World Council of Arameans [Syriacs]

WCA President speaks at 3rd International Conference on Victims of Religious and Ethnic Violence in the Middle East

On Monday 14 May 2018, the Belgian and Lebanese Ministers for Foreign Affairs organised the 3rd International Ministerial Conference on the Victims of Religious and Ethnic Violence in the Middle East. The WCA was requested to speak on the situation of the native Aramean Christians in the Middle East. 

Mr. Johny Messo, WCA President, delivers his statement in front of the distinguished delegation at the Conference.

Distinguished Excellences,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Shlomo ‘alaykhu, as we say in our Aramaic mother tongue, which was the main language of Iraq and Syria, and in fact of the entire Middle East, for more than 1500 years until Arabic replaced it in the 7th century.

First, I should like to thank Belgium for hosting and Lebanon for cosponsoring this critical conference that touches on the very existence of my fellow people and cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq. Thank you, Your Excellencies Mr. Reynders and Mr. Bassil, for including the Aramaic-speaking Christians and for granting us a voice today.

Allow me to start with a moving experience shared by a church leader, which actually reflects the view of virtually all our people in and outside the homeland:

I revealed all the catastrophes which had befallen my people. I explained all the suppression and the grisliness in detail. Even though I particularly emphasized how our casualties were both bloodthirstily massacred and perished from hunger and cold during the war, when I saw that not one of the Conference participants shed a tear and felt no compassion for us, I felt as if I had delivered my speech to statues carved from stone.

These words were spoken almost 100 years ago by the later Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Aphram Barsoum at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919. The last century has seen numerous international meetings discussing topics similar to the ones today. Had we acted before, we could have prevented genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass exoduses….and we would not be sitting here talking about problems and solutions.

In the last 15 years alone, more than 80% of my fellow people in Iraq has left the homeland. In the last 7 years alone, more than 70% of my fellow people has fled Syria. These traditionally Aramaic-speaking Christians include Syriacs, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Melkites and Maronites.

As a result, we are facing an existential threat in our homelands today. And if the situation will not change soon, there is no longer any need to hold conferences like this in 5 to 10 years from now, as the minorities will have been driven away and there will be no ethnic, religious or linguistic pluralism and co-existence anymore.

So let us please focus now on what actions will be taken and what tangible results will follow as a result of this conference that is committed to preserving the ethno-religious mosaic of the Middle East.

So let me tell you frankly three things:

• First, virtually all who have already fled and reached the West, will not go back anymore.
• Secondly, almost all our refugees in the neighboring countries also want to leave.
• Thirdly, our people who are still in the homeland want to stay, but they fear for their future and they don’t see any bright future for themselves and their children. So, deep down in their hearts they also want to leave, if action will not take place any moment soon.

Therefore, I feel compelled to state here today on their behalf of my fellow people that they feel abandoned by the international community in many ways. For example, even humanitarian and development aid from the UN and the EU is not reaching them effectively – for more than a decade. Whatever has been done, is not enough and is only a drop in the ocean.

So, on behalf of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) I ask you, each and every one of you here today, as you have the power and the means as policy and decision makers to consider either as a government or in the context of the UN and the EU the following three things:

• First, appoint a High Commissioner or a Special Rapporteur on the threatened minorities of the Middle East to monitor their alarming and deteriorating situation in their homeland.
• Secondly, allocate a special Fund for Threatened Vulnerable Minorities and Endangered Indigenous Populations of the Middle East.
• Thirdly, we have no legal status in our homeland. That’s why we ask for recognition as the indigenous people. Today we may be seen as a vulnerable minority, numerically speaking; but until a few centuries ago, we were, in fact, the dominant and vibrant majority in our ancestral homeland – and we are still, ladies and gentlemen, as I speak today we are still the original inhabitants of both Syria and Iraq.
• And many of our people, fourthly, I can even add, request the creation of an autonomous province in the Nineveh Plain where they feel they can administer their own affairs and protect themselves, because nobody is protecting them there – nobody has protected them and they feel that nobody will protect them if there will be an ISIS 2.0.

Ladies and gentlemen,

This is not about preferential treatment of members of this or that religion, ethnic or linguistic background. This is all about humanity, the dignity of human lives and cultural heritage as well as the very credibility of international institutions like the UN and the EU.

So, we believe that you can act and you can do it today. And I can guarantee you that if you act today, you can give hope back to our people. Let me just give you one anecdote.

When Mosul was emptied from the Christians in 2014, I was in Beirut at the time and got a phone call. I was sitting there, looking at the desperateness of our people. But suddenly we felt compelled to help our people, because the international institutions did not do so. So when we tried lobbying governments, like the German government that was willing to support them, one of the church leaders there told us personally: “I have lost all hope in humanity. But when I see you guys working and helping us concretely, with tangible results, you have restored hope in our hearts.” And this is what you can do. Ladies and gentlemen, you are representatives of governments. Today, not tomorrow, you can make decisions that will improve the lives of many people whose lives are now at stake.

As a final note, I would like to state, when we speak of recognition and inclusion, that it would be amazing if on the flyer of next year’s conference, we will not only see English and Arabic, but also Aramaic, which again was the main language of Syria and Iraq for more than 1500 years. Thank you so much for your consideration.

Download the statement in PDF here.
View more images of the conference here.