COMMEMORATING ASSYRIAN MEMORIAL DAY; Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 141

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COMMEMORATING ASSYRIAN MEMORIAL DAY

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HON. JAMES P. McGOVERN

of massachusetts

in the house of representatives

Friday, August 6, 2021

Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate Assyrian

Memorial Day, which is observed annually on August 7 to honor the

memory of all those Assyrians who have fallen victim to genocide, other

mass atrocities, and persecution. I am very proud that the Second

Congressional District of Massachusetts is home to a vibrant Assyrian-

American community--a proud reminder of survival and perseverance in

the face of mass atrocities and extreme injustice.

The Genocide that we are commemorating today is a history of

persecution and the systematic destruction of a people, based on their

religion and ethnicity. It is a history shared with Armenians and

Hellenes, or Greeks, perpetrated between 1914 and 1923. This is the

period that began to form the world's modern-day understanding of

crimes against humanity and genocide, culminating 20 years later in the

atrocities committed against the Jewish people of Europe.

Madam Speaker, today is a moment to remember the hundreds of

thousands of Assyrians who perished during this horror were

irreplaceable human beings. Each individual--man or woman, children or

the elderly--were part of a family, with dreams and hopes for the

future--and all those hopes, all of those dreams, all of those

\\\`\\\`possibilities'' were erased. This was done deliberately. This was a

choice made by leaders at all levels of the Ottoman Empire and those

who took charge immediately after the empire's demise.

The Assyrian people and the Assyrian Catholic Church have existed for

over 2,000 years. In their ancestral homes of the Middle East--in Iraq,

Syria, and Turkey--they lived and worshipped, established communities,

and broke bread together, centuries before Islam was born in the

region.

Sadly, the minority religions and peoples of the Middle East are

facing yet another test, as they are again being persecuted and

targeted for extinction. Most of the world's 2 to 4 million Assyrians

still live around their traditional homelands, although they are

frequently displaced and fleeing violence and war like so many others

in the region. It is estimated that some 60 percent of Iraqi Assyrians

have been forced to abandon their homes and leave the country since the

U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.

Today, tens of thousands of Assyrians in Northern Iraq have fled

persecution at the hands of ISIS, which has attacked Assyrian villages,

killing or imprisoning hundreds. And with ISIS has come another form of

genocide--the war against the history of mankind--with the destruction

of archaeological sites, ancient books, artifacts, works of art, houses

of worship, museums, centuries-old Bibles, and relics. Yet, we can take

hope from the survival of towns like Alqosh in northern Iraq and the

Nineveh Plains. People survive and the culture and memory survive.

We cannot sit idly by and watch this destruction continue. We need to

provide aid and protection to these communities, these villages and

towns--certainly for the sake of the Assyrian and other Christian

minorities defiantly

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surviving the bloodbath raging around them, but also for the sake of

our shared humanity.

And clearly, the Assyrian culture and religion survive within all of

those who, over the centuries, fled the region and made new lives in

strange lands, including right here in the United States and in

Massachusetts. And what a wealth of history, culture, and religion they

have brought to us, enriching our communities and our public life.

Part of that history is St. Mary's Assyrian Apostolic Church which

was built on Hawley Street in Worcester in 1924. I have read that it

was built by about 30 Assyrian families who came to Massachusetts from

southern Turkey. They were joined in later decades by Assyrians from

Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria, and more recently, from Iraq. I knew that

church. It was a wonderful place. But a couple of years ago, it moved

to its new home in Shrewsbury, which luckily, is also part of my

congressional district.

And like the Assyrian American Association of Massachusetts Cultural

Center in North Grafton, it is a place of community and a place of

defiance, of resistance, in the best meaning of those words--a place

where culture and religion and human potential are valued, remembered,

renewed, and strengthened.

So, while I rise to commemorate the tragedy of the past and to honor

its enduring memory, I also celebrate the strength of the Assyrian-

American community and the hopes of their future, and their children's

futures.

In 2015, the Assyrian-American community of Massachusetts dedicated a

monument called \\\`\\\`Hope.'' Hope gives us life, gives us purpose, and a

reason to look forward to tomorrow.

For centuries, Assyrians have survived persecution and some of the

greatest evils known to humankind. But far from being exterminated, the

Assyrian people--their religion and their culture--continue to survive

and thrive.

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