"Nine-One" 2016 - more than only a military victory for NPU (Ninive Protection Units)

On first of September 2016 the NPU (Ninive Protection Units) performed their first mayor totally self-conducted operation in the fight against ISIS in North Iraq and successfully liberated the village of Badanah. It was the first time ever that NPU, which is an assyrian christian unit incorporated into the armed forces of Iraq, launched an attack backed by air support of the US led coalition.

After the successful operation, media around the globe reported about this operation - in several countries and languages, And this was the even more importand victory than the success in the battlefield!

Why?

It´s quite simple: Because this success broke down the walls of silence that were built up around the NPU during the past months, mostly by the kurdish Peshmerga forces and the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) in Erbil. As you may know, the Peshmerga forces are controling the autonomous region of Kurdistan and also those parts of the Nineva province, that are not occupied by by the terrorists of ISIS.

So, as General Aboosh Behnam, the commander of the NPU, stated personally to me in several interviews and talks, visitors and journalists never got permission to visit NPU forces in the frontline areas. Neither at Tel Esqof, where NPU is (next to to Peshmerga and other forces that are under command of Peshmerga) present with about 100 fighters, nor at the Khazer river, where NPU is present with another about 100 men (these men performed the attack of September 1st).

Even journalists being at Tel Esqof for a visit and knowing that NPU is also there (just around the corner of the local Peshmerga Headquarters) did not get permission to visit NPU.

Yes, you may think that this is crazy, but it is just the plain truth. One of the main reasons surely is the fact, that NPU´s first aim is their independence. Why?

Some months before ISIS attacked and conquered the Nineva-plains in 2014, the people of the Assyrian/Aramean monority (as well as the Yazidi and the members of other minorities) were told to hand out their weapons to the kurdish authorities and the Peshmerga claimed to protect them. But when ISIS came, neither Peshmerga, nor the Iraqi Army took efforts to protect them and stop ISIS. So hundreds of thousands only had the chance to save their life by running away leaving everything behind.

It was a bitter experience, and many Assyrians/Arameans lost any trust into the promised protection. So they thought about what they can do to avoid finding themselves helpless once again one day. It was a long way from there to September 1st of 2016, but that´s another story...

Fact is, that from now on, the world knows about the existence of the brave assyrian/aramean fighters of NPU that are actively and successful engaged in liberating the Nineva plains. So hopfully the blockade of journalists will end soon and it will be possible to visit NPU forces in Tel Esqof and in Khazer.

Do you see the desire in my eyes?

Do you see the desire in her eyes?

This girl is dressed in the colourful traditional clothes of the Nineva-plains. She had to flee from ISIS, when she was a little child, when the islamic terrorists came in summer 2014 and conquered the Nineva-plains. Since more than two years her family spend their life in Ashti2 IDP-camp near Ankawa - and there is no hope for them that things are changing.

In her eyes you can see this one question you can see this ONE question that everyone in the IDP-camps of North-Iraq is asking: When will we be able to return to our villages, to our houses to live a normal life? Will this day ever come?

My home is in the Nineva-Plains. ISIS conquered my parents home and village. How long will i have to stay in Ashti2 IDP-Camp in Anakwa until me and my familiy will be allowed to return to our home?

This gilr is wearing the typical traditional clothing of the Nineva-plains.

Promoters of Cultural Heritage

Promoters of Cultural Heritage

Tur Abdin and whole Turkey, as well as the whole area of Mesopotamia have an immense and rich Cultural Heritage dating back millennia before Christ. 

Also all these ancient sites would be protected and preserved in Europe, North America and other parts of the world, noone cares about most of them in these regions. Of course, some exceptions are declared Cultural World Heritage, others are under care of museums. But quite often this care consists in a fence and none cares about after the fence is built. 

Most of the eldest and largest sites of cultural heritage are widely unknown, as they are outside, away from villages and cities. Only known by a few private researchers. People that invest a lot of time and money to search for Cultural Heritage Sites, explore them, take PGS-data and take pictures to document them.

I am very thankful some of these guys took their time to guide me to some of theses places in autumn of 2015 and in spring 2016. Some of these places would be like paradise for archeologists: large areas with different layers of historic buildings, ruins above the ground, built upon far elder structures which were built on another layer of elder structures...

One of the aims of this blog will be to talk about the richness and variety of the Cultural Heritage of Tur Abdin and Mesopotamia. I hope, some of the people i will reach with these reports will get interested and will - maybe - become theirselves promoters of the efforts to protect, save and research this unique Cultural Heritage.

I want to thank people like Eliyo Eliyo, an Assyrian from Sweden, Adem Coskun (Bethkustan) and Kawme Sami Dik from Mardin for the help and support they provided me.

Where the stones are talking

Where the stones are talking...

„If the stones could talk“, says the proverb. If one ever comes to Tur Abdin, he stops thinking about how it came to this wisdom. In Tur Abdin you learn to understand it, as the stones of Tur Abdin are the real story-tellers!
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What you see in the picture is not an official Seyfo-memorial.

There is no official memorial for Seyfo, the 1915 – genocide, in Tur Abdin. But on the other hand complete Tur Abdin is a memorial. A memorial, formed by all the left and decaying villages and houses that give witness that the whole population of Tur Abdin was taken away a hundred years ago.

All the people, men and women, children, grandparents…

Shot, slayed, desecrated, displaced. The corpses buried in a hurry, somewhere in the fields or thrown into one of the caverns…

Delivered to the wind, abandoned, forgotten – like the left buildings…

There is no sense in denying that Genocide. It´s useless, as the stones are indicting and condemning. 

They are indicting the murderers and offenders that committed all these atrocities. They are also condemning those who are still denying and keeping back what really happened.

Those stones are talking, they are not tongue-tied.

These stones are mourning, accusing in silence.

They seem to be silent – but in reality they are crying, shouting. Clear and loud…

By day and by night…

Because the stones are the surviving witnesses…