In this Sunday, April 1, 2018 photo, a cross lies in the rubble of a destroyed church that was blown up by Islamic State militants in 2015, in the deserted village of Tal Jazeera, northern Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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Sarah El Deeb, Apr. 04, 2018
TAL
ARBOUSH, Syria: The young men and women in traditional costumes of red, blue and
white, the colors of the Assyrian flag, jumped into the middle of the park.
With feathers or gold tiaras on their heads, they danced, kicking up their feet
to a traditional song as the New Year’s party reached its peak.“We Assyrians
must remain united,” one song rang out. Older men watching raised a glass of
arak, an anise-flavored alcohol drink, to the dancers. The dance circle grew,
as women, men and militiamen guarding the daytime party joined.
It
is the Assyrian New Year, or Akitu. And the start of year 6768, by their
calendar, coincided this time with Easter, a rare occasion that gave the small
and ever shrinking community of Assyrian Christians in northern Syria more
reason for their celebration Sunday.
They
were snatching joy out of a site of tragedy. The village of Tal Arboush, where
the organizers held the celebration, is one of more than 30 villages along the
Khabur River that were destroyed when Daesh (ISIS) militants descended from the
mountains in February 2015 and rampaged through, kidnapping 226 residents and
sending the rest fleeing.
The
villages remain deserted and in ruins. Years of war and instability had already
been eroding the community in Syria, and the Daesh onslaught was the final blow
that nearly finished it. From nearly 20,000 Assyrians in Syria before the war
in 2011, there are around 1,000, according to local activists.
Assyrians
are a community that traces its heritage back to ancient Mesopotamia. They
speak a Semitic language distinct from Arabic. There is also a beleaguered Assyrian
community in Iraq, and a smaller population in Turkey.
About
200 members of Syria’s remaining community came to Tal Arboush to show their
resilience.
“We
wait for this occasion to have a little fun,” said Ornina Shlimon Ayo, a
23-year old, who had just come out of the dance circle.
They
came from the nearby towns of Qamishli and Tal Tamr where they now live,
bringing food and drink to the village, where many of the houses are in rubble.
A tailor prepared Assyrian flags and pictures of Lamassu, an ancient Assyrian
protective deity with the head of a human and body of a winged bull, to pass
around.
Small
barbecues were set up in the corner of the park, and a DJ kept Assyrian songs
running, many of them by well-known Assyrians in exile. At one point, an older
man and his friend on a buzuq – a stringed instrument – played a few songs.
A
history teacher struggled to keep the attention of the audience as he lectured
them, in Arabic and not in Assyrian, about the ancient civilization and one of
the community’s modern-day heroes, born in the 19th century around the New
Year, Gen. Agha Petros, an Assyrian military leader who battled the Turks in
World War I.
Before
the mass exodus, Akitu, which is also the ancient Mesopotamian spring festival,
was the time for collective weddings, held on the slopes of the nearby
mountain. Those weddings have now almost disappeared because of the dwindling
community. Also, Assyrians fear the mountain could be mined or shelter Daesh
sleeper cells.
Only
a few marriages take place these days, mostly held in churches.
Wael
Warda Marza, a local Assyrian politician, said he hoped the New Year
celebrations would serve to attract the thousands of Assyrians who migrated
abroad.
“We
are back again to celebrating. The sun of Ashur [the Assyrian God of war] has
risen again over the villages of Khabur,” Marza said. “The black flags [of
Daesh] were only a black cloud over our villages.”
Still,
they are wary. Assyrian security men toting automatic rifles guarded the party
from the rooftop of a building overlooking the public park. Others milled
around near the parking lot, some filtering in the joint the dance.
The
trail of destruction left by Daesh serves as a reminder of how vulnerable the
community is. With Daesh largely defeated across Syria, the main Kurdish
militia, backed by the U.S., has set up a new administration in northern Syria.
It has made a largely symbolic effort to be inclusive of minorities, giving
Assyrians and other communities seats in local councils. It has also given
support to Assyrian militias.
These
Assyrian militias now still guard the deserted villages, fearing they will be
overtaken by the nearby Arabs or Kurds, who greatly outnumber them. There are
still fears of Daesh re-emergence.
The
militants stormed a dozen villages one night in Feb. 23, 2015. In coordinated
attacks, they kidnapped 226 residents.
The
Syrian government had withdrawn from the villages and the Khabur River valley
area in 2012 as it tried to control territory elsewhere amid the chaos as
protests against the government turned into armed conflict. Local militias took
over security in the villages, but residents filtered out steadily, fleeing the
instability.
So
that horrific night three years ago, the militia couldn’t protect the residents
or the area’s ancient churches from the well-armed, aggressive Daesh militants.
Zaya
Youkhana, a 52-year-old resident of Tal Jazira, was not in his village when
Daesh stormed it. It was the largest village in the area, and Daesh kidnapped
all its 82 residents, including his uncles and aunts, among the 226 Assyrians
total carried off by the group that night.
It
took a year, but a local bishop was able to gather donations abroad to pay
ransoms that eventually won the freedom of all the captives – almost. Three
residents were killed in a grisly video released by the militants during the
negotiations.
And
Youkhana said the granddaughter of his uncle was never found. “We don’t know
her fate. We hope she returns to her family safely,” he said as he stepped over
ruins to reach his uncle’s mulberry tree.
A
slogan of the militants remains scribbled on the walls, a haunting reminder:
“Soldiers of Daesh passed by here.”
A
version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on
April 04, 2018, on page 15.
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