|
To the
Assyrian Heritage of the Church of the East and the Chaldean
Church
Assyrian Heritage of the
Syrian Orthodox Church
Syriac
and other historical documents attest to the Assyrian heritage
of the Syrian Orthodox Church as well.
The Chaldean Bishop Addai Scher writes according to the Syrian
Orthodox Church Patriarch Michael the Great (1126-99) the Greeks
were offending the Jacobites in the first half of the 9th century
by saying:
'Your
Syrian sect has no importance neither honor, and you did never
have a kingdom, neither an honorable king'. The Jacobites answered
by saying that even if their name is "Syrian", but
they are originally 'Assyrians' "and they have had many
honorable kings." This is in line with the contemporary
Assyrian claim that the terms Syrian, Suryoye applied to them
mean Assyrian. He furthere wrote:
"..Syria is in the west of Euphrates, and its inhabitants
who are talking our Aramaic language, and who are so-called 'Syrians',
are only a part of the 'all', while the other part which was
in the east of Euphrates, going to Persia, had many kings from
Assyria and Babylon and Urhay. (39) The Greeks evidently directed their comments
to the Jacobites of Syria therefore Michael difrentiates between
them and those who lived east of Euphrates, he adds:
" Assyrians, who were called 'Syrians'
by the Greeks, were also the same Assyrians, I mean 'Assyrians'
from 'Assure' who built the city of Nineveh". (40) This
concurs with his contemporary Gewargis Arbilaya's [from Arbil]
and others before and after him who have identified their people
as Assyrians and Babylonians. |
During
Mor Michael's life time, between 1160 and 1170 John of Wurzburg
who visited Jerusalem refers to the Syriac speaking christians
of the city as Assyrians. There were both Nestorians and Jacobite
communities among others in that city. He writes:
| "For
the Assyrians [ local Syrian Christians] whose fathers were the
settlers of that country from the first persecution, say that
after Our Lord's Passion the city was seven time captured and
destroyed, together with all the churches, but not wholly leveled
to the ground." (41) |
Later
documents continue to identify the Syrian Orthodox Church and
its members as Assyrian before the 19th century. When Mehemt
II organized the Millet system he appointed the Patriarch of
the Armenian as the head of Millet. He was also given authority
over other Christian communities such "as the Gypsies ...the
Assyrians, the Monophysites of Syria and Egypt, and the Bogomils
of Bosnia, ....". Later each of these communities were recognized
as Millet independently of the Armenians. (42)
When
Horatio Southgate visited the Syrian Orthodox communities of
Turkey in 1843 he reported that its followers were calling themselves
Assyrians in the form of "Suryoye Othoroye". He writes:
" I began to make inquiries
for the Syrians. The people informed me that there were about
one hundred families of them in the town of Kharpout, and a village
inhabited by them on the plain. I observed that the Armenians
did not know them under the name which I used, SYRIANI; but called
them ASSOURI, which struck me the more at the moment from its
resemblance to our English name ASSYRIANS, from whom they claim
their origin, being sons, as they say, of Assour, (Asshur,) who
'out of the land of Shinar went forth, and build Nineveh, and
the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resin between Nineveh and Calah;
the same is a great city..(43)
Anglican
Bishop Oswald H. Perry who visited the Syrian Orthodox community
at the invitation of Patriarch Mar Ignatius Peter III in a book
published in 1895 titled, "six Months in a Syrian Monastery
writes the term Syrian is being used interchangeably with the
'Assyrian' by the members of the Jacobite church. After the massacres
of 1895-6 large number of the Assyrians of Turkey migrated to
the United State where they established churches and institutions
such as. The "Assyrian Benefit Association" founded
in 1897 by Dr. Dr. Abraham K. Yoosuf in Worcester. and "the
Assyrian National School Association of America" later called
"The Assyrian Orphanage and School Association of America."
(44)
"According to the French consul,
the notorious sheikh of Zeilan, responsible for mass incitement
at Sassun in 1894, had taken part in the plans for the massacre.
During the onslaughts, about 500-700 Armenians and Assyrians
took refuge in the French consulate which was 'practically besieged'." (45)
When Metropolitan Mutran
Aprim Barsum went to the Paris peace conference in 1920 to plead
the case of the Syrian Orthodox his petition identified members
of his church as Assyrians.
 courtesy
of www.bethsuryoyo.com
The Assryian delegation
at the Paris Peace Conference from Left to right: Captain A.K.
Yousuf, Secratary of Mor Barsum, Joel Warda. Mar Barsum Siting
at the center
The text of Mor
Barsum's petition dated Feb. 1920 reads:
| "We have the
honor of bringing before the Peace Conference the information
that H.B. the Syrian Patriarch of Antioch has entrusted me with
the task of laying before the Conference the suffering and the
wishes of our ancient Assyrian nation who reside mostly in the
upper valleys of Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia..."
(46) |
Some Members of the Orthodox Church on the main street
of the city of Worcester in 1922. Captain A.K. Yousuf M.D. in front
. The sign behind them reads "Sons of Assyria."
According
to a 1927 issue of the Worcester Telegram and Gazette Mor Aprim
Barsum who had become the Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church
continued proudly to identify his people as Assyrians.
| "His Eminence
has given lectures on the psychology of the Assyrian people in
the United States. His mission has been to create an understanding
of the Assyrian people by Americans, because most of them, although
well-educated in Assyria have been forced by a changed atmosphere
into menial occupations." (47) |
The
article also mentions the participation of Aprim Barsum in the
1919 conference held in Paris:
| "During the
peace conference he appeared to demand indemnity for the Assyrian
churches sacked during the World War, and on this occasion was
presented with a gold-headed cane by President Doumergue of France.
He is also a familiar figure in the educational centers of Europe
such as Oxford, Paris and Vienna."
(48) |
The Syriac text on this church
in turabedin reads it was restored "on the days of
Pariarch Afrem I (Barsoum) the Assyrian and the Bishop Afrem
of Turabdin...."
Changing Ethnicity for the sake of
religious politics
After
identifying himself and his people as Assyrians for most of his
life Mor Aprim Barsum issued a decree in to revise the ethnicity
of his followers to Arameans. The sealed document of the Patriarch
is dated December 2, 1952. It was written in Syriac and Arabic
and later published together with an English translation by
Archdiocese of the Syrian Church of Antioch under the title:
"The Syrian Church of Antioch, in Name and History."
His decision was perhaps influenced by the fact that the seat
of the Patriarch along with most of his followers were driven
out of Turkey in 1924 and resided in Syria where the native Christians
who made up a majority of his church members did not want to
be known as Assyrians.
|
Aprim's book was clearly intended to give
a new identity to his followers. If as he and others have suggested
Suryoyo meant Aramean it would have been a common knowledge,
therefore there would not have been a need to write a book about
it.
Aprim
Barsum justified his drastic change of mind by stating that church
in India and homeland [Middle East] is known as "Syrian
Orthodox" therefore the use of the Assyrian in the diaspora
creates ambiguity about the church and its unity." He further
claimed that "The name Assyrian came to be used in English
for the Church of the East during the nineteenth century"
through the efforts of Anglican Missionaries. (49) This argument
was intended to appeal to the religious prejudices of his followers
who were willing to reject their Assyrian identity lest they
be confused with the hated Nestorians. In reality as shown previously
the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of the East long before
the arrival of the Anglican missionaries had identified themselves
as Assyrians. |
The Syrian Church
of Antioch in Name and History
|
Barsum
further maintained historically it would be incorrect to use
the title Assyrian for the Church since it has been known as
"Syrian". However since this title was used by the
Rum Orthodox (Antiochian) Church in North America to avoid confusion
he recommended the name Aramaic to be used instead of the Syriac
language and the term Aramaean to refer to the Church.(50) Ironically
on the cover of his book the name of its language was identified
as suryoyo or Syriac. The use of Aramaic and Aramean instead
of Assyrian dictated by Aprim was not based on historical truth
but was intended to stop his followers from identifying themselves
as they had done before-the name change was simply motivated
by religious politics.
Since
1952 all references to the church and its members as Assyrians
have been expunged but some evidences of its former use have
survived. In a letter to the editor of the Syrian Orthodox magazine
Beth-Nahreen dated 6th of June 1947 Athanasius Yeshue Samuel,
Basum's Metropolitan of Jerusalem at Saint Mark's Convent, wrote:
"May the Almighty confer upon you, your staff, the readers
of the issue and the Assyrian community all over the world his
blessings and benedictions and crown your efforts with success."
A picture taken from the Saint Mark's Convent in Jerusalem shows
that its name plate in English originally was 'Assyrian convent'
later the first A and the s were painted over to make it read
'Syrian Convent' but the Jewish script above it still reads Ashurim
or Assyrian. When Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel arrived in the
United States his title on his letterhead was 'Assyrian Orthodox
Archbishop to the United States and Canada'. In a letter dated
August 12, 1952 to the Parishioners he wrote: "I shall
need the cooperation of every Assyrian who has the love of his
church and nation at heart."
courtesy of www.bethsuryoyo.com
Saint Mark Convent In Jerusalem
before the name change
|
Same place after the name change
|
Since
then the clergies of that church have carried out a cruel crusade
of ethnic cleansing toward their members who dare to identify
themselves as Assyrians. The late Frank Chavor up to his death
vividly remembered how members of his church fought attempts
to remove the name Assyrian from their church in Harport Connecticut
but were locked out by the court order obtained by the Archdiocese
to drive them out.
Reasons which led Aprim Barsum
to adopt his anti Assyrian policy included the close relationships
evolving between Assyrians of the Syrian Orthodox Church and
members of the Church of the East. In 1933 in response to the
Semail massacres of the Assyrians in Iraq the Assyrian National
Federation in the United States was jointly established by members
of both denominations. It must have come as a shock to Aprim
Barsum when David Perley an influential member of his church
defined Assyrian nationalism as follows:
"Such is the revolt of the new generation that has united
us all, against the narrow provincialism of the past regardless
of creed, under the banner of our Ethnarch, Mar Eshai Shimun
XXI, [the Patriarch of the Church of the East] our hero, both
spiritual and secular, in our struggle for survival. Over a period
of about a decade, the spirit of the political activities of
this youth of seven-and-twenty who commenced his career in the
field of battle has been characterized by a sane desire to establish
a homeland where liberty might reign supreme." (51)
This was published in Yosuf Malik's 'British Betrayal of the
Assyrians' who was a member of the Chaldean church but considered
himself and his people as Assyrians.
|
A 1964 book by Jibrail Iydin published in Turkey attests
to the Assyrian Heritage of the Suryoye and Suryaye of Mesopotamia.
the Title is: "History of the Suryoyto Kingdom." courtesy
of www.bethsuryoyo.com
|
Directors of the Assyrian
National Federation including members of the Syrian Orthodox
Church in the United States arranged for the Patriarch Eishay
Shimun to Present the "Assyrian National Petition"
to the "World Security Conference" at San Francisco
on May 7, 1945. Cooperation between members of the three denominations
were unraveling centuries of segregationist practices by the
Syriac speaking churches dedicated to keeping their flocks as
far away from each other as possible therefore something had
to be done to stop it. On May 12, 1952, His Holiness Patriarch
Ephrem I Barsoum appointed Archbishop Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel
as Patriarchal Vicar over the United States and Canada.Despite
protest by the members of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the United
States archbishop Mor Athanasius began the removal of the Assyrian
name from all but two churches in the United States. Members
who objected were locked out excommunicated and driven out.
Parishioners
of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Worcester, Massachusetts
and the Paramus of New Jersey refused to comply with the identity
change. They succeeded in keeping the Assyrian name 'by registering
their parishes independent of the main church under a trustee
group'. Archbishop Mor Cyril Aprim Karim later succeed in removing
the term Assyrian from the Virgin Mary church in Worcester, but
in Paramus the Assyrian identity of the church still prevails.
This is a classical example of a house at war against itself
divided into insignificance by its clergies.
Aprim
Basum's anti Assyrian policies succeeded in stopping a trend
which would have united the Syriac speaking people under a common
name but instead the term Aramean was introduced to promote divisiveness.
Factions of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Europe, the United
States and the Middle East still proudly proclaim their Assyrian
heritage while the rest insist that they are Arameans because
their patriarch Aprim Barsum told them.
The
change of name from "Assyrian Orthodox Church" to "Syrian
Orthodox church" led to a dispute with the Rum Orthodox
Church in North America. The matter was resolved by court litigation
which awarded the right to use the name to Aprim Barsum's denomination. (52)
During
the United States census of 2000 to prevent the possibility of
counting members of the Syrian Orthodox Church as Assyrians the
US Archbishops Cyril Aprim Karim and Clemis Eugene Kaplan issued
a declaration to change the name of the Church to "Syriac
Orthodox Church" and refer to its members as Syriacs.(53)
Since then the name Syriacs has been used sided by side with
Aramean to drive members of the church further away from their
Assyrian identity.
 courtecy of the www.bethsuryoyo.com
Syriac
in this context means nothing more than a religious denomination
and has nothing to do with national identity . This term previously
pertained to the language spoken by the christians of Mesopotamia
and Syria, and does not necessarily means Aramean. The fact that
Syriac is often used side by side with Aramean by those wishing
to distance themselves from their Assyrian heritage means the
two names are not synonymous and neither one of them adequately
explains the identity of the "Syrian Orthodox Church"
or its members. Identifying our people by the language they speak
rather than their national and historical heritage is akin to
forcing the European people to identify themselves as Latin rather
than their respective nationality.
To
justify their new Aramean identity members of the Syrian Orthodox
Church who identify themselves as such contend that the terms
'Syrian, Suraya and Suryoyo mean Aramean because in the third
century B.C. when the Greeks translated the Old Testament they
substituted Syrian for any mention of the Arameans. The fallacy
of this logic is that the term Syrian was in use before the 5th
century B.C. and according to Herodotus, Strabo and Justinus
and other Roman and Greek historians meant Assyrian. Furthermore
the inhabitants of Mesopotamia did not speak the Greek language
when they became Christians therefore it would not have mattered
what the Greeks called the Arameans, and would not have influenced
them in one way or another. By the third century B.C. the population
of Abar-nahra west of Euphrates consisted of not only the Arameans
also of Greeks, Romans, Canaanites, Arabs, and Assyrians. The
12 century patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox 'Michael the Great'
acknowledges that both Arameans and Assyrians were known as Syrian
Suryaye and Suryoye but he clearly distinguishes between the
two by writing those who lived "in the east of Euphrates,
going to Persia, had many kings from Assyria and Babylon and
Urhay." In other words the homeland of the Arameans was
considered West of Euphrates even at his time. He further wrote:
| "
Assyrians, who were called 'Syrians' by the Greeks, were also
the same Assyrians, I mean 'Assyrians' from 'Assure' who built
the city of Nineveh". (See
40) |
John Joseph
has also attempted to confuse the identity of the contemporary
Assyrians by stating that Asore or Asuri used by the Armenians,
Georgians and Russians for the Christian Assyrians long before
the 19the century means Syrian, not Assyrian. According to him
the correct Armenian name for Assyrians is "Asorestantji"
and cites the 1884 Anorayre De Byzance Dictionary as evidence.
We have already seen that Syrian was used historically as substitute
for Assyrian. Armenian Asore or Persian Asuri are composed of
'Asor' or 'Asur' meaning Assyria plus an ending possessive pronoun
to make them Assyrian. In fact if the Armenian Asore means Syrian
it validates all the other assertions that Syrian is another
form for Assyrian when applied to the christians of Mesopotamia.
In the classical Armenian literature such as the fifteenth century
version of the 'Wisdom of Khakar ' (Ahikar) ancient Assyrians
are called "Asores" and Assyria is Asorestan. This
is compatible with the Indo-European formula for nations and
their country. For example Afghani are the people of Afghanistan,
Hindi are the people of Hidustan, Armani are the people of Armanistan
and so-forth. One has also to wonder; if 'Asor' in "Asorestantji"
means Assyria why it would not in "Asore".
Another derivative from Asuri is the
Persian term Surian which is short for Asurian and means Assyrians.
It was used by the Arabs after their 7th century invasion as
"al-Suryaniyyun" which it means Assyrian as acknowledged
by the tenth century translator of the "Latin history of
Paulus Orosius" (cr. 961-976 AD), where it is equated with
the Latin "Assyri" [Assyrian].(54)
Despite
all attempts by the Syrian Orthodox Church to distance itself
from its Assyrian heritage, its Assyrian legacy is still alive
in Turkey. Articles about Christians in that country written
by Turks still refer to members of the church as Assyrians. On
one internet site under the title: "Mardin and Surrounding
Areas; Assyrian Monasteries." after praising the Assyrian
stone masons for having built magnificent buildings in Mardin
it continues:
"Perhaps even more striking
than Mardin itself are the Assyrian
monasteries that dot the landscape around it. The Assyrians consider
themselves the real deal, the original Christians who still speak
the
ancient Aramaic language Jesus spoke." (55)
As
if unaware of facts mentioned in this and other articles Joseph
ends his commentary by writing: "I seriously
believe that the single most important problem facing our Assyrian
community and the reasons for our disunity stem from the fact
that nobody takes us seriously on the question of our identity--not
our friends, not our enemies. Actually, they all seem to know
our history better than we do, be they Kurds or Arabs, the Syrian
Orthodox or the Chaldeans , the Iraqi [political] parties or
the scholars at Oxford, Harvard, Yale or Chicago, or the U.S.
Census Bureau in Washington D.C., let alone the Department of
State there..."
It
is astonishing for Joseph to state that all the above "know
our history better than we do". This is typical Joseph's
lack of understanding of reality. The confusion of our identity
has been invented by religious rivalries and not historical facts.
The Chaldean church, the Syrian Orthodox church, the Church of
the East and their followers have spent centuries attacking and
disowning each other for theological reasons. Their clergies
have found it advantageous to divide, separate, and segregate
their followers from the other two. Any unity of our people based
on ethnicity is considered as a threat to their denominational
interest therefore they come up with artificial ethnic identities
for their parishioners to keep them segregated.
When
a new church was established in 1553 it was called Chaldean by
the Roman Church a name which is now being used as an ethnic
identity by its clergies and members. Starting at 1952 Syrian
Orthodox Church leaders for religious reasons decided to call
their church and members Aramean. Joseph has further contributed
to such confusions in his three book, various articles, and lectures
to students and public by misrepresenting the historical facts.
Given such reality his claim that "Kurds or Arabs, the Syrian
Orthodox or the Chaldeans , the Iraqi [political] parties or
the scholars at Oxford, Harvard, Yale or Chicago, or the U.S.
Census Bureau in Washington D.C. know our history better than
we do." sounds preposterous.
The
United States government and the new Iraqi government had recognized
our people collectively as Assyrians until the Chaldean clergies
bombarded them with letters claiming that members of their church
are not Assyrians. The name change game played by the clergies
of the Syriac Orthodox church have divided members of the same
families between various ethnic identities. How is it possible
for one brother to be Assyrian, the other Aramean and the third
Syriac. These are the result of silly games our clergies have
played with our identity.
While
the rest of the world fully understands the magical power of
unity and working in harmony our religious leaders have spent
centuries in conflict over theological controversies and have
divided our people into hostile factions each claiming to belong
to a different nationality. Each denomination still clings to
its exclusive medieval religious domain complete with dynasties
of priests, bishops and patriarchs ready to wage holy wars against
others at a moment's notice.
After
reading a Syrian Orthodox Church bulletin in 1965 which blamed
the Nestorians of the Persian empire for having delivered a severe
blow to the ancient church in 480 AD David Perley wrote:
"Imagine this statement is made by a presumptivly spiritual
leader in the Age of Ecumenicity, when brotherhood of all men,
of every faith, is the guiding star! Which do you think is more
important now-the future of the Faith of our fathers, and our
continued collective existence, or memories of the dastardly
days of Ephesus or Chalcedon, when word-splitting definitions
of obscure points of doctrine led men to do battle against their
brothers as the 'enemies of God'? In my opinion the Assyrians
are too enlightened to be led back to those days!"
Centuries
of religious conflicts have prevented our people from forming
a none sectarian leadership to look after their common interest
and guide them wisely during the crucial times. Today they are
in danger of being driven out of their homeland in Iraq. Tens
of thousands have already fled to Jordan, Syria and more to follow.
Others are being kidnaped and killed. The Kurds are busy confiscating
Christian villages and are happy to incite the Chaldeans against
the Assyrians and help members of the Syrian Orthodox Church
to reject their Assyrian heritage. There is no consultation or
cooperation between our denominations to agree on how to help
our unfortunate people. The only help they are willing and able
to provide is to ask for prayers probably just for their own
members.
39-(History of Mikhael
The Great" Chabot Edition (French) P: 750) as quoted by
Addai Scher, Hestorie De La Chaldee Et De "Assyrie")
40-(ibid P: 748)
41- (F. E. Peters, "Jerusalem",
Princeton University Press 1985 pp. 297-8 citing Saewulf 1896;
"Saewulf. 'Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land', Trans.
the Lord Bishop of Clifton. 'Palestine Pilgrims Text Society
4' Reprint New York Ams Press, 1971)
42- (Stanford Shaw "Empire
of the Gazis: Rise of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1566" Volume
I, p. 152)
43- (Horatio Southgate,
"Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian [Jacobites] Church",
1844 P 80)
44- (Edip Aydin, "The
History of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch in North America:
Challenges and Opportunities", http://www.saintgabrielsyouth.com/syriac_church.htm,
April 1, 2004)
45- (Christopher J. Walker,
"Armenia The Survival of a Nation," Martin's Press,
New York 1980 p. 161)
46- http://bethsuryoyo.com/Code/Articles/Articles.html
47- 48- 49- 50- (Edip
Aydin ibid )
51- (David Barsum Perley
in Yosuf Malik's, "British Betrayal of the Assyrians",
Self Published 1936, Chapt. VII.)
52-- (Edip Aydin ibid0
53- (http://www.bethsuryoyo.com/currentevents/Census/bishopseng.html)
54- ((Abdel Rahman Badawi Ed. "Orosius, Tarikh Al
'Alam", Al Muassasa al Ararabiyya lil Dirasat wal Nashr,
Beirut, First Edition, 1982.)
55- http://www.gokdemir.com/nj/august-2000-trip-turkey-borderlands.html
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