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.

The Special UN envoy to Iraq, Mr. Ad Melkert, wants extra protection for the Aramean Christians in Iraq.

Dutch Version

 

Mr. Ad Melkert, the recently appointed special UN envoy to Iraq, said in a UN Press Release yesterday (see below) that the Iraqi government should redouble the efforts to protect Aramean and other minorities in Iraq. On Sunday 12-7-2009 in an orchestrated attack, seven Aramean churches were hit by car bombs.

 

The Arameans of Mesopotamia, the original inhabitants of Iraq – in ancient times called Aram-Nahrin in Aramaic and Aram-Naharaim in Hebrew, are now strangers in the lands of their forefathers and are threatened with extinction and ethnic cleansing by forces and ideologies who have never heard of the words like “peace”, “cooperation” and “human rights”.

 

The Aramean people of Iraq also made known in some media as “Assyrians” or Chaldeans are present since thousands of years in the area of the two rivers. Because of overwhelming presence of the Arameans in the cradle of civilization, the southern part of it Aram-Nahrin was called “Beth- Aramaye”, that means the house of the Arameans in Aramaic.

 

Unfortunately, the house of the Arameans has been burglarized by forces who just seem to have one goal in their mind and that is: to drive out as soon as possible the original owners of “Beth- Aramaye” in order to assume it for themselves. To achieve this, all means are allowed, they eschew nothing. Already, more than the half of the Arameans left Iraq.

 

In spite of wars, persecutions, pogroms and bloodbaths of the past centuries, they were able to survive under very difficult circumstances. With the fall of regime of Saddam Hussein, the situation of the Arameans of Iraq started to deteriorate. The fanatical and hateful black forces of intolerance, until then kept under control by Saddam Hussein, attained freedom to unleash their hatred against the defenseless and peacful minded Aramean indigenous people of Aram-Nahrin. This resulted in the attacks on the churches and the killings of the spiritual and lay leaders. We enumerate few examples:

 

West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox priest Paulus Iskandar killed in Mosul on 12-10-2006 by terrorists,
The West- Aramean Isoh Majeed Hadaya killed by terrorists in Iraq 22-11-2006
East- Aramean Chaldean priest Ragied Aziz Gannie brutally murdered in Mosul along with three deacons by Muslim extremists on 3-6-2007.
East- Aramean Chaldean bishop of Mosul, Mgr. Paulus Faraj Raho was abducted on 29-2-2008 in Mosul. His body was found on 13-3-2008 in Mosul and on 14-3-2008 he was buried in St. Addai Church in Karemlesh.
West- Aramean Syrian Orthodox priest Yusuf Adel Abud was killed on 5-4-2008 by terrorists in Baghdad and was buried on 6-4-2008 in the St. Paul and St. Cathedral in Baghdad.

 

These brutal killings resulted in that hundreds of thousands Arameans left Iraq for Syria, Jordan and the West.

 

Another point is that because the Arameans in general are skillful and hardworking people, their economic situation is much better than others. For this reason they are being targeted by ordinary criminals, thieves, Islamic terrorists, political powers and other interested groups who consider the defenseless Arameans as an easy prey in a area where the low of the jungle seems to be the rule.

 

Related Document:

 

 

 

Iraqi Christians need better protection, UN envoy says after deadly bombings

 

Source: http://www.un.org/

 

13 July 2009 – The top United Nations envoy to Iraq today called for a redoubling of efforts to protect the country’s Christians, as well as its other minority communities, following a series of “orchestrated” bombings over the weekend that hit several churches.

The weekend attacks in the capital, Baghdad, and the northern city of Mosul reportedly killed at least four people, and injured dozens more, including children.

 

“This campaign is aimed at terrorizing vulnerable groups and preventing the peaceful coexistence of different religious groups in what is one of the world’s cradles of religious and ethnic diversity,” said Ad Melkert, the newly-appointed Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq.

 

Mr. Melkert, who also heads the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), called on all parties, including the Government, to redouble their efforts to protect minorities in the country.

 

This will contribute to preserving Iraq’s cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, he added.

 

An upsurge in attacks, threats and intimidation had forced more than 12,000 Christians to flee Mosul – Iraq’s second largest city – last October. Some of them later returned after hearing that the security situation had improved.