Nearly six million Assyrian Christians dot the world.
In 2003, according to the Iraqi government, there were 2.5 million Assyrian Christians in the country, or 10% of the population. Another approximately 3.5 million are scattered from Australia to Europe to Lebanon, Jordan, the US and more.
The Assyrian Christians -- descendants of the Assyrian Empire and the first nation to accept Christ -- are the indigenous people of Iraq.
In spite of being one of the oldest civilizations, and even today speaking Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, they are refugees in their own homeland.
Following the recent move towards independence by the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Assyrian Christian organizations worldwide have organized formally to request, in accordance with Iraq's constitution, their own area in their homeland in northern Iraq, on the Nineveh Plain.
In the wake of the "Biden Plan", put forth by former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair, and then Vice President Joe Biden, the Assyrian Christian area is one of the four areas envisioned as the only long-term solution for Iraq.
According to the plan, Kurdistan, Assyria, Sunnistan and Shiastan -- the four dramatically different areas of Iraq -- would each be able to evolve into their own areas.
While the Arab areas of Sunnistan and Shiastan in Iraq operate as do most Arab countries -- with corruption, terror and civil strife -- the non-Arab regions of Iraq, Kurdistan and Assyria in the north are shining examples of what all of Iraq could be, and a testimony to the sacrifice of 4,888 brave Americans who gave their lives for a liberated Iraq, as well as the 35,000 injured and the 2.5 million who served.
In the rush to condemn the liberation of Iraq as a mistake, we forget the terror that Saddam Hussein and his two sons inflicted on their people. A visit to nearly every home in Iraqi will have a picture of one or more family members among the nearly one million slaughtered by Saddam.
For the Assyrian Christians, the move toward the independence of Kurdistan is their encouragement to move forward with their independence as well.
Isaiah 19:23-25 is the promise that all Assyrian Christians, the first Christian nation, hold onto as their promise for their homeland:
"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
"In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
"Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."
For the Assyrian Christians, this promise of Isaiah 19:23-25 is twofold. First, that "in that day" they will finally have their nation, called Assyria. Second, that their allies will be Israel and Egypt.
Assyrian Independence, as with Kurdish Independence, would provide two wonderful solutions to the longstanding instability in the Middle East.
First, it would provide a homeland to the Assyrian Christians and people who scattered all over the world do not want to be refugees and go to Australia, Europe, and the US, but simply want to live in their homeland.
It is a solution to the refugee problem after centuries of persecution. Not only could Assyrian Christian refugees stay where they were, but as Jews did in Israel, they could come "home".
Second, we owe it to the brave 4,888 Americans who died, the 35,000 who were injured and the 2.5 million who were ready to sacrifice their lives in Iraq so it could be free.
While the Arab part of Iraq is, like other Arab nations, an ongoing disaster, at least the northern third of Iraq, comprising Assyria and Kurdistan, is on its way to being another "shining city on a hill" in the Middle East -- an example, a source of hope and blessing to an area with so little.
For the allies of both nearby Israel and Egypt, the prophecy of Isaiah 19 could be a solution to at least part of the crises in the Middle East, as the non-Arab people there work together to bring the region back from the brink.
Today, Kurdistan. Next, Assyria!
 Assyrian Christian priest Charbel Aesso leads an Easter service at Saint John's Church (Mar Yohanna) in the predominantly Christian Iraqi town of Qaraqosh on April 16, 2017 near Mosul, Iraq. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images) |
Amir George, an Assyrian Christian, is the author of "Liberating Iraq - The Story of the Assyrian Christians of Iraq".
Sarah