TAKE ACTION
On August 7, Assyrian Genocide Remembrance Day, The Assyrian Studies Association jointly partnered with other 35 fellow Assyrian community organizations & allies to sign a letter calling on Iraqi authorities to recognize the Simele Massacre of 1933. You can read the letter by clicking on the icon to the right.
Right now, The Assyrian Studies Association is calling for academics to add their voices demanding a professional academic and impartial investigation into the current situation of the material remains of the Simele Massacre site. Show your support by adding your name to the letter.
This letter will be sent to all relevant authorities in Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government within Iraq as well as academic institutions such as The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and other Non-Governmental Organizations on October 1, 2020. To view our letter, please see below.
Calling For Academic Signatures To Recognize The Simele Massacre as Genocide & Its Sites as Protected Places of Remembrance
The Issue:
Since 1933, the site of Simele is a sacred site of mourning and remembrance for the Assyrian community of Iraq and Assyrians worldwide. In Duhok Governorate, in today’s Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the site has both ancient and modern significance for the Assyrian peoples. It is believed that the town was an ancient Assyrian settlement; at the same time, it is a massacre site related to historical atrocities and injustices against indigenous people native to modern-day Iraq and one of the oldest living cultures. This site, as well as several others in the area, is believed to contain the remains of Assyrian victims of systematic, large- scale killings when Iraq launched its genocidal campaign targeting Assyrians across northern Iraq in 1933.
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The Simele Massacre, a massacre committed by the armed forces of the nascent Iraqi state, through weapons supplied by Great Britain and with the participation from Arab and Kurdish irregulars, systematically targeted the indigenous Assyrian community in August of 1933. The term is used to describe the massacre in Simele and the broader campaign that took place across more than 80 Assyrian villages in northern Iraq. As many as 6,000 Assyrian men, women, and children were killed, while tens of thousands more were forcibly displaced and barred from returning. Assyrian Remembrance Day—which honors the victims of all genocidal campaigns targeting Assyrians in their modern history—is observed annually on the anniversary of this crime.