Cardinal Emmanuel Delly of the East- Aramean Chaldean Church of Babylon in Iraq denounces the proposed fake name "Chaldean- Syrian- Assyrians"

Hanna Dolabani

3-3-2010: Exodus of the Arameans of Mosul continues undiminished: According to UN report already 720 Aramean families (4320 people) have left Mosul

1-3-2010: Peaceful demonstration on Sunday 28^th of February 2010 by the Aramean Orthodox and Catholics in Baghdeda (Qaraqosh), northern Iraq

27-2-2010: Council of Churches in Iraq appeals to the government to protect the Aramean people in Mosul, Iraq

26-2-2010: The Arameans of Mosul: A new Exodus and Ethnic cleansing is going on

18-2-2010: The Arameans of Iraq again victim of killings and bloodbaths:

24-12-2009: A Christmas “message” for the Arameans of Mosul: Four Aramean Churches attacked and one Aramean killed

26-10-2009: Exactly one month and one day after the dramatic appeal of Iraqi President to the United Nations, two car bombs were detonated in the neighborhood of the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq

1-9-2009: Arameans of Iraq: The East- Aramean Chaldean bishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk sounds the alarm bell

29-8-2009: Totally unfounded or has it a grain of truth in it? Greater- Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Arameans of Mosul and surroundings in Iraq

14-7-2009: The Special UN envoy to Iraq, Mr. Ad Melkert, wants extra protection for the Aramean Christians in Iraq

13-7-2009: Seven Indigenous Aramean Churches in Baghdad (Iraq) attacked by car bombs

4-5-2009: Aramean blood continues to flow in Iraq…

15-11-2008: Iraq: The bloodshed of Aramean people and bombardment of churches continues undiminished

27-10-2008: Attempt of ethnic cleansing Mosul: The Aramean Srebrinica. Who is responsible and why?

14-10-2008: Aramean indigenous nation of Iraq: Removal of article 50, exclusion, killings, persecutions, displacements and ethnic cleansing in Mosul erea

2-9-2008: Again two Arameans killed in Iraq

Killing of Priest Yusuf Adel Abudi

4-5-2008: Again a Aramean spiritual leader is killed in Iraq. This time: The West- Aramean Syrian orthodox priest Yusuf Adel Abudi in Bagdad

11-4-2008: Through all the misery: Miracles happens in Iraq

6-4-2008: Funeral of the West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox Priest Yusuf Adel Abudi

Killing of Mgr. Faraj Raho

1-3-2008: East- Aramean Chaldean bishop of Mosul, Mgr. Paulus Faraj Raho was abducted on 29-2-2008 in Mosul.

13-3-2008: The East- Aramean Chaldean bishop Paulus Faraj Raho killed in Mosul

14-3-2008: Friday 14-3-2008: Funeral of Mgr. Faraj Raho in St. Addai Church in Karemlesh

16-3-2008: Mgr. Paulus Faraj Raho: A Great Spiritual Leader and a Worthy Sheppard in Charge of Jesus Christ

23-2-2008: Aramean centre for art and culture has been opened in Ankawa, northern Iraq

7-1-2008: Aramean Churches and institutions in Iraq under Attack

22-8-2007: AINA: The international lie- and hate machine and the cause of killing, persecution and decline of the Arameans of Iraq

Killing of Priest Ragied Aziz Gannie

3-6-2007: East- Aramean Chaldean priest Ragied Aziz Gannie brutally murdered in Mosul along with three deacons by Muslim extremists

25-5-2007: Terror against Arameans (including "Assyrians" and Chaldeans) of Iraq. Ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous people of Iraq

Killing of Isoh Majeed Hadaya

22-11-2006: The West- Aramean Isoh Majeed Hadaya killed by terrorists in Iraq

Killing of Priest Paulus Iskandar

12-10-2006: Aramean priest Iskandar beheaded in Mosul (Iraq)

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.

Cardinal Emmanuel Delly of the East- Aramean Chaldean Church of Babylon in Iraq denounces the proposed fake name "Chaldean- Syrian- Assyrians".

Background information:

Dutch Version

The Aramean nation in Iraq consist out of the following denominations, namely:

The West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox

The West- Aramean Syrian Catholics

The West- Aramean Melkites

The East- Aramean Nestorian Ancient Church of the East

The East- Aramean Nestorian Chaldeans

The East- Aramean Nestorian Assyrians

Although exact numbers are unknown, however before 2003, there were around 800.000 Arameans in Iraq. Their number is unfortunately reduced to 400.000 or even less.

The terms “East- “ and “West- Arameans” go back to the time of early Christianity where the Aramean indigenous nation was geographically termed as such. Roughly speaking the Euphrates River was the border. Those Arameans living Eastern of Euphrates, thus living in Persia, were termed “East- Arameans” and those living Western of Euphrates, thus in Roman Empire, were called “Western- Arameans”.

The designations “Chaldeans” and “Assyrians” for the eastern Arameans go back to the Western colonial activities of the 16^th (France + Catholic missionaries) and 19^th (Great Britain + Anglican missionaries) centuries. The ecclesiastical and political Western powers closely worked together and setup camps in Turkey, Iraq, and Iran where the Aramean children were “educated” through which they were completely uprooted from their Aramean origin. They thereby planted a horrible form of fanaticism in their hearts which caused them to display an immense aversion to their Aramean origin.

In the year 1553 the Western Catholic missionaries together with France brainwashed a part of the East- Aramean clergy by means of bribery to call themselves “Chaldeans” with the result that the Aramaic language became known as “Chaldean” language and a part of the Aramean nation became known as “Chaldean” nation in some parts of the Western literature, the first attack on the Aramean heritage.

As a result of mutual hatred and competition between the Western Catholics and Protestants, in the late 19^th century the same process was repeated, this time by the Anglican missionaries and Great Britain, and the other part of the East- Aramean “Nestorian” tribes of Hakkari (bordering Turkey and Iraq) and Urmia (Iran) to call themselves "Assyrians"- a term which was used purely geographically and only applied to the "Nestorians". The result was that Aramaic became known as “Assyrian” language and the Aramean nation as the “Assyrian” nation- this was the second and more severe attack on the Aramean heritage- a kind of spiritual genocide.

More on this horrible spiritual genocide:

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

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Mosul_Aramean_Srebrinica_27_10_2008.htm

http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/Miracles_In_Iraq_11_4_2008.htm

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Arameans_In_The_Media_Misinformation_8_6_2009.htm

Constitution Kurdistan region and the fake name: Chaldeans- Syrians- Assyrians

(Please find at the end two articles on this constitution)

On 29-10-2008 the East- Aramean Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon recognized in no uncertain terms the Aramean origin of the Iraqi Christians by stating, ".... but I would like to state that we, the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syrian people are one people known as Aramean people"

http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/Patriarch_Emmanuel_Delly_Aramean_28_10_2008.htm

The fake name "Chaldeans- Syrians- Assyrians" is in particular being promoted by the Kurdish finance minister Mr. Sarkis Agajan and the chairman of the Chaldean- Syrian- Assyrian Council of Ankawa, Mr. Jamil Zaito; both of them being paid by the Kurds. This odious designation was also in various forms promoted by the Assyrian ADO-terrorists (http://www.aramnahrin.org/English/The_Primitive_dangerous_ADO_ideology_16_9_2008.htm)

Under influence of of Mr. Agajan, who is occupying the minister post on behalf of KDP, this exotic name in reference to the Aramean people in the north of Iraq approved by the Kurdistan regional Parliament.

On 25-6-2009 Mgr. Emmanuel Delly sent a letter to Masoud Barzani, the president of the regional government of Kurdistan in which he asks to overturn the decision of the Parliament regarding these fabricated name to designate the Arameans in the north of Iraq. Please find below the English translation and the Arabic text.

The exotic term "Chaldeans- Syrians- Assyrians" is a flagrant violation and a vivid attempt of cultural extermination of the Aramean indigenous nation who has been present in the area of Upper- Mesopotamia, which also was called Paddan- Aram in ancient time since time immemorial. Such an artificial invented name for the Aramean indigenous nation is nothing but continuation and approval of the evil colonial Western policy of extermination.

Arameans sent a letter to President Masoud Barzani and Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani

On 29-8-2007 the Arameans of Aram-Naharaim Organisation along with the Aramean bishops in Iraq and the Aramean Democratic Organisation (ArDO) sent a letter to the president Masoud Barzani and Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan regional government concerning the Aramean people in the north of Iraq. Please find here the letter: http://www.iraqichristians.org/English/Letter_Kurdistan_Regional_Government_29_8_2007.htm

Unfortunately, the decision of the parliament does not reflect the desire of the Aramean people, but rather it maintains the spiritual colonialism of the past which caused the downfall of the Aramean nation in the Middle-East.

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly is asking Al-Barzani to include the Chaldean ethnicity, as distinct national name and not to put under the fabricated one.

Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon, Bagdad

Nr 39/09

Your Excellency Mr. Massoud Al-Barzani, President of the Kurdistan region.

May Gods peace be with you .

I am writing you this letter, and ask you for your well-known justice and love for all people of Iraq without any exception and distinction.

During the Chaldean bishops meeting held in Ankwa on 5 May 2009, we insisted on our Chaldean national identity along with the rest of (other) ethnicities. We therefore remind your Excellency of our equitable request to include the Chaldean ethnicity, identity and legitimate rights as own national one along with the other ethnicities.

We also thank you for your consistent position towards the various nationalities that make up the Iraqi people, including Chaldeans, Syriacs and Assyrians and of your concern of not to integrate their names under a fabricated one. Further we kindly ask you to protect the rights of all the ethnicities who are living in the Kurdistan region and who express their love and appreciation to you and which every of them is proud of its name as it has been for thousands of years.

What we hope and really ask you is not to approve the ratification of the decision of the Parliament of the Kurdistan region with regard to Article 5 of the draft Constitution of the Kurdistan region which is in agreement with article 125 of the Federal Constitution of Iraq, in which your Excellency had played a great role and was well appreciated.

All thanks to you from the Chaldean bishops and the Chaldean people from around the world.

May God bless you.

Yours truly, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly ,

Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldeans around the world

*****************Arabic tekst*******************

(The original Arabic letter: http://www.aramaic-dem.org/Arabic/Seyassah/090701.htm)

الكاردينال مار عمانوئيل الثالث دلي يطالب البارزاني:

بأدراج التسمية الكلدانية قائمة بذاتها وعدم دمجها تحت اسم مركب واحد

بعث نيافة الكاردينال مار عمانوئيل الثالث دلي في الـ 2 5حزيران الجاري "رسالة" الى رئيس اقليم كردستان مسعود البارزاني، طالب فيها " عدم الموافقة بالتصديق على ما قرره برلمان اقليم كردستان بخصوص المادة رقم 5 من مسودة دستور الاقليم" و "ادراج التسمية القومية الكلدانية قائمة بذاتها، وبهويتها الخاصة، وحقوقها المشروعة الى جانب القوميات الاخرى".

وقال الكاردينال " ما نرجوه منكم ونطلبه بالحاح هو عدم موافقتكم بالتصديق على ما قرره برلمان اقليم كردستان بخصوص المادة رقم 5 من مسودة دستور اقليم كردستان لتاتي منسجمة مع ما جاء في دستور العراق الفدرالي المادة 125 والذي كان لكم فيها دور كبير ومشكور".

واضاف الكاردينال "في اجتماع اساقفة الكلدان المنعقد في عنكاوا بتاريخ 5 آيار الماضي، اكدنا على هويتنا القومية الكلدانية الى جانب القوميات الاخرى، لذا نذكر فخامتكم بمطلبنا العادل".

وتابع الكاردينال مخاطباً البارزاني " ما نرجوه منكم تمسككم الثابت بحقوق كل القوميات التي تعيش في اقليم كردستان، والتي تكن لكم كل المحبة والتقدير، وكل واحدة منها تفتخر بأسمها وبما هي عليه منذ الاف السنين". وشكر الكاردينال، البارزاني على "موقفه الثابت من مختلف القوميات التي يتكون منها الشعب العراقي ومنهم الكلدان والسريان و الاشوريين، وحرصه على عدم دمج اسمائهم تحت اسم مركب واحد".

وختم الكاردينال "رسالته" بتقديم "الشكر والتقدير من جميع الاساقفة الكلدان ومن الشعب الكلداني في كل مكان".

************New Constitution for the region Kurdistan*************

Iraqi Kurdistan Passes New Constitution to Include Kirkuk

By Asbarez Staff on Jun 25th, 2009

http://www.asbarez.com/2009/06/25/iraqi-kurdistan-passes-new-constitution-to-include-kirkuk/

ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan on Wednesday passed a new constitution in which it laid claim to the disputed oil-rich province of Kirkuk, a move likely to increase ethnic tension. The text, which also said that areas within Nineveh and Diyala provinces were part of Iraqi Kurdistan, was approved by 96 of the 111 MPs in the regional parliament in Arbil.

The document will be put before Kurdish voters for ratification on July 25, the same day that the region holds parliamentary and presidential elections. However, seven MPs walked out of Wednesday’s parliamentary session and declared the vote illegal because the legislature’s mandate had ended on June 4. The United Nations on April 22 handed over to the Baghdad government an eagerly awaited report on disputed areas of Iraq, including Kirkuk, in which it refused to contemplate the division of the deeply-contested province.

The Kurds have long striven to expand their northern territory beyond its current three provinces to other areas where the population was historically Kurdish, an ambition that has been bitterly contested by the Arabs who were settled there in large numbers under Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime. In order to dilute historic Kurdish majorities, a number of provincial boundaries were also redrawn so as to include Arab populations and minority groups, further stoking ethnic tensions.

The regional government’s new constitution refers to Kurdistan being “composed of Kurds, Turkmen, Arabs, Chaldeans, Syriac, Assyrians, Armenians and others who are citizens of the Kurdistan region.”

“This is an important and historic day,” said the Kurdish parliament spokesman Adnan al-Mufti.

“For the first time the people of Kurdistan took steps to be the owner of their own constitution and to exercise their natural right.” He said the constitution “recognises and respects the Islamic identity of the majority of the people of Kurdistan in Iraq” and the “full religious rights of Christians and Yazidis”.

Kurdistan, whose capital is Arbil in northern Iraq, has its own flag which is raised beside the federal flag, and also has its own slogan, national anthem and national day.

New constitution of Iraqi Kurdistan is a model for the nationality and minority politics of the Near-east

Source http://www.unpo.org/content/view/9770/116/

Below is an article published by Society for Threatened People:

New constitution of Iraqi Kurdistan is a model for the nationality and minority politics of the Near-east

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) has described the new constitution of the autonomous federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan as a shining model for the nationality politics and the solution of the minority problems in the Near-east. “The rights of all large ethnic groups in Iraqi Kurdistan are expressly anchored, including the right to self-government and freedom of religion”, said the President of the GfbV International, Tilman Zülch, on Tuesday in Göttingen. Smaller communities too have the opportunity to develop. (entfalten”) The regional parliament in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, passed the draft constitution last week. Now it is for the citizens of the federal state to vote for or against the new constitution at the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 25th July [2009].

The wishes of all nationalities have been respected in the new constitution. Article 15 says: “The people of the federal state of Iraqi Kurdistan is made up of Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians, Armenians and other citizens of Kurdistan /Iraq.” Article 35 says: “This constitution guarantees the national, cultural and administrative rights of the Turkmens, Arabs, Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians and Armenians including their right to regional autonomy in the regions and communities in which these ethnic groups form a majority.” Article 36 guarantees complete freedom of religion also for the Christian denominations and the religious community of the Yezidi.

Apart from the Kurdish and Arab languages Turkmen, New Aramaic and Armenian are recognized as languages of the smaller nationalities. In communities or regions where these form the majority local or regional autonomy is granted. The right to native language instruction is guaranteed by the constitution from primary school to university.

An electoral law for Kurdistan also sets down that eleven of the 111 seats in the regional parliament are reserved for non-Kurdish nationalities:

five seats each for Turkmens and Christians and one seat for the small Armenian ethnic group. For the provincial councils also a comprehensive quota system has been introduced. In Sulaimaniya one seat has been reserved for the Chaldaic Aramean Assyrians, In Arbil there are three seats for the Turkmens, two for the Aramaic-speaking Christians and one for the Armenians, while in Dohuk two seats are reserved for the Aramaic-speaking Christians and one for the Armenians. The smaller peoples will be having as a result of their guaranteed seats in all bodies more representatives than corresponds to their percentage in the total population.

In Kurdistan/Iraq there is today a Turkmen and a New Aramaic school system with 58 Aramaic, 16 Turkmen and two Armenian schools. Both nationalities have media (press, radio, TV and culture institutes) in their languages. There is also a private Turkish university and a theological seminar of the Chaldaic Catholic Church for the training of priests, which following the recent mass flight of Christians from Baghdad was transferred to the Kurd capital of Arbil.

The GfbV is represented in Arbil / Iraqi Kurdistan by a section to which representatives of all ethnic and religious communities belong.

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