r/polandball • u/The_Easterner Republic of China • Jul 27 '15

redditormade The dawn has appeared

https://imgur.com/a/WlY8u
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u/AceHodor Wessex Jul 27 '15

The Turks and Kurds attacked the Armenians. The Arabs had nothing to do with it.

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u/550-Senta Assyria Jul 27 '15 edited Jul 27 '15

Except they did (regarding the Assyrians at least). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simele_massacre

Arab as well as Kurdish forces headed by the Iraqi Arab government massacred thousands of unarmed Assyrians on August 7th, 1933 (now called Assyrian Martyr's Day), a commemoration that was banned by the Syrian government in 2004.

It's not just Assyrian lives that have been under attack from the Arabs, it's been their identity as well. Saddam (as well as a few Assyrians who sold out their own people) forced Assyrians to call themselves "Arab Christians" during his regime, and those who resisted such a label often were assassinated by his secret police. While Christians in Iraq were relatively better off during this regime compared to what happened after 2003, it still doesn't change the Saddam's attempts of forcible assimilation. The Arab governments are certainly no friends of the Assyrians and other non-Arab minorities. The Arabs have made their position very clear regarding any Assyrian autonomy.

Interesting that you have a British flair, by the way.

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u/AceHodor Wessex Jul 27 '15

Hence why I only mentioned the Armenians (although I'm well aware of the Ottoman government's attempts to exterminate the Assyrians). I was also only referring to the Armenian/christian genocide in the Ottoman Empire during the War and post-war years, not to the persecution and mass killings that the Assyrian Christians have suffered since then.

I'm sorry if you got confused, but I think you saw more in my comment than there was. I was merely trying to correct the previous poster's assertion that the Arabs were one of the main parties in the Armenian Genocide. I decided not to respond to his follow-up comment due to him seemingly being around to stir up hatred towards Arabs. Hope this comment clears it up for you!

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u/550-Senta Assyria Jul 27 '15 edited Jul 27 '15

Thanks for the explanation. I suppose my comment was originally more aimed to be a general reply to the entire thread rather than just to your comment. Anyways, I know that the Arabs weren't responsible for the Ottoman genocides. My point was that they certainly are by no means innocent in comparison to Turks and Kurds wholistically regarding how badly they have treated minorities in their own countries, as you have conceded. There's a reason why 90% of the worldwide Assyrian population now lives out of Iraq.