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филологические науки - Амин Ризгар Мухаммад
языкознание СИТУАЦИИ АССИРИИСКОГО ...
УДК 80
DOI: 10.26140/bgz3-2019-0801-0003
СИТУАЦИИ АССИРИЙСКОГО языка в регионе КУРДИСТАНА ИРАКА
© 2019
Амин Ризгар Мухаммад, аспирант кафедры теории германских языков и межкультурной коммуникации Сибирский федеральный университет (660041, Россия, Красноярск, Свободный пр., 82А, e-mail: rizgarmuhammad1983@gmail.com)
Аннотация. В этой статье мы фокусируемся на ситуации ассирийского языка в регионе Курдистана в Ираке. Курдистан - полиэтнический регион, где курды являются основным населением, а арабы, туркмены, ассирийцы, халдеи и армяне - меньшинствами. Официальным языком региона является язык курдов, языковые права меньшинств были установлены в 1991 году. Родные языки меньшинств запрещались на протяжении нескольких десятилетий в Курдистане, а единственным официальным языком был арабский. Во время правления Саддама меньшинства высказали свои недовольства лингвистической политикой страны, т.к. распространение их родных языков сталкиваются с различными преградами из-за этнических, политических, религиозных и географических причин. В ХХ1веке наступила новая лингвистическая эпоха, в результате которой все этнические группы активно используют свои родные языки в разных сферах жизнедеятельности. Ассирийцы, как одна из самых уважаемых этнических групп региона, довольны своим языковым статусом. Целью настоящего исследования является описание текущей ситуации в ассирийском языке с уделением внимания историческому опыту и исследованию доступности как сирийских, так и арамейских в средствах массовой информации и образовательных секторах региона.
Ключевые слова: ассирийский язык, языковая ситуация, языковая политика, право на пользование родным языком, официальный язык.
THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE SITUATION IN THE KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ
© 2019
Ameen Rizgar Muhammad, post-graduate student of the Department of German language theory and intercultural communication Siberian Federal University (660041, Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Svobodny PR., 82A, e-mail: rizgarmuhammad1983@gmail.com)
Abstract. In this paper, we focus on the Assyrian language situation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Kurdistan is a multi-ethnic region with the Kurds as its major population and the Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Armenians as minorities. Otherwise the official language of the region is the majority one, but the minority linguistic rights have been issued since its announcement in 1991. Minority's mother tongue was banned at all for decades in the region and the only official language was Arabic. During Saddam's rule, Minorities were not happy with the country's linguistic policy and their language faced different situations due to ethnic, political, religious, and geographical reasons. Today, the new linguistic era is appeared and all ethnic groups are speaking, educating and broadcasting in their native language. Assyrians as respected people of the region are satisfied with their language status. The purpose of the research is presenting the current situation of the Assyrian language with an emphasis on its historic background and investigating the availability of both Syriac and Aramaic in Media and educational sectors of the region.
Keywords: the Assyrian language, language situation, language policy, linguistic rights, official language.
Problem statement
The demarcation of Iraq in 1921, minorities were fighting for the sake of the national identity of the nations in different ways. It was an available issue for debate whenever a negotiation was held with the consecutive governments of Iraq and the documents include this requirement. The minority's language situation was the serious matter for scholars, educators, revolutionists and politicians. That is, in 1961 the Iraqi Kurdistan revolutionary movement had a one-hour radio broadcast in which the news was broadcasted in the Assyrian language besides the Kurdish and Arabic languages. Although the Iraqi government issued Order no. 251 on the 20th of February 1972 for the Assyrians in terms of the language and cultural rights of minority people, the aim of which was cosmetic and it was not taken seriously at all. In fact, the previous Iraqi regime step by step reduced and took back what was given to such minorities until they eventually received nothing and, thus, were forced to change the names of places and locations into Arabic. This policy continued till the fall of the regime and announcement of the Kurdistan region in the northern part of the country in 1991. One year later, the first election of the parliament and the first establishment of the Iraqi Kurdistan Government in 1992 opened the door for the recognition of all different ethnic-groups in the region, and all the requirements were set out for this purpose. Jambaz [1] on his book points out the education system by the Ministry of Education of the Iraqi Kurdistan Government and the Cultural Rights of the Ministry of Education besides general directorates and centers were offered to the Assyrians and other minorities which enabled them protect their mother tongue according to Балтийский гуманитарный журнал. 2019. Т. 8. № 1(26)
the texts and articles of the Kurdistan Parliament.
As far as the minorities' educational right is also concerned by the authority of the region, according to official documents till 2014 that are confirmed by Jambaz, there were 58 schools the language of which is Assyrian and for other minorities as well. The last ten decades have been the most difficult periods for Assyrians in Iraq. During the regime of Saddam, hundreds of Assyrian villages and churches were evacuated and Assyrian educators, writers and religious men were taking to exile. After removing Saddam from power in 2003, thousands of Christians left their home in the southern and central parts of Iraq and found themselves in the Kurdistan region due to having daily bombs and attacks by the terrorist groups. According to the International Organization for Migration, an estimated 83,333 families of all ethnicities and religions have been displaced to the Kurdistan Region. The International Medical Corps (IMC) reports indicate that 3,800 families moved to Dohuk, the Kurdish border city with Turkey [2].
According to International Relief and Development, as of September 30, 2006, there were approximately 7,502 Christian IDP families in Dohuk [3].
This article tries to discuss the Assyrian language situation under the Kurdish self-rule in Kurdistan region while tracing the course of its historic development during the previous regimes in Iraq.
The object-matter of this article is the scope of the Assyrian language usage in different sectors in the region. The focus of attention is given to both the present days of the language functioning and its depressed periods in Iraq. The fact that the Assyrians of the region have neither a union
Ameen Rizgar Muhammad philological sciences -
THE ASSYRIAN LANGUAGE ... linguistics
accent nor a dialect in writing and speaking determines the need to take into the account the availability of the Assyrian dialects or versions in the region.
Aramaic, Syriac or Assyrian?
Assyrian is an ethnic term when it refers to the Assyrian People, who are an ethnic group whose homeland exists in northern Mesopotamia and was previously responsible for creating the Assyrian Empire. That region is currently within the borders of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Urme in Iran. Their mother tongue is known as the language of Jesus and the root of both Arabic and Hebrew. But what is less widely known is that Aramaic is still spoken, and is in fact thriving in some parts of Iraq and Kurdistan region. Of the estimated 30,000 people worldwide who speak a dialect of Neo-Aramaic, most live in Iraqi Kurdistan [4].
The written form of one of the Aramaic dialects is the Syriac language, its root goes back to the old Aramaic language once known as the lingua franca in the Near Eastern region. It appeared in the first century at the advent of Christianity when the Aramaic-speaking people changed the name of their language to distinguish themselves from those pagan Assyrians who spoke Aramaic dialects, too. It has since been the language of most Christian churches and the language of religious philosophy in the Fertile Crescent region [5].
Through various missionary campaigns that were held throughout the Middle Eastern region as far as Egypt and Persia the Syriac language started to spread. Later, imposing itself over the mother tongue (Aramaic language) Syriac became the official and liturgical language for many Eastern and Western Christian churches.
In addition to that, after the expansion of Christianity in Iraq, the Arameans were called Syriac, claiming that the nomination is originally derived from (Assyria) that has come from Iraqi Nineveh city [6].
For years, extinction looked like a real possibility for Aramaic, especially after the Anfal campaign that lasted from 1986 to 1989, in which Saddam Hussein's government is believed to have evacuated more than 4,000 Kurdish, Christian and other minority villages in Northern part of the country, where Aramaic was widely spoken, in an attempt to Arabize the minorities of the country.
Both versions were available in the region till that period and this push was halted with the imposition of the no-fly zone in Iraq in 1991, and the subsequent establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government in 1992, as Aramaic was increasingly taught in Christian churches. Then, in 2003, following the American-led invasion of Iraq, Syriac-the classical written version of Neo-Aramaic along with Kurdish, Arabic and English classes became part of the curriculum of many schools.
Nowadays, with the increased stability in the Kurdish region, and the subsequent move north by the Christians fleeing inter-communal violence elsewhere in the country, the ancient language is making a comeback on the ground. While the classical language is being taught in classrooms in the Region, the modern language is being broadcast from satellite stations. Ishtar (a privately funded station) and Ashur (funded by the Assyrian Democratic Movement party) are the two of the most popular stations that feature Aramaic.
Assyrian Language in Education of the region
Until 1991the people of Kurdistan region had been deprived of having an independent, self-ruled education system. Kurds and other minorities had to learn in Arabic, using textbooks that were exclusive to Arab nationalism, and so they were denied opportunities to learn about their culture and history and, consequently, they had always fought to have separate education that was studied in their native language. Because their demands were always rejected and dealt with by force, this was one of the main causes of the extended conflicts between the region's movements and the central government. As Entessar argues, the uprising of 1943 against the government was specifically a result of 22
the marginalization of educational demands of the Kurds [7, p.74]. Therefore, the process of education has never been in a stable situation and the minorities of the country were not happy with it because their linguistic rights were not given and they were forced to learn in Arabic.
Arabic, the language of majority has been declared by the first Iraqi constitution in 1932 as the only official language of the country to be used in all governmental institutions and to be taught at schools, institutes and universities. Thus there was no chance for the Assyrians and other minorities to practice their native language in the formal educational process.
After years of fighting between the Iraqi regimes and minorities' revolutionary movements finally in 1968, the Assyrians and other minorities were allowed to open private schools to teach their mother tongue. Later, in 1970, the Iraqi government approved establishing a separate department for the Syriac language in the Iraqi Academy of Sciences in Baghdad along with other departments like the Arabic and Kurdish languages. According to Matar [6, p. 37], many primary and secondary schools which teach the Syriac language have been established in Iraq especially in Northern Iraq since 1991 and in 2004 the Iraqi government opened a separate department of the Syriac language at Baghdad University.
For Christians, the announcement of the Kurdish self-rule in the northern part of the country was important as well because the status of their language has become an ongoing issue for the authorities like other minorities. They had a member in the commission of constitution project preparation, this is a natural right of nations, and there are many articles and texts that confirm such rights in the project of the constitution of Kurdistan, which were confirmed by the Kurdistan Parliament on the 24th of June 2009. For instance, the three items of Article 14 deal with language and the linguistic rights of nations as follows:
The first item named Kurdish and Arabic as the two formal languages of the region, and this constitution guarantees the constitutional rights of Kurdistan citizens such as the right to education in educational governmental establishments according to the educational rules and regulations. That is, minorities like Assyrians have their own right to use their mother tongue languages for education.
The second item says: the Assyrian and the Turkmen languages are the two formal languages besides Kurdish and Arabic, and they can be used in administrative units where the majority of the people use one of these minority languages. This would be regulated according to the law.
The third item mentions the provisions of Article 4 of the federal constitution in terms of the formal language, will be adopted wherever there is a lawful/legal scope for implementing it In Kurdistan. Notably, law no. 15/2006, the second law of the amendment of the law of the Ministry of Education of Iraqi Kurdistan-Iraq no. 4/1992, tackled the following points: Item 4 of the Article is to be amended and another item is to be added to the article to become item 5 to take the following form:
1. Teaching Kurdish and Arabic is compulsory, Assyrian, and Turkman are the languages of education.
2. Changing the education curriculum to cope with the requirements of the era in a way that agrees with the education and development strategies of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Finally, the third part includes Article 29, which deals with the national and religious rights of the different ethnic groups of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, shows that those individuals who belong to one of the national and religious ethnic groups of the Kurdistan region have the right to be recognized through using their mother tongue, and they have the right to use their languages to name their traditional and local places, but they have to be tied by the provisions of the Languages Law of the Kurdistan Region [1, p. 119-130].
Teaching in Assyrian has a history in the region, the first KRG-funded Syriac primary school was opened in March 1993. And today there are 62 primary and preparatory Baltic Humanitarian Journal. 2019. T. 8. № 1(26)
филологические науки -языкознание
Амин Ризгар Мухаммад СИТУАЦИИ АССИРИЙСКОГО ...
Syriac and Armenian schools in Erbil and Dohuk, with nearly 7,000 pupils. The two academics Tove Skutnab and Desmond Fernandes who visited the Kurdistan Region in March 2006 to research its educational language policies, found that "Minorities of the region like Assyrians have their own schools in their own languages. In 2006, AbdulAziz Taib, then minister of education in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said that every child in the world has the right to be educated through the medium of his or her mother tongue(s).
Thus, basic linguistic human rights are respected in the region, both for Kurdish (an earlier minority) and for most minority children. [8] express the minority linguistic status in five points: first, their mother tongues are accepted and respected; second, they learn their mother tongues fully, as the mother tongue is the main language of instruction; third, they are not obliged to shift languages; fourth, they learn an official language; fifth, they can profit from public education". They also noted that as well as having schools for minorities who wish to learn in their mother tongue, Ministry of Education of the Region has dedicated departments and Director Generals for them: "Assyrian, Turkmen, and Arabic language children in Kurdistan are taught through Assyrian/Syriac, Turkmen and Arabic. They learn Kurdish and English as second/foreign languages. These minorities have their own Departments in the Ministry of Education, each with their own Director General ... Assyrian/Syriac, Armenian, Chaldean, Turkmen, and Arabic are taught as mother tongues. All these languages are also taught as elective subjects to those who want to learn them, while English (and Kurdish for non-Kurdish speakers) are obligatory as second/foreign languages" [8].
Though, the "KRG schools educate students in four different languages: Kurdish, Turkmen, Syriac, and Arabic, while in the rest of Iraq, the only language of instruction is Arabic. For this purpose, there are Turkmen schools and Syriac schools, which the KRG fully supplies, just as with the Kurdish-language schools. There are two General Directorates in the Ministry to supervise and manage these schools. One supervises Turkmen education, while the other director-general of Syriac education"[9].
Assyrian language and Media
The fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 swept away the strict government control over Iraq's media and ushered in an era of extreme media pluralism, with groups all over the country starting hundreds of newspapers and dozens of radio and television stations. However, ongoing sectarian conflict and political control of many Iraqi media organizations hamper the population's access to reliable, objective news content. Like the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan-the largely autonomous northern region that includes the three governorates (Hawler, Slemany, and Duhok) with majority of kurds -has witnessed continued media development in both quantity and quality. The number of private and partisan media outlets increased significantly, with new satellite and local television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and websites.
The Kurdistan regional parliament, 20 November 2008, marked one of the most important and developed passage of the year (Passage of a media law). The law improves many aspects of freedom of expression and journalism, bringing Kurdistan closer to international standards by prohibiting detention of journalists, allowing establishment of a new newspaper or magazine simply by notifying the Kurdistan Journalists' Syndicate, and not requiring journalists to be members of the syndicate. Still, the law has some shortcomings, including not guaranteeing access to information. The Amnesty International report, 14 April 2009, stated that "In the past few years many media outlets, including radio stations, satellite television stations, and newspapers and other publications, have emerged in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The majority are financially supported by the KRG. Some belong to the main political parties, the KDP and PUK, but even small political parties such as Islamic groups have their own TV stations and
newspapers. Despite the increase in freedom of expression, however, the majority of the media outlets follows the official line and avoids criticizing the KRG [10].
Media is not for the Kurds only in the region, the minorities have their own media today. Hawler, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, is the base for some of the major Syriac language media. The first Christian satellite channel (Ishtar) was established there in 2005, it has a world-wide audience, broadcasting on five different satellite networks. "This was the first professional media experience for Assyrians in the region and abroad. It broadcasts from Ankawa, a large town on the outskirts of Erbil which is home to a very large Christian community. Kurdistan TV, the oldest Kurdish satellite TV stations, presents a one-hour weekly programme, called Soraya, in Syriac. In Duhok and Hawler Several Syriac newspapers are published daily, including Bet Nahren, Quyamn and Ainkawa magazine. The Ainkawa Cultural Centre has a small arts institute run by Rafiq Nuri Hanna to preserve and promote Assyrian and Chaldean arts and culture. In general, Assyrians of the region are satisfied with their language status in the regions' media.
Conclusion
The Assyrian language situation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq has always been the serious issue for the region's authority since its announcement in 1991. And it has fluctuated greatly over the past several decades in Iraq, but after the invasion of Iraq, the new linguistic era has appeared and today Syriac is identified by the Kurdistan Regional parliament. Children are learning in their mother tongue, hundreds of newspapers and magazines are published in Assyrian language daily, and tens of local and satellite channels are broadcasting. After decades of sacrificing, the Assyrians of the Kurdistan Region can now recognize their own mother tongue as one of the official and identified languages of the Region.
Naming the Assyrians language neither to Syriac or Aramaic relates to the fact that Assyrians still don't have a union dialect in speaking and writing. Syriac is the written form of old-Aramaic and nowadays is available in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and new-Aramaic is still spoken.
Some of the disputed areas between the Kurdistan region and Iraqi governments are Christians' locations. After coming ISIS terrorist groups in 2014 and destroying everything there, hundreds of Assyrian schools and churches were evacuated. It is a serious matter and deserves to research, seriously recommend those who are interested in researching about Christian issues in the disputed areas.
REFERENCES:
1. Jambaz T. BuniNatawa w SiyasatiZman (Nation Building and Language Policy). Hawler. Haji Hashim Publication Centre, 2014. P. 119130.
2. National Report on the Status of Human Development in Iraq 2008, page 69.
3. United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) Human Rights Report, 1 September-31October 2006. 13 p.
4. Brooke A. Ancient Language Gets Extended Life In Iraq. Special Report to the Wall Street Journal Europe, 2012.
5. Kuzanchi F.Y. Usul al thaqafa al sryania fi bilad ma baen nahraen. Amman: Dar dijla, 2010. 47p.
6. Matar S. Al Zatl jariha ishkalat al hawya fy al irak wa al alam al arabi(al sharq u mtawast) ta 2. Beirut, Al muasasa al Arabia lildrasat wal-nashr, 2000. 37 p.
7. Entessar N. Kurdish Ethnonationalism. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner. 1992
8. Tove S., Desmond F. Kurds in Turkey and in (Iraqi) Kurdistan: A Comparison of Kurdish Educational Language Policy in Two Situations of Occupation", in Genocide Studies and Prevention 3,1, 2008, P. 44-51.
9. Rubin M. 'Interview: Abdulaziz Ta'ib Ahmed - Minister of Education, Kurdistan Regional Government in Irbil, northern Iraq'. Middle East Intelligence Bulletin 4 (1). 2002.
10. Amnesty International. Hope and Fear-Human Rights in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq {Electronic resource} 14 April 2008 http://www. amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE14/006/2009/en. (accessed 15 April 2009)
Статья поступила в редакцию 27.11.2018
Статья принята к публикации 27.02.2019
Балтийский гуманитарный журнал. 2019. Т. 8. № 1(26)
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