SHARED BONDS WITH THE ASSYRIANS
Herald Scotland, UK
March 2 2015
Monday 2 March 2015
WITH the news that some of the 100,000 or so Assyrian Christians
settled in Syria have been taken as hostages by Islamic State("IS
militants kidnap 70 in Syrian raids", The Herald, February 25) and
as we are within two months of the 100th anniversary of the initial
Allied (UK, France, Australia and New Zealand) landing on Gallipoli
on April 22, 1915, it is of interest to note the situation of the
Assyrian Christians in that year.
WITH the news that some of the 100,000 or so Assyrian Christians
settled in Syria have been taken as hostages by Islamic State(\"IS
militants kidnap 70 in Syrian raids\", The Herald, February 25) and
as we are within two months of the 100th anniversary of the initial
Allied (UK, France, Australia and New Zealand) landing on Gallipoli
on April 22, 1915, it is of interest to note the situation of the
Assyrian Christians in that year.
On the day of the landings, my late father - who was on General
Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters ship SS Arcadian - noted in his
diary: "9.30 a.m. - Now at the mouth of the Dardanelles. Assyrian
[Aramaic-speaking] interpreter broke down beside me. He said that
the Turks had oppressed his people for the last 300 to 400 years. His
brothers had apparently been forced to fight for the Turks."
Further, James, Viscount Bryce - who co-authored a 1916 Blue Book
documenting the genocide of Armenian Christians by Turks, mainly in
1915 - wrote in 1921 that the genocide had also claimed the lives of
half the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire.
We should have a particular affinity with the modern Assyrians, with
more than 2.5 million scattered worldwide. Their language, Aramaic
was the everyday language of the Holy Land during the ministry of
Jesus Christ - hence the Aramaic in Mark 5:41 and &:34 - and such
biblical names as Adlai, Cephas, Lazarus, Martha, Tabitha and Thomas
are Aramaic in origin.
Dr Alexander S Waugh, 1 Pantoch Gardens, Banchory.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/shared-bonds-with-the-assyrians.119583328
Herald Scotland, UK
March 2 2015
Monday 2 March 2015
WITH the news that some of the 100,000 or so Assyrian Christians
settled in Syria have been taken as hostages by Islamic State("IS
militants kidnap 70 in Syrian raids", The Herald, February 25) and
as we are within two months of the 100th anniversary of the initial
Allied (UK, France, Australia and New Zealand) landing on Gallipoli
on April 22, 1915, it is of interest to note the situation of the
Assyrian Christians in that year.
WITH the news that some of the 100,000 or so Assyrian Christians
settled in Syria have been taken as hostages by Islamic State(\"IS
militants kidnap 70 in Syrian raids\", The Herald, February 25) and
as we are within two months of the 100th anniversary of the initial
Allied (UK, France, Australia and New Zealand) landing on Gallipoli
on April 22, 1915, it is of interest to note the situation of the
Assyrian Christians in that year.
On the day of the landings, my late father - who was on General
Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters ship SS Arcadian - noted in his
diary: "9.30 a.m. - Now at the mouth of the Dardanelles. Assyrian
[Aramaic-speaking] interpreter broke down beside me. He said that
the Turks had oppressed his people for the last 300 to 400 years. His
brothers had apparently been forced to fight for the Turks."
Further, James, Viscount Bryce - who co-authored a 1916 Blue Book
documenting the genocide of Armenian Christians by Turks, mainly in
1915 - wrote in 1921 that the genocide had also claimed the lives of
half the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire.
We should have a particular affinity with the modern Assyrians, with
more than 2.5 million scattered worldwide. Their language, Aramaic
was the everyday language of the Holy Land during the ministry of
Jesus Christ - hence the Aramaic in Mark 5:41 and &:34 - and such
biblical names as Adlai, Cephas, Lazarus, Martha, Tabitha and Thomas
are Aramaic in origin.
Dr Alexander S Waugh, 1 Pantoch Gardens, Banchory.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/letters/shared-bonds-with-the-assyrians.119583328