Bethnahrin Patriotic Union’s Baghdede branch holds national awareness lecture for Suraye youth

BAGHDEDE (Qaraqosh), Nineveh Plain / Iraq – As part of its political education and awareness program for the youth, the Bethnahrin Patriotic Union (Huyodo Bethnahrain Athroyo (HBA), an affiliate of the Bethnahrin National Council) organized a lecture on the Treaty of Lausanne and its profound civic and geographical impact. The lecture by veteran HBA member Ablahad Saka, himself a former educator, addressed the historical and political circumstances prevailing in the international areana at the time and following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its effect on the Middle East.

Saka conveyed to the attending youth the impact on the Suraye (Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians) of the Laussanne Treaty, how it tried to abolished the national identity of the Suraye and tried to replace it with religious and subservient names, all different from their own and indigenous names in terms of nationality, religion, traditions, and customs. The Suraye were consequently labeled Arab Christians, Turkish Christians, Persian Christians, and more recently, and Kurdish Christians.

Today is similar to yesterday, Saka contended, as the political and geographical circumstances of the current transformation phase in the Middle East resemble those in the early 1920s. Now, Iran’s influence in the region is severely diminishing, especially in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. Iran will be forced to accept agreements of retreat, shattering its influence and control over the region, as happened to the Ottoman Empire in 1923 under the Treaty of Lausanne. The victors today, are the same as those who then held global power in the world and political power over the region. Again, yesterday and today have common features.

“What we aspire today in our political struggle is to restore our national identity and our true historical designation as a people in which the peoples of the world hold pride, a people of builders of civilizations, drafters of laws, and advocates of civil values,” Saka explained to his young audience.

In conclusion, Ablahad Saka explained the historical responsibility borne by the new generation of Suraye (Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians, among them foremost the politically conscious, the ideological vanguard represented by the national ambitions and goals of the Bethnahrin National Council and the HBA.