IRANIAN REP'S VIEWS ON REGIONAL ASSYRIAN COMMUNITY

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 IRAN RPO DUBAI 000007

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/27/2027
TAGS: SOCI IR PGOV PHUM
SUBJECT: IRANIAN REP'S VIEWS ON REGIONAL ASSYRIAN COMMUNITY

REF: 2006 DUBAI 0058

RPO DUBAI 00000007 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Jillian Burns, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)


1. (S//NF) Summary: IRPOffs met with the Assyrian Majles
representative Yonathan Bet Kolia (strictly protect) February

22. Bet Kolia will lead a delegation of Iranian Assyrians to an
Assyrian National Congress meeting March 24-25 in California.
According to Bet Kolia, there have been no recent changes in the
status of the Assyrian community in Iran, but he said the
situation for Assyrians in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan is very poor.
The MP indicated that during his upcoming planned visit to the
US, he would likely meet with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of the
14th district in California, who is of Assyrian descent. He
added that when he spoke with some officials from the Ministry
of Intelligence and Security (Ettela'at) about the possibility
of parliamentary exchanges between Iran and the US, they were
receptive and encouraging. End Summary.


2. (S//NF) IRPOffs met February 22 with the Assyrian
representative (MP) in the Iranian Majles, Yonathan Bet Kolia.
(Note: Five seats in the Iranian Majles are designated
specifically for religious minorities. There is one
representative each from the Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Assyrian
communities, and two from the Armenian community. End Note.)
The Assyrian MP was in Dubai to apply for a US visa in order to
attend a meeting of the Assyrian National Congress, an
organization that brings together representatives from Assyrian
communities across the world. He has attended similar meetings
in the US in the past. The meeting will be held in Ceres,
California on March 24-25. Traveling with Mr. Bet Kolia will be
nine other members of the Assyrian community in Iran,
representing various Assyrian organizations inside the country.
The MP spoke about the current status of the Assyrian community
in Iran, and also commented on status of Assyrians in Iraq,
Syria, and Jordan.

Assyrians in Iran
--------------


3. (S//NF) Prior to the Iranian revolution there were
70,000-80,000 Assyrians in Iran, the MP said. (Note: Assyrians
in Iran refer to their language as Assyrian, and describe
themselves as Assyrian, rather than Chaldean, Syriac, or other
similar names that have been used to describe this ancient
Christian community. This Iranian delegation to the Assyrian
National Congress plans to promote the singular use of the term
"Assyrian" to describe the members of this community worldwide.
End Note.) During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, many Assyrians
fled the country, particularly families with sons who were
eligible for conscription. Families sent their sons to the West
to avoid frontline military service, and then joined them as
soon as they could. Currently, there are no more than 30,000
Assyrians in Iran, the MP estimated. Before the Khatami
presidency, religious minorities did not receive government
funding on a regular basis. Employers regularly discriminated
against non-Muslims, calling for "Muslims only" in job
advertisements, despite the constitution providing for equal
employment rights to all recognized religious minorities.
(Note: According to the Iranian constitution, Zoroastrian,
Jewish, and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious
minorities. End Note.) When discrimination in the employment
sector was brought to Khatami's attention the practice stopped,
the MP said. Furthermore, a budget for religious minorities
(providing funding for schools, cultural centers, sports etc.)
was made into a necessary line-item in the government budget,
and it would require an additional law to remove it. Religious
minorities (as a group, not individually) have received
approximately $2 million annually from the government since the
Khatami years, according to the MP.


4. (S//NF) The Khatami presidency saw many improvements for
recognized religious minorities in Iran, and Ahmadinejad has
kept the same policies in place, the Assyrian MP noted.
However, the Majles is attempting to decrease the budget for
religious minorities for the upcoming year. The budget bill is
still under discussion in the Majles, so the outcome is not yet
clear. (Note: The Iranian year 1386 begins March 21, 2007. End
Note.) The MP inferred that the attempted decrease in the budget
is a result of Iran's overall economic woes, rather than an
action targeted against religious minorities. Mr. Bet Kolia is
attempting to have the budget for the Assyrian community

RPO DUBAI 00000007 002.2 OF 002


separated from the overall budget for religious minorities in
the upcoming year. The Assyrian community has separate schools
but opens them to children of all religions. They are permitted
to teach classes in the Assyrian language, and also write their
own textbooks, which the government then prints for them. The
government pays the salaries of the teachers, but the teachers
are Assyrian. The situation for Assyrians inside Iran is fairly
good, particularly in comparison with the status of Assyrian
community in nearby countries, the MP commented.

Assyrians in Iraq
--------------


5. (S//NF) The Iranian Assyrian MP estimated that 250,000
Assyrians have fled Iraq since the beginning of the war in 2003,
also estimating a high number (NFI) of internally displaced
persons among Assyrians in Iraq. The MP related one egregious
case of a young Assyrian woman who was kidnapped for ransom. He
claimed she was beheaded when the family was unable to pay the
ransom and her boiled head returned to the family. He described
the current situation for Assyrians in Iraq as very poor. The
MP claimed there is a movement to promote the creation of an
Assyrian homeland, to be located most likely in Nineveh province
in Iraq, and hinted at desire for third country support. The MP
inferred it is not a separatist movement but one that seeks the
creation of an autonomous region within the larger country. He
stressed that under no circumstances could the Assyrian homeland
be under the control of the Kurds. The Assyrians, he said, hold
the Kurds responsible for a reported massacre of Assyrians in
Iraq in 1933. He also mentioned the assassination decades ago
of the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church, although it was unclear
whether he was insinuating Kurdish involvement in that
assassination.

Assyrians in Jordan and Syria
--------------


6. (S//NF) The MP stated that there are an estimated 120,000
Assyrian refugees from Iraq in Jordan. He claimed Assyrian
refugees in Jordan face extreme poverty, and a number of women
and children are forced into prostitution in order to feed their
families. The Assyrian community in Syria, which the MP
estimated at 60,000, faces government restrictions on their
freedom to congregate. When the MP approached Assyrian
organizations in Syria to suggest that the larger Assyrian
community hold a conference in Syria, they said it wasn't
possible. When he offered to go to the Syrian Embassy in Iran
to request permission, they pleaded with him not to do so. The
MP also gave an estimate of the Assyrian community in Turkey as
approximately 40,000. He also said that SARG claims after the
film "Passion of the Christ" that it would help support
promotion of the Assyrian language came to nothing.

Parliamentary Exchanges?
--------------


7. (S//NF) The Assyrian Majles representative indicated that
during his upcoming planned visit to the US, he would likely
meet with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, from California's 14th
congressional district, who is of Assyrian descent. (Note: This
is likely not their first meeting. End Note.) The MP talked
about that meeting in a strictly Assyrian context, but also
discussed the broader idea of contact between members of the
Iranian and US legislatures. The MP said that he spoke with
officials from the Ministry of Intelligence and Security
(Ettela'at) prior to leaving the country to apply for a US visa,
and mentioned the possibility of parliamentary exchanges between
Iran and US. The officials were receptive to the idea, he said,
and encouraged him to pursue it.


8. (S//NF) Comment: MP Bet Kolia underscored that the situation
for Assyrians in Iran is largely unchanged and superior to that
in Iraq or Syria, where old communities exist, and in Jordan,
among the Iraqi refugee community. While his view may be
tempered by his official status, we have not seen any reports
that suggest a deterioration of Assyrians' status in Iran.
IRPOff broached with him the idea of meeting DRL officials while
in the US; he took contact information but made no commitments.
BURNS