MENA Minorities

“The Assyrians of Syria: History and Prospects”   by Mardean Isaac, Syria Comment

Swedish Journalist Carl Drott provides a fascinating account of the Dawronoye , a Christian guerrilla force, operating in Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Read all about its roots in the Turkish far left of the 1980s, its relationship with the Kurdish PKK and how its caders helped to set up the Syriac Military Council. Noteworthy is how the fighters interviewed were annoyed by the ongoing argument in the diaspora, whether they should call themselves Syriacs, Assyrian or Aramean. The Revolutionaries of Bethnahrin  by Carl Drott, War Scapes

Map by @le_carabinie (see here for bigger version) IS takes over Assyrian village Tal al-Jazira by Asrar Chbaro   by Asrar Chbaro , Al Monitor/An Nahar This is the Islamic State (IS),” was the answer heard by Father Sirjun Zumaya, pastor of the congregation of the Assyrian Mar Girgus church in Lebanon, when he tried to call his wife’s uncle Wanis in Tal al-Jazira. The village had been attacked by the “birds of darkness” at 5 in the morning on Feb. 23. Since then, the line has been out of service. Zumaya told An-Nahar the details of the conversation that took place at 1 p.m. on the day of the attack. He said: “When one of the organization’s fighters responded on the phone, I answered, ‘I hope you’re well, I want to speak with the phone’s owner.’ The fighter said he wasn’t there, but I was sure that the number belonged to him, which made me call. I spoke to Wanis in Assyrian, and he responded to me in Arabic in a terri...

A German Tv-team embedded with the chief the the Syriac Military Council (SMC) in Syria's Hasaka province, where the militia fights alongside the Kurdish YPG (in fact the SMC is part of the PYD) against the self proclaimed Islamic State. The militia-chief is a Swiss national of Assyrian heritage (from the Tessin, where many Assyrians live) by the name of Jacob Kosar. He is the former Swiss soldier in charge of the SMC's military training, who was mentioned before on this blog. Kosar estimates the manpower of the militia at 500 and you can also get an idea while watching of how antique the weapons of the SMC are. Edit: Here you can find the article in the German weekly Die Zeit which was produced during the same journey. 

Readers of this blog might remember, that the case of Swiss nationals fighting in Syria for the YPG-affiliated Syriac Military Council had been a topic here already. Now German magazine Focus published a report about this approximately 10 fighters and the support they are receiving from the neutral country. „Kampf ist christliche Pflicht“ Kreuzzug gegen den Terror: Schweizer Christen ziehen gegen IS in den Krieg by Focus Online A very great article by Rania Abouzei for National Geographic deals with the current political situation of the Christians in northern Iraq, including it's leadership, plans for autonomy and the recent phenomena of Christian militias, even though their establishment is (so far) rather symbolic. The latter is a huge difference to the passivity of the Christians during the civil war after the fall of Saddam Hussain, when the Christians reacted with passivity to persecution. This shift is also reflected by the contacts of the Assyrian Democratic Movem...

At Syria Comment Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi provides a solid overview about current militia-related minority dynamics in Syria briefly touching Alawites (including muqawama as-Suriya ), Druze and Christians (in a SSNP- and an Assyrian context). Minority Dynamics in Syria by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Syria Comment

Swedish journalist Carl Drott, whose work for Syria in Crisis  has been mentioned here already, wrote two pieces fresh from the field about the current situation of the Syriac Christians in Qamishli and provides some background on the split of the Sutoro/Sootoro militia in a pro-Kurdish (Sutoro) and a pro-regime (Sootoro) wing. According to Drott the Sutoro is currently growing and setting up branches in other towns of Hasaka province as well. "Syriac-Kurdish Cooperation in Northeast Syria" by Carl Drott "A Syriac Militia Splits in Qamishli" by Carl Drott

Agenfor Media , an Italian   non-profit network, published an interesting video report about   Europeans of Syriac heritage who are fighting inside Christan militias in Syria.  Among them is a former Swiss soldier, who is working as an instructor for the Syriac Sotoro militia in the eastern province of Hasaka. The video is in Italian but there is also a BBC Arabic report and multiple newspaper articles on that issue ( link ). Al-Monito r: "European Christians fighting with Syria Kurdish factions "

The Syriac Military Council (SMC)   in Syria's north eastern Hasakah province has  officially joined the YPG, the main Kurdish militia. Not to be confused with the other Syriac militia Sutoro (which is reportedly lately leaning more towards the regime site) the SMC was established a year ago and has recently proven to be an active fighting group. As Christians they add a cross-secterian flavor to the already secular image of the YPG.