Assyrian Christians mount last-ditch stand against IS

Abandoned by the West, the remnants of Syria’s Christian communities were this week maintaining last-ditch resistance to the onslaught of Islamic State (IS) in the north-east of the country. IS is bent on eradicating the Christian presence from the Middle East, by a campaign of murder and driving Christians from towns and villages that have enjoyed a Christian presence for almost 2,000 years.

In the latest atrocities, an estimated 300 Christians were driven from a string of 30 villages in Syria’s north-eastern Hassakeh province. Men, women and children were murdered or taken hostage, while at least 2,000 fled to the provincial capital, Hassakeh.

Sanhareb Barsom, an official with the Syriac Union party, which is providing humanitarian aid to the refugees, told The Guardian newspaper: “These people have broken down. Their emotional state is very bad because some of the families have had members taken captive by [IS].” Twenty-three hostages were reportedly released this week, it was believed after payment of jizya, the tax forced on non-Muslim communities that submit to Muslim rule.

For the past week, according to The Guardian, 450 militiamen have been defending four of the 30 Assyrian Christian villages. In particular they were trying to defend Tal Tamr, where Assyrian Christians took refuge during the Simele massacre of August 1933, when the Iraqi army wiped out 3,000 Assyrians in a campaign of mass murder and summary execution.

The Syrian leader of the time, Mar Shimun, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, described methods that reflect the present-day conduct of IS: “Girls were raped and made to march naked before Iraqi commanders. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women were bayoneted. Children were flung in the air and pierced on to the points of bayonets.”

Kino Gabriel, a leader of the Syriac Military Council, an Assyrian Christian militia, said of the attempt to defend the villages: “We will not allow another Seyfo [Sword] to happen to us. We will sacrifice everything.” The Seyfo was an Ottoman genocidal campaign under Sultan Abdulhamid II during and after the First World War in which 250,000 Assyrians were massacred. This genocide was conducted by the Ottomans in the same context as the anti-Christian Armenian genocide.

“We want help and support from all the democratic forces in the world that are fighting the extremism in the Middle East, to stop these enemies of humanity,” Mr Gabriel said. “Their targeting of our people, the Syriacs, has been ongoing. After a couple of generations, the culture will disappear. Nobody will remember us.”

Referring to anti-IS air strikes by a US-led alliance, Mr Gabriel said: “The bombings provide support, but there needs to be a presence on the ground, to ... destroy [IS]. We are fighting [IS] on the ground, we have a democratic project and on this basis we demand support for our forces.”