Ghala d gharna (The Sound of Horn) by Dr. Fraidon atoraya
A rare picture of the Assyrian Martyr, Dr. Fraidon Atouraya. Left to right (sitting) Ziga Levkoev and Fraidon Atouraya are Assyrians of Petrograd city from Samavat village in Georgia...
Music and Biography of the Assyrian nationalist
Dr. Freydun Bit Abram Atturaya (1891-1926)
Compiled and edited by Esha Emmanuel Tamras
June 21, 2001www.atour.com
Freydun Bit Abram (Atturaya) was born in 1891 in the town of Charbash in the district of Urmia. His father was Yacob Bit Abram and his mother was Insoph Taimoraz.
His mother died while he was a young boy, so his father Yacob took him to live with his maternal uncle in Tbilisi, Russia. After finishing his primary education with honors, he applied to the Univerisy of Saratog, Kharkov(Harput). In 1915, at 24 years of age, he graduated as a Medical Doctor. It also said that he attended the military academy at the Leningrad University.
His love for his Assyrian nation was instilled in him since early childhood and it grew in him as he grew up. He dreamed of the day when he would save and lead his nation into self determination and self rule.
Upon his graduation, he was appointed as a medical doctor for the Russian Army; he was the head of the military hospital in Georgia during WWI and was later appointed as the Chief Medical Officer for the Northern and Southern Caucasian Railways. During this time, the Russian railways were engaged heavily in the transportation of troops to various war fronts. In 1917 he was promoted to the rank of Director General of Finance to the U.S.S.R.
Dr. Freydun was later transfered to the Russian Forces in Iran, where he served at the 492nd Army Hospital in Khoi as well as a political officer. During these time, he worked zealously for a national home for the Assyrian people. He was highly respected and liked by all the high ranking Russian officials and his wishes were always fulfilled. He established an Assyrian Association in Tbilisi as well a Assyrian United Front, he also established the ssyrian National Committee in Urmia and sent 250 young Assyrian men to Russia for military training and requested, from the Russian Government, the delivery of arms and equipment for the deliverance of Bet Nahrain for the Assyrians. Also during these times, he he collaborated with the Russian vice-counselor Kirsanov to organize and run a refugee special committee. Thousands of Assyrians fleeing from genocide and hunger to the Transcaucasus were helped through this Red Cross assisted committee.
In 1917, the Russian Army in Iran was training about 2000 Assyrian soldiers to be the core of an Assyrian Army under the direct command of the late Mar. Benyamin Shimun; Catholicos of the Assyrian Church of the East and accepted not only as the spiritual leader but also as leader of the Assyrian people.
Dr. Freydun was also a powerful writer and a poet. Among his writings we know of "Balbati Kamayi", "Dianta D'kidvi" "Kala D'Karna", Shari Al Tiata Nahravati Di Urmi", "Sluta D'milat", and the well known and cherised "Ya Nishra Di Tkhumi" which has been sung by singers such as the late Gibrael Sayad and Ashur Bet Sargis to mention a few. He also established an Assyrian Library in Moscow and in Tbilisi and he also published an Assyrian magazine under the name of "Nakusha" as a means to awaken the nationalistic ferver in our Assyrian people and to advance his aim of a National Home for Assyrians; many of his essays were also published in the "Kokhwa" (Star) magazine published in Urmia.
In February 1917 Russia saw a bourgeois democratic revolution. Many Assyrian intellectuals supported this event enthusiastically. At that time Dr. Freydun Atturaya, Rabbi Benjamin Bet Arsanis and Dr. Baba Bet Parhad gathered to establish the first national political party, "The Assyrian Socialist Party". It is a great pity that the archives of the Assyrian National Council and Assyrian Socialist Party as well as the personal archive of Dr. Freydun Atturaya were destroyed during the revolution.
The prominent educator and historian, the renowned Assyrian public figure M.Sargizov (Rabbi Ljova) found in the Russia's foreign archives the text of the "Urmia Manifesto of the United Free Assyria" This material ran to some 20 paragraphs and was completed by Dr. Freydun Atturaya in the Assyrian language in April 1917. In the first paragraph he elaborated on the pursuit and challenges of the union in a hope for a new democratic Russia, "the goal of the free Assyrian unity is to establish in the future the national self-governing in the regions like Urmia, Mosul, Turabdin, Nisibin, Jezira, Julamaerk along with the reunification with the great free Russia in terms of economic and military agreements".
The withdrawal of Russia from the war in 1918 and the murder of the patriarch Mar Shimun Benjamin brought about extreme hardship for the Assyrians. The general exodus, the mass casualties and the absence of leadership resulted in the breakup of the national political and military forces. The majority of the Assyrian National Council members gathered in Tiflis. From that time the council was run by Dr. F. Atturaya, however as a result of endless conflicts all the Council members had to be re-elected, Dr. Freydun Atturaya was accused by some leaders of being pro-English or pro-French. He was put under arrest by the then regime a few times before communists took over in Georgia.
After the Soviet power emerged its influence over Iran Dr. Freydun Atturaya hoped for repatriation of Assyrians in Urmia and Salamis, he set out on a trip to see Mr. G. Chicherin, the Russian foreign minister, in 1921. However, this meeting was not fruitful.
In 1922, Dr. Freydun married Sonia in and they had two children, a son, named Sargon Bit Abram and a daughter named Nelli Bit Abram.
Two years later, in 1924, Dr. Freydun Atturaya was arrested by the Russian KGB and accused of being a fanatic Assyrian Nationalist who inspired the Assyrian nation toward the hope of returning to Bet-Nahrain (Iraq) and establishing a free Assyria.
It is said that Dr. Freydun Atturaya was poisioned while in prison although the Georgian (Russian Georgia) government officials denied involvement in his death and instead, they asserted that he had committed suicide by hanging himself in prison. Others have also stated that he was executed behind the bars by the KGB after being accused of spying for the British government.
His last letter, dated August 30, 1926 was sent to the USSR Supreme Court of justice and had the title "my spy case, devised by my personal enemies". In all the 24 paragraphs, the letter shows the courage and steadfastness of Dr. Freydun Atturaya.
The physician and the public figure Dr. Freydun Atturaya will live in the memory of our Assyrian nation as a Martyred nationalist, a brilliant poet and playwright.
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