ADVISORY/Bay Area Assyrians Hold a Demonstration Call for True Democracy in Iraq; Equal Rights & Representation in the Future, Free & Democratic Iraq.

News Editors/Political Writers

ADVISORY...for Sunday (March 16)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

Assyrian American Association 

WHAT:   Bay Area Assyrians will hold a peaceful demonstration to bring
        to world's attention the continuous oppression and unfair
        representation of the Assyrian Christians in Iraq. The
        Assyrian Christians are the native citizens of Iraq and
        represent the second largest minority. Assyrian Americans say
        the unfair treatment of the Assyrians in the latest Iraqi
        Opposition meetings in London, England and Salah al-Deen,
        north of Iraq needs to be addressed and resolved in order to
        have a true democratic and pluralistic government in Iraq. We
        ask the US government and its allies to make
        Assyrian-Christian representation a MUST in a future Iraq.

WHEN:   Sunday, March 16, 2003 from 2 to 4 p.m.

WHERE:  Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, Market and Park Avenue, San Jose

We encourage Assyrians and our fellow Americans concerned about the future of Assyrian Christians in Iraq and in the Middle East to join us in this important event.

About The Assyrian Christians in the Middle East & Iraq

Today's Assyrians are the direct descendants of the ancient Assyrian-Babylonian inhabitants of Mesopotamia, a land covering much of modern Iraq, Kuwait, southern Turkey, and Syria. They are predominantly Christian and are said to be the first people to accept the teaching of Jesus Christ in the First Century A.D. Assyrians are sometimes known in different Middle Eastern countries by their religious affiliation as Nestorians, Chaldeans, Jacobites, and Syrian Orthodox (Syriacs). The language of the Assyrian people is Aramaic or Neo-Aramaic (Syriac) to be more precise.

Between 1915 and 1918, over 500,000 Assyrians were systematically massacred in the hands of the Turkish, Arab, Kurdish, and Persian forces in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In 1933, only a few months after Iraq's admission to the League of Nations, another massacre was committed by the Iraqi army against three thousand unarmed Assyrian villagers in North Iraq.

In 1988, the Assyrians were targeted by the Iraqi regime, starting with the infamous Anfal operations. Many villages, historic churches and monasteries were destroyed and thousands of Assyrians either lost their lives or were forced to emigrate to other countries. More recently, the oppression of the Assyrian Christians has taken on many new facets throughout Iraq.

As the only indigenous population of Iraq, Assyrians are committed to rebuilding a free and democratic Iraq with the support of the United States and her allies. Assyrians of Iraq demand equal rights under a new Iraqi constitution and protection under a secular government in Iraq in which the Christians are fairly represented.