Assyrian Village in North Iraq Terrorized By Kurds

 
North Iraq- AINA– On Monday, March 03, 2007 at 14:00 a Kurd accompanied by an Assyrian from Shayeez entered the Assyrian village of Kora Gavan and began assaulting some of the inhabitants. Local residents rounded up the two invaders and beat them. In response to this Shimmal Ammadi, the Kurdish mayor of the district of Zaweeta, and Sarwan Trawanshi, a three star general of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) security, warned the Assyrian residents of the village not to attack Kurds again even in self defense.

The residents of the village filed several complains with the Governor and the Assyrian vice Governor of Duhok, both of whom were unresponsive and took no action in the matter.

The Kurdish intention is to chase the Assyrians out of their village so they can complete its annexation into Kurdish territory. The KRG has illegally rebuilt more than 600 homes for Kurds over Assyrian lands in this village.

Before the Assyrian massacre of 1933, approximately 300 families lived in Kora Gavan in 100 homes. Since 1963 Kora Gavana was continuously persecuted at the hands of the Iraqi authorities and its Kurdish supporters. This ill treatment forced many of its residents to leave and dwell in other villages and cities. Some of its original residents returned when conditions improved.

In 1976 Saddam’s Ba’ath government and its Kurdish supporters began encroaching upon the village. By 1980 the Iraqi government had built a residential compound of 500 homes to settle the Kurds who had been forced out of their villages and who in turn forced the Assyrians out. After 1991 Kurds form other villages, mainly from Zawita, also began squatting on on Kora Gavana’s lands. When the number of Kurdish settlers surpassed those of its Assyrian inhabitants, their assault on the Assyrians resumed, only this time worse than before.

These assaults ranged from bullying and harassment to criminal acts such as life threatening beatings and vandalizing and destroying crops. The assaults and harassment escalated on a daily bases, which made the lives of the Assyrians in Kora Gavana intolerable. The assaults and brutal attacks were so excessive and damaging to the livelihood of the Assyrians that most of them who cultivated and made their living from farming in Kora Gavana were forced to leave their land and migrate to other villages and cities looking for employment and source of income. This exodus greatly reduced the number of Assyrians living in Kora Gavana, to a mere 5 families.

Today, as the acts of war terror escalate in cities such as Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk, many Assyrians who fled Kora Gavana in late 1970s and settled in these cities find themselves in a quandary yet again. The predicament is whether to stay in these cities and risk death daily, or take shelter in Kora Gavana. The problem, however, is that if they go back to the village they have to confront the atrocities that continue to take place on a daily basis at the hands of the Kurds and their Assyrian supporters.