ANA-ASHUR Media & Translation Desk
The Kurdish employee and the essence of autonomy
By Yousip Barkho
English translation ANA-ASHUR
In a special declaration to Ankawa website; Mr. Sarkis Aghajan, the Kurdish employee, member of the Kurdish “democratic” party and minister of finance in the Occupying Kurdish government “the son of the Assyrian nation” as he claims stated:” to add a special paragraph in the Iraqi Constitution recognizing our people’s autonomy in its historical areas”.
Being an Assyrian from Ashur – North of Iraq- the Assyrian land Occupied by your bosses and their people who are foreigners to my homeland Assyria and Iraq, I would like to make it clear for the dear readers, as well as every Assyrian and Iraqi who loves Iraq’s soil form Zakho to Fao that being an Assyrian and Iraqi will never allow me to recognize the so-called Iraqi Constitution and I’m confident that many of my fellow Assyrians and Iraqis share my opinion because they know very well how much Iraq means to us and how sacred is its soil.
Well Mr. Minister, your demand is undisputed as a national right; however, we have several questions to be answered:
1- All of Northern Iraq are Assyrian historical lands, which are today usurped by a foreign people to Iraq and specifically to its North, the land of Ashur, today you’re an employee and a finance minister in the government of this Occupying foreigner who has established his judiciary, legislative and executive authorities on your land. How do you accept to grant the foreigner your land when he took it forcefully after killing, looting and displacing your ancestors? How do you accept to be a guest on your own land when you claim to be “the son of the Assyrian nation” and then you want the Assyrian people to accept being guests on their own lands while the foreigner becomes the master as he is your master since you are his employee?
2- You want autonomy? Does this mean that our people who want autonomy will be able to enjoy the three judicial, legislative and executive authorities as well as the fourth active component which is economy in order to legally, constitutionally and internationally fulfill the requirements of self-autonomy in the Assyrian historical lands as they are known, stated, and documented historically and geographically as the lands of Ashur? Defined as follows:
North: The international borders of the state of Iraq with Turkey and Syria.
East: The Nirwa and Rikan area right down along the Greater Zab River.
West: The Tigris River.
South: The point of convergence between the Greater Zab and the Tigris Rivers.
3- Since you want to add the self-autonomy paragraph within the Iraqi Constitution, then the self-autonomy which you want must be joined to the central Iraqi government, its federal authorities and the Iraqi Constitution, the supreme law which shall bind all of Iraq without exception as mentioned in article XIII, paragraph (1). However, will not the self-autonomy phrase which you want to add contradict with many of the Iraqi Constitution articles and paragraphs which are soon to be amended and those are the backbone of the so-called region with its present borders, authorities and government which you are an employee for such as the Iraqi Constitution articles state:
Article 117:
First: This Constitution, upon coming into force, shall recognize the Kurd/istan region along with its existing authorities, as a federal region.
Article 140:
First: The executive authority shall undertake the necessary steps to complete the implementation of the requirements of all subparagraphs of Article 58 of the
Transitional Administrative Law.
Second: The responsibility placed upon the executive branch of the Iraqi
Transitional Government stipulated in Article 58 of the Transitional
Administrative Law shall extend and continue to the executive authority elected in
accordance with this Constitution provided that it accomplishes completely.
(normalization and census and concludes with a referendum in Kirkuk and other
disputed territories to determine the will of their citizens), by a date not to exceed
the 31st of December 2007.
Article 141:
Legislation enacted in the region of Kurd/istan since 1992 shall remain in force, and
decisions issued by the government of the region of Kurd/istan, including court decisions and contracts, shall be considered valid unless they are amended or annulled pursuant to the laws of the region of Kurd/istan by the competent entity in the region, provided that they do not contradict with the Constitution.
Article 143:
The Transitional Administrative Law and its Annex shall be annulled on the seating of the new government, except for the stipulations of Article 53(A) and Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law.
Article 53 of TAL :( A) The Kurd/istan Regional Government is recognized as the official government of the territories that were administered by the government on 19 March 2003 in the governorates of Dohuk, Arbil, Sulaimaniya, Kirkuk, Diyala and Nineveh. The term “Kurd/istan Regional Government” shall refer to the Kurd/istan National Assembly, the Kurd/istan Council of Ministers, and the regional judicial authority in the Kurd/istan region.
These Mr. minister- the Kurdish employee- were few of the constitutional articles and paragraphs specific to the Kurds and their so-called region, authorities and government which are historically your people’s lands, thus instead of drawling about a self-autonomy which you know beforehand its horrors and consequences, it would have been better had you demanded the Assyrian lands which were confiscated and seized by the Kurds using laws legislated since 1992 in the so-called Kurdish region. However, why should you ask for the Assyrian rights and lands when you are a Kurdish employee? When those who preceded you didn’t ask and those who are working for the Kurds today aren’t asking?
There are those who will say:” This is the new Iraq, this is the current political reality, this is the Constitution which must be respected as well as respecting the authority of the law whether you like it or not”.
Very well let’s talk about the new Iraq, its political reality, Constitution and respecting the law’s authority from the political, legal and moral aspects.
Mr. minister, if you’re really an Assyrian working for the interests of your people in the new Iraq based on the principle of democracy and as partners in the homeland equal with the rest of Iraq’s ethnicities and components in the shadows of the American “freedom and democracy” which made you all, and as you know in democracy every one is equal, there’s no one big or small, neither is there a majority or minority, thus within the concept of democracy the majority protects and works for the minority. Why didn’t you demand or why don’t you demand now a (federal) Ashur region in the Land of Ashur- North of Iraq- based on the principle of federalism as mentioned in article IV of TAL in the new Iraq which states:
Article 4: The system of government in Iraq shall be republican, federal, democratic, and pluralistic, and powers shall be shared between the federal government and the regional governments, governorates, municipalities, and local administrations. The federal system shall be based upon geographic and historical realities and the separation of powers, and not upon origin, race, ethnicity, nationality, or confession.
Do you read Mr. Minister? If you know, have read and are aware of the contents of TAL and the Permanent (current) Iraqi Constitution.
The article mentions that the federal system in Iraq is based on the geographical and historical facts and not on the basis of origin, race, ethnicity, nationality or creed. Isn’t the term of the so-called Kurd/istan, an ethnic-racial one only and not a historical-geographical term within the limits of the Iraqi State? You and those who are Kurdified think that they can deceive the Iraqi, regional and international minds with these linguistic, historical, geographical, and legal travesties with a stroke of a pen, a speech from a podium under the dome of a parliament or for a handful of dollars for a book. All the historical, academic references and research institutions confirm one and only fact that the Kurds are outsiders to Iraq and they didn’t have an entity before the treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne but despite all, we consider the Kurds to be Iraqis through national belonging but not on the basis of obliterating us and Kurdifying our land the Land of Ashur-North Iraq- looting and plundering our resources but most dangerous of all distorting our Assyrian history in the land of Ashur- the North of our beloved country Iraq- which is known to those far and near and witnessed to by the Assyrian civilization and its monuments below and above the ground, but there hasn’t been a civilization nor any Kurdish traces in the land of Ashur, the Kurds don’t have neither a civilization nor any traces on a land which they are claiming it today as their own. We ask them, if this has been your land through history, where are the relics of your history and civilization on the land of Ashur, today’s North of Iraq?
Mr. minister, the land of Ashur- North of Iraq- is your land and the land of every Assyrian and Iraq is your land and the land of every Iraqi, but the land of Ashur isn’t the land of foreigners and Iraq isn’t their homeland, they are the ones who should be asking you for self-rule in Ashur – North of Iraq- because they are the outsiders to the land of Ashur and Iraq.
The Assyrians and history will not forgive nor have mercy on those who have bargained with and compromised the fate of the Assyrian nation, and these empty attempts will not succeed because if a person’s conscience is dead no matter how much he tries, he will not be able to allure or buy those with free consciences and the free Assyrians will always be on the guard to divulge what’s being plotted against the Assyrian nation covertly and overtly perhaps the dormant consciences will wake up because the dead ones will not awaken.
Note: ANA-ASHUR doesn’t recognize the entity or the term of the so-called Kurd/istan but it was used here as it is mentioned in the Iraqi Constitution.
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