Assimilation or death?

The tension in the modern world, geopolitical changes, political crises and military conflicts for a linguist mean the threat of the disappearance of some languages, a change in the status of others and strengthening the positions of the third. The more acute the political situation, the stronger the ligament "language is the self -identification of man." We see this on the example of current events in Ukraine. This situation, alas, is not single. Another example of an ethnic group facing a difficult choice is the Assyrians, the aramoiasis population of Iraq. Many of them are currently faced with a choice: mortal danger in their homeland or emigration, assimilation and loss of their native language.

On Tuesday June 10, militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group (ISIS) established control of the province of Nineveh and captured its capital, the city of Mosul. The provinces of the province, led by the governor, left the city, and military personnel, police and other security forces handed over weapons in exchange for preserving life. About 500 thousand inhabitants of Mosul rushed to neighboring cities. Many of them are Christians. It was they who were most dangerous. The first thing the extremists did was forced Christians to pay jisa, subsistenant to file from non -Muslims, a ransom for preserving life. If the family did not have enough money, humiliation and abuse followed, sometimes with fatal outcome. According to preliminary estimates, only 2 thousand Christians remained in Mosul, despite the fact that until 2003, before the start of a protracted and bloody war, which ruined Iraq, their number was about 130 thousand. For the first time in 1600 years, not a single Mosul Church spent a liturgy.

Iraq is a multinational country. Mostly Arabs live in the south, in the north - Kurds, Assyrians, Yezidis, Mandei, Turkoman (Turkmen), Armenians, Shabaki and other peoples. At present, Iraq is practically split into two parts. The Kurds control the north and periodically attempt to create an Iraqi Kurdistan state independent of the Baghdad government. A protracted political crisis weakened the country, putting at first of all ethno -confessional minorities. The situation of the Assyrians, the indigenous people of Iraq, turned out to be very dangerous.

Assyrians (self -name - Surai, aturai) is a people who builds themselves to the ancient inhabitants of the interfluve, speaking the Assyrian (Novoaramais) language. Assyrians profess Christianity from the 1st century A.D. Historians, philologists and theologians is known by the Syrians. In the II century A.D. The Christian city of Edessa has become a trade and cultural center, and the local version of Aramaic formed the basis of the literary Syrian language. For several centuries, the Syrian language was the second most important after the Greek in the Eastern Roman Empire; Syrian-speaking merchants and missionaries spread their language and faith far to the east, to China and Mongolia. The Syrians were well -known religious figures, such as Ephraim Sirin (Mar aprime in the Syrian tradition), whose theological works are relevant to this day.

The Islamization of the Middle East began in the relatively peaceful period, when the Arabs adopted the knowledge of the structure of the world and joined the late -mean culture. However, gradually, Christians also lost their influence and social status, having no right and the opportunity to occupy leading positions. Their language became less and less prestigious, the scope of its use was reduced.

The Syrian language was gradually supplanted by Arabic and is currently only the language of worship among the modern Assyrians who speak its living continuation - East Aramaic dialects, in everyday life called the "lichen of the Suray" (Syrian language). The book name is “licked by atura” (Assyrian language) and the ethnonym “Atura” appeared in the 19th century. One of the main reasons for the weakening of the positions of Aramao-language Christians was confessional fragmentation: some accepted the union with the Catholic Church, others retained the eastern church traditions.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Assyrians lived in separate ethnographic groups in modern Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

By this time, the Assyrian (Novoaramaic) language has broken into a large number of dialects and dialects, and due to the isolation of some groups living in mountainous areas, mutual understanding between the bearers of various dialects was difficult. The role of the literary language began to play the dialect of the Assyrians of Urmia, the flat terrain in the north of Iran, where the Assyrians were more in contact with representatives of other peoples and participated in cultural and information exchange with neighbors. The tragic events of a hundred years ago, known primarily as the Armenian genocide, affected all the Christians of the region, and many of the surviving Assyrians of Turkey and Northern Iran were forced to hide in neighboring countries (from the Russian Empire to Iraq) or go to Western Europe and New Worlds. The situation of the Assyrians in Iraq could not be called safe, take at least such a fairly famous event as a massacre in Simel in 1933, when about 3 thousand Assyrians were killed during a local conflict.

The outcome of the Assyrians from the zone of compact residence in the Middle East and resettlement around the world led to the creation of large Assyrian communities in Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Sweden, Germany and other Western European countries, as well as the USA and even Australia.

Accommodation far from the historical homeland invariably leads to assimilation; Under the blow, the language is primarily. And here the initial multilingual language of the Assyrians plays a somewhat ambiguous role. The Assyrian language is not state -owned in any country, therefore, wherever the Assyrians live, they have to study the state, as well as the languages ​​of neighbors, in addition to their native language. Recently, knowledge of English has also become an urgent necessity for any educated person. Thus, the Assyrians speak three or four or even a large number of languages ​​from childhood. On the one hand, therefore, the Assyrians are easily assimilated and in the case of emigration they study another or two new languages. On the other hand, any language is considered exclusively in the pragmatic plane: suitable or unsuitable in this situation to communicate with this person. The Assyrian language at best is transmitted to children as a “home” language used for everyday communication, and sometimes forgotten in the second or third generation, as unclaimed and interfering with integration.

Assimilation and the loss of social status associated with it (especially if it was high in the historical homeland), the loss of their native language and traditions, the inability to convey to their subsequent generations many Assyrians living in the historical homeland is perceived as “loss of themselves”, the threat of identity. Therefore, the choice "Leave or stay in your country?" It is not always based exclusively on economic calculations and on security reasons. The events of the last weeks and the reaction of the Assyrians of Iraq to them, to whom this choice faced, are very indicative in this regard.

The next victim of the militants who captured and plundered the Mosul almost became Bachdida (Karakosh), the Assyrian city on the Ninevia Plain with a population of about 50 thousand people, a significant part of which (more than 10 thousand) is immigrants from the south of Iraq, where since 2003 the attacks of terrorists on the Christian population led to the massive outcome of the Assyrians. The vast majority of Bachdida Assyrians are Catholics.

More recently, this city was considered one of the most calm and prosperous in the country. The level of education of the population is very high, and, contrary to the common stereotypes about the oppressed women of the East, higher education and prestigious professions are not exclusively male privileges. There are several schools, seminary in the city, the construction of a pedagogical university has recently begun.

Local residents partly retained the traditional way of life, some elderly people still wear traditional clothes: women even in fifty -degree heat are dressed in long dresses and colorful woolen woolen capes with bright embroidery, they cover their head with scarves. Male clothing is similar to Arabic: a spacious shirt to the ankles, on the head - gutra, a scarf made of dense fabric, which is called arafat in our expansion. Young people of both sexes prefer jeans and T -shirts, tracksuits, girls wear open dresses.

In everyday life, they speak here on a soret - the local dialect of the Assyrian, which can hardly withstand competition with the Arabic language. Since this part of Iraq is now part of the Iraqi Kurdistan, among the local Assyrians, the knowledge of the Kurdish language is also widespread, which is the farther, the more in status it approaches the state. Many residents of Bachdida speak English well, and some in French. A characteristic example of multilingualism from childhood: twice a year, for Christmas and Easter, on the local Catholic radio station “The Voice of the World” on the air, poetry was read and songs of preschool age sang songs, and the whole city listened and touched. Four- and five-year-old crumbs in three languages ​​were recited and sang: Assyrian, Arabic and quite decent English. Now, due to hostilities, this radio station has ceased its broadcasting.

After the capture of Mosul, the militants sent their troops to Bachdid, but were repelled by the Peshmarg detachments, Kurdish armed forces. For some time the city was almost at a siege. Interruptions in water and electricity began. Local self -defense units were not able to withstand two well -armed armies. On June 25, the city was fired by militants. The clashes between ISIS and the forces of Peshmarg continued; The militants launched the city. Peaceful inhabitants began to massively leave Bachdid. A huge column of buses, trucks and cars lined up near the checkpoint when leaving the city. More calm settlements of Ankava, Alcosh and Erbil received refugees. Someone got a job at relatives, and someone had to sit in school classes or in the open air in church courtyards. Two days later, the danger retreated, the inhabitants began to return to the city, but many men preferred to leave women, children and elderly relatives and return alone to protect houses from looters, restore electricity and water supply to the city. “Now everything is calm, but we do not know what will happen to us tomorrow” - such news is reported by the inhabitants of Bachdida in those brief moments when we manage to establish a connection on the Internet. At the same time, according to local residents, many categorically do not want to leave Iraq, despite the fact that most of them have relatives in more prosperous countries.

Why do people deliberately adapting to the European lifestyle consciously prefer mortal danger, torture and humiliation, and not emigrate? Apparently, the risk of losing its own identity, the usual way of way, its culture and language is stronger than the fear of being destroyed physically. However, the prospects of the Assyrians in Iraq are still vague.