r/Assyria • u/khwarism • 10d ago
Discussion I never knew how bad Seyfo and Simele was that bad as a Kurd
Hello beautiful and lovely Assyrian people. I'm Kurdish, grew up in KRI. I was never taught anything about Seyfo and Simele, how bad and horrific it was. I would like to say that I'm really sorry. I wish Seyfo/Simele genocide were taught in schools.
Apparently, the concept of genocide was inspired by Simele, a Jewish man heard of what were being done to Assyrians in the 30s and came up with the concept of genocide and I think he discussed it in the League of Nations.
I would love to hear your perspectives, your grandparent's stories, and Assyrian accounts of the genocide.
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u/Stenian East Hakkarian 10d ago edited 9d ago
It's not about apologizing. It's not your fault for the past actions of your people. My only problem with Kurds today is with the trolls who get all riled up whenever an Assyrian is mentioned, where they call us "fake Assyrians/Nestorians". Why? To distant us from our homeland. I've had enough with this shit. How would you feel if I call you a fake Kurd and instead a Persian/Iranian? Kurds really don't like being affiliated with Persians.
And btw, "Nestorian" is a religious sect or denomination. That's like looking at an Italian and yelling "haha, Catholic!", as if it's an insult. Just pass this message to them. Btw, some Kurds I've met are amazing people. The lady who takes my blood is a Kurd and she's so generous. 👌🏻
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u/AccomplishedLetter25 9d ago
most of you treat arabized syrians/iraqis like modern invaders from the arabian peninsula who don’t have a shared ancestry with you or have any right to the ancient aramean/mesopotamian heritage either.. so, clearly when you go down the rabbit hole this logic can be weaponized against anybody
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u/Stenian East Hakkarian 9d ago edited 9d ago
What "weaponized"? Arabs proudly call themselves Arab/Syrian/Iraqi and they don't see it as an insult when we say they're Arabs. Blame them, not us. Besides, while they do have some native ancestry, they're still heavily Arabized and even 'Iranianized'. Iraqi Arabs from Baghdad and Basra are mostly Arabian with some Persian, Turkmen and Kurdish admixture.
Those in the north, yes, do have a might higher Assyrian admixture. We all know this and acknowledge this. It's just UP TO THEM to claim Assyrian ancestry. But they don't. Rather, they call themselves Iraqi/Arab. So blame them, really. They're using that weapon against themselves.🤷🏻♀️
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u/AccomplishedLetter25 8d ago
arab is not the same thing as arabian, you know that, right? do you realize how hypocritical it is to talk about 'distancing from your homeland' while doing it to other people?
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u/Chex33 Kurdish 9d ago
You don't have the first clue about genetics. Arabs from Iraq and Syria have nothing to do with Assyrians. They're not just "Arabized", they have legit Arab blood. They even have African blood amongst other things.
Not only do you call yourselves Arabs, practice the culture and claim the history, but you also have Arabian blood. So of course you're not indigenous to North Mesopotamia. Your identity originated in the Arabian peninsula, that's where you're native. Facts are facts.
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u/AccomplishedLetter25 9d ago
actually, i think you dont have a clue about genetics OR history yourself. simply living in a place for hundreds of years does not change your appearance. dutch settlers in south africa have lived there for 400 years and remain pale as snow. japanese settlers from the korean peninsula have been there for thousands of years and they still look different from the indigenous ainu.
if we were all the same, someone from aleppo would look the same as someone from saudi arabia. but most of us have lighter features. clearly not. and this has been tested, modern levantine populations share 70% to 90% of their genetic ancestry from ancient bronze age levantine and canaanites.
arabic was adopted over hundreds of years and combined with the features of the local languages, thats why we call arabic a 'macrolanguage'. the fantasy that arabs invaded and set up colonies and forced everyone to speak their language is just incorrect. if that were the case, farsi wouldnt exist, persians would speak arabic instead. but no, persian and arabic borrowed many words from each other and coexistes. us with already semitic / afro-asiatic languages just adopted arabic easier because there were already many similarities. persian is indo-european on the other hand.
either way, this is basically ethnonationalism! just because a group married their cousins more often or are less genetically diverse does not make them more valid. just assyrians cant claim the achievements of ancient mesopotamians any more than iraqis, because they didnt personally do those things. you are more racist than you believe, and just because you have been victimized at some point doesn't make it correct to lionize yourself while demonizing your cousins1
u/Halmonite 6d ago
Can you imagine if Saudi Arabia was colonised by the Chinese, 99% of the population became Buddhist, spoke Chinese, called themselves Chinese and were majority Chinese DNA and started oppressing the native Arabs while also claiming Arab AND Chinese heritage because some of them had were scoring 20% Arab on DNA tests? That’s how we see you
Some Iraqi’s have high Mesopotamian DNA, but even if it was 99% it doesn’t matter cos they are loyal to a foreign Arab identity. There is a living Assyrian identity that comes with a culture, language, religion and that’s more
Important than blood1
u/AccomplishedLetter25 6d ago
the difference is that arabic became a primary language over hundreds of years, gradually, and arabians didnt really create settlements, thats why most levantines and mesopotamians still have majority levantine and mesopotamian dna. the REST of that dna difference is mostly being open to marrying egyptians/persians/arabians/anatolians and traveling, which is historically common anyway because of the resource value of the fertile crescent and the trading as a hallmark of mediterranean cultures. etc. also because they dont have a strict law of intermarriage like you do.
arabic becoming a lingua franca was meaningful for travel and research. not necessarily because of an influx of arabians suddenly moving to these areas. does that mean that these people eventually become disqualified from the land after a certain number of outer-marriages? can you quantify how many is okay, versus what disqualifies them?
this logic that a land belongs to a certain cultural demographic doesnt really make sense, especially when the difference is of a gradual shift in culture rather than a full scale sudden invasion. and even more because assyrians were never historically the only people on this land.
bronze age testing on levantine/mesopotamian populations already showed mixing with arabians, so even your 99% assyrian on a dna test only speaks to the recent history. you literally share a border with arabia, of course your ancestors will have bred with them or be naturally highly similar to them due to proximity and shared origin.
chinese historically havent had many interactions with us and are further away and have a completely different racial phenotype. meanwhile there were always nomadic arabians in the region even in pre-islamic times. like, who do you think built Petra?
the arab identity of iraqis/syrians is NOT a foreign one in the slightest, because it was a shift in the features of the peoples OWN identity, rather than an immediate imposition. it became itself through gradual change within the PEOPLE themselves over the centuries.
there is a difference between uprooting someones culture and forcing them to adopt yours, versus people who frequently interact adopting the practices/cultures of one another. this can be seen in arabic and persian borrowing words from one another.
now, why do none of you complain about speaking aramiac instead of akkadian? you got aramaized, isnt this an invasion of a foreign culture? why do none of you complain about having a palestinian religion (christianity) instead of a mesopotamian one? how do you think your people mass-converted to christianity? would you say aramaic christianity is a foreign culture, even though it developed in your proximity AND your people adapted the foreign language and religion to their own cultures?
thats how it works, you know? thats why there are such things as greek orthodoxy, or coptic orthodoxy. in a political sense, too, like when people say 'socialism with chinese characteristics'.
people take an idea which they learn through trade and interaction with others, and adapt it to their own pre-existing culture and geography and circumstance.
thats the thing, iraqis and syrians didnt become inoculated with a foreign identity, they converted and learned a new language (exactly the way assyrians did with aramaic and christianity) and then adopted it to their pre-existing customs, foods, practices, etc. your example takes none of that into account. arab dialects are completely different from one another, not only with different pronunciations but different grammar and entirely different vocabulary banks. that is the indicator of adopting the features of the previous dominant language into the current one. by all means, your rejection of iraqi/syrian identity is a hateful act and completely unrelated to your example. again, people take the religion and language of their neighbors all the time in history, and the assyrians did exactly that to.
why would a past version of a culture inherently be more mighty and valid than the present evolution? would that mean the former pagan or jewish version of your culture more valid than the contemporary christian one? do you consider any form of evolution as negative or unnatural? what makes a previous culture more innate and correct than a later version of it? are you aware that even the assyrian identity has evolved drastically and its modern form would be unrecognizable to its ancient form, besides the namesake?
tell me, if arabs just 'forced' everyone to speak arabic, how come the persians who the arabs also conquered still speak persian? its because they DIDNT force everyone to speak arabic, contrary to the idea pahlavists have.
people who already spoke aramaic or hebrew or other afro-asiatic/semitic languages adopted arabic easily... but in iran, they have an indo-european language, which doesnt overlap with arabic directly, so persian remained the dominant language. arabic isnt even the holy language of muslims, there is no concept like that in islam. what youre probably thinking of is actually Lashon Hakodesh. arabic was relevant insofar as it was the language of study and language of the quran, and every government establishes a lingua franca by necessity.
in terms of conversion... the muslims literally had a financial motive NOT to forcibly convert people (jizya, which was a tax paid by healthy, adult males of fighting age excluding monks, religious functionaries, and poor.... the tax was paid because they received exemption from military service and so would be protected by the muslim armies if war happened) the crimes commited by 20th century baathism is of a completely different era.
the place with the HIGHEST global muslim population, indonesia, has NEVER seen a muslim army in its land. there are ways to convert besides force, and evidence suggest that the vast majority of muslim conversions happened in that manner. of course, you people only bring up the ideas of violent conquest to demonize muslims, and never bring it up for christians because you happen to be one. you can apply your dramatic example to a jew watching everyone convert to christianity, or a pagan watching everyone convert to monotheism.
also, '20% arab'? really? this is a severe exaggeration/underestimate. you can flip that percentage the other way around. as for '99% buddhist'... we used to have lots of christians and jews in the arab world before wealthier/urbanized christians began immigrating to the west (wealthy christians traded more with europe already, thats the entire reason why lebanon was carved out as a country, and hence why majority of arabs in america and brazil are christian) and 800k to 1 million jews immigrating to live in israel. (https://youtu.be/T_hZP14ANCI)
shedding tribalism is the reason why 60-70% of all stars in the night sky have arabic names, or why a central asian scientist (al khawarizmi) can travel to baghdad and become the father of algebra and creator of the algorithm, why ibn al haitham could establish modern optics and the first practical camera obscura, or why many more amazing people in this time period and region could develop procedures like distillation, crystallization, and refinement, pioneering the first university and the first hospital, brewing coffee, surgeries, pioneering early flight, etc....
you see, its not exactly the arab language which empowered people to do this. it was the unity. its a similar unity to how a syrian and a sudani , despite having different cultures and completely different appearances, can feel a shared sense of friendliness that people from distant countries dont usually have. there is little pride to be found in casting out your neighbors/cousins, especially when foreign superpowers are at the doorstep. ... also, lack of genetic diversity makes a population weakier/unhealthier.
this unity, which can no longer be found in the region today thanks to western colonialism and external interference, would be our only salvation. each man looking out only for himself has gotten us nowhere, there must be a sense of positive mutual interest and community. sykes-pikot strategy of "divide and conquer, take them off the list of threats one by one" has already divided our region into playthings for western global powers, so what good would balkanizing the middle east even MORE do for us while we're already weak? what good would making one place for kurds, one place for armenians, one place for assyrians, different neighborhoods and regions for different religious sects or types of arabs.... bring to the region?
we are virtually identical people who are blinded by social differences and who are distant from each other for no good reason, and would be much more powerful if we could cooperate. it seems to me that assyrians daydream a lot about the assyrian empire... but do you know what the assyrian empire EVEN WAS???? the whole point of the assyrian empire was that it was mutli-ethnic and multi-lingual and multireligious! it spanned continents and tribes and demographics!!!! as a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society, in no way did it belong only to one person or group. this is the nature of our region, to deny it is to blaspheme our actual culture and history. and either way, what is the fulfillment found in the empowerment of one ethnicity over every other one? it seems to me that that's all i see assyrians commenting on, that they are the most pure-blooded people second only maybe to ethiopians, that they are the true owners of the land and nobody else deserves it, and other racist comments which would make a KKK or SS member blush!
think, how far has that strategy gotten you?
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u/Zheer_son 9d ago edited 9d ago
Persian is not a race; it is only one group that belongs to the Iranic peoples, and the Iranic race does not mean only Persians or modern-day Iran. In fact, the Persians had the least power during the Median era, because at that time another Iranic group was ruling, which was the Kurds, and the kings were Cyaxares and Deioces. And Cyaxares’ tomb is in the city where I currently live, Sulaymaniyah. Come and see it.
We need to distinguish between Persian, Iran, and ( Iranic ) . Persian is one part, just like Kurdish, of the Iranic lineage. Iran, on the other hand, is a country that belongs to the Persians, and it has no connection to the name of the lineage that Persian is placed under, and they cannot make it their own possession
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u/MostOld9237 10d ago
It takes maturity to be able to admit when your own people have done wrong. Good job and I’m glad you know the history. Please do your best to try to educate other Kurds, advocate for minority rights because our situation is critical.
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u/Maximum-Society-6971 10d ago
Thank you for your apology, but it will not bring back the land of Assyria or the martyrs we lost.
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u/khwarism 10d ago
I know, and I really wish history had been different. No apology can bring back the people who were killed or restore everything Assyrians lost. I just wanted to say that I’m genuinely sorry for that suffering, and that I think Assyrian history, memory and loss deserve to be treated with much more respect than they often are.
I also really wish more Kurds would learn this history properly, so that we don’t fall for or spread misinformation, denial or propaganda about Assyrians and what they went through. I think remembering it honestly is one small way of showing respect to the people who were lost and to the Assyrian people who are still here today.
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u/xoXImmortalXox 10d ago
My grandfather who was born in Iran and as a teenager had a bayonet stabbed into his head by the ottoman's. He survived, immigrated to the USA and had my mother in 1943. They moved to Modesto California from New York. Thank you for reaching out to our community.
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u/ynot1972 8d ago
As much as that sucks for us, we're still around. We've kept our language and culture for the most part, which is even crazier thinking we haven't had a country since forever. Honestly, I sometimes feel like we've done more harm to ourselves than anyone else ever has.
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u/AliveZexy777 9d ago
I am a kurd too. And Im very sorry for these. I hope Assyrians can eventually have their country.
Id like to add something. We never had a full kingdom at the times of these atrocities to say they were policies that our elites pushed and everyone followed them through. At best we had emirates and principalities that each had their own policies. One would wage war against assyrians while the next principality would shelter them. Simply put a kurdish chief would kill assyrians the next one would defend them. Also there have been many occations that kurds would be ordered to commit genocides against armenians assyrians yezidi kurds and others and we refused to do so. So the empire would come and kill us with them.
Anyway I apologize for all the wrongs my ancestors did to you. I wish none of them happened. Peace.
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u/khwarism 9d ago
Alevi and Yazidi were just as oppressed by other Kurds, so them not participating in genocide is not a win for all Kurds. Also, the times opposing emirates sheltered Assyrians and Armenians, it was for using them later on against their other Kurdish opponents. It’s not that hard to admit Kurds are not angels. It’s not for you and me to tell Assyrians how they should feel about Kurds, if we really cared then we should prove it by changing our culture and laws to stop treating them as foreign second-class citizens.
Just because the Kurdish media doesn’t show Assyrians being oppressed and their suffering, it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.
It’s really ironic that Kurds hate Arabs/Persians/Turks for being ethno-nationalists but it’s okay to be that themselves. Also, we always hear that the Kurds committed those atrocities for the Ottoman Turks, but what about Simko Shkak who wasn’t under Ottoman or Iran control? What about Miri Kora of Soran Emirate who rebelled against Ottomans and still massacred Assyrians? What about Bakr Sidqi and his almost all Kurdish army? What about the Kurdish looters who looted Assyrian villages. KRI is not a utopia man, just admit it. Women don’t have full legal protection, even though they’re 50% of the society, let alone minorities.
Your arguments are flawed and historically ignorant
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u/AliveZexy777 9d ago edited 9d ago
Dont use AI for such debates its lame.
When i meant many kurds didnt participate i didnt just mean alevi and yezidi ones many muslim ones did'nt participate as well.
If they were that smart to shelter a group so then they'd use them against others then kurds would have a country and turks wouldn't. Thats too smart for us. We are famous for being naive.
Yes kurds are not angels just like everybody else. But we are definitely among the better ones right next to assyrians.
Yes assyrians can feel however they want. But to make good decisions we should be in touch with reality. If they were in touch with reality they wouldn't view us as a monolithic kingdom like persia that every single member of it participates in whatever policy their state commands.
Yes we should be better people and treat assyrians better because they are equals to us.
Yes kurdish media only shows their celebrations and nothing more. But its good if we dont act like iraq syria turky or iran are better. Assyrians live among us more than they live with them for a good reason. We are safer around each other and dont try to wipe out each others identity. Thats why they still live around us. In any of the four countries mentioned an assyrian would eventually get assimilated and lose their identity and become a persian turk or arab but not in kurdistan.
None of our elites and parties are ethno nationalists. Even the most nationalistic ones among us never want the destruction of others we only want to exist as everyone else has the right to exist. We never say persians turks and arabs should be wiped out its always them who want us destroyed.
Simkos brother cewher was under iran they killed him then simko started a war for independence and he fought both iran and ottomans. the qajar shah and the lord of tabriz wanted to get rid of kurds and arminians and assyrians. Simko did kill none kurds and that is horrible and we apologize for it. But the only reason kurds still exist in rojhilat is because simko was there and fought. Everyone was going to get wiped out by iran he preferred kurds over others.
I didnt want to mention this but the assyrians on the easten side of zagros mountains got there by massacring kurds. Should we talk about this too? It was so bad even persians wrote about it. You can read about it in the works of ahmad-e kasravi.
No one is denying any of the wrongs that was done by our ancestors and we must always try to work and live in a way that never a situation comes that we would have to choose between our people or assyrians. Everyone deserves to be respected safe and live with dignity.
The woman part you mentioned is almost a worldwide phenomenon. You are just using it to delegitimize kurds. We are in the middle east which is among the worst places in the world for women. And KRG is just behind Iran and turkey in womens rights (israel is an exception in the region). The most important thing for participation of women in all aspects of a society is safety. And we are constantly under attack by different enemies and the islamist salafi idiology is getting poured in kurdistan by qatar and turkey. We are lucky we have an autonomous region at all let alone being able to compete with first world countries in womens rights. Lets focus on not having our women raped by enemies first. You are either too young and full of post modernist views or you are just trying to shit on kurds.
I ultimately want assyrians to have their nation/state. I hope their language identity and culture preserved. I hope their numbers grow. And i hope friendship between our peoples.
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u/Zheer_son 10d ago edited 10d ago
Have you ever seen Armenians apologize for the genocide committed against the Kurds by Armenians and Russians?
However, as Kurds, we apologize for the fact that some tribes participated in it, just as some other tribes supported the Assyrians. This issue does not concern the 45 million Kurds living today. There is no reason for me, as a Kurd, to consider myself guilty. Unfortunately, however, Assyrians today see us as 100% guilty.
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u/khwarism 10d ago
There are to types of I’m sorry, one of them is for apologizing and the other is for stating that you’re sad about something. I meant both, I’m sorry that Kurds have participated in Assyrian genocide multiple times, and I’m sad that it happened not because Kurds participated but because genocide is bad and no matter who commits it or who it is committed against.
I’m also sad that I didn’t learn about it or read about it earlier. Armenians and Assyrians were under Islamic Ottoman ruler, the Ottomans delegated tax collection from Assyrains and Armenians to Kurds. These Christians were paying two different kinds of tax, Jizyah which is the tax you pay as a non-muslim for not being killed by the state, and they were also paying other regular taxes. Any time they refused to pay, they got a military blow from Kurds, so sometimes they retaliated. You wouldn’t just sit there and let others massacre you, would you.
Kurds were oppressing Christians for centuries, it was bound to happen that they retaliated. Also, Assyrian and Armenian retaliations were no where near the scale of the genocide that happened to them. 50-66% of all Assyrians at the time were killed. No you tell me, was Assyrians defending themselves by killing tribal Kurds on the same scale as that? Just from 1890s to 1930s 250k-500k Assyrians were killed, more than 1.5m Armenians killed.
It’s true that me and you didn’t have a say in this, but it’s our responsibility to learn the real history and stop the constant misinformation and propaganda against Assyrians.
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u/South-Distribution54 Armenian 9d ago
From an Armenian, sincerely thank you. I wish more turks and kurds were like you. The world would be a better place.
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u/Zheer_son 10d ago
You are talking about a few tribes, not all Kurds. At that time, you only see those few tribes. What about those who fought against their own blood and ethnic kin to protect you?
And Kurds were not responsible for everything. It was Turkey and the Ottoman government that had blinded those few tribes, and most of the atrocities were committed by Ottoman Turkish soldiers, not Kurds. I do not believe that 10,000 Assyrians were killed by Kurds; the rest were killed by other peoples within the Ottoman Empire, especially Turks. You should also understand that Kurds did not hate Assyrians. The Ottoman government blinded those few tribes with false promises. It was only a few tribes, and that does not mean you can judge all Kurds today based on the actions of a few tribes.
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u/khwarism 10d ago
I agree with you on one important point: I am not blaming all Kurds, and I do not believe Kurds today are guilty for what happened 100 years ago. I also know that some Kurdish tribes and individuals protected Assyrians and Armenians, and that deserves to be remembered too.
But after looking more deeply into the historical sources, I don’t think it is accurate to describe Kurdish participation in Sayfo as just “a few tribes” who were tricked by the Ottoman government.
The Ottoman state absolutely had the central responsibility. It organized, encouraged and enabled much of the violence. But Kurdish tribal participation was also significant in several different regions.
In Hakkari, sources describe Kurdish forces from tribes such as the Oramar, Barzan, Artoshi and others participating alongside Ottoman troops against Assyrian communities. One contemporary report from 1915 describes around 1,500 Ottoman soldiers accompanied by approximately 8,000 Kurdish fighters in the Hakkari campaign. Another early attacking force was described as around 3,000 Turks and Kurds.
In the Diyarbekir and Tur Abdin area, historians document many different Kurdish tribes being mobilized. In one operation around Goliye alone, the sources name tribes including Milli, Dakuri, Mersani, Kiki, Khalyi, Arbani, Mishkeni, Sevaraki, Derkavi, Danbali, Afs, Ghara and Sheykhan. That force was estimated at around 5,000 Kurds and Arabs.
For major operations in the region, the authorities could mobilize more than 10,000 Kurdish tribesmen. Sources concerning Ayn-Wardo also give estimates in the range of roughly 10,000–12,000 Kurdish fighters, depending on the account.
So I would not claim that we know the exact total number of Kurdish participants, because we don’t. The same fighters could appear in several campaigns, and wartime estimates are not exact. But the evidence clearly shows participation by many tribes and thousands of Kurdish armed men across several regions. That is more than “a few tribes.”
At the same time, the opposite side of the story should also be told. Some Kurds refused to participate, some protected Christians, and even within the same tribal confederations there could be different factions taking completely different positions.
That is why I don’t see this as “Kurds are guilty” versus “Kurds are innocent.” History is more complicated than that.
Simele in 1933 also needs some nuance. It was an Iraqi state massacre carried out under the command of Bakr Sidqi, who was himself Kurdish. Kurdish irregulars participated in killings and extensive looting alongside the Iraqi Army, and contemporary accounts describe Assyrians captured by both Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish irregulars being executed. Afterward, 49 Kurdish aghas even sent a petition thanking the Iraqi government for suppressing the Assyrians.
At the same time, I wouldn’t simply call the entire Iraqi Army involved at Simele “Kurdish,” because I haven’t seen reliable evidence establishing the ethnicity of every regular army unit involved. What we can say is that the commander was Kurdish, Kurdish irregulars were substantially involved, and Sidqi was known for encouraging Kurdish recruitment into the army. He later became notorious among Arab nationalist officers for promoting Kurds and Turkmens within the officer corps.
So again, the history is more complicated than either “the Kurds did it” or “the Kurds had almost nothing to do with it.”
But Sayfo is different. There, Kurdish tribal participation was much broader and better documented.
None of this makes you or me personally guilty. I am Kurdish too. I just don’t think defending Kurdish identity requires minimizing what Kurdish actors did. We should be able to say that some Kurds committed atrocities, some Kurds protected Assyrians, and the Ottoman state was primarily responsible for creating and directing the wider campaign.
Those things can all be true at the same time.-8
u/Zheer_son 10d ago
%96 Ai text 🥀
Whatever the case may be, Kurds should not be viewed as the main perpetrators. Turkey is the main actor here, so direct your criticism toward them.
And right now, in the Middle East, who do you think is the best friend of the Assyrians? The Arabs? The Iranian Islamists? Or the Turks?
In any case, take steps toward the future. The past, no matter how unpleasant it is, has already passed. You are so focused on the past that you are not focused enough on the future, which is why I don’t see any progress for the Assyrians in this region.
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u/khwarism 10d ago
Using AI doesn't change the reality and the history. Assyrians living under Kurdish rule during Ottoman times. You could say that mostly Sunni Kurmanji Kurds are responsible for this, the Kurds who refused to participate were Zaza Alevi and Yazidis who were also persecuted by Sunni Kurmanjs. Also, Miri Kor of Soran also attacked Assyrians and killed tens of thousands of them, he was trying to expand his rule northward and Assyrians were defending their lands. It's true that Gorani, Lurs, Laks, and Feylis didn't have anything to do with it but that's irrelevant because no Assyrians were living with those groups.
Also, I don't understand why us Kurds get so defensive about this topic, you would have to look really hard to find a German doing the same for the holocaust. KRG is not a hero for not being a second Turkey you know. Assyrians have a right to these lands, they belong here. To this day KDP takes away their properties and doesn't compensate them. Erbil Airport was built on Assyrian farmlands that was legally theirs.
Your arguments sounds like that of nationalist Turks. Just because Assyrians are not killed in the streets, it doesn't mean Kurdistan region is a safe haven for them. It's not that hard to admit that people of our ethnicity committed horrible acts that they shouldn't have. Also, I'm tired of this "they were a few Kurdish tribes", they were tens of thousands of Sunni Kurdish men under Kurdish leadership in Kurdish controlled areas, the call to Jihad was approved by Kurdish Islamic scholars. Let's not downplay history.
It's really simple, Seyfo and Simele were acts of genocide committed by Kurdish militants against Assyrians to wipe them off of the land.
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u/chaldean22 Assyrian 10d ago
97% of our population now does not live in its indigenous land because of what has happened the past 200 years, how do you think we feel? Imagine if today instead of 40 million Kurds living between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, it was only 1 million, and the other 39 million Kurds being spread across Europe, America, Canada and Australia. How would that make you feel?