theese peoples are all identified with kurds. and they were in kurdistan long before any assyrian/akkadian came from south.

and also the Gutis were known for making large fires (which is typical for the Newroz celebration).
This means that Newroz is is not of assyrian origin or something likethat.

The day that Newroz is celebrated is when day and night are equal.

Even SWEDES celebrate “första maj” !!!! Did they get it from assyrians?!?!?! No.

The Assyrian empire originated from the Akkadian empire who came from lower Mesopotamia for about 2000 b.c.

It’s you who has a political purpose. I’m not an Assyrian nationalist. There are Arameans, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Nestorians, Jacobites/etc. They have their own names. Do these “Assyrians” speak Assyrian or Aramean? I recently saw a map of the 11th century, and I don’t see Assyrians in Hakkari/Tur Abidin, but Aremeans/Jacobites/Armenians. So, aren’t Assyrians Arameans? Instead of Assyrians? It’s a fact there is a group that see themselves as Assyrians now. That’s the course of history.

Well, that’s exactly the kind of argument, I repeat, that anti-Assyrians will such as Arabs/Ba’athists/Kurds will use. The Assyrians are not a nation, of course, they are a denomination. How silly this argument. Is Catholic a nationality? Is Orthodox a nationality? Is Anglican? Assyrians are Catholic, Orthodox, Church of the East, Protestant, you name it. That’s their religion,not their ethnicity.

No one has a legal right on land. Does it matter who was before someone? Greeks were orignally in Izmir/Istanbul, etc before the Turks. Probable some other people were before them. The majority of people living in Istanbul now are Turks. If Greece wants “Istanbul” back, it has to kill all non-Greek inhabitants of Istanbul. The same goes for the Assyrians. They are a very small minority in Iraq and most of them live outside of “Assyria”, in the diaspora. If they want to create a homogenous Assyria in cities like Duhok/Hewler/Kerkuk/etc, they have to kill all non-Assyrians or deport them. It looks like the Assyrians picked up a “victim” role, like the Kurds, too. They portray themselves as an ancient Christian people, doing nothing wrong, being killed by all Muslims (including Kurds). Is this true? I don’t think so. There were a lot of Assyrian militias in the past.

KRG supports an Christian region in Nineveh (Mosul). And accepted the Assyrian-Chaldean identity (Chaldo-Assyrians). “Assyrians” are also an accepted identity in the Kurdish constitution. Kurds don’t deny anything.

“…the current Assyrians, are not the same as the ancient ASSYRIANS.”

Exactly what Saddam’s Ba’athist said, exactly what some Kurdish nationalist say. The Assyrians are anything but Assyrian, they are Turkish Christians, they are Arab Christians, they are Kurdish Christians, they are Iranian Christians, but they are not Assyrians, of course! Hey, how about you ASK them what they are…they will say Assyrian, because that is simply and plainly who they are.

Who are you to say that Assyrians are not Assyrians, they are not the same as the ancient Assyrians? How do you know? Have you written your PhD on this? Are you sure YOU are not speaking with a political purpose? It sure sounds like it to me. You are toeing the Kurdish/Arab/Iranian/Turkish line on the question of the Assyrians.

Why do Kurds/Arabs/Iranians/Turks deny the Assyrian identity? Because these groups have expropriated Assyrian lands, and are still doing so. Because the Assyrians are the indigenous people of north Iraq, north-East Syria, south-east Turkey and north-west Iran. To acknowledge the Assyrian identity would open the legal case of the Assyrians against their oppressors (whom we can conveniently label “Muslims”).

Assyrians have been in north Iraq since 5000 BC, we just celebrated our New Year, the 6757th one. We are the legal owners of that land, though we are outnumbered (because of Genocide) and we don’t have the strength to claim our land. Not yet…

“The men of Nineveh [Assyrians] shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” (Matthew 12:41).

The author claims that the Assyrians are the rightfull owners of northern Iraq lands (Assyria). Sorry to disturb your nationalist unrealistic propaganda, but the current Assyrians, are not the same as the ancient ASSYRIANS. Secondly NO ONE RIGHTFULLY OWNS LANDS. People migrate, it’s natural! Kurds have also lived in these lands for thousands of years, the Kurdish goverment actually supported an autonomy plan for Chaldo-Assyrians/Christians in Iraq. But still Assyrians make propaganda against the Kurdish goverment. Why don’t they attack the Syrian and Turkish goverment for their policies towards minorities?

Currenlty a majority of Kurds inhabits these regions and the Kurdish constitution protects the rights of Chaldo-Assyrians, Turkmen, etc. Newroz is not strictly Assyrian. Regardless of its origin Newroz is also an uniquely Kurdish tradition now. The story of the Assyrian king, doesn’t have anything to do with the hate towards Assyrians. In fact Assyrians and Kurds fought together against Saddam. By the way, orginally Europeans (Germany, Holland, etc) also celebrated “NEW DAY” with bonfires, etc. In some regions in Holland they still collect old christmas trees and burn these, to celebrate the NEW DAY! I think Iranians, Arabs, Arameans, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Turks, Kurds have to work together to achieve peace. Not by playing these kind of games.

http://www.aina.org/articles/akituandnuroz.pdf
http://www.aina.org/ata/20070320104929.htm

Note, the popular legend among the Kurds (reproduced below) is a complete myth. For one thing, there is no Assyrian King named Dehak (the list of Assyrian kings is thoroughly researched and beyond doubt).

The Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith-
There are many stories that tell the tale of the beginning of the celebration of Norouz; one of the more famous myths surrounding the holiday is the Kurdish Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith.
Once upon a time there was an evil Assyrian king named Dehak. The king and his kingdom were cursed because of his wickedness. The sun refused to shine and it was impossible to grow any food. The king Dehak had the added curse of having two snakes attached to his shoulders. When the snakes were hungry he was in great pain, and the only thing that would satisfy the hunger of the snakes were the brains of children. So every day, two of the children from the local villages were killed and their brains fed to the snakes.
Kawa was the local blacksmith and hated the king, as 16 of his 17 children had been sacrificed for the King’s snakes. When he received word that his last child, a daughter, was to be killed he came up with a plan to save her. Instead of sacrificing his daughter, Kawa had sacrificed a sheep and had given the sheep’s brain to the King. The difference was not noticed. When others heard of Kawa’s trickery they all did the same; at night they would send their children up to the mountains with Kawa where they would be safe. The children flourished in the mountains and Kawa created an army from the children to end the evil king’s reign.
When their numbers were great enough, they came down from the mountains and stormed the castle. Kawa himself cast the fatal blow to the evil king, Dehak. To tell the news to the people of Mesopotamia he built a large bonfire, which lit up the sky and cleansed the air of the evilness of Dehak’s reign. That very morning, the sun began to shine again and the lands began to grow once more. This is the beginning of the “New Day” or Newroz as it is spelled in Kurdish.