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Due to the fact that our repeated appeals
to the Iraqi authorities, to save our people, have fallen on deaf ears, the
Christian Assyrians of Iraq have become vulnerable to an
even escalated campaign of terror, by a yet to be identified wicked
group. This group is obviously aiming to drive the Assyrians out of their
ancestral homeland. Regrettably, this campaign has been targeting the
peaceful and armless Assyrians, while the Iraqi government remains passive
and inattentive with regard to their future.
Taking advantage of the said negligence,
Rev. Father Yoseph Adel Abboudi, a pastor of our Syrian Orthodox Church in Baghdad, was gunned down and murdered on April 5th, 2008, not long after the kidnapping and murder of
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, of our Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul-Iraq,
and most surely by the same terrorist group. Therefore, the Assyrian General
Conference (AGC) demands that the Iraqi government assume its responsibility
for the protection of the Assyrians as an indigenous ethnicity of Iraq. The AGC, as well, concludes that such passivity
on the part of the Iraqi government, inevitably, necessitates the incorporation
of the Assyrian question as an Iraqi national liability, and recognizes the
AGC’s petition for “The Assyria Federal Region” in Northern Iraq. The AGC, therefore, appeals to the United
Nations, the Arab League, the European Union, and the World Community, to
support the AGC’s petition for an Assyria Federal Region, as well as assist
in protecting the Assyrians and assure their continuation in Iraq.
The AGC calls upon the Assyrian political
factions and people to consolidate their petition and exhibit solidarity in
this time of tribulation in order to assert our right of coexistence within
the boundaries of a federal region of our own in a part of our historical
home, i.e., Northern Iraq.
Finally, our deepest sympathy goes to all
our people for the martyrdom of Rev. Father Abboudi. We pray that the
Almighty will comfort his immediate family and relatives.
Assyrian General Conference
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