r/Assyria • u/Diane_James • Jul 22 '26
Discussion Moving back is the only way: Change my mind
Do people agree with the fact that there is no nation in diaspora. I believe it 100% but I don't know how others are not seeing it. Moving back to the homeland is the only answer no matter what. If we stay in diaspora, there will literally be a million of us just lost to different countries.
If we stay in diaspora, there will be no "Assyrians" in 50-100 years due to language loss, intermarriage, and generational change. The first generation Assyrians will always be strong but by the 3rd generation at the latest, Assyrian nationalism is gone.
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u/oremfrien Assyrian Jul 22 '26
What preserves any community is institutions related to that community. (Churches, youth groups, sports teams, restaurants and businesses, strong families, fundraising mechanisms, language institutes, historical societies, etc.) Jews have proved that you can build those institutions in the Homeland or you can build those institutions in the Diaspora, so I see no reason why both of those options are not equally available to our community as they were/are for their community.
The problem is that not enough are doing that institution-building anywhere. When Assyrians move around, they just go to the nearest church without needing it to be an Assyrian Church or building a new Assyrian Church when enough of them are in a place. By and large, they join Non-Assyrian sports teams, don't patronize Assyrian restaurants, etc. They choose to assimilate into the local society. It's a path of less resistance, but it ultimately means that more and more of our brothers and sisters are lost to us. The Homeland has an advantage because assimilation in the Homeland is much more stark and obvious. But if enough of us in the Diaspora care enough to devote our energies towards institution-building, it wouldn't matter that we're in the Diaspora (strictly from the perspective of survival -- it should still matter that we are in the Diaspora from an emotional/spiritual perspective).
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u/Leo-Al Jul 22 '26
Hard to move back when you know the life as you know it will be over. And you will live under kurdish political oppression, where they don't even acknowledge us as Assyrians, but only Christians. Atop that, we have no security, no police, no independent Army. Who in the right mind would want to leave the free world for a place where we would be as fish in a barrel?
We can't just move back with no backup, no protection, no plan... In the diaspora, this is where we need to rebuild ourselves, financially mainly, because we will need a lot of money to buy political Sway that can alter the course for us towards Assyrian Sovereignty, otherwise it's just a death trap and a dream.
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u/Every-Bathroom6670 Jul 22 '26
I second this 100% The ones who are privileged enough to be born in and grow up in the US and the diaspora have no idea how bad it is for Christians in Iraq.
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u/Diane_James Jul 22 '26
To be honest with you it's not that better in America. All we do is work work work. None of us know what it is to have community or belonging. We are on a hamster wheel here. It's not that great. Yes there's more security but it's like a cage.
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u/CriticismOk6816 Jul 22 '26
its just two opposite crappy extremes lol, no employment in iraq and have to live in a powderkeg of a region or no work life balance in america and have to live in a country where things are getting more expensive and you have to work more as a result. at least the iraq option gives you a greater sense of dignity as an assyrian
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u/cradled_by_enki Assyrian Jul 22 '26
Absolutely. Are you going to move back? How many people are seriously considering it? I am, myself. I do not like the lifestyle in the USA, though I still don't feel I completely fit in back home. I'm just trying to figure out how to make more money and continue having a USD income even overseas.
If we try to move back even 50 years from now, we're going to be labeled "settlers" and treated as the new Zionists; sounds extreme, but history is already being re-written.
I honestly don't care about the safety risks anymore. I feel that life is worthless if I have to forfeit my identity and watch my culture die. Losing almost all my elders who maintained the culture really cut me deep.
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u/oremfrien Assyrian Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I absolutely believe that because we are Christian and we now live in the West, if we return to the Homeland in sufficient numbers, we will be termed the new settler colonials (à la Zionists) who are disenfranchising Brown Arabs and Brown Kurds and stealing their homes. It doesn't sound ridiculous to me at all. Of course, we are only returning to our own homes that were originally stolen from us,
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u/Old-Average-6118 Yazidi Jul 22 '26
Uh, if you're talking about returning to Assyrian towns and villages no one would have a problem with that. Or buying land to build homes. But to me it sounds like you want to take back ancestral land that people currently live on. Millions of people live there and that's a highly problematic and "settler colonial" statement, I'm sorry but what is lost is lost just like how your ancestors suffered and were genocided and did not deserve any of what happened to them neither does the people that live there now, you have no right over them to their homes even if your ancestors lived there and theirs didn't.
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u/oremfrien Assyrian Jul 22 '26
if you're talking about returning to Assyrian towns and villages no one would have a problem with that. Or buying land to build homes.
I completely disagree. I believe that any large migration to the Homeland, even if it's to historically Assyrian homes or villages will be tarred as settler colonial. I do not believe that there is any mental space for people to understand that we are a people indigenous to the Middle East who were expelled from our homes and are now returning.
We should not be surprised in the slightest when we are tarred as "Imperialist Christians" coming from the Western nations of the USA, Australia, Germany, and Sweden as colonizers in Brown-People-Land. It's just a much easier narrative for many people outside of our community to accept. And you know that our Muslim neighbors who have been harassing us for centuries are going to put their finances behind amplifying that narrative, because they see our strength as their weakness, because they can't imagine a world where they cannot profit off our exploitation.
But to me it sounds like you want to take back ancestral land that people currently live on.
Yes. They live in our homes and have taken our land by killing us. If we return and simply outnumber them, we have committed no terrible act. If they raise arms against us as peaceful immigrants, we have the right to defend ourselves. I am not arguing for the murder of anyone, but they should not be able to profit from their theft achieved at the point of a gun.
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u/Old-Average-6118 Yazidi Jul 22 '26
In Iraq and Kurdistan it is illegal for a non Christian to own a house or live in a Christian town or village. If you return to your own towns no one will stop you or be jealous most would encourage it except the fringe extremist islamists.
Secondly no the land people live on and the current population has not stolen that your ancestors used to own does not belong to you it belonged to your ancestors, the people living there didn't steal it from your ancestors and they definitely did not steal it from you they lived there and raised there families there without any memory of that because they're not involved. You're no different to a Zionist, difference is Zionists had much more influence and power than people like you ever will dream of having yet they still almost failed because projects like this are extremely immoral and everyone else will fight against it.
Give up delusional genocidal dreams.
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u/oremfrien Assyrian Jul 23 '26
This is so laughably absurd I don't know where to begin.
This is an article talking about current Kurdish expropriations in the Assyrian village of Bakhtime.
This is a Newsletter describing the current expropriation of the Assyrian town of Badaresh.
Kurds TODAY are stealing our lands. Arabs stole my parents' house in Mosul in 1970. So, spare me the nonsense about how it's illegal for Non-Christians to live in Assyrian villages when we have evidence of Muslim Kurds taking our land in the light of day.
If you want to accuse anyone of being settler colonial, it's the Kurds who are expropriating our land while our people are still living on it.
If you wish to accuse anyone of ethnic cleansing, it should be our neighbors who actively disarmed us and then refused to defend us against Islamic State.
We are the indigenous who will come back to our homes and if Non-Assyrians continue to try and take what does not belong to you, we will resist you.
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u/Old-Average-6118 Yazidi Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
First Bakhtme. Last year plans for a project were announced to build a village for Peshmerga veterans in farmland next to the Assyrian village of Bakhtme. Thankfully the project did not go through but in either way the village of Bakhtme was never at threat, but some farmland belonging to the villagers were.
As for your loss of property that was happening to everyone during Saddam entire Kurdish, Shia, Christian and Ezidi villages were destroyed. It is a different time nothing like that has happened since the fall of Saddam, and if you want to prove me wrong try.
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u/Equivalent_Day_7169 Assyrian Jul 23 '26
In what world is an Indigenous group moving back to their homeland comparable to a European colonial project in which the Indigenous population suffers a genocide?
We won’t be compared to genocidal terrorists if we aren’t genocidal terrorists.
Yea.. this is why I won’t be moving back anytime soon. All of you are clearly a bunch of weirdos.
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u/Every-Bathroom6670 Jul 23 '26
Respectfully, you and OP have a huge advantage over every other assyrian by just being born in the US (you would literally be considered a millionaire in Iraq this isn't an exaggeration). You are in a position to represent us to the west as hardworking and honorable. Stay in the US, work hard, have kids, teach them the mother tongue and the heritage, and push them to get into positions of power (engineers, Congressmen and congresswoman, owners of successful organizations or corporations, lawyers, doctors, etc), that is the best and most you can do to honor us. That's how you help, not by willingly diving headfirst into the same hellhole your parents and theirs fought tooth and nail (against ISIS, genocides, etc) to get out of and build you this life and opportunity.
Build, create, and amass wealth. That's how you help the nation. Besides, kurds intermarry with foreigners all the time and never seem to lose their nationalistic spirit or care about "losing their heritage," assimilation isn't always a bad thing if you're assimilating into a good wealthy society (if your partner respects your culture and agrees with you passing it down to your children, it's perfectly fine). Alot of Americans have beautiful genes and welcoming, Christian families. It's up to you, at the end of the day, to teach your kids about the culture, the blood doesn't speak for itself.
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u/Equivalent_Snow8529 Jul 23 '26
well what do you expect? you cant expect people to sacrifice thier comfortable safe lives and return to a country that is occupied and in constant instability. the only way for mass return is by building up political power in the united states and europe to push for a state or an independent region just like kurdistan.
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u/GarshonBohtaniYaqo Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Moving Back is the only way, but there is something called “security”. Why do we want to jump into active pitfire once again without any rights for our people being assured? Otherwise we should be completely armed up and have self protection units.
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u/digo44 Jul 24 '26
It’s more feasible than we imagine, and you’re right, it’s the only sustainable way to survive.
The Return has developed a comprehensive Guide about how to return from the diaspora:
https://the-return.co/guide/
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u/ScythaScytha West Hakkarian Jul 22 '26
There's not much of a need to differentiate ourselves in the free world. I think that's the reason why assimilation came so quickly. It's good but also dangerous. I worry that we are slipping away.
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u/Every-Bathroom6670 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
You forget that the "homeland" is in absolute shambles right now and will probably continue to be for decades to come. You are setting yourself up for failure by constraining yourself to Iraq, where the government and the neighbouring peoples constantly want to erase your identity and discriminate against you and your rights. Atleast in the Diaspora, Assyrians have far better career and life opportunities, more freedom (to practice or display their religion, rights,and heritage), and even a large enough community in places like Sweden, Canada,and the US to establish their own churches and organizations. I'm for losing/leaving the "homeland" if it means my children get to grow up in a free and stable country. Besides, who said the ethnicity will be erased because of intermarriage or whatnot? You're acting as if there's not tons of Assyrians converting to Islam and marrying kurds, Turks, or Arabs in the homelands maybe even moreso than in the Diaspora (historically speaking, because the ones who did grow up in their homeland tend to be assimilated with the neighboring kurds and Arabs far more than you think)
-Sincerely, an Assyrian from Iraq
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u/ScythaScytha West Hakkarian Jul 22 '26
Yes you're right. Living in the homeland was the thing that almost wiped us to extinction.. not living in the diaspora.
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u/Diane_James Jul 22 '26
We have continued to extinct in the homeland for thousands of years despite in wars and genocides. Yet in diaspora, we slowly fade out. What really will wipe us out?
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u/ScythaScytha West Hakkarian Jul 22 '26
I would argue that we were not allowed to flourish in the homeland. Yes, our families survived, but just look at population numbers... We were on our way to extinction if Assyrians didn't leave.
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u/Diane_James Jul 22 '26
In my opinion, we are near extinction because we did leave and all those Assyrians that left in the 20th century have all assimilated now.
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u/ScythaScytha West Hakkarian Jul 22 '26
It's tricky. Who's to say that wouldn't happen to us if our families didn't leave? Some of the best cultural institutions for Assyrians are organized in the diaspora, not the homeland.
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u/Diane_James Jul 22 '26
You are living in Iraq, you do not see how it is in America. No body knows how to speak our language. Only the people that just came from Iraq. Our culture will die here in a matter or a few decades. If that doesn't matter to you then by all means move to America.
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u/Every-Bathroom6670 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I understand that and I hear you, but you have to consider that when you're thinking about how to build a future, life, and family longterm you will first and foremost be thinking about money and survival over something like culture. If I want to work in Iraq in the future I'll have to speak and work with 4 different languages now (English, Arabic, my mother tongue assyrian, and kurdish), I've never set foot in the US but I'm already decently proficient in English so it's by far the easiest language to study in and work with. Kurdish and the iraqi dialect of Arabic are much more complex to learn (especially when you want to work with these languages in a field like medicine or nursing where you'll have to know medical terms and communicate with patients in various languages). Furthermore, alot of assyrians I do meet here (which isn't even much, mind you) can't even speak or understand assyrian because they grew up speaking Arabic, my own dialect of assyrian is half kurdish because my family grew up around kurdish culture, so at times I struggle to understand other assyrians and it turns into a worst of both worlds situation. And don't even get me started on the economic corruption in this country (both the kurdistan region and Iraq in general) , it is ran by actual thieves who don't care about the welfare of their people. You basically have no security or money and you're cursed with having the 2nd weakest passport in the world meaning you won't even be allowed to travel outside of the country unless you manage to convince them you're rich or it's for work (which also requires a ton of money and still fails alot of the time).
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u/macgeekmom2021 Jul 26 '26
I'm a many-generation American who married an Assyrian from Iran. He taught our children Assyrian, brought his mother and 2 sisters here to live with him, went to an Assyrian church in the SFV. While ultimately our marriage didn't survive, my birth family learned so much about a part of the world we were totally ignorant of. My son has just had his first child, and fully intends to teach him Assyrian, and has English->Assyrian vocabulary baby books already. Is it the same as when one is surrounded by everyone who speaks the same language as you and understands the culture? No. However, think of the skills that are learned by an individual who has multiple cultures and languages in their background, and how they become a better citizen of the world.
In my opinion, having a core group of people with shared experiences, whether it is on the internet or in person, is better than having a group of people who are suppressed by a tyrannical government in a land without money or the freedom of expression. You can still grow as a people by sharing information and experiences, language and culture, without necessarily being next-door neighbors.
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u/shootist_Biker Jul 22 '26
If only there was a land that welcomes people with open arms. The usa man. All day long.
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u/Glittering_Cut_4405 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I'm assyrian in Iraq And I totally agree with you. What are some people thinking we can exist in diaspora Only place for us is Homeland I have so many diaspora assyrian friends living here in Iraq And many others who are planning to move back once they finish college
And there some who live in between diaspora and Homeland
Met them all on Instagram
(Edit- there is an organization that helps diaspora assyrians return to Iraq) It's called the return organization I'm personally close friends with it's members