She Survived the Turkish Genocide, But Lost Her Assyrian Identity
Ashur Shirsha – 24/4/14
(AINA) — In 1974, at the height of the Kurdish insurrection in north Iraq, a woman knocked on the door of a house in the Assyrian quarter of Kirkuk. The owner of the house, Michael, opened the door and saw an elderly Kurdish woman. According to Michael, he was so shaken and disturbed by this encounter that immediately afterward he sat in his living room and sobbed for two hours.
The following is a transcript that Michael wrote after this incident occurred. He kept it for thirteen years, never telling anyone about it. In 1985 he immigrated to Chicago. In 1986 he gave the transcript to Delilah, who had immigrated to Chicago in 1984. When asked by Delilah why he had not told her in 1973, he said at the time he wished to spare her the pain of remembering the genocide, which had claimed the life of his own father, and which this incident had triggered so many painful memories in him. But now his perspective had changed, and he felt that Delilah and her family had a right to know, and such accounts should be made available to all, so that the genocide would never be forgotten.
Delilah died in 1986. Michael died in 1987.
The Turkish genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians occurred between 1915 and 1918, and claimed the lives of 750,000 Assyrians (75%), 1.5 million Armenians and 500,000 Pontic Greeks. It was a genocide designed to exterminate Christians and it nearly succeeded. Today Turkey is 99% Muslim. In the 1820s 40% of its population was non-Muslim, mostly Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks and some Jews. In 1915 the non-Muslim population had declined to 19%. In 1918 it had declined to less than 1% directly as a result of the genocide.
That the genocide occurred is beyond dispute. The evidence comes from multiple sources. The genocide was recorded by Arnold Toynbee, famed British historian, as well as countless American and German missionaries. Toynbee’s document runs for more than 600 pages and is entitled, “Arnold Toynbee Papers and Documents on the Treatment of Armenians and Assyrian Christians by the Turks, 1915-1916, in the Ottoman Empire and North-West Persia.” The national archives of the British, French and American states contain a large collection of documents related to the genocide. The Diplomatic French archives, for example, included 45 volumes on the Assyrian question from 1915 to 1940.
There is also the testimony of thousands of Assyrian, Greek and Armenian survivors. The following is one such testimony.
The names in the following transcript have been Anglicized. The transcript was translated from Assyrian by AINA.
Michael opens the door after hearing a knock.
“Your neighbor sent me here,” she said in Kurdish and broken Assyrian.
“May I help you?”
“Yes. I am looking for my family. I told your Arab neighbor I am an Assyrian; he sent me here.”
“What is your name?”
“My Kurdish name is Neurez. My Assyrian name is Susan [Shooshan].”
“Are you Kurdish or Assyrian?”
“I am an Assyrian. I was born in Turkey in 1903. I am from the village of Ishtazin. My father was John David [Youkhana Dawid].”
“I am Michael.”
“My mother, father and two brothers were killed by a Kurd in 1915. He spared my life and forced me to marry him. I want to find my family. I had two uncles on my father’s side, and an uncle and an aunt on my mother’s side.”
“What were their names?”
“My father’s brothers were Zia and Tower. My mother’s sister was Batishwa and her brother was Paul [Paulus]. Zia was married and had a boy and a girl, Matthew [Matay] and Delilah [Dalaleh]”
“There’s a woman who lives four doors from here. Her name is Delilah and I am almost sure she is from the village of Ishtazin.”
“Delilah? Uncle Zia’s daughter?”
“I am not sure. Let me see if my wife knows. Will you please come in?”
“No.”
Michael said he went into the house and asked his wife if Delilah was Zia’s daughter, and if she was from the village of Ishtazin.
“My wife says that Delilah is Zia’s daughter and they are from Ishtazin. They are most likely your relatives.”
Michael reported seeing tears in Susan’s eyes, and she became silent for nearly five minutes, gazing off into the distance.
“I think you are a very lucky woman. Come, let me bring you to her.”
“No!” she screamed.
“But that is why you came, is it not?”
“Yes…but I can’t stay, I am a Kurd now, I have children and grandchildren.”
“You would not have to stay, just meet her.”
“I…would not be able to leave if I met her. I…am a Muslim now.”
“Where do you live?”
“Sulaymaniyah.”
“You have come a long way. You should not leave without seeing if that’s your family.”
“No! No! I must leave now.”
“No wait!”
Michael said that Susan darted off with remarkable agility, never to be seen again.
© 2014 Assyrian International News Agency.
