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.

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 16th (France + Catholic missionaries) and 19th (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.

************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.

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

Below is an article published by Society for Threatened People:
 

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.