Bet-Nahrain Forum

August 7, 1933 as the Assyrian nation’s Martyrs Day

Posted By: Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter (adsl-71-137-188-70.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net)
Date: Tuesday, 8 August 2006, at 8:02 a.m.

Dear fellow Assyrians,

In its 1970 Congress, the Assyrian Universal Alliance declared the politically motivated massacre of Assyrians in Semele, Iraq culminating on August 7, 1933 as the Assyrian nation’s Martyrs Day. In observance of this national Memorial Day, we celebrate the heroic life of all Assyrian martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of the Assyrian nation.

The martyrs’ sacrifice obliges every Assyrian to first trace the martyrs’ footsteps. It is most unfortunate that recent Assyrian history is a dire composition of hardships and sufferings, struggles and betrayals, discriminations and human rights violations, routine uprooting and forced migrations, massacres and genocide. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the extent of the Assyrian nation’s degradation is evidenced by the loss of two-thirds of our population. Ashamedly, the infliction of this outrage has been taking place under the watchful eyes of a world calling itself civilized and encouraging the enforcement of human rights. It is of utmost importance that our Assyrian nation’s tragic experiences and its zeal and endurance in the face of such colossal atrocities do not go unnoticed.

Even more urgently, we must endeavor to take additional steps toward advancing and fulfilling the Assyrian National Cause, the Assyrian Universal Alliance’s core belief that the only way to secure the future of the Assyrian nation is through procuring Assyrian "Territorial Rights" in our ancestral homeland, today’s Iraq. To achieve this nationalistic goal, the Assyrian Universal Alliance reiterates its call to Assyrians worldwide to unite for this greater cause and contribute at all levels selflessly, enduring sacrifices fully and unconditionally as one people.

It is incumbent on the present generation of Assyrians to carry forward the aspirations of our forefathers who sacrificed themselves magnanimously at the altar of a noble vision and promise that is Assyria.

Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter

August 7, 2006