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BrakhyaAn artist�s journey

NAKOSHA.September 20012

For correspondence andsubscriptions(Australia):

nakosha@hotmail.com

P.O. BOX 948 Merlynston,Victoria, Australia 3058.

www.atour.com/aygv

www.atour.com/aygv

Nakosha was established in 1997with the view of advocating freespeech and establishing a social linkamong our Australian and worldwidecommunities, especially those in ourhomeland.

Nakosha is growing with acontemporary generation ofAssyrians who are aware of theiridentity, with an understanding andappreciation of our culture, languageand heritage.

Nakosha is a non-profit publication.Holding a neutral stand within thecommunity, its views are notreligiously or politically motivated �they are based on human values notsectarian beliefs.

Circulation and Subscriptionenquiries, Sydney

The Assyrian Australian Academic Society

Assyrian Australian Society

Assyrian School

Bet Nahrain Organisation

Nineveh Club

Nineveh Video

44Issue

The TeamSennacherib Danielsdaniel70@yahoo.comDavid Chibodavidchibo@hotmail.comSakhi WardaSanharib@hotmail.comFraydon Heskelsamerheskel@hotmail.comHaitham Patrousc/o Nakosha@hotmail.comNineveh Danielm.daniel@mei.unimelb.edu.au

Major SponsorZinda Corporation, Zinda Magazinewww.zindamagazine.com

eeditorial

Editor,

I was impressed and most pleased to hearthat Nakosha is NOT a religious magazine. It was refreshing and startling to read thatyou condemn all violence done in the nameof any religion.  The sooner we start seeingall children as just that, children - and notrepositories for our age-old conflicts - thesooner we might create adults who don�tfeel murderously self-righteous.

I am distressed to realize that for mostAssyrians, the murder of an Assyrian by aMoslem in the past has become almost acause for celebration.  I say such an awfulsounding thing because I hear no words ofcondemnation for the Christians of the U.S.and Britain who have been killing thousandsof Assyrians, both Christian and Moslem, inIraq for the last 12 years.  The only thingthat seems to matter is the religious affiliationof the murderer and not the tragedy of thevictim.  I see no other way to explain thatin the U.S., at least, you would think August7th was �Hate Moslems Day�.On that day I saw not a word of protestanywhere about all the Assyrian victims ofChristian aggression, on the very day wewere supposedly shedding tears for Assyrianvictims of 1915, 1815 and 1715.  There wasnot a single mention of the victims of 1989or any other year since Christians took overthe killing of Assyrians business.I think we are mindful, again, of notdisturbing the Sahib, who happens to beChristian, like us.  This Western Christian isintent on making Islam the next scourgeand Evil Empire he made of Communism andany poor batch of squatting peasantsanywhere in the world whose resources healso wanted to steal.  It is Islam today thatwill be the �reason� for Missile Defence andall the military contracts these corporationscan convince us we need through theirCorporate Media Divisions.  I fear we areplaying into their hands, and they are onceagain using us to beat the drums of hatredtowards the very Moslems who faroutnumber the few of us left in Iraq andother Islamic countries.The State Department, under the malignantleadership of Madeline Albright could nothave scripted the posts I�ve seen any bet-ter, if her intention was still to inflame popu-lar sentiment against the oil-bearing MiddleEast, than our own people have in their �con-cern� over only those Assyrians killed byMoslems.  No one has killed more Assyrians

The majority of this little magazine is devotedto all things Assyrian. This page, the editorial,is one place where Nakosha can reflect uponitself and discuss its direction and positionon matters.Take the �non-religious� stance of Nakoshafor example. Now, while I don�t want tobelabour this point � it�s the third timerunning we�ve brought it up � I think it�ssufficiently important to clarify it just a littlefurther. Over the years Nakosha has beenasked if non-religious means �against religion�.Of course it doesn�t.Non-religious simply means areligious, or theabsence of religion � it does not equalir religious, anti religious or sac rilegious. Weavoid not just Christian denominationaldifferences, but particularly inter-religiousconflicts, namely those between Christiansand Moslems.Above all, we steer well clear of parochialpolitics. Cowboy politician Ronald Reagan saidit best when he waxed lyrical about politics:�Politics is the second oldest profession inthe world�and it bears a striking resemblanceto the first�. (And this was well before theClinton administration!)n

letter.tothe Editor

Cont. p8

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6751 Lwly0 .aioqn 3

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NAKOSHA.September 20014

KDP ARRESTS AND TORTURESASSYRIAN FARMER

( Z N D A :C h i c a g o )Last week,the AssyrianInformationN e w sA g e n c yreported thatM r .Yo u k h a n aYalda Khaie, 32, a farmer in North Iraqwas apprehended by the KDP forces andaccording to the United Nations (UN)personnel held in solitary confinement ina KDP political office. AINA reports thatMr. Khaie was moved to FermandyPrison in Duhok. His fiancé, during twovisits on April 20 and May 20, discoveredthat Mr. Khaei had been �severely

whipped in the face and legs with a wirecable by two KDP agents�badly scarredand unable to stand or walk.� The AINAreports that the �extent of his beatingswas so profound and disfiguring thatYoukhana was removed from the prisonfor four days during an inspection by theInternational Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) so that the extent of his torturewould not be discovered.�Mr. Khaei and his family have denied anyties to the Kurdish Worker�s Party (PKK)a Marxist Kurdish group and a rival toMr. Massoud Barazani�s KDP (KurdistanDemocratic Party). In a brief analysis ofthe circumstances surrounding Mr.Khaei�s arrest, AINA explains that �thepredominantly Behdanani tribes of theKDP have conveniently used their bloodfeud with the Kurmanji tribes of the PKKto target Assyrian civilians literally caughtin the crossfire. For its part, the PKK asit had similarly systematically done insouthern Turkey, often enters an Assyrianvillage under cover of night and demandsassistance by threat of arms. Fearingviolent reprisals, unarmed Assyrianvillagers are unable to refuse. Thosevillagers acquiescing to PKK demandsthen find themselves suffering violent

attacks by KDP thugs the followingday� The underlying motivation of thisKDP policy is to heighten fear andintimidation of Assyrians so that theyabandon Assyrian lands.�Zinda�s sources in North Iraq indicatethat smuggling of food and provisions tothe PKK-dominated areas in northernBet-Nahrain has become a lucrativeenterprise for inhabitants of North Iraq,most of them having no political or socialties to this separatist Kurdishorganizations. According to one suchreport Mr. Khaei, under intense torture,may have admitted to smugglingcigarettes to the PKK areas.While KDP has arrested many of its ownsympathizers in an effort to curb thesmuggle of provisions to PKK, Zindasources in the North explain that nonehave been tortured in prison to the extentthat Mr. Youkhana Yalda Khaie has

suffered. Mr. Khaie was to be marriedtwo weeks after his arrest.

DAM THREATENS ANCIENTASSYRIAN CITY OF ASHURCourtesy of Radio Free Europe/RadioLiberty; written by David Nissman

(ZNDA: Prague) The city of Ashur, theancient sacred capital of the AssyrianEmpire, may be flooded as a result ofwaters rising behind a new dam near thecity, according to Iraq Press, reported on23 July. The head of Iraq�s AntiquitiesDepartment, Dr. Jabir Khalil, has issuedan appeal to save the city and thesurrounding archaeological sites. Khalilhas already mobilized his department�sresources for a salvage project. He saidhis people will resort to underwaterexcavation, a technique that it little-knownto Iraqi archaeologists.

ASSYRIAN SPORTS GAMES INTEHRAN

(ZNDA: Yerevan) According to the AZGArmenian Daily, several Assyrian sportsteams from Germany, Syria, Iran, Iraq,Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Holland,

France and Armenia will gather in Tehran,Iran for the first such Assyrian Games.The games will take place between July28 and August 4.Mr. Tamrazov Vasilevich, as the head ofArmenia�s Assyrian �Atur� Union,explained that the Assyrian Women

Enlil Ziggurat, Ashur, North Iraq.

6751 Lwly0 .aioqn 5

Courtesy of

www.zindamagazine.com

Basketball team from Arzni village andthe Men Soccer Team from Verin Dvin�swill be participating at these Assyriangames.According to Tamrazov Vasilevich, about7,000 Assyrians now live in Armenia.

ZINDA & BETH MARDUTHOCOLLABORATE ON SYRIACDIGITAL LIBRARY

(ZNDA: New Jersey) OnJuly 15, Zinda Magazineand Beth Mardutho[www.bethmardutho.org]launched a joint fundraisingcampaign for projecteBethArké: The SyriacDigital Library. Theproject brings to the Internetaround 3,000 out-of-copyright books, journal

articles, pictures, maps and audiorecordings in what will be the largestelectronic library in this field. BethMardutho has partnered with leadinguniversity libraries to get access to thematerial, including Brigham YoungUniversity, Brown University, PrincetonTheological Seminary, The CatholicUniversity of America, Harvard�sDumbarton Oaks, and others.Using the latest in eBook andcompression technology initiallydeveloped at AT&T Research Labs,eBethArké allows readers to access largevolumes (such as Touma Oudo�s 1,128-page Simta d-Leshana Suryaya / Simtod-Leshono Suryoyo dictionary, or the 3-volume 3,700-page colour Hudra) in afraction of a second. Features includesearching the texts of books (in the caseof Latin-based texts), links from tablesof contents and indices to pages, the abilityto add readers� annotations, and zoominginto and out of the text and pictures.�To have all this material that is out ofcopyright collected together and madeavailable in this way,� commented Dr.Sebastian Brock, reader of Syriac andAramaic at the University of Oxford,�would be an immensely valuable service,

not only to scholars working in this andthe many related academic fields, but alsoto the wider public and above all, to peoplebelonging to the different Churches ofSyriac tradition.�Mr. Wilfred Alkhas, editor of ZindaMagazine, said during a recent interview,�Zinda Magazine will commence a largecampaign during and after the AssyrianNational Convention in San Jose topromote this important project to preserve

the literary heritage of theAssyrian people. I urge allZinda readers to supportthis collaboration in thefuture.�It is estimated that eachbook will cost $U.S.250 toproduce. This covers thecost of digitising, convert-ing and processing files,turning the images into an

eBook, performing OCR that allowssearching the text, adding links from con-tents and indices to pages, and producinga web downloadable version of the eBook.To learn more about the project and howto contribute visit Bethmardutho atwww.bethmardutho.org/eBethArke/Zinda/

ASSYRIAN PROTESTERSDENOUNCE LAUSANNEReprinted from the Kurdish Observer;July 26

(ZNDA: Bern) 150 Assyrian-Syriacswho had been marching for four days toprotest the Lausanne Treaty on its 78thanniversary ended their rally with ameeting at which they denounced theagreement.The protesters who began their marchfrom the Swiss capital of Bern, arrived inLausanne last Tuesday. They met in frontof the chateau in which the treaty wassigned at 1:30 in the afternoon and held aprotest meeting drawing attention to thesuffering the treaty had brought theAssyrians.The public and media showed greatinterest in the meeting, which called

attention to the various states that hadsigned the Lausanne Treaty. The meeting,which ended at 4:00pm, was also attendedby a number of Kurds living in Lausanne,who showed up to demonstrate theirsupport.�Historical injustice must be removed�Fikri Aygul, told the Kurdish Observeron behalf of the Planning Committee. Hesaid, �The Lausanne Treaty had denied anumber of people living in Mesopotamiaand that the people must not accept a setof agreements reached in a chateau, aswith this treaty.�Aygul also commented on the goals ofthe four-day march. �While our actionwas protesting the historical injustice ofthe Lausanne treaty, it was also pointingout that the articles concerning minori-ties, 37 through 45 of the LausanneTreaty, have not been implemented.While opposing the Lausanne Treaty, we

also wanted to let it be known that wewere opposed to every type of agreementfrom now on made in our name but with-out giving the people a voice and withoutpaying attention to their rights. The factthat the Lausanne Treaty could be a rea-son for war and our people strugglingeven 78 years later shows the injusticeof the Lausanne Treaty. That�s why weare saying that this historical injustice mustbe removed.�Meanwhile, Fikri Aygul, who is also thechairman of the Assyrian-SyriacDiplomacy Group, said he had visitedthe embassies of the countries whichsigned the Lausanne Treaty andpresented dossiers to them pointing outthe tragedy which had been experiencedby the Assyrian-Syriac people.For AINA�s full report visit www.aina.org/torture.htm

NAKOSHA.September 20016

NatashaBrakhya

an.ar tist �sThe Tree of Lifeand Deathearthenware, 1995An artist�s job is toget people topause and thinkabout the art andlife. Here, a familiarancient Assyriantheme depicts thestate of today�senvironment. Thismodern tree of lifeand death shows asickly and stuntedtree half alive andhalf dying - onehalf is colouredbrown, the othergreen. �This is myfavourite piece,�Mrs. Brakhyacommented.

The HiddenPrejudiceresin and marble,1993This abstract piecedepicts a strugglebetween a marriedcouple, thestruggle againstthe hiddenprejudices presentin the Assyriancommunity asmixed-marriagecouples fight notonly to beaccepted byAssyrians but alsoto remainconnected to theircommunity,language andculture.

Woman in Exilestoneware, 1996The clipped wingsof the woman inthis piece are ananalogy of theartist�s life itself.The woman isdepicted in ahelpless andpowerless posture,having no way tochange thesituation. The onlything left for her todo is scream. Ananalogy of theplight of Assyrianwomen in general,it can also be readas a metaphor forthe Assyrianpeople�s situation inthe world today.

6751 Lwly0 .aioqn 7

he story of international artist Natasha Brakhya couldrightly be called the story of the Assyrian people duringthe 20th century. In fact Natasha and her family werepresent during some of the most turbulent periods ofour modern history.

Born in Lebanon, Mrs. Brakhya describes herchildhood with a positive glow. �I was the daughter of ablessed family,� she says. Her father, also a sculptor,was to have a profound influence on her life and career.�I inherited this gift from my father, my hero.� Herfather was also very open in allowing her the freedom topursue her talents, when not influenced by localcommunity pressure. This was in stark contrast tocommunity attitudes that frowned upon a female artist,much less a female sculptor!

�In Lebanon I always felt as though I was doingsomething wrong,� she explained. So she decided tokeep her talent a secret and spent many hours workingday and night on pieces that inspired her.

Openness was also evident in her other familymembers as her brother noticed her talent and decidedto pay her way through an expensive foreign owned Artschool in Lebanon. She was elated and spent a yeardiscovering and refining her hidden talents.

When the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975 shewas forced to give up on art school and become a

volunteer for the Red Cross, where she spent many long hoursworking to ship in medicines to sick and isolated Assyriancommunities. It was during this time that her hidden talentswere noticed by the Red Cross. Thirty-five of her pieces ofartwork were requested by the Red Cross, which they were tolater sell in France in order to raise funds for relief work. It wasthen, at the height of the Lebanese civil war, that tragedy struckMrs. Brakhya�s family, yet again. �My father, the last survivorof his family [that was killed during the Assyrian Genocide ofWW1] was killed on 3rd August, 1989. During the civil war

he remained stateless till the day he was killed.�Since losing our homeland, my family has been made

refugees four times and lost family members : these are thewords introducing Mrs. Brakhya�s painting of what appears tobe herself in Lebanon. The oil on paper piece is titled Escapingfrom Hell and depicts a young female fleeing into a night whilea destroyed church is evident in the background.

She fled Lebanon and arrived in Australia in 1983. �Myfamily�s experience is typical of the experience of all Assyrianrefugees, stateless and wandering around the world seekingrefuge.�

Having arrived in Australia she was overwhelmed by an acutesense of loss and isolation. �I felt very, very lonely,� sheexplained softly. After successfully taking part in an artexhibition in which she sold three pieces, she enrolled in theVictorian College of Arts, where she studied further anddeveloped her talent for another five years.

According to Mrs. Brakhya, �art is comparable to havingsomething in you that you can�t get rid of.� As for her mediumof art, �sculpting is a combination of enjoyment and struggle.�

Also influenced by our ancient sculptors Mrs. Brakhyaproudly states, �If it weren�t for our ancient sculptures no-onewould know who we are today. They show how advanced ourlevel of civilization had become.�

In 1998 she was elected president of the Lebanese Artexchange group, from where she went on to organise the highlysuccessful Awakenings exhibition (see Nakosha 8, 1998). TheLebanese community successfully conducted this exhibition,along with another fourteen.

They say that human tragedy and suffering have beencatalysts for some of the most inspiring and famous works of artever produced. It is with this thought that some of the mostmemorable pieces of Mrs. Brakhya�s career are highlighted onthis page, below. These works, far from possessing just aestheticbeauty, are also the turbulent pages of Mrs. Brakhya�s life.n

David Chibo

s. jour ney

T

Bust of KhalilGibranlife-sized bronzebust, 1998Although she hadnever met himbefore, Mrs.Brakhya hasalways been agreat admirer ofthe famousLebanese bornAssyrian poet. Thework is based on aphoto, and she hasmanaged tocapture the innernature of Gibranafter extensivereading of hisworks and poetry.

Bust of LouisFleyfullife-sized bronzebust, 2000The formerLebaneseambassador,currently living inAustralia,personallycommissioned thisbust of himself.Based on picturesand afterconductingnumerous meetingswith theambassador, shemanaged tocapture hisessence,portraying him in agenerous anddignified pose.

Unity and theSuperpowerstoneware, 2000Those who appearto be working forunity and peace inthe world mayactually havehidden agendas,and are the samepeople responsiblefor the world�snumerous wars.The key symbolisesthose who are�pulling thestrings.�

NAKOSHA.September 20018

in the last 100 years than the Christian West,which has shown in that time a propensityfor using our �common� religion against uswhen it suits their purposes, then dumpingus when it no longer needs us.The irony in all this is that in our eagernessto dredge up all the atrocities of the last1000 years, we stand a good chance of soantagonizing the Moslem world today,especially as we act the part of apologistsfor all Christian atrocities committed in thattime against Moslems...when they weren�tbusy eating each other alive...we willsucceed only in making life even moreprecarious for the few of our ChristianAssyrians hoping desperately that we�ll goaway and leave them to try to get alongwith their neighbours and possibly find a newway to exist in peace.  When more stabilitycomes to that region, the Moslems may just

letter.tothe Editor

vent their frustration against the Christiansof Iraq, as they can�t hope to get at anyoneelse.Can it be that all the violent and tear-jerkingrhetoric has as its unstated purpose the ruinfor any chance of peace in Iraq and of amore friendly and accommodating existencebetween Christians and Muslims? Do theyseek to sow discord and doubt and suspicionand hatred between Moslem and Christian,and among those of us trying to send aid...dothey see in that the chance that theChristian West might finally make good onthat �promise� it never made...to protectits co-religionists?  How many of our superpatriots say that it was always better thatwe died rather than becoming Moslem, forin that way the few who managed to surviveto die another day, kept the �Assyrian�identity alive, meaning of course the ChristianAssyrian identity alive for they accept noother religion as valid for any Assyrian.  Iftheir feelings in this matter are so strong asto approve of the murder of countlessAssyrians who had the misfortune of beingborn Christian...often by those who had theequal misfortune to be born Islamic...thenare these �fanatics� content to see Iraqdestroyed to �protect� the Christian Assyrian

Heritage?  If Christianity is to �lose� theMidEast, as it has been ever since the Moslemsfirst threw the Crusaders out, would thesetypes of �dedicated� Assyrian Christians justas soon see the entire identity, country andALL the people, destroyed?  And to thatend, if they sense our people there are indesperate need, would they rather seethem driven completely under, transformedinto martyrs one day, fit to weep over, ratherthan accept any accommodation whichwould allow a fraction of them to survive?This is the impression I get at least, when Isee no mention of Assyrians tragically killedby Christians, see those same murderousChristians exonerated and even applaudedby us, because for every one of �us� theykill, they get 200 of �them�.  It is a depressingthought, therefore I was so pleased to seeyou take a more even-handed approach,one which hopefully will not add to thedifficulties our people face in Iraq andeverywhere else in the Mideast where theyare far outnumbered by Moslems, and will, Iam afraid, be abandoned once more whenthe West has no need of them.... again.Sincerely,Fred ParhadCalifornia

From p2

Advertisingwith Nakosha

2000Circulation � Electronic copy:

Circulation � Printed copy:

1000

6,500Readership:

Worldwide

Nakosha is one of the longest running Assyrian publications. It is amonthly magazine that has been produced consistently for almost fouryears. Its main readership is Assyrians, aged between 13 and 35;Nakosha�s success at reaching this wide audience lies in its freshapproach to issues affecting Assyrians � issues as diverse ascontemporary Assyrians themselves and the societies they live in.

For an advertising information pack, contact Nakosha on 0409 144 877,or via email Nakosha@hotmail.com.

6751 Lwly0 .aioqn 9

CL

QHave youever givenup onsomethingyoubelieved in?

AM/47/U.S.A., California, Pasadena - This is a tough question to answer. If you meanmorals and ethics definitely no. But lately I�ve been disappointed in our religious leaders andour churches who preach one thing do the exact opposite and rationalize it as a �mystery�.Therefore I�ve stopped financial support of our religious institutions until such time that theycan prove themselves worthy of my trust. When our people realize that �we the people� arethe church and not the clergy, then we can work together toward real unity. When our peoplerealize that we must hold them responsible for their mistakes, then we can rid our nation of itsproblems.

M/32/Australia, Sydney (Fairfield) - Not yet...No!

M/23/U.S.A, Los Angeles - I believe in Assyrianism, and I will never give up on my Assyrianheritage and culture. Aturaya hal abad.

M/37/U.S.A. San Jose - Yes, but only when I stopped believing in it.

M/28/Modesto, CA - No.

M/52/Nicosia/Cyprus - Never, whatever the cost may be!

M/26/S�dert�lje/Sweden - Well, I am sorry but this wasn�t a good question. The answerscan�t be easy to read; no I will never give up my love to my nation.

F/32/Toronto/Canada - Yes, and No....you have to be more specific...! I think there aredifferent kinds of beliefs. One is when you believe in certain people...and then end up chang-ing your mind. Second are other beliefs that you don�t, no matter what...!!

M/33/England, London - Not yet!

M/30/Australia - Lots of times... life is all about compromises, if we didn�t give up on thingswe believed in SOMETIMES, we�d be too exhausted to get anything done!

M/35/Canada/toronto - NO. I usually put my FAITH in things that I believe in.If my faith is strong enough I should not give up> on things that I believe in.thank you. Allah minokh.

M/18/Australia/Syd-ney - No. But honestly,would it be worth �really� be-lieving in something that youwould ever give up?I think that people should be consist-ent. If they are constantly not stickingby what they believe in and giving up onsuch things, what does that really say aboutthem and their ability to commit, or stand bytheir morals, ethics and standards?

F/33/Melbourne, Australia - That�s a veryhard question for me. It�s difficult to recall a time Igave up what I believed. I guess that�s becauseI�m an eternal optimist!However, I suppose one thing does stick out atthe moment. I once believed that we all grew oldgracefully. Now I see that we have many flawsand we keep many negative thoughts in our memo-ries. This takes over our entire thoughts in theend and we lose all the things that make us hu-man.

M/35/Phoenix, Arizona, USA - Yes,but I gave up for the time being because I am arealist. If the goal is unrealistic for now then itcan�t be done. But that does not mean I will nottry again in the future. I am very optimistic thatthe future will offer me more opportunity

These Assyriansjust don�t give up,

do they...??

Sakhi 2, �01

Caricature on Life is a question-based opinion survey of Nakosha�s worldwide Internet readers. Readers are sent a question uponthe Internet publication of Nakosha. Besides making minor spelling corrections, our readers� responses are left as raw as possiblein order to allow a platform for the expression of their thoughts. Anyone interested in responding to questions posed on the Caricatureon Life section can e-mail their details to nakosha@hotmail.com.

NAKOSHA.September 200110

Where did the Baghdadi Chaldo-Assyrianscome from?While Chaldo-Assyrians have been present inBaghdad for many years, during the �50s and�60s, groups of Chaldo-Assyrians migrated toBaghdad from Habanea (1) and the North ofIraq (2) and began to settle in large numbersthere, where they were recognised as secondclass citizens.

(1)- The Assyrian Levies were part of the BritishArmy during the period 1914-1954, a timewhen Iraq was under a British mandate;Habanea was one of the main camp sites.

(2)- In 1961, the Kurdish Revolution causedlarge numbers of Assyrians to flee fromthe North of Iraq to Baghdad, in order toavoid being caught in the cross-fire ofKurdish-Iraqi hostilities.

After leaving Habanea, Dawrah wasthe main area where Assyrianssettled.Even today, thousands ofAssyrians still remain there.

Space has not permitted the inclusion of many suburbs in Baghdad that also have a high proportion of Assyrians.

1.Camp al�Arman � literally�Armenian (i.e. Christian)camp�: between the �50sand �70s, the area wasexclusively Assyrian; largenumbers have left, sellingtheir properties to Arabs.

�Almost every single Assyrian is thinking of leavingBaghdad to find a better life in the West.�

Baghdadi Assyrian, 2001.

6751 Lwly0 .aioqn 11

In 762, Arabs founded a new capitalon the West bank of the Tigris, callingit Madinat as-Salam � �the City ofPeace.� That such a name was oncegiven to modern-day Baghdad nowappears ironic. Baghdad changed

drastically from that city of peace when SaddamHussein came to power in 1979, bringing withhim plans to make Iraqis tools for his �City ofWars,� wars spanning two decades � beginningwith the Iraq-Iran war in 1980 and plungingIraq back into the darkness of over a decadeof economic sanctionswith the Gulf War in1990.While the people ofBaghdad, no matter what their ethnicity, aresuffering from the hardship of these wars,Chaldo-Assyrians in particular are sufferingthe most, politically, economically and fromhuman rights abuses. The depth of the problembecomes obvious when talking to those recentlyarrived from Baghdad. The first thing you�dnotice if you were to visit Baghdad, we are told,is the obvious sadness and depression on thefaces of the city�s people. Just last month, afriend visited Melbourne from Baghdad,saying, �That Assyrian people are so happyhere in Melbourne� it�s something I�m notused to, it�s something you just wouldn�t see inBaghdad.�I was born in 1976 � I was only four when theIraq-Iran war broke out, and rememberingback to my childhood, I can think of no period

when there was no war; my earliest memoriesare those of war. At school, instead of child-like songs about flowers or stories about fairies,we were taught war songs. In August 1988 theIraq-Iran war ended, with almost everyAssyrian family having lost one of their sons; Ipersonally lost my maternal uncle, my 22-year-old first cousin and a neighbour, whopractically grew up in the same house with me:he was only twenty.These losses were repeated thousands of timesover - Assyrians lost 40,000 of their young

people during these devastating eight years.When the war eventually ended in 1988, wehad peace at last� it was like coming up for air,we just couldn�t believe it, and for the youngergeneration who had been born to the war, itstrangely felt even more special. But this feelingwas to last for only a very short time � Iraq wasthrust into war again when Hussein invadedKuwait in 1990.The 16th of February is a day I remember well� I was awoken at 2:30 am by the sounds of thefirst bombs dropping on Baghdad by the U.S.and their allies. For 40 days this went on, untilthe city�s infrastructure was completelyflattened.Today, the effect of these sanctions is felteverywhere. There are disturbing stories ofAssyrians begging in the streets of Baghdad,

The series is opened by perhaps the most challenging city of all � Baghdad.Once a �city of peace�, Baghdad has now sadly become synonymous with warand the destructive economic sanctions. Effectively cut-out from the rest of theworld � contact by mail, electronic or otherwise, is virtually impossible � storiesabout life there come through to us piecemeal. Here Fraydon Heskel gives asemi-personal account of life in this troubled Assyrian neighbourhood.

AssyriansInTheEast

families who have sold everything in theirhouse just to be able to buy food. Thesedepressing stories go on and on.�Almost every single Assyrian is thinking ofleaving Baghdad to find a better life in theWest,� an Assyrian friend recently arrivedfrom Baghdad told me. This, along with thefact that proportionately more males thanfemales are departing from Baghdad � leavingAssyrian girls little choice but to inter-marryamongst Muslim Arabs � is enough toguarantee that unless things change, there will

no longer be anAssyrian presencein Baghdad within50 years. This is a

result of the �civilised�, invisible genocide bythe U.S.-led U.N. sanctions against theChaldo-Assyrians, a people literally caughtin the middle of America�s military might andHussein�s hallucinations.For Assyrians in Baghdad, the Gulf War wasa turning point � more than one-third of theChaldo-Assyrian population has left Baghdadas a direct result of the suffocating effects ofthe sanctions. Prior to 1990, church statisticsestimated a Chaldo-Assyrian population ofone million � today, that figure is less thanhalf a million. The future of those who remain� and therefore the future of a continuingAssyrian presence - lies in a delicate balance,at the mercy of the U.S. and Hussein�sregime.n

Fraydon Heskel, with Sennacherib Daniel

�My earliest memories are those of war�

BAGHDAD

NAKOSHA.September 2001

So they say you can�t keep a good mandown. Well in that case 23-year oldAssyrian tennis champ Johnny Safaromust be a very good man indeed. If aserious sporting injury and asubsequent eight months away from

the courts weren�t enough to keep this guy down,then nothing ever will. It�s now only three monthssince returning to the tennis court, and Johnny isleaner and hungrier than before - if that werepossible!

And to think that this Pennant-level player�searliest tennis experiences were �bashing tennisballs� around with friends at eight years of age.Still, you�ve got to start somewhere. The gamecaught his fancy so much, he had to be aroundtennis all the time. He took any chance to do justthat: at around the age of ten he was ball-boy forthe tennis elite at the Melbourne Tennis Centre(MTC), retrieving balls for the likes of GabriellaSabatini (his photo album reminds you of a who�swho of tennis fame). But all this wasn�t justabout fetching balls - these early days werewhere Johnny could analyse at closerange the top tennis players� moves,later using them to shape his owngame.

At thirteen, he was training at theNational Tennis Centre, went on tothe Royal Park Tennis Club, and hasnow been with the Coburg Tennis Clubfor the last three years, at a trainingand competition level. In his earlyteens Johnny was at the highest level ajunior can play - Grade A. He is now at

Pennant level, Grade 2. �My ambitionover the next year,� Johnny told

Nakosha, �is to be in the world�s top500�.� For Johnny, tennis is as much

a mind game as a physical one - hisstrategy is carefully planned out,from how and where he�ll play, towhere he wants to be in thefuture. There is no wishfulthinking or bragging.

And on the tennis court,Johnny was no talk and all action!�I love volleys and playing at thenet,� he enthused. Watching him

play, it was not hard to believe.

Standing around six feet tall, with piercing greeneyes and dashing good looks, he gives the phrase�gabara Atouraya� a new meaning. I felt sorry forhis opponent, who at times had to jump to avoidthe 100 mile-an-hour ball to save himself fromgetting hurt. His game was consistently strong atthe net, and his serves were scary - lightning fast,he must have aced about seven serves in the twoset match I watched.

The mental side of tennis is something Johnnyhas sharpened over the years - staying focussedduring the most stressful and difficult times of thegame is a learned skill, he tells us. It soundedalmost like martial arts - it doesn�t matter how bigor strong you are, he argues, the mind has to bestrengthened first. This becomes especially truewhen falling behind in a game - staying mentallyfocussed at this stage can be the most difficult,and is what separates an amateur from a pro. Hemodels his game on the Samprases and Aghassis

of the tennis world - stayingfocussed, blocking everything

out and showing noemotions. �If you lose a

point, don�t worry, moveon and work on thenext point. You�ve gotto play tennis in yourmind first,� Johnnyreveals. �I think tomyself I�m going to hitthe ball down theline�. and it happens.�Currently in his

second year of a three-year degree in web design

at the Royal Melbourne Instituteof Technology, the mental focus

learned in tennis applies well to Johnny�s life outsidethe sport. Apart from working in this computerfield, Johnny also hopes to one day run tennistournaments.

For up-and-coming players, Johnny suggests,coaching is needed early on, but not in a groupsetting - personal lessons may be more expensive,but are definitely worthwhile. Who knows, maybeone day these budding Assyrian tennis champswill be fetching tennis balls for Johnny when herepresents us at the MTC!n

Sennacherib Daniel