Assyrian Volunteers
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Assyrian Volunteers
The Assyrian volunteers was an ethnic Assyrian military force during WW1, led mainly by General Agha Petros Elia of Baz and several tribal leaders known as Maliks ( syr, ܡܠܟ) under the spiritual leadership of the Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Shimun Benyamin allied with the Entente Powers described by the English pastor and author William A. Wigram as Our Smallest Ally. Background Prior to World War 1, the Assyrian tribes of the Hakkari mountains enjoyed complete and semi-independence, each tribe was led by a Malik (ܡܠܟ) who also functioned as a military leader during wartime. The independent Assyrian mountaineers were referred to as ''Asiratte'' or ''Asherat''. The country of the independent Assyrian tribes of Tkhuma, Baz, Jelu, Tyari and Diz occupied the upper valley of the Zab River. This country was known as Hakkari. The village of Mellawa marked the border between the independent and semi-independent tribes. The British diplomat James Rich wrote: To reach Asia Min ...
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Assyrian Struggle For Independence
The Assyrian independence movement is a political movement and Ethnic nationalism, ethno-nationalist desire of ethnic Assyrian people, Assyrians to live in their indigenous Assyrian homeland in northern Mesopotamia under the Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq, self-governance of an Assyrian State. The tumultuous history of the traditional Assyrian homeland and surrounding regions, as well as the Partition of the Ottoman Empire, led to the emergence of modern Assyrian nationalism. To this respect, Assyrian independence movement is a "catch-all" term of the collective efforts of proponents of Assyrian nationalism in the context of the Nation state, modern nation state. As a result of Assyrian genocide, genocide and Iraq War and the War on Terror, war, the Assyrians were reduced to a minority population in their indigenous homeland, resulting in Political freedom, political autonomy being unattainable due to the security risks, and the rise of the Political movement, movement for ...
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Allies Of World War I
The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and their colonies during the First World War (1914–1918). By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, the major European powers were divided between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente was made up of France, Britain, and Russia. The Triple Alliance was originally composed of Germany, Austria–Hungary, and Italy, but Italy remained neutral in 1914. As the war progressed, each coalition added new members. Japan joined the Entente in 1914 and after proclaiming its neutrality at the beginning of the war, Italy also joined the Entente in 1915. The term "Allies" became more widely used than "Entente", although France, Britain, Russia, and Italy were also referred to as the Quadruple Entente ...
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Our Smallest Ally
''Our Smallest Ally: a brief account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War'' is a book published in 1920 by William A. Wigram. Wigram, an Anglican priest part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's mission to the Assyrians, gives a first-hand account of contributions of the Assyrian volunteers during the Great War. The Assyrian nation The Assyrian nation was led by their Patriarch, Shimun XIX Benyamin, the circumstances of which were partly due to the Ottoman ''Millet'' system, in which religious bodies were treated as ethnic groups and were separated and afforded local autonomy. Upon joining on the side of the Allies during World War I, the Patriarch was special commander of one of the Battalions. The efforts of the Patriarch's Assyrians on the side of Russia during the war, prior to the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II, were recognized in 1917 on 25 October, when 200 grade four Cross of St. George medals were delivered to Mar Benyamin to distribute to his soldiers that showed valo ...
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Talaat Pasha
Mehmed Talaat (1 September 187415 March 1921), commonly known as Talaat Pasha or Talat Pasha,; tr, Talat Paşa, links=no was an Ottoman politician and convicted war criminal of the late Ottoman Empire who served as its leader from 1913 to 1918. Talaat Pasha was chairman of the Union and Progress Party, which operated a one-party dictatorship in the Ottoman Empire, and later on became Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) during World War I. He was one of the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide and other ethnic cleansings during his time as Minister of Interior Affairs. Born in Kırcaali (Kardzhali), Adrianople (Edirne) Vilayet, Mehmed Talaat grew up to despise Sultan Abdul Hamid II's autocracy. He was an early member of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), a secret revolutionary Young Turk organization, and over time became its leader. After the CUP succeeded in restoring the constitution and parliament in the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, Talaat was elected as a deputy ...
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ...
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Assyrian Genocide
The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tribes during World War I. The Assyrians were divided into mutually antagonistic churches, including the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Before World War I, they lived in mountainous and remote areas of the Ottoman Empire (some of which were effectively stateless). The empire's nineteenth-century centralization efforts led to increased violence and danger for the Assyrians. Mass killing of Assyrian civilians began during the Ottoman occupation of Azerbaijan from January to May 1915, during which massacres were committed by Ottoman forces and pro-Ottoman Kurds. In Bitlis province, Ottoman troops returning from Persia joined local Kurdish tribes to massacre the local Christian population ( ...
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Claudius Rich
Claudius James Rich (28 March 1787 – 5 October 1821) was a British Assyriologist, business agent, traveller and antiquarian scholar. Biography Rich was born near Dijon "of a good family", but passed his childhood at Bristol. Early on, he developed a gift for languages, becoming familiar not only with Latin and Greek but also with Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, Turkish and other Eastern tongues. In 1803, by the influence of friends, he was appointed a cadet in the East India Company's service. The Company's directors were so much impressed by Rich's linguistic attainments that they presented him with a writership on the Bombay Presidency, and thus changed his career from the military to the civil side. At the same time he was provisionally attached as secretary to Charles Lock, who was proceeding to Egypt as consul-general, in order that he might improve his Arabic and Turkish under the consul's direction. Rich embarked early in 1804 in the ''Hindostan'', which was wrecked, and Ri ...
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Great Zab
The Great Zab or Upper Zab ( (''al-Zāb al-Kabīr''), or , , ''(zāba ʻalya)'') is an approximately long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. The drainage basin of the Great Zab covers approximately , and during its course, the rivers collects the water from many tributaries. The river and its tributaries are primarily fed by rainfall and snowmelt – as a result of which discharge fluctuates highly throughout the year. At least six dams have been planned on the Great Zab and its tributaries, but construction of only one, the Bekhme Dam, has commenced but was halted after the Gulf War. The Zagros Mountains have been occupied since at least the Lower Palaeolithic, and Neanderthal occupation of the Great Zab basin has been testified at the archaeological site of Shanidar Cave. Historical records for the region are available from the end of the third millennium BCE onward. In the Neo-Assyrian period ...
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Tyari
Tyari ( syr, ܛܝܵܪܹܐ, Ṭyārē) is an Assyrian tribe and a historical district within Hakkari, Turkey. The area was traditionally divided into Upper (''Tyari Letha'') and Lower Tyari (''Tyari Khtetha'')–each consisting of several Assyrian villages. Both Upper and Lower Tyari are located on the western bank of the Zab river. Today, the district mostly sits in around the town of Çukurca. Historically, the largest village of the region was known as Ashitha. According to Hannibal Travis the Tyari Assyrians were known for their skills in weaving and knitting. Before 1915, Tyari was home to Assyrians from the Tyari tribe as well as a minority of Kurds. Following the Assyrian genocide, ''Ṭyārāyē'', along with other Assyrians residing in the Hakkari highlands, were forced to leave their villages in southeast Anatolia and fled to join their fellow Assyrian brethren in modern-day northern Iraq (Sarsink, Sharafiya, Chammike and various villages in the Nahla valley), northeas ...
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Jilu (tribe)
Jīlū was a district located in the Hakkari region of upper Mesopotamia in modern-day Turkey. Before 1915 Jīlū was home to Assyrians and as well as a minority of Kurds. There were 20 Assyrian villages in this district. The area was traditionally divided into Greater and Lesser Jīlū, and Ishtāzin - each with its own Malik, and consisting of a number of Assyrian villages. In the summer of 1915, during the Assyrian genocide, Jīlū was surrounded and attacked by Turkish troops and neighboring Kurdish tribes under the leadership of Agha Sūtū of Oramar. It is now located around Yeşiltaş, Yüksekova. After a brief struggle to maintain their positions, the Assyrian citizens of Jīlū were forced to flee to Salmas in Iran along with other refugees from the Hakkari highlands. Today their descendants live all over the world including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. In Syria's al-Hasakah Governorate there are two villages, ...
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Baz (tribe)
Baz (Syriac: ܒܙ) was one of the five independent Assyrian tribes of the Hakkari region. History Maha Khtayya was the chief village of the region, followed by Shwawwa. All the Maliks descended from the hereditary Malik-Younan family. The last malik, Malik Khamo Younan of Maha Khtayya died in 1937 at Baghdad, Iraq. The Baz region was also the birthplace and ancestral home of the Assyrian World War I commander General Agha Petros. The Assyrians of the Baz tribe were renowned carpenters and iron-workers who worked not only in their villages, but throughout Mosul and other large towns of Upper Mesopotamia. Baznaye are traditionally adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East, and the majority remain adherents. Baznaye can also be found in the Chaldean Catholic Church due to the conversions made in the early 20th century and resettlement near traditional Chaldean villages. Some Baznaye also joined the Ancient Church of the East after the 1968 schism. A very small minority also adher ...
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Tkhuma
Prior to World War I, the Tkhuma ( syr, ܬܚܘܡܐ, Tkhūmā "Borderland") were one of five principal and semi-independent Assyrian tribes subject to the spiritual and temporal jurisdiction of the Assyrian Patriarch with the title Mar Shimun. The Assyrians claimed the status of a firman of protection from the Caliphate and of an Ottoman millet to preserve their customs and traditions along with the tribes of Jelu, Baz, Tyari, and Deez/Diz, "forming the highest authority under His Holiness Mar Shimun, the patriarch." The Tkhuma Tribe is a tribe of Assyrians that lived in upper Mesopotamia until 1915, when they were dispersed into Persia, Iraq, and Syria during the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide. In 1915, the representative of the Assyrian Patriarch Shimun XX Paulos wrote that the Tkhuma of "many Christian villages" had "been entirely destroyed." In 1933, Malik Loco Badawi, the chief of the Tkhuma tribe, from the Royal House of Badawi, went with the chief of the Tyari and 700 arme ...
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