Full Details of What Happened in Hassake, Syria

An Assyrian man named Ibrahim Nasim Abdul-Ahhad owns a coffee shop in the neighborhood. About 2 weeks ago, the members of this Arab family had an internal fight in the family. Some of their men went to coffee shop of this Assyrian man and sat their playing cards and drinking tea and coffee. They were also yelling and screaming and swearing. So the owner got into an argument with them. Finally, he told them to pay for their drinks and get out. So they began swearing at him and Christians. They left that night, but the next day a few more of them came back to the coffee shop with a relative of theirs who is an officer. They began to swear at everyone and at Christians in general. They took out their guns and scared everyone in the coffee shop and then they dragged the Assyrian owner from the coffee shop and they beat him. They told anyone who comes to help him that they will also hurt them. Then they handcuffed him and tied him to the back of a car and began to drag him in the street. Due to his pains, the Assyrian man began screaming. This lead another Assyrian by the name of Yalda Ya’qoub to go and help him, so they beat him also and shot him. He was taken to a hospital immediately. By this time, the other Assyrian (Ibrahim Abdul-Ahhad) who was still tied to the car and being dragged had passed away. They did not stop and continued to drag him in the streets. After a while they untied him and left him handcuffed on a sidewalk in the neighborhood. However, others claim that he was not killed like that, but rather they opened fire at both Assyrians, but after Ibrahim was dead, they began dragging him in the streets. In other words he was dead when he was being dragged.

Ibrahim Abdul-Ahhad was buried the next day, while Yalda Ya’qoub was taken to a hospital in Damascus. The people who committed this act did not turn themselves in and the government did not arrest them. On Saturday, and ten days after he was taken to Damascus, Yalda Ya’qoub passed away. Since the people who committed this crime were not arrested, the Assyrians felt that the government is taking sides and that Assyrian Christians are not going to be protected by the authorities. This would mean that anyone who felt like killing Assyrians would get away with it. Hence, Yalda Ya’qoub’s family and friends in Tel-Tammer gathered and over 2000 Assyrians from Khabour and Hassake began to demonstrate in Hassake. The Arab family fled the city of Hassake and went to Deir Al-Zor. The Assyrians then marched over to the home of the Arab criminals, and after making sure that no one was there, in retaliation they burned the house down and then moved to the shops of these Arab criminals and vandalized them. Only then, did the government begin to step in. The police arrested 12 Assyrians.

A group of Assyrians also went to the Governor and gave him their demands that they wanted the criminals to be executed, which is according to the law in Syria. The governor told them that the Assyrians were the victims, but these actions of yours have made you into criminals also.

So on Saturday and Sunday, there were peaceful demonstrations by Assyrians in Hassake. The police dispersed the Assyrian demonstrators by firing in the air. The government called for a curfew on the city of Hassake for the past few days. Yesterday was the funeral of Yalda Ya’qoub in Tel-Tammer, while it was supposed to be in Hassake, but the Minister of Interior asked that the funeral not take place in Hassake so that no more problems would arise.

Meanwhile, the officer from that Al-Radhi family who was involved in the crime, turned himself in, but until now, it is unknown if the others did. Now things are calm in Hassake, but the 12 Assyrians remain arrested.

Yesterday and Today, the government went and arrested 30 more Assyrians for being involved in burning the home of the Arab family and vandalizing their shops in Hassake. They have also released 2 of the previous 12 that were arrested, which brings the number of arrested Assyrians to 40. The ADO has confirmed this, but the ADO is claiming that the government’s arrests made yesterday and today did not rely on any valid information of the involvement of these Assyrian individuals in the burning or vandalizing. They claim that many of the arrested individuals were not involved.