WITH the news that some of the 100,000 or so Assyrian Christians settled in Syria have been taken as hostages by Islamic State("IS militants kidnap 70 in Syrian raids", The Herald, February 25) and as we are within two months of the 100th anniversary of the initial Allied (UK, France, Australia and New Zealand) landing on Gallipoli on April 22, 1915, it is of interest to note the situation of the Assyrian Christians in that year.
On the day of the landings, my late father - who was on General Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters ship SS Arcadian - noted in his diary: "9.30 a.m. - Now at the mouth of the Dardanelles. Assyrian [Aramaic-speaking] interpreter broke down beside me. He said that the Turks had oppressed his people for the last 300 to 400 years. His brothers had apparently been forced to fight for the Turks."
Further, James, Viscount Bryce - who co-authored a 1916 Blue Book documenting the genocide of Armenian Christians by Turks, mainly in 1915 - wrote in 1921 that the genocide had also claimed the lives of half the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire.
We should have a particular affinity with the modern Assyrians, with more than 2.5 million scattered worldwide. Their language, Aramaic was the everyday language of the Holy Land during the ministry of Jesus Christ - hence the Aramaic in Mark 5:41 and &:34 - and such biblical names as Adlai, Cephas, Lazarus, Martha, Tabitha and Thomas are Aramaic in origin.
Dr Alexander S Waugh,
1 Pantoch Gardens, Banchory.
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