Assyrian Democratic Movement – Zowaa

A Political Organization of Democratic, Nationalistic and Patriotic views; does not carry any sectarian character, adheres to the principal of leadership and teamwork. It adopts the opinion of the majority, but gives the rights of the minority to defend its opinions within the organizational structure. This movement adopts the principle of independence in decision making based on the foundation of change, development, grass-roots and public actions.

Assyrian Democratic Movement – Zowaa, founded in April 12, 1979 in a general conference that was held in secrecy, in several meetings, in Kirkuk, Mosul and Baghdad.  The preparation to establish this movement took nearly two years of consolations and identification of the basis of its intellectual and political visions because of the political and security situations in Iraq, at that time, and its dictatorship and repressive practices.  Our Chaldean Syriac Assyrian nation in Iraq had suffered long enough, amongst the other components of the Iraqi people, under the repressive regime; starting with the denial of its nationalistic and cultural identity as well as preventing any cultural activities, culminating in the arrest and execution of its political activists.

The movement is a continuation of a series of struggles that our people went through for more than a century and a half that had started in the mid-nineteenth century when a cultural and literary  reform movement started, thus raising the nationalistic awareness through the social and cultural institutes.  The oppression against our people in their homeland and historic territory of Mesopotamia, where we built a sublime human civilization that lasted for many centuries, for reasons of ethnic, nationalist or religious doctrine.  After the founding of the Iraqi state, in the early twenties of the last century and in the aftermath of the First World War; the oppression against our people was revived. There was no recognition of their ethnic identity, despite being an indigenous nation of the country.  Demanding legitimate rights subjected our people to repression. Our nation was the first segment of the Iraqi population that faced massacres of civilians, after Iraq gained its independence. Iraqi authorities carried out these massacres under the nose of the British forces in Iraq like the Simele Massacres in 1933 against women, children, elderly and civilian men.  These massacres in the areas of Dohuk and Nineveh which were in the district of Mosul at that time left four thousand of our innocent people dead.

The negation of our role as one of the patriotic segments of the Iraqi people and the repression of any attempts calling for our rights, under the successive regimes of the Monarchy and Republic eras; led to another massacre against our people in the village of Soreya in 1969.  Our people continued to lose their land, and continued to be displaced from their villages. During the Simele Massacres, we lost about 80 villages. During the Kurdish armed movement against successive regimes in Iraq and in the Anfal operations, our nation lost about 250 townships and villages; houses and farms were destroyed along with churches and historic monasteries, built back in the beginning of Christianity; and its population was displaced.

The Assyrian Democratic Movement – Zowaa, works to achieve its goals on the nationalistic and patriotic levels, and believes in the polemical association between them.  At the national level, our movement is fighting for our ChaldoAssyrian nation to gain its fair and legitimate rights and equal citizenship rights with the rest of the components of the Iraqi people; without any discrimination against nationality, religious affiliation, cultural, linguistic, heritage and traditions that characterize our nation.  Along these lines, our movement rejects the reality imposed on our people for centuries, which led to the mentality that compelled our people to lose confidence and the ability to look forward to their future; lost confidence in their neighbors and surrounding communities.  In addition, lack of confidence in their authorities and governments to prevail in fair and equitable rights; left a negative impact on our nation. Either our people must adhere to the parties involved or to become introverted and isolated because of bitter experiences and the legacies that our nation went through for long periods of injustice throughout the history.

The other bitter reality that our nation lives through, are the results of the internal divisions including the demographic dispersion in its homeland and after loosing vast areas of its territory and the continuous decline of its population which led to becoming a minority amongst other majority populations.  In addition, this weakening ability of our people and internal divisions, led other majority groups to fuel this situation and use it for their special interests and benefits.  Our people suffered from sectarian divisions in church as well as regional divisions due to geographical terrains and political borders that separated our people in different independent states after World War I. All these divisions reflected on the uniformity of the name of our nation.  Despite of the fact, our people in all walks of life identified their name in the last century as (Sorayeh) and the (Surath) language.  This name is not religious as some might think, but it reflects our nation resembled in our civilization.  It is characterized by the unity among our people with their multiple names as Syriac, Aramaic, Chaldean, and Assyrian; the true inheritors of the Babylonian and Assyrian civilization of Mesopotamia – Beth Nahrain.

The patriotic approach and focus of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, has been and still is to interact with various components of the Iraqi people on nationalistic, social, cultural, and religious levels.  Also to contribute and build a democratic, pluralistic country and the establishment of the federal Iraqi state build on the basis of justice and equality of all Iraqis.  Our movement works on strengthening the ties based on mutual respect and common interest between our ChaldoAssyrian nation and other components of the Iraqi people such as the Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians, Sabian Yazidis and Shabak.

In this regard, our movement since its inception has joined with the Iraqi patriotic factions in the fight against dictatorship. Our movement has also participated in the political field since 1982 alongside other groups.  It started by issuing its central newspaper, Bahra, in June of 1982.  In 1988, fighter members of our movement and its headquarters as well as the rest of the Kurdish parties were attacked in the Anfal operations.  Our movement participated in the uprising in 1991; then won parliamentary elections for the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 1992; which gained the confidence of our nation by the winning of its “purple” ballot.  Also our movement has participated and won ministerial seats in the KRG region and still has its seats in its parliament.  One of the most important accomplishments in this stage is the return of our people to their lands, homes and villages to construct and rebuild them.   The adoption of the education in Syriac language (Surath) in elementary and secondary schools, have proven our movements success; as well as, the initiation of the civil society institutions, organizations and associations.  It also took part in all activities and national conferences, including the Beirut Summit in 1991, Salah al-Din in 1992, and earlier in Tehran in 1986, and many other subsequent conferences abroad.  Following the fall of the former Baath regime, our movement participated in the Governing Council and ministerial positions, the National Assembly and is currently in the House of Representatives; when the Al-Rafidain list won the in the last election in 2005, and once again gained our people’s confidence.  Therefore, our movement has a noticeable political role especially in the Nineveh Plain and the rest of the cities such as Mosul, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

Our movement has contributed through its struggle the first constellation of martyrs in the arena of the armed struggle; the immortals Jamil Matti and Sheba Hamey in February of 1984.  It contributed another constellation of martyrs when the fascist regime executed three members at the leadership level in our movement; the immortals Youssef Toma, Youbert Benyamin and Youkhanna Esho that were detained in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in February 1985 among dozens of members and supporters who were arrested and sentenced to various prison terms.  Some of our members were victims of political assassinations such as the immortals Francis Youssef Shabou, Peris Slewa and Sameer Moshe and also by attacks on its headquarters.  The movement continues to offer martyrs at the current stage while the security situation is still unstable, including two martyrs that fell during the recent elections in the city of Mosul in the Nineveh province.

At the organizational level, the movement held in addition to its First Constitutional Conference, the second conference during the armed struggle and the third after the uprising. There were four other general conferences that were held in 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2006 for the development of the political platform, the procedural rules, and the elections of leadership of the movement; also creating a work program for the period during any two conferences.