The Imminent Dangers of Syriac Dispersion

Thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia, the Syriacs commenced, step by step, climbing the ladder of civilizational hardships in their process of forming a people and nation. With the fall of their last independent empire of Babylon by the Persians in 539 B.C., the process of disintegration and decline began. With the birth of Christianity Syriacs revived and recovered, only to see divisions starting again from the 5th century AD.

Internal discord and fights on many issues ranging from disagreements over mythological symbols to religious denominational and sect differences have continued until the day of today. For this reason, the civilizations founded by the Syriacs over the centuries under their different specific names and the cultural riches and wealth they developed, transformed into ruins and burial sites for artifacts, left for plunder.

As an ancient people, Syriacs were exposed in their homeland Mesopotamia to many hostilities and attacks by different powers from the west, south, east, and north. With the collapse of their political authorities, the Syriacs’ social dynamics also began to disintegrate. Since the process of fragmentation and disintegration has been ongoing for many centuries, the dimensions of loss and destruction to the Syriac nation, culture, and language are many and great. Today, each loss, assimilation, and detachment of one single Syriac, visibly weakens the Syriac people and immediately impacts its populace negatively.

This drop-by-drop loss is consuming the social fabric and eating away  the dynamic and power of the Syriac people. It is therefore imperative for the Syriacs as a people to investigate how, where, and why they lost this dynamic, and how they came to be faced with the clear and present danger of being erased from history. In addition, every Syriac should collect, down to the smallest particle, all his or her strengths and possibilities and should not hesitate to show his or her will to live up to their identity and the sacrifice of fulfilling their responsibilities.

The Syriac mind is extremely dispersed and has been shaped according to the socio-economic and cultural structures of the countries Syriacs live in and according to the strategies of the political powers they undergo. Those living on the American continent have different feelings and thinking from those living on the European continent. Those living in the motherland think differently from the diaspora, and their desire to emigrate shapes a timid and cold mindset. It creates a reluctant attitude with the homeland Syriacs to fulfill their responsibilities towards their ancient homeland. The majority are unfortunately those who advocate and favor statelessness. Not understanding each other deepens these dimensions of social segregation and disintegration in the reality of speaking different languages.

As the cracks deepen in the dimensions of language and culture, in daily social life, and in diverging economic interests, the dangers to the existence of the Syriac people grow. There is urgent need to develop a new system of thinking about common values ​​and Syriac national and social identity. The concept of homeland, our history, culture, and national unity and organization should be a life philosophy and intrinsic to the identity of every Syriac individual.

Dispersion and division always bring weakness and decline. The powerless suffer against their will under the authority and interests of the powerful and rulers. As long as Syriacs remain weak in the political, national, and organizational spheres, they will always be an easy meal for these powers and rulers. They cannot speak out against those who set out to distort and destroy their cultural values ​​and history. They cannot protect their constitutional rights and national dignity.

Every development, war and conflict in the Middle East hit Syriacs the most and caused their dispersion all over the world. While the changes in Iraq bring all peoples on the agenda, Syriacs are tried to be forgotten and taken out of the future plan for the country. The same policy goes for Syria, where low and dirty policies are carried out to remove Syriacs from the national agenda and turn them into slaves of the rulers.

Those who intend to leave the Syriacs out of the Democratic Autonomous Administration say that they are doing supposed good with this policy. But they are those with a racist mindset and they enrich themselves with Syriac resources. These racist elements are known, they are a dangerous reality of life and plan to exterminate the Syriacs. The Syriac population of Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran decreases day by day and each emigrant is scattered in different directions and dispersed over different continents. The policies of threat, exploitation, and denial are growing more.

It is of vital importance that every Syriac who perceives this fatal course for the Syriacs now puts forward his or her will in full awareness of national, historical, and cultural responsibilities and to stand against disintegration. So, instead of not understanding each other, when everybody takes it upon him or her duty to understand each other, to organize against disorganization and weakness, to become a power, to grow instead of decline, the dangers diminish and the people’s hope for life is revived.