopotamia, I.D.,
118A, vol. 1, November 1918, pp. 128-33.
12 FO 371/4177/111181: Memorandum (in booklet form), entitled The claims of the Assyrians before the
Conference ofthe Preliminaries ofPeace, received at the British Foreign Office on 2.8.1919; see also David McDowall:
The Kurds, Minority Rights Group Report No. 23, London 1989, p. 86.
1s FO 371/4177/62363: Balfour to Lord Curzon, disp., Paris, 22.4.1919, enclosing a memorandum on the claims
of the Assyrians, communicated to Sir Louis Mallet by Sir Arthur Hirtsel of the India Office; see also Chamber's
Encyclopaedia, p. 719; Perley, p. 2; Yakup Bilge: Suryanilerin kokeni ve Turkiyeli Suryaniler (the origin of the Assyrians
and Assyrians of Turkey) Istanbal 1991, p. 58.
1`1 FO 371/15315/E 2416: Marshall N. Fox to Philip J. Noel Baker, letter, Beirut, 27.4.1931, enclosing a
memorandum entitled The Assyrians of today.

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 3

they started to use Assyrian, but later, when they came under
Turkish rule, they began to use Turkish, or Turoyo, a heavy
Arab-cum-Turkish dialect'.
The origin of the Assyrians, about which several theories have
beet advanced, is shrouded in mystery. Some Assyrians claim that
the word 'Siiryani, or Syrian' is derived from the name of the Persian
King Keyhusrev(559-529 B.C.), from Kyris, or Syrus and Sirus in
Assyrian16. Others claim that the word 'Siiryani" is derived from the
City of Tyre (Sur in Assyrian), on the southern coast of the Lebanon
from where the disciples of Christ have mainly come. This word was
later changed into 'Surin', and those who believed these disciples
were called 'Sirin' (Siiryani)17. Still others claim that the name came
from that of Syria where these people lived; or from the name of
Assyria, 'Asshur'1s. Another school of thought believes that the name
is derived from that of King Suros. The most acceptable view,
however, is that it comes from the word 'Assyria'. Assyrian researcher
Yakup Bilge, believes that the origin of the Assyrians goes back to the
ancient Assyriansl3. Hanna Dolaponii, another Assyrian researcher,
believes that they are a mixture of Aramians, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
Phoenicians, and Indians2°, but generally he calls them Assyrians.
Turkish historiographer Mithat Sertoglu believes that the original
homeland of the Assyrians is in Central Asia, as they are a Turanian
people. From Central Asia they moved to, and settled in, Jezire
(Cezire), or Mesopotamia. The name Syrian or Assyrian (Siiryani) was
given to the Aramians who had accepted Christianity, while Northern
Mesopotamia became known as Assyria, he claims.21 However,
Ka*garli observes that they were known in history as Sirris, and that
the word 'Sirri, or Siri: has been misrepresented as 'Syrian'. 'Sirri' is
believed to be the name given to the people who spoke Aramaic,
which was akin to Hebrew; hence, ethnically the Aramians are a
branch of the Hebrews. Between the fourth and third

----Footnotes----
1' Kafgwh, p. 8.
1'' Mor Ignatiyos Yakup III: The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, Holland, St. Ephrem the Syrian Monastery,
1985, p. 2.
17 Assad Assad: 'Suryani ismi uzerine' (about the name Suryani), Bahro Suryoyo, Sodertalja, 1988, p. 46, quoted by
Bilge, p. 23.
18 Aziz Gunel: Turk Sutyaniler Tatihi (history of the Turkish Assyrians), Diyarbakir, 1970, p. 30.
1" Bilge, p.35.
211'Suryaniler' (Assyrians), 6zHizrnet, no. 6, Mardin, 1955, p. 133.
21 Sertoglu, pp. 11 and 23.
------------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 4

centuries B.C. they were seen in Upper Mesopotamia, from
whence they spread to Southeastern Anatolia22.

The Assyrians themselves claim that they are the descendants
of the ancient Assyrians, 'the same people of whose heroism and
achievements, when Gibbon writes, he does so with a trembling
pen, and with an admiration that becomes an inspiration even to
a sceptical historian', according to a memorandum they sent to
the British Foreign Office on 2 August 1919$3. The name
'Assyria' applied to the country which, in bygone days, occupied
the northern end of the Mesopotamian plain, or the extreme
northern portion of modern Iraq. Basically, it lay within the
triangle formed by the Tigris and Little Zab rivers, which
constituted its western and southern boundaries, while the
mountains of ancient Caucasia formed the northern boundary,
and the Zagros mountain range, together with the land of Media,
the eastern boundary. These boundaries , however, were fluid,
depending on the power of Assyria, which expanded south of
Little Zab when the neighbouring state of Babylon weakened, and
retreated when Babylon was ascendant.

The Assyrians appear to have been a violent and warlike
people. They are represented in carved reliefs as of strong
physique and dark camplexion, with heavy eye-brows and beard,
and prominent noses. They are believed to have descended from
Asshur, a grandson of Noah. In fact, the same Hebrew word
means both 'Asshur' and 'Assyria(n)'. Nimrod, who is noted in the
Bible as 'a mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah', is believed to
have founded the cities of Nineveh and Calah, which cities,
together with Asshur and Khorsabad, later became Assyrian
capitals24.

A trade route ran along the northern part of Assyria to the
Mediterranean and Asia Minor, and other routes branched off
into the Caucasus and the region of Lake Urmia (Rezaiye). Many
of the wars in which the Assyrians took part were caused by their
desire to gain, or maintain, the control of these trade routes. In
time they developed a vast and ruthless empire, based on military
power. The historical picture left of their exploits is one of 'great
cruelt~ unparalleled brutality, and

----Footnotes----
22 Kagarlt, pp. 9 and 13. 23
FO 371/4177/111181. 2 L
Genesis 10: 8-12. and 22.
------------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 5

rapaciousness'. One of their warrior monarchs, Ashurnasirpal II
(848/883859 B.C. ?), describes his punishment of a rebellious
city as follows:

'I built a pillar- over against his city-gate, and 1 flayed all the chiefs,
who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their- skin. Some, 1
walled tip within the pillar, some, l impaled upon the pillar- on
stakes... And 1 cut the limbs of the royal ofcers who had
rebelled...

Many captives from among them I burned with fire, and many I
took as living captives. From some, 1 cut off their noses, their ears,
and their fingers, of many 1 put out the eyes. 1 made one pillar of
the living, and another of heads, and 1 bound their heads to tree
trunks round about the city. Their young men and maidens 1
burned in the fire.
Twenty men 1 captured alive and 1 immured them in the wall of his
palace... The rest of tie warriors I consumed with thirst in tire desert
of the Euphrates...'25.

Reliefs often show their captives being led by cords, attached
to hooks that pierce the nose or the lips, or having their eyes
gouged at the point of a spear. Thus, 'sadistic torture' was a
frequent feature of Assyrian warfare about which they
shamelessly boasted, and which they carefully recorded. The
knowledge of their cruelty served them to advantage militarily,
striking terror into the hearts of those in their line of attack, and
often causing resistance to crumble.

Their religion was largely inherited from Babylon and,
although they viewed their own national god Asshur, and their
king as his high priest, as supreme, they continued to look upon
Babylon as their chief religious centre. The religion they practised
was animistic; they believed that every object and natural
phenomenon was animated by a spirit. To them, war was the
truest expression of the national religion. Their armies marched
behind the standards of the gods. They attached great importance
to omens, to the flight of birds, or to the position of the planets.
W.B. Wright states:

----Footnotes----
Z' Aid to Bible understanding, New York, 1971, p. 151.
-----------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 6

Fighting was the business of the nation, and the priests were
incessant fomenters of war. They were supported largely from the
spoils of conquest, of which a fixed percentage was invariably
assigned to them before others shared...

Assyria was aptly described by the 'Prophet Nahum' as a 'lair of lions', `and
their capital, Nineveh, 'the city of bloodshed'27. But it did not last long. In
610-19 B.C. both the Babylonians and the Medes wreaked bitter vengeance on
the Assyrian capital. Babylon's chronicles report: 'The great spoil of the city and
temple they carried off, and (turned) the city into a ruin-mound'. Two great
mounds now mark the site of this once proud capital1s.
The religion of modem
Assyrians
Modern Assyrians believe that they are the first people to accept
Christianity, and refer to themselves as 'ancient' (kadim). While Christianity
united the Assyrians, in the long run it divided them. With the dissemination of
Christianity, various christological beliefs and doctrines were put forward, the
supporters of which began to struggle against each other. During these struggles
the Assyiran 'National' Church was established; but owing to different religious
doctrines, and to the political intrigues of the Byzantines and the Sassanians, the
Assyrian Church and people were divided. The Eastern Assyrians and the
Nestorian Church, on the one hand, and the Western Assyrians and the Assyiran
Orthodox Church, on the other, began to struggle with each other. Thus the
Assyrians had to face, not only the Byzantines and the Sassanians, but also the
various creeds and factions among theselves and this schism lasted for almost
six centuries, and destroyed completely their unity2".

----Footnotes----
2" W.B. Wright: Ancient Cities, p. 25. 27
Nahum 2: 11, 12; 3: 1.
28 'Cruel Assyria - the second Great World Power", The Watchtower, vol. 109, no. 4, 15.2.1988, pp. 248; see also
The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 1, 1985, p. 648; A.T. Olmstead: History ofAssyria, 1923; L.Waterman: Royal
Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, 4 viols., 1930-6; D.D. Luckenbill (translation): The annals of
Sennacherib, 1924; Luckenbill: AncientRecords ofAssyria, 2 vols., 1926-27; H.W.F. Saggs: Thegreatness that was Babylon,
1962. 2" Bilge. pp. 17-18
-----------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 7

Today the Assyrians are mainly divided into two categories: 1. the Eastern
Assyrians, who consist of Nestorians and Chaldeans; and 2. the Western
Assyrians, who consist mainly of the 'Silryanis' also known as Jacobites or
Aramians. They claim that, since the fall of Nineveh, as a people they divided.
Some of them fled to the mountains between Lake Urmia, Lake Van, and Mosul,
where they made their homes and kept up their ancient customs, habits, and
languages°.

Their first religious centre was established at Antioch (Antakya), under a
patriarch. They were then under the rule of the Roman Empire, which
economically exploited them and politically oppressed thems'. With the division
of that empire into two, the bishops that belonged to the Patriarchate of Antioch
began to act independendys2. During the reign of Emperor Constantine (306-37
C.E.), who, with the Milano Decree in February 313 declared Christianity to be
the official religion of his state, a number of controversies developed about the
nature of Christ, which eventually led to the Great Schism of the Chruch in 518,
and to the establishment of Nestorianism.

The Assyrian Nestorian Church takes its name from Nestorius, Patriarch of
Canstantinople (428-31 C.E ), who is associated with the saying: 'Let no one call
Mary the Mother of God, for Mary was a human being; and that God should be
born of a human being is impossible'. The Nestorian doctrine held that Christ
had two distinct natures: 'the divine logos dwelt in the man, Jesus Christ, as in a
husk or temple'. Mary was the mother of his human nature only, and to call her
'Theotokos', or 'God Bearer', was blasphemy.

In 431 the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorianism, but the 'heresy'
continued to spread in Syria and Persia. In the seventh century the adherents of
Nestorianism came to terms with Islam. The Nestorian Church then developed
missionary zeal in Asia, penetrating into India and China. Marco Polo makes a
number of references to the Nestorian churches he

----Footnotes----
s° FO 371/8993/E: Agha Petros to President of the Near East Peace Conference, Lausanne, memorandum dated
2.12.1922.
11 Bilge, p, 48.
32 Sertoglu, pp. 34 ff.
-----------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 8

passed on the overland route from Baghdad to Peking--". The
Sassanian emperors welcomed the Nestorians as rebels from
Rome; and though the Zoroastrian priesthood opposed their
influx, they were tolerated, and grew in numbers, power, and
influences'', under the protection of Persian rulers who used them
as an instrument against Byzantine political and military
ambitions. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the invasion
of the Mogols forced those Nestorians then living in Mesopotamia
to take refuge in the mountain fastnesses of southeastern
Anatolia. They settled in Hakkari, and in the villages stretching
north towards Vans'.

The christological difference of the Assyrian Nestorian Church
from the Orthodox Church is the opposite of the Monophysites
who believe that Christ has only one nature and one person. The
Assyrian Nestorians maintain that he had two natures, two
essences (attributes), each with its nature3~'. But there is no
historical justification for 'the mythical theory' that Nestorius was
the founder of the Assyrian Church. Nestorius was not an
Assyrian, although the Jacobite Church accepts him as such. The
term 'Nestorian' is a nickname given to this Christian community,
because of its hospitality and service to the Christian refugees,
followers of Nestorius, who sought asylum in Persia in
consequence of their condemnation as doublenature heretics, and
banishment from the Roman Empire, after the deposition of
Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus.

Nestorianisrn, as applied to the Assyrian Christians, is not a
proper apellation - it is a misnomer, they insist. Even the
Maronite Archbishop and librarian of the Vatican, G.S. Assemani,
who wrote their history in four volumes, failed to call them
'Nestorians'. He called them 'Assyrians or Chaldeans'. The Church
of the East grew up in Apostolic times and was evangelised by St.
Thaddeus (Mar Addai) and St. Mary, disciples of the

----Footnotes----
sa FO 871/3409/116013: Captain Buxton to Sir Mark Sykes, letter, Oxford, dated 30.6.1918, enclosing a
memorandum on 'The Uniat Churches ofAsiatic Turkey,. lhsan Sakarya: Belgelerle Ermeni Sorunu (the Armenian
Question in documents), Ankara, 1984, p. 16; Prof. Dr. Mehlika Ka§garh: Kilikya tabi Eimeni Baronlugu taiihi (history of
the Armenian vassal Barony of Cilicia) Ankara, 1990, p. 46; Bilge, pp. 66 ff.; Mehmet Celik: Sueyani Kilisesi Taribi (history
of the Assyrian Church), vol. 1, Istanbul, 1987, pp. 33 ff.
a' Sir Hamilton Gibb and Harold Bowen: Islamic Society and tile West, vol. 1, part 2, London, 1957, pp. 227-28.
Hills, p. 230.
i(" FO 371/15315/E 2416: Reverend Panfil's statement, Beirut, 20.4.1931; see also Ka*garh, p. 46.
-----------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 9


Apostles. It was a powerful church before the birth of Nestorius.
Assyrian Christians, to this day, call themselves 'Nestorians' as
the Friends call themselves 'Quakers', but only in a
good-humoured concession to the misunderstanding of others.
According to David Barsum Perley: 'There is not, there never was,
such a thing as the Nestorian Church, and neither Jacobites nor
Nestorians, be it said, hold the heresies which their nicknames
suggest, and which their enemies credit with their teaching'17.

They preserved intact the simple teachings of the Gospels up
to the present day. Hence, in the words of Erich Feigl, the
Assyrians, who did not recognise the decision of the Council of
Ephesus to call Mary 'Mother of God', would have been totally
obliterated by the power of the Byzantine State, and the Greek
Orthodox Church, had they not found protection and refuge
under the Zoroastrian Persians, and later, under the Umayyad,
Abbasid and Ottoman Caliphs3a. During the Arab conquests they
cooperated with the Muslimss~' because, despite the christological
differences among them, they were all united in one purpose:
hatred for the Byzantinesa°..

Under the Ottomans 'a period of calm and relative prosperity
began', declares the Churches Committee of Migrant Workers in
Western Europe'. Nevertheless, in 1551, during the reign of the
Ottoman Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (ruled 1520-66) , the
Assyrians suffered a severe schism as a result of a dispute over
the Catholicate. One of their bishops, John Sulaka, who was
elected Patriarch, entered into communion with Rome with a
number of his followers, and thus caused the Uniate secession of
what became known as the Chaldean Church. The term
'Chaldean' was first used in 1445 by Pope Eugenius IV to
distinguish the Nestorians of Cyprus, newly reconciled to Rome,
from the Nestorians proper, who were henceforth called
'Assyrians'. The term became popular after the profession of
Catholicism by John Sulaka, who was recognised by Pope Julius
II as Patriarch of the Chaldeans. The successors of Sulaka later
assumed the name

----Footnotes----
117 Perley, p. 39; for more information on Nestorius and Nestorianism, see The New Encyclopaedia Bjitannica,
vol. 4, p. 519, and vol. 8 pp. 612-13.
38 Erich Feigl: A myth of terror, Armenian extremism: its causes and its historical context, Austria, 1986, p. 31; see
also Bilge, pp. 74 ff.
x`° Yalqtn: Milliyet newspaper, 25.7.1990.
°~ Aziz Atiyal: Ahistoryof Eastern Christianity, London, 1968; Ka*garh 1, p. 49.
t' Churches Committe on Migrant Workers in Europe: Christian minorities in Turkey, Brussels, September 1979, p.
11.
-------------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEY VICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY - 10

Simon, and bore the title of 'Patriarch-Catholicos of Babylon of the
Chaldeans'42. Meanwhile, on his return to Diyarbakir, Sulaka was
arrested, and died in prison. After a relapse, the Chaldean
Patriarchate was reconstituted at Diyarbakir in 1672 (1681 according
to Captain Buxton)4s. In that year the Nestorian Bishop of
Diyarbakir, Mutran Yusuf, seceded, and was consecrated by the Pope
as 'the Patriarch of the Chaldeans'.

The numbers of the Uniate Nestorians had begun to increase
through the efforts of French missionaries. At the end of the seventeenth
century the whole of the 'Patriarchate of the Plain', catering for the needs of the
Assyrians living in the plains, submitted to Rome, while the
'Patriarchate of the Mountains', catering for the needs of those who lived in the
mountains, still adhered to the Nestorian 'heresy'. In 1844 the French Embassy
in Istanbul secured their recognition as a separate community by the
Sublime Portea4. Thereafter they were represented by their own delegate. But
Patriach Mar Ziya obtained an Imperial Firman, which declared that
the Chaldean Church was independent of Rome. He was accordingly
removed through Papal influence, and a French Papal Delegate appointed to
control his successors. In 1870 a schism was caused among the Chaldeans
by the Bull Reversurus , which further limited their independence, and imposed
the doctrine of Papal infallibility. Thereupon the 'Majority of the
community, known as the 'Old Chaldeans', reverted to the Nestorian Church. At
the end of the First World War the Chaldean Church was still subject to a
Papal Delegate, but since 1884 the Patriarch had been chosen by the
bishops. He lived of Mosul, and took the name of Joseph, while his title was
'Catholicos of the See of St. Thomas, the Apostle of Babylon'. Despite the efforts of
the missionaries, the Chaldean Catholic Church remained a small body,
with scattered congregations in Baghdad, Mosul, Siirt, and Aleppoa5.
The Uniate Assyrian Church was a secession from that of the
Jacobites, who shared the Monophysite doctrines with the Copts,
Armenians, and Abyssinians. In 1743 an Imperial Firman recognised
it as a separate religious community, but until 1830 the Uniate
Assyrians were under the civil control of the Orthodox and Gregorian
Patriarchs. They were then placed under

----Footnotes----
1; The New Encyclopaedia Britaanica, vol. 3, p. 60. 4~i
FO 371/3409/116013, see p. 4.
41 The Ottoman Government was referred to as the Baba All (Sublime Porte), as the French Government is
referred to as the Qui d'Orsay.
4' Gibb and Bowen, I, p. 248.
----------------------

THE ASSYRIANS OF TURKEYVICTIMS OF MAJOR POWER POLICY 11

the Armenian Catholic Patriarch, but in 1848 they obtained their own
civil jurisdiction, and were then represented by a vicar in Istanbul.
Their first Patriarch was Ignatius Michael jarout6, who, being
converted to Catholicism in 1760, had fled from Aleppo, and taken
refuge in the Lebanon. There, he bought the Convent of Charge,
which was a seminary of the Uniate Assyrians. The Patriarch usually
resided at Aleppo, and his title was 'Patriarch of Antioch'. A
considerable number of this small community lived at Mardin. They
had archbishops at Homs, Damascus, and Baghdad.

The Maronites claim to have been Orthodox Catholics from
earliest times, but it is believed that they formerly held the
Monothelite (a variation of the Monophysite) 'heresy'. They accepted
the Catholic doctrine in 1180, but were not definitely united with
Rome until the sixteenth century. Since that time the Maronite
Church has jealously guarded its autonomy, but it has always been
intensely Catholic, and has been warmly commended by several
Popes for the severity of its suppression of heresy. In 1840 the
Maronites were recognised as a separete community by the Porte. The
great majority inhabit the Lebanon (which had enjoyed a form of
autonomy since 1860), and the relation of their church with the Porte
were not, therefore, on the same footing as those of other churches.
The Patriarch, who always took the name of Peter, lived in the
Lebanon, but had the title of 'Patriarch of Antioch'. His election by the
bishops was confirmed by the Holy See.

The Nestorian Assyrians lived in the mountainous districts of
southeastern Anatolia, overlapping with the borders of Iran and Iraq,
inhabiting Darvar, Tiari, Tkhoma, Baz, Dez, Jelou, Gavar, Urmia,
Julamerk, etc., with Kotchanis as their Patriarchal See. The
Chaldeans lived in the Province of Mosul, in various localities
extending from Lower Mesopotamia (Iraq) to the Persian Gulf, with
Mosul as their Patriarchal See; and the Jacobites lived in the Province
of Diyarbakir, North Syria, and other localities in the Ottoman
Empire, with the city of Mardin as their Patriarchal See-"!. Today the
Assyrian churches consist of the following: Assyrian Orthodox
Church (Patriarchate of Antioch), Assyrian Nestorian Church (Eastern
Assyrian Church), Assyrian Maronite Church (Patriarchate of
Antioch), Assyrian Chaldean Church (Patriarchate of Babyl), Assyrian
Catholic Church, Assyrian Melkite Church

----Footnotes----
"" FO 371/4177/111181.
----------------

... more to come later.



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