The Ba’athist regime which came to power in 1968, invoked the Christian legacy in the 1970s: although it nationalized all schools and closed private Christian and Assyrian institutions, it vowed to preserve these communities’ cultural rights and to allow them to be educated in their own languages, along with the Turkmen, in areas where these groups constituted a majority. This stance was partly a response to Assyrian activism in the Iraqi opposition, given their high concentration in the north and their involvement in the Kurdish opposition as Assyrian tribesmen, nationalists, and intellectuals seeking to democratize the country and expand their rights as native citizens. Ironically, the attacks on these villages came on the same calendar day as the attacks on the Assyrians in Simele and neighboring villages in August 1933 – often described as the first major crime of the nascent Iraqi state and its army against its own citizens.
Author: January 14, 2026
Published at: 2026-01-14 00:00:00
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