CounterVortex

Assyrians doing better in Turkey

The phenomenon of minority suppression does not seem to be universal.

Turkey Allows a First New Year for a Tiny Minority

By KATHERINE ZOEPF NYT Published: April 4, 2005

MIDYAT, Turkey, April 1 – A windswept hilltop here in southeastern Anatolia has become the site for a reunion that once would have been unthinkable, as thousands of Assyrians from across the region have converged to openly celebrate their New Year in Turkey for the first time.

Like many other expressions of minority ethnic identity, the Assyrian New Year, or Akito, had been seen by Turkey as a threat. But this year, the government, with an eye toward helping its bid to join the European Union, has officially allowed the celebration by the Assyrians, members of a Christian ethnic group that traces its roots back to ancient Mesopotamia.

Yusuf Begtas, one of the celebration’s organizers, said that because most of Turkey’s tiny Assyrian population – about 6,000 people in all – lives in a heavily Kurdish region that has seen frequent clashes between the Turkish government and Kurdish militias, strong assertions of Assyrian ethnicity have long been politically impossible. But Turkey’s political culture has been changing rapidly.

"Turkey is showing itself to the E.U.," Mr. Begtas said. "When we asked the authorities for permission to celebrate this year, we knew it wouldn’t be possible for them to deny us now. Turkey has to show the E.U. that it is making democratic changes."

The festivities here on Friday were the culmination of a celebration that started on March 21, the first day of the Assyrian New Year. Behind Mr. Begtas, on a raised stage near the wall of the Mar Aphrem monastery, a balding baritone sang in Syriac, the Assyrians’ language, a Semitic tongue similar to Aramaic.

He was followed by a group of girls wearing mauve satin folk costumes, dancing in lines with their arms linked. They were cheered on by an audience of about 5,000, including large groups of visiting ethnic Assyrians from Europe, Syria and Iraq.

Iraq, where Akito is celebrated openly, has the world’s largest population of Assyrians, about a million. Most of Turkey’s Assyrians were killed or driven away during the Armenian massacres early in the last century, and the bullet scars on some of Midyat’s almost medieval-looking sandstone buildings still bear witness to those times.

In recent years, Assyrians have suffered quieter forms of persecution and discrimination. Since the 1980’s, under those pressures, thousands of Assyrians have emigrated abroad. Kurds, with whom Assyrians have long had a tense relationship, are now a majority in Midyat, which until just a generation ago was 75 percent Assyrian.

Haluk Akinci, the regional governor of Nusaybin, a district next to Midyat, suggested that the Turkish government might see allowing the New Year celebration as a partial atonement for past persecutions.

"In the past, freedoms for minorities were not as great as they are now," he said, though he noted that in years past, private Assyrian New Year celebrations had generally been ignored by the authorities. "The Turkish government now repents that they let so many of these people leave the country."

After years of intense political and population pressure, the Turkish Assyrians say, public celebrations like Akito have huge emotional significance, and the participation of Assyrians from abroad has become particularly meaningful.

Terros Lazar Owrah, 60, an Assyrian shopkeeper from Dohor, in northern Iraq, said he had driven 14 hours for the opportunity to attend the celebration. "So many of us are leaving the region," he said. "It’s very important for Assyrians from everywhere to get together in one place."

Thanks in large part to greater political freedoms granted recently in Iraq and Turkey, the Assyrians say, a sense of pan-regional Assyrian identity seems to be gathering strength. And though Turkey does not have any legal Assyrian political parties, there are those who would like to turn this rapidly developing sense of solidarity into a political voice, even into a discussion of nationhood.

Representatives from several overseas Assyrian political parties were present at the celebration.

Emanuel Khoshaba, an Iraqi Assyrian who represents the Assyrian Democratic Movement in Damascus, pointed out that Midyat lies between the Tigris and the Euphrates, the Mesopotamia that the Assyrians believe to be their rightful homeland.

"Protecting our national days is as important to us as preserving the soil of our nation," Mr. Khoshaba said. "Whether they live in Iraq or Syria or Turkey, our goal is to bring Assyrians together as a nation."

That is unlikely to happen. With countries in the region increasingly wary of the flowering of Kurdish nationalism in northern Iraq, smaller nationalist movements seem to have even less of a chance of finding political support in the region.

Still, the relaxation of Turkish antagonism toward the New Year’s celebration was a significant enough start for many who attended.

"It’s about coming together in spite of our rulers," said Fahmi Soumi, an Assyrian businessman who had traveled from Damascus to attend the Akito festivities. "When we unite like this, there is no Turkey, no Syria and no Iran. We are one people."