The Hidden Pearl
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The Arameans or the Syriacs are a people with a glorious history, but are now in danger of being forgotten as well as being quite frequently misrepresented. The Arameans of Mesopotamia were the first pagans who had accepted the Christian faith.
Arameanism (Oromoyutho) as the Key to our Future Survival?
Shlomo Bnay Orom [Greetings Children of Aram],
Whenever mention is made of diaspora communities, the first nations that come to mind are the classic diasporas of the Jews, Greeks and Armenians. Each of them has a most inspiring and rich history from which we, Arameans, can learn valuable lessons on our journey to the future.
Arameans as Indigenous People of Southeast Turkey
The uncompromising premise of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) is that the Aramean (Syriac) people and their Aramaic language are native to Southeast Turkey. Their historical presence in this region spans more than 3,000 years. {jathumbnail off}
The Legacy of Silence
Mattia Unal is a young Aramaean with Swiss nationality and the son of a Syriac Orthodox priest in the Aramaean community in Italian-speaking Switzerland. From an early age, his identity has been shaped by the use of the Aramaic language and religion. Mattia’s awareness of his origins is, however, limited to what he has learned from his parents, who fled from their country to Switzerland in the early 1980s.
Mattia and his father decide therefore to go on a journey, visiting the land of their family: Tur Abdin, “Mountain of the Servants of God”. The Legacy of Silence offers a personal view of the lives of Aramaean people, in the Diaspora and in their homeland, in the present and the past, in both the younger and the older generations, creating a picture of how an ethnic and religious minority in Turkey has lived and continues to live on today.
Watch the documentary here!
Director: Nadia Ambrosi et Patrik Soergel | Producer: Amka Films Productions
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2009 | Story Teller's Country: Switzerland
The Hidden Pearl
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The Arameans or the Syriacs are a people with a glorious history, but are now in danger of being forgotten as well as being quite frequently misrepresented. The Arameans of Mesopotamia were the first pagans who had accepted the Christian faith.
The Aramean Identity of Tur ‘Abdin and its Native Population
Tur ‘Abdin, which basically denotes “the mountain of the servants [sc. of God]” in Aramaic, is the local name of an erstwhile densely populated Christian region in Southeast-Turkey.
The vast majority of its indigenous citizens have, for obvious reasons, migrated to Western countries in recent decades and the emerging demographic vacuum was swiftly filled by myriads of infiltrating Kurdish tribes from the periphery and beyond.
The Jesus Movie (in Tur-Abdin Aramaic)
The original Jesus Movie from 1979 is now available in the Aramaic dialect of Tur-Abdin (Southeast Turkey) recorded from Suryoyo Sat. Aramaic is the language that was spoken by Jesus Christ and His followers. Many parts of the Holy Bible were written in Aramaic.
Watch the movie here!
Süryani does not mean “Assyrian”, but “Syrian; Syriac” or “Aramean; Aramaic”
In 1983, the current Syrian Orthodox Patriarch rightly wrote in The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch At A Glance: “The Syriac language is the Aramaic language itself, and the Arameans are the Syrians themselves. He who has made a distinction between them has erred.”
The Arameans of Aram-naharaim or The Ancient Syrians of Mesopotamia
The Arameans trace their genealogical lines back to the eponymous ancestor Aram, the son of Shem, the son of Noah (Genesis 10:1, 22)1. In pre-Christian times, notably between 1150-700 B.C., they played a crucial and decisive role in Mesopotamia and ancient Syria2.
