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{{Short description|1933 massacre of Assyrians in Iraq}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Simele massacre
| native_name = {{Native name|ar|مذبحة سميل}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=عضوة الكونغرس الامريكي جان شاكوسكي تصدر بيانا في ذكرى مذبحة سميل التي تعرض لها شعبنا عام 1933|url=https://www.zowaa.org/عضوة-الكونغرس-الامريكي-جان-شاكوسكي-تص/|access-date=19 December 2020|website=Zowaa|date=8 August 2020 |language=ar}}</ref><br>{{Native name|syr|ܦܪܲܡܬܵܐ ܕܣܸܡܹܠܹܐ}}<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sapra Suryaya|url=http://www.syriacwritersunion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SAPRA-SURYAYA-23.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Search Entry|url=http://assyrianlanguages.org/sureth/dosearch.php?searchkey=29801&language=id|access-date=19 December 2020|website=assyrianlanguages.org}}</ref>
| image = File:Aerial view of Batarshah in northern Iraq, an Assyrian village destroyed by Arabs and Kurds during the disturbances of August 1933.jpg
| caption = Aerial view of Batarshah in northern Iraq, an Assyrian village destroyed by Arabs and Kurds in August 1933
| map = Simele.svg
| map_size = 
| map_alt = 
| map_caption = {{Legend|#ffd5d5|size=60%|Area where villages were looted}}
{{legend|#ff8080|size=60%|Heavily targeted Assyrian villages}}
| location = Northern [[Kingdom of Iraq]], notably at [[Simele]]
| coordinates = {{Coord|36|51|30|N|42|51|0.35|E|region:IQ-KR_type:event|display=inline,title}}
| target = 
| date = {{Start date|df=yes|1933|8|7}} – {{End date|df=yes|1933|8|11}}
| time = 
| timezone = 
| type = [[Summary execution]]s, [[mass murder]], [[looting]]
| fatalities = 300–600 (British estimate)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sykes |first1=Percy |title=A summary of the history of the Assyrians in 'Iraq, 1918–1933 |journal=Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society |date=1934 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=255–268 |doi=10.1080/03068373408725306}} "At other villages batches of men were killed, the total number aggregating 550."</ref><ref name=Zubaida>{{harvnb|Zubaida|2000}}: "The total number of Assyrian victims of these events was estimated by British officials at about 600, but Assyrian sources put it at several thousand."</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Llewellyn-Jones |first1=Rosie |title=The Assyrians in World War One and the 1933 Massacre: New Discoveries in the Rsaa Archives |journal=Asian Affairs |date=2019 |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=569–587 |doi=10.1080/03068374.2019.1672427|s2cid=211652462 }} "Nearly 1,000 men, women and children were killed by Iraqi armed forces – and their villages were looted by Kurdish tribesmen."</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Carrington|first=Anca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDKDZHGbnOYC|title= Iraq Issues, Historical Background, Bibliography |date=2003 |publisher=Nova Science Publishers|pages=150|isbn=978-1-59033-292-4 |language=en}}</ref><br  >
3,000–6,000 (Assyrian estimate)
| victim = [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]]
| perpetrators = [[Iraqi Army|Royal Iraqi Army]] (led by [[Bakr Sidqi]], Arab and Kurdish tribes<ref name="Stafford168"/>
| motive = [[Anti-Christian sentiment]]
}}
{{Assyrian culture}}

The '''Simele massacre''' ({{langx|syr|ܦܪܲܡܬܵܐ ܕܣܸܡܹܠܹܐ|Premta d'Simele}},  {{Langx|ar|مذبحة سميل|maḏbaḥat Simīl}}), also known as the '''Assyrian affair''',{{sfn|Levene|1999|p=3}} was a massacre committed by the [[Kingdom of Iraq]] under the leadership of Kurdish army general [[Bakr Sidqi]]. The massacre was committed against the [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] population of Iraq in and around the village of [[Simele]] in August 1933. 

Although primarily known for the attacks in the village of Simele, 54 villages in total are said to have been targeted during the four day period of the massacre, primarily in the [[Zakho District|Zakho]] and [[Simele District|Simele Districts]] which are now in the modern [[Duhok Governorate]]. The legacy of the massacre is known partly for imprinting the memory of persecution on modern Assyrian identity, while also being regarded as the turning point for the Assyrian naming dispute due to the responses of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church|Chaldean Catholic]] and [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac Orthodox]] churches. [[Raphael Lemkin]]'s coining of the term [[genocide]] was influenced by the events of the massacre.<ref name=":1" /> 

==Background==

===Assyrians of the mountains===
The majority of the Assyrians affected by the massacres were adherents of the [[Church of the East]] (often dubbed [[Nestorianism|Nestorian]]), who originally inhabited the mountainous [[Hakkari (historical region)|Hakkari]] and [[Barwari]] regions covering parts of the modern provinces of [[Hakkâri Province|Hakkâri]], [[Şırnak Province|Şırnak]] and [[Van Province|Van]] in [[Turkey]] and the [[Dohuk Governorate]] in [[Iraq]], with a population ranging between 75,000 and 150,000.<ref name="Joseph133">{{Harvnb|Joseph|2000|p=60}}</ref><ref name="Gaunt125">{{Harvnb|Gaunt|Beṯ-Şawoce|2006|pp=125–126}}</ref> Most of these Assyrians were massacred during the 1915 Assyrian genocide, at the hands of the [[Ottoman Turks]], while the rest endured two winter marches to [[Urmia]] in 1915 and to [[Hamadan]] in 1918. 

Many of them were relocated by the British to refugee camps in [[Baquba]] and later to [[Habbaniyah]], and in 1921 some were enlisted in the [[Assyrian Levies]], a military force under British command, which participated in the [[Kirkuk Massacre of 1924]] of [[Kurds]], Arabs, and Turkmen during the ongoing revolts in the [[British Mandate of Mesopotamia]].<ref name="Stafford62">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|pp=62–63}}</ref> Most Hakkari Assyrians were resettled after 1925 in a cluster of villages in northern Iraq.<ref name="Stafford42">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|pp=42–43}}</ref> Some of the villages where the Assyrians settled were leased directly by the government, while others belonged to Kurdish landlords who had the right to evict them at any time.<ref name="Stafford53">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|pp=53–54}}</ref>

===Iraqi independence and crisis===

During the [[Ottoman Empire]] until its [[partition of the Ottoman Empire|partition]] in the 20th century, Iraq was made up of three provinces: [[Mosul Vilayet]], [[Baghdad Vilayet]], and [[Basra Vilayet]]. These three provinces were joined into one Kingdom under the nominal rule of [[Faisal I of Iraq|King Faisal]] by the British after the region became a [[League of Nations mandate]], administered under British control, with the name "[[British Mandate of Mesopotamia|State of Iraq]]". 

Britain granted independence to the [[Kingdom of Iraq|Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq]] in 1932,<ref>Ongsotto et al. ''Asian History Module-based Learning Ii' 2003 Ed''. p69. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KE6f6Ni5lrsC&q=asian+history+module+based+learning&pg=PR7]</ref> on the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained [[military base]]s, local militia in the form of [[Iraq Levies|Assyrian Levies]], and transit rights for their forces. 

From Iraqi nationalists' point of view, the Assyrian Levies were British proxies to be used by their 'masters' to destroy the new Iraqi state, whose independence the British had consistently opposed. Under British protection, the Assyrian Levies had not become Iraqi citizens until 1924.<ref name=Omissi65>{{Harvnb|Omissi|1990|p=65}}</ref> The British allowed their Assyrian auxiliary troops to retain their arms after independence and granted them special duty and privileges, guarding military air installations and receiving higher pay than the Iraqi Arab recruits.<ref name=Kelidar106>{{Harvnb|Kelidar|1979|p=106}}</ref> The nationalists believed the British were hoping for the Assyrians to destroy Iraq's internal cohesion by becoming independent and by inciting others such as the Kurds to follow their example.<ref name="Sluglett154">{{Harvnb|Sluglett|2007|pp=154–156}}</ref> In addition, elements of the [[Iraqi Ground Forces|Royal Iraqi Army]] resented the British and the Assyrians for having recently caused them to [[lose face]] very badly. This was because the British Army and Assyrian Levies had succeeded in defeating [[Ahmed Barzani revolt|Kurdish revolts]] after the Royal Iraqi Army had tried and failed.<ref name="Makiya170">{{Harvnb|Makiya|1998|p=170}}</ref> 

The end of the [[British Mandate of Iraq]] caused considerable unease among the Assyrians, who felt betrayed by the British Empire. For them, any treaty with the Iraqis had to take into consideration their desire for an autonomous position similar to the Ottoman [[Millet (Ottoman Empire)|Millet system]].<ref name="Husry162">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|p=162}}</ref><ref name="Husry168">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|p=168}}</ref> The Iraqis, on the other hand felt that the Assyrians' demands were, alongside the Kurdish disturbances in the north, a conspiracy by British colonialists to [[divide and rule]] Iraq by agitating its various minorities against the central government.<ref name="Husry164">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|p=164}}</ref>

===Assyrian demands for autonomy===
With Iraqi independence, the new Assyrian spiritual-temporal leader, [[Shimun XXI Eshai]] ([[List of Patriarchs of the Church of the East|Catholicos Patriarch]] of the Assyrian Church of the East), demanded an autonomous [[Assyrian homeland]] within Iraq, seeking support from the United Kingdom and pressing his case before the [[League of Nations]] in 1932. His followers planned to resign from the Assyrian Levies and to re-group as a militia and concentrate in the north, creating a ''de facto'' Assyrian enclave.<ref name="Stafford110">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=110}}</ref>

In spring 1933, [[Malik Yaqo]], a former [[Iraq Levies|Levies]] officer, was engaged in a propaganda campaign on behalf of Assyrian Patriarch Shimun XXI Eshai (or Mar Shimun), trying to persuade Assyrians not to apply for Iraqi nationality or accept the settlement offered to them by the central government. Yaqo was accompanied by 200 armed men, which was seen as an act of defiance by the Iraqi authorities,<ref name="Husry170">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|p=170}}</ref> while causing distress among the Kurds. The Iraqi government started sending troops to the [[Dohuk]] region in order to intimidate Yaqu and dissuade Assyrians from joining his cause.<ref name="Stafford128">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=128}}</ref>

In June 1933, Shimun XXI Eshai was invited to [[Baghdad]] for negotiations with [[Rashid Ali al-Gaylani]]'s government but was detained there after refusing to relinquish temporal authority.<ref name="Stafford133">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=133}}</ref> He would eventually be exiled to [[Cyprus]].<ref name="peshitta1">{{cite web|title=Biography of His Holiness, The Assyrian Martyr , The Late Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII|url=http://www.peshitta.org/initial/mareshai.html|work=Committee of the 50th Anniversary of the Patriarchate of Mar Eshai Shimun XXIII|publisher=peshitta.org|access-date=23 September 2011}}</ref>

==Massacres==

===Clashes at Dirabun===
On 21 July 1933, more than 600 Assyrians, led by Yaqo, crossed the border into Syria in hope of receiving asylum from the [[Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon|French Mandate of Syria]]. They were, however, disarmed and refused asylum, and were subsequently given light arms and sent back to Iraq on 4 August. They then decided to surrender themselves to the Iraqi Army.<ref name="Stafford136">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=136}}</ref> 

While crossing the [[Tigris]] in the Assyrian village of [[Dirabun]], a clash erupted between the Assyrians and an Iraqi Army brigade. Despite the advantage of heavy artillery, the Iraqis were driven back to their military base in Dirabun. 

The Assyrians, convinced that the army had targeted them deliberately, attacked an army barracks with little success.<ref name="Stafford145">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=145}}</ref> They were driven back to Syria upon the arrival of Iraqi airplanes. The Iraqi Army lost 33 soldiers during the fighting while the Assyrian irregulars took fewer casualties.<ref name="Stafford146">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=146}}</ref> 

Historians do not agree on who started the clashes at the border. The British Administrative Inspector for [[Mosul]], Lieutenant Colonel R. R. Stafford, wrote that the Assyrians had no intention of clashing with the Iraqis, while the Iraqi historian Khaldun Husry claims that it was Yaqo's men who provoked the army at Dirabun.<ref name="Zubaida370">{{Harvnb|Zubaida|2000|p=370}}</ref><ref name="Husry174">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|p=174}}</ref> Husry supported the propaganda rumors, which circulated in the Iraqi nationalist newspapers, of the Assyrians mutilating the bodies of the killed Iraqi soldiers,<ref name="Husry175">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|pp=175–176}}</ref> further enraging the Iraqi public against the Assyrians.<ref name="Stafford145"/>

===Beginning of the massacres===
[[File:Bakrsidqi.jpg|thumb|150px|Bakr Sidqi led the Iraqi Army during the Massacre of Simele.]]
Even though all military activities ceased by 6 August 1933, exaggerated stories of atrocities committed by the Assyrians at Dirabun and anti-Christian propaganda gained currency while rumors circulated that the Christians were planning to blow up bridges up and poison drinking water in major Iraqi cities.<ref name="Stafford183">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=183}}</ref> 

The Iraqi Army, led by [[Bakr Sidqi]], an experienced brigadier general and Iraqi [[nationalist]], moved north in order to crush the Assyrian revolt. The Iraqi forces started executing every Assyrian male found in the mountainous Bekher region between [[Zakho]] and [[Dohuk, Iraq|Duhok]] starting from 8 August 1933. Assyrian civilians were transported in military trucks from Zakho and Dohuk to uninhabited places, in batches of eight or ten, where they were shot with machine guns and run over by heavy armoured cars to make sure no one survived.<ref name="Stafford155">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|pp=154–155}}</ref>

===Looting of villages===
While these killings were taking place, nearby [[Kurds|Kurdish]], [[Arab]] and [[Yazidi]] tribes were encouraged to loot Assyrian villages. Kurdish tribes of Gulli, Sindi and Selivani were encouraged by the mayor of Zakho to loot villages to the northeast of Simele,<ref name="Stafford167">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=167}}</ref> while Yazidis and Kurds also raided Assyrian villages in [[Shekhan District|Shekhan]] and [[Amadiya]].<ref name="Stafford168">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=168}}</ref> Most women and children from those villages took refuge in Simele and [[Dohuk, Iraq|Dohuk]].<ref name="Stafford158">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=158}}</ref>

On 9 August, the Arab tribes of [[Shammar]] and [[Jubur]] started crossing to the east bank of the Tigris and raiding Assyrian villages on the plains to the south of Dohuk.<ref name="Stafford158"/> They were mostly driven by the loss of a large part of their own livestock to drought in the previous years.<ref name="Stafford169">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=169}}</ref>

More than 60 Assyrian villages were looted. While women and children were mostly allowed to take refuge in neighboring villages, men were sometimes rounded up and handed over to the army, by whom they were shot.<ref name="Stafford168"/> Some villages were completely burned down and most of them were later inhabited by Kurds.<ref name="Makiya168">{{Harvnb|Makiya|1998|p=168}}</ref>

===Massacre in Simele===
[[File:TheLethbridgeHeraldAugust181933.JPG|thumb|The ''[[Lethbridge Herald]]'',<br>18 August 1933]]

The town of Simele became the last refuge for Assyrians fleeing from the looted villages. The mayor of Zakho arrived with a military force on 8 and 9 August to disarm the city. During that time thousands of refugees flocked around the police post in the town, where they were told by officials that they would be safe under the Iraqi flag.<ref name="Stafford158"/> 

10 August saw the arrival of Kurdish and Arab looters who, undeterred by the local police, took away the freshly cut wheat and barley. During the night of 10–11 August, the Arab inhabitants of Simele joined the looting. The Assyrian villagers could only watch as their Arab neighbors drove their flocks before them.<ref name="Stafford159">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=159}}</ref>

On 11 August the villagers were ordered to leave the police post and return to their homes, which they began to do with some reluctance. As they were heading back Iraqi soldiers in armoured cars arrived, and the Iraqi flag flying over the police post was pulled down.<ref name="Stafford159"/> Without warning or obvious provocation, the troops began to fire indiscriminately into the defenseless Assyrians. Ismael Abbawi Tohalla, the commanding officer, then ordered his troops not to target women. 

Stafford described the ensuing massacre:<ref name="Stafford160">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|pp=160–161}}</ref>

{{Quotation|A cold blooded and methodical massacre of all the men in the village then followed, a massacre which for the black treachery in which it was conceived and the callousness with which it was carried out, was as foul a crime as any in the blood stained annals of the Middle East. The Assyrians had no fight left in them, partly because of the state of mind to which the events of the past week had reduced them, largely because they were disarmed. Had they been armed it seems certain that Ismail Abawi Tohalla and his bravos would have hesitated to take them on in fair fight. Having disarmed them, they proceeded with the massacre according to plan. This took some time. Not that there was any hurry, for the troops had the whole day ahead of them. Their opponents were helpless and there was no chance of any interference from any quarter whatsoever. Machine gunners set up their guns outside the windows of the houses in which the Assyrians had taken refuge, and having trained them on the terror stricken wretches in the crowded rooms, fired among them until not a man was left standing in the shambles. In some other instance the blood lust of the troops took a slightly more active form, and men were dragged out and shot or bludgeoned to death and their bodies thrown on a pile of dead.}}

In his depiction of the massacre, [[Shimun XXI Eshai|Mar Shimun]] states:<ref name="Shimun48">{{Harvnb|Shimun|2010|p=a62}}</ref>

{{Quotation|Girls were raped and made to march naked before Iraqi commanders. Children were run over by military cars. Pregnant women were bayonetted. Children were flung in the air and pierced on to the points of bayonets. Holy books were used for the burning of the massacred.}}

The official Iraqi account—that the Assyrian casualties were sustained during a short battle with Kurdish and Arab tribes—has been discredited by all historians.<ref name="Husry345">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974b|p=345}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=March 2023}} Khaldun Husry claims that the mass killing was not premeditated and that the responsibility lies on the shoulders of Ismael Abbawi, a junior officer in the army.<ref name="Husry347">{{Harvnb|Husry|1974b|p=347}}</ref>

On 13 August, Bakr Sidqi moved his troops to [[Alqosh]], where he planned to inflict a further massacre on the Assyrians who found refuge there.<ref name="Stafforda62">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=a62}}</ref><ref name="Stafford162">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=162}}</ref>

==Targeted villages==
[[File:Simelemap2.jpg|thumb|150px|The targeted villages in the Simele and Zakho districts]]
{{quote box|title=Targeted villages<ref>{{cite web|last=Eshoo|first=Majed|title=The Fate Of Assyrian Villages Annexed To Today's Dohuk Governorate In Iraq And The Conditions In These Villages Following The Establishment Of The Iraqi State In 1921|url=http://www.aina.org/reports/avod.htm|publisher=Assyrian International News Agency|access-date=23 September 2011}}</ref>|width=80%|align=center|{{div col|colwidth=10em}}
* Ala Keena
* Aloka
* Badalliya
* Baderden
* Bagerey
* Bakhitmey
* Bameri
* Barcawra
* Baroshkey
* Basorik
* Bastikey
* Benaringee
* Betafrey
* Betershy
* Bidari
* Biswaya
* Carbeli
* Chem Jehaney
* Dair Kishnik
* Dairke
* Derjendy
* Fishkhabour
* Garvaly
* Gereban
* Gond Naze
* Harkonda
* Idleb
* Kaberto
* Karpel
* Karshen
* Kaserezden
* Kerry
* Khalata
* Kharab Koli
* Kharsheniya
* Kitba
* Korekavana
* Kowashey
* Lazga
* Majel Makhte
* Mansouriya
* Mawani
* Qasr Yazdin
* Rabibyia
* Rekawa
* Sar Shorey
* Sezary
* Shekhidra
* Sidzari
* Sirchuri
* Spendarook
* Tal Zet
* Tel Khish
* Zeniyat
{{div col end}}
}}
The main campaign lasted until 16 August 1933, but violent raids on Assyrians were being reported up to the end of the month.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.suryaniler.com/makalehavuzu/makale1.pdf |title=Iraq and the Problem of the Assyrians |first=R. S. |last=Stafford |journal=International Affairs |volume=13 |issue=2 |year=1934 |pages=159–185 |jstor=2603135 |doi=10.2307/2603135 }}</ref> The campaign resulted in one third of the Assyrian population of Iraq fleeing to Syria.<ref>{{cite book|title=Official journal , Volume 18|year=1937|publisher=League of Nations|page=927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B9rmAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Iraqvillagealqosh.JPG|thumb|200px|The Assyrian town of [[Alqosh]] where a massacre was planned on its population.]]

On 18 August 1933, Iraqi troops entered Mosul, where they were given an enthusiastic reception by its Muslim inhabitants. Triumphant arches were erected and decorated with melons pierced with daggers, symbolizing the heads of murdered Assyrians.<ref name="Stafford184">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=184}}</ref> The crown prince [[Ghazi I|Ghazi]] himself came to the city to award 'victorious' colors to those military and tribal leaders who participated in the massacres and the looting.<ref name="Stafford188">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=188}}</ref> [[Anti-Christian sentiment|Anti-Christian]] feeling was at its height in Mosul, and the Christians of the city were largely confined to their homes during the whole month in fear of further action by the frenzied mob.<ref name="Stafford188"/>

The Iraqi Army later paraded in the streets of Baghdad in celebration of its victories.<ref name="Anderson24">{{Harvnb|Anderson|Stansfield|2004|pp=23–24}}</ref> Bakr Sidqi was promoted; he later led Iraq's first military coup and became prime minister.<ref name="Anderson25">{{Harvnb|Anderson|Stansfield|2004|p=25}}</ref>

Immediately after the massacre and the repression of the alleged Assyrian uprising, the Iraqi government demanded a conscription bill. Non-Assyrian Iraqi tribesmen offered to serve in the Iraqi army in order to counter the Assyrians. In late August, the government of Mosul demanded that the central government 'ruthlessly' stamp out the rebellion, eliminate all foreign influence in Iraqi affairs, and take immediate steps to enact a law for compulsory military service. The next week, 49 Kurdish tribal chieftains joined in a pro-conscription telegram to the government, expressing thanks for punishing the 'Assyrian insurgents',<ref name=Simon113>{{Harvnb|Simon|2004|p=113}}</ref> stating that a "nation can be proud of itself only through its power, and since evidence of this power is the army," requesting compulsory military service.<ref name=Simon113/> 

Rashid Ali al-Gaylani presented the bill to the parliament. His government fell, however, before conscription was enacted; [[Jamil al-Midfai]]'s government did so in February 1934.<ref name=WashingtonInstitute82>{{cite book|last1=Eisenstadt|first1=M|last2=Mathewson|first2=E|title=U.S. policy in post-Saddam Iraq: lessons from the British experience|year=2003|publisher=Washington Institute for Near East Policy|isbn=978-0-944029-84-8|pages=84}}</ref><ref name=Nisan106>{{Harvnb|Nisan|2002|p=106}}</ref>

The massacres and looting had a deep psychological impact on the Assyrians. Stafford reported their low morale upon arrival in Alqosh:<ref name=Stafford171>{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=171}}</ref>

{{Quotation|When I visited Alqosh myself on August 21st I found the Assyrians, like the Assyrians elsewhere, utterly panic-stricken. Not only were they disturbed, but their spirit was completely broken. It was difficult to recognize in their cowed demeanour the proud mountaineers whom everyone had known so well and admired so much for the past dozen years.}}

[[File:Assyrian refugees on wagon.jpg|thumb|250px|Assyrian refugees on a wagon moving to a newly constructed village on the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur]] River in Syria.]]

Because of the massacre, around 6,200 Assyrians left the [[Nineveh Plains]] immediately for the neighboring [[French Mandate of Syria]], and were later joined by 15,000 refugees the following years. They concentrated in the [[Al Jazira, Mesopotamia|Jazira]] region and built a number of villages on the banks of the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur River]].<ref>{{cite book|author=League of Nations|title=Official journal: Special supplement, Issues 138–144|year=1935|publisher=the University of Michigan|pages=70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8jmAAAAMAAJ|author-link=League of Nations}}</ref>

King Faisal, who had recently returned to Iraq from a medical vacation, was under great physical stress during the crisis. His health deteriorated even more during the hot summer days in Baghdad; the British ''[[chargé d'affaires]]'' described meeting him in his pajamas as he sat in his bed on 15 August, denying that a massacre had been committed in Simele. Faisal left Iraq again on 2 September 1933, seeking a cooler climate in London. He died five days later in Bern, Switzerland.<ref name=Husry351>{{Harvnb|Husry|1974b|pp=351}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Tariq |first=Tell |date=27 July 2022 |title=Faisal I King of Iraq |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/faysal_i_king_of_iraq |access-date=7 September 2023 |website=1914 1918 on line}}</ref>

Mar Shimun, who had been detained since June 1933, was forced into exile along with his extended family, despite initial British reluctance. He was flown on an [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] plane to Cyprus on 18 August 1933, and to the United States in 1949, forcing the head of the Assyrian Church of the East to relocate to Chicago, where it remained until 2015. 

In 1948, Shimun met with the representatives of Iraq, Syria and Iran in [[Washington DC|Washington]], subsequently calling upon his followers to "live as loyal citizens wherever they resided in the Middle East" and relinquishing his role as a temporal leader and the nationalistic role of the church. This left a power vacuum in Assyrian politics that was filled by the [[Assyrian Universal Alliance]] in 1968.<ref name = "DeKelaita">{{cite web|last=DeKelaita|first=Robert|title=The Origins and Developments of Assyrian Nationalism|url=http://www.aina.org/books/oadoan.pdf|work=Committee on International Relations Of the [[University of Chicago]]|publisher=Assyrian International News Agency|date=22 November 2009|access-date=23 September 2011}}</ref>

The seat of the Assyrian Church of the East remained in the United States even during the times of Patriarch Mar [[Dinkha IV]]. Only with the newly consecrated Patriarch Mar [[Gewargis III]] in 2015 did the patriarchal seat of the Assyrian Church of the East return to Iraq relocating in [[Ankawa]] in north Iraq.<ref name="peshitta1"/><ref name="dailytelegraph">Richard Spencer, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11022879/Iraq-crisis-The-streets-of-Erbils-newly-Christian-suburb-are-now-full-of-helpless-people.html Iraq crisis: The streets of Erbil’s newly Christian suburb are now full of helpless people], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 8 August 2014</ref>

===Responsibility for the massacres===
Official British sources estimate the total number of all Assyrians killed during August 1933 at around 600, while Assyrian sources put the figure at 3,000.<ref name=Zubaida370/> 

Historians disagree as to who was responsible for ordering the mass killings. Stafford blames Arab nationalists, most prominently Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and Bakr Sidqi.<ref name="Stafford128">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=128}}</ref><ref name=Zubaida375>{{Harvnb|Zubaida|2000|pp=375–376}}</ref> According to him, Iraqi Army officers despised the Assyrians, and Sidqi in particular was vocal in his hatred for them. This view was also shared by British officials who recommended to Faysal not to send Sidqi to the north during the crisis.<ref name="Stafford128"/> 

According to some historians, the agitation against the Assyrians was also encouraged by [[Rashid Ali al-Gaylani]]'s Arab nationalist government, which saw it as a distraction from the continuous [[Shiite]] revolt in the southern part of the country.<ref name="Makiya169">{{Harvnb|Makiya|1998|p=169}}</ref><ref name="Joseph198">{{Harvnb|Joseph|2000|p=198}}</ref><ref name="Stafford149">{{Harvnb|Stafford|2006|p=149}}</ref>

Husry blamed the Assyrians for starting the crisis and absolved Sidqi from ordering the mass killing in Simele. He hinted that Faysal was the authority who might have issued orders to exterminate Assyrian males.<ref name=Zubaida375/> [[Kanan Makiya]], a leftist Iraqi historian, presents the actions taken by the military as a manifestation of the nationalist anti-imperialist paranoia which was to culminate with the [[Ba'ath Party|Ba'athists]] ascending to power in the 1960s.<ref name=Zubaida377>{{Harvnb|Zubaida|2000|pp=377–378}}</ref> Fadhil al-Barrak, an Iraqi Ba'athist historian, credits Sidqi as the author of the whole campaign and the ensuing massacres. For him, the events were part of a history of Iraq prior to the true nationalist revolution.<ref name=Zubaida377/>

===British role===
Iraqi–British relations entered a short cooling-down period during and after the crisis. The Iraqis were previously encouraged by the British to detain Patriarch Shimun in order to defuse tensions.<ref name=Husry173>{{Harvnb|Husry|1974a|pp=173}}</ref> The British were also wary of Iraqi military leaders and recommended Sidqi, a senior ethnic Kurdish general who was stationed in Mosul, be transferred to another region due to his open animosity towards the Assyrians.<ref name=Husry173/> Later, they had to intervene to dissuade Faysal from personally leading a tribal force to punish the Assyrians.<ref name="Zubaida375" />

The general Iraqi public opinion, promoted by newspapers, that the Assyrians were proxies used by the British to undermine the newly established kingdom, was also shared by some leading officials, including the prime minister. British and European protests following the massacre only confirmed to them that the "Assyrian rebellion" was the work of European imperialism.<ref name=Zubaida371>{{Harvnb|Zubaida|2000|p=371}}</ref>

Both [[King George V]] of the United Kingdom and [[Cosmo Gordon Lang]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], took a personal interest in the Assyrian affair. British representatives at home demanded from Faysal that Sidqi and other culprits be tried and punished.<ref name=Zubaida371/> The massacres were seen in Europe as a [[jihad]] against a small Christian minority.<ref name=Husry353>{{Harvnb|Husry|1974b|pp=353}}</ref>

In the long term, however, the British backed Iraq and rejected an international inquiry into the killings, fearing that this may provoke further massacres against Christians.<ref name=Zubaida371/> They also did not insist on punishing the offenders, who were now seen as heroes by Iraqis.<ref name=Zubaida371/> The official British stance was to defend the Iraqi government for its perseverance and patience in dealing with the crisis and to attribute the massacres to rogue army units. A report on the battle of Dirabun blames the Assyrians, defends the actions of the Iraqi Army, and commends Sidqi as a good officer.<ref name=Zubaida371/>

The change in British attitude towards the Assyrians gave rise to the notion of a "British betrayal" among some Assyrian circles.<ref>{{cite web|last=Malek|first=Y|title=The British Betrayal of the Assyrians|url=http://www.aina.org/books/bbota.htm|publisher=AINA.org|access-date=14 November 2011}}</ref> This charge first surfaced after 1918, when the British did not follow through with their repeated promises to resettle Assyrians where they would be safe following the [[Sayfo|Assyrian genocide]] launched by the Ottomans during the First World War.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ishaya|first=A|title=Assyrians in the History of Urmia, Iran|url=http://www.nineveh.com/Assyrians%20in%20the%20History%20of%20Urmia,%20Iran.html|publisher=Nineveh|access-date=14 November 2011|archive-date=12 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012052754/http://www.nineveh.com/Assyrians%20in%20the%20History%20of%20Urmia,%20Iran.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Cultural impact and legacy==
[[File:Assirijskaya cerkov.jpg|thumb|left|189px|''Church of Martyrs'' – named after the massacre, it stands today in the town of Simele.]]
[[File:Ankawa Simele Commemoration.jpg|thumb|left|189px|Assyrians in [[Ankawa]] commemorating the massacre on Assyrian Martyrs Day, August 7th]]
The massacre had a deep psychological impact on Assyrians in the new Iraqi state. Namely, the events of Simele are often cited as the catalyst for the modern Assyrian naming dispute, as the [[Chaldean Catholic Church|Chaldean Catholic]] and [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syriac Orthodox]] churches are believed to have started distancing their adherents from Assyrian identity after the massacre.<ref>{{cite book |last=Donabed |first=Sargon |author-link=sargondonabed.com |date=1 March 2015 |chapter=State Formation, State-building and Contentious Pluralism |title=Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the 20th Century |url=https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/19164 |location= |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9781474408646}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Benjamen|first=Alda|author-link=udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/history/benjamen-alda.php|date=January 2022|title=Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/assyrians-in-modern-iraq/D71F07D0E9B0E137386605D5671CD2BF|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108976633}}</ref> Both churches are believed to have supported the Iraqi army under duress.

The massacres also had a deep impact on the newly established [[Kingdom of Iraq]]. Kanan Makiya argues that the killing of Assyrians transcended tribal, religious, ideological and ethnic barriers as Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Sunni Kurds, Sunni Turkmen, Shia Turkmen, and Yazidis, as well as Monarchists, Islamists, nationalists, royalists, conservatives, Leftists, federalists, and tribalists, were all united in their anti-Assyrian and anti-Christian sentiments. According to him, the [[pogrom]] was "the first genuine expression of national independence in a former Arab province of the [[Ottoman Empire]]" and that the killing of Assyrian Christians was seen as a national duty.<ref name="Makiya170"/>

The British were standing firmly behind the leaders of their former colony during the crisis, despite the popular animosity towards them. Brigadier General E. H. Headlam of the British military mission in Baghdad was quoted saying "the government and people have good reasons to be thankful to Colonel Bakr Sidqi".<ref name="Makiya174">{{Harvnb|Makiya|1998|p=174}}</ref>

The Simele massacre continues to remain integral to the understanding of modern Assyrian identity, as the memory of persecution still holds strong within descendants of survivors and the general Assyrian people today. Shlimon Bet Shmuel, an Assyrian artist from Iraq, sang a song publicly about the Simele massacre in 1973, which would lead to his exile to [[Tehran]].<ref name=":0" /> Shlimon had performed the song during the third anniversary of the Assyrian Cultural Club in Baghdad, and was identified as a nationalistic singer by the [[Ba'athist Iraq|Ba'athist]] government of Iraq. Shlimon's song stands out as one of many different poems and stories that have been written about the massacre since 1933, with other's such as [[William Saroyan]]'s ''Seventy Thousand Assyrians'' also gaining recognition. 

The events of Simele are said to have influenced [[Raphael Lemkin]] in his coining of the term [[genocide]] when devising initial provisions to prevent such crimes from occurring again.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bulut |first=Uzay |date=2021-08-05 |title=Resolution in US House Would Recognize Simele Massacre against Assyrians in Iraq - Providence |url=https://providencemag.com/2021/08/resolution-us-house-recognize-simele-massacre-assyrians-iraq/ |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=providencemag.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2008-02-13 |title=EuropaWorld 15/6/2001 Raphael Lemkin |url=http://www.europaworld.org/issue40/raphaellemkin22601.htm |access-date=2025-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213002344/http://www.europaworld.org/issue40/raphaellemkin22601.htm |archive-date=13 February 2008 }}</ref> In the Assyrian community worldwide, the 7th of August has officially become known as Assyrian Martyrs Day, also known as the National Day of Mourning, in memory for the Simele massacre, declared so by the [[Assyrian Universal Alliance]] in 1970.<ref>{{cite web |last=Shapira |first=Aprim |title=Why is the 7th of August an Assyrian Martyrs' Day? |url=http://www.bethsuryoyo.com/currentevents/AprimShapira8/WhyAugust7.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923112153/http://www.bethsuryoyo.com/currentevents/AprimShapira8/WhyAugust7.html |archive-date=23 September 2019 |access-date=23 September 2011 |publisher=Beth Suryoyo Assyrian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johanson |first1=Paula |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THtmDwAAQBAJ |title=The Armenian Genocide |date=2017 |publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC |isbn=978-1-5345-0120-1 |pages=77–78 |language=en}}</ref> While the day is usually commemorated to remembering the massacre, it has since been extended to apply to other events such as the [[Sayfo|Assyrian genocide]]. In 2004, the [[Ba'athist Syria|Ba'athist Syrian government]] banned an Assyrian political organization from commemorating the event and threatened arrests if any were to break the ban.<ref name="Zinda">{{cite news |last=Abraham |first=Salim |date=8 August 2004 |title=Syrian Authorities Ban Assyrian Party from Commemorating Martyrs Day |url=http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/2004/8.10.04/index_tue.php#GoodMorningAssyria |access-date=23 September 2011 |newspaper=Associated Press}}</ref>

{{Listen
| filename     = Premta D'Simele 30s Sample.mp3
| pos          = right
| title        = "Premta D'Simele"
| description  = A sample of Shlimon Bet Shmuel's 1973 song "Premta D'Simele", which would lead to his exile from Iraq
}}
{{clear}}


==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==

* {{Cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=L|last2=Stansfield|first2=G|title=The future of Iraq: dictatorship, democracy, or division?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oNMpwAACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-6354-3}}
* {{YouTube|8ezkGBrMa0Y|Interview with witness}} by FreeAssyria4us
* {{Cite book|last1=Gaunt|first1=D|last2=Beṯ-Şawoce|first2=J|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4mug9LrpLKcC|title=Massacres, resistance, protectors: Muslim-Christian relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I|year=2006|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-301-0}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Husry|first=K|title=The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (I)|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=April 1974a|volume=5|issue=3|pages=161–176|jstor=162587|doi=10.1017/S002074380002780X|s2cid=251026309}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Husry|first=K|title=The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (II)|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=April 1974b|volume=5|issue=3|pages=344–360|doi=10.1017/S002074380003498X|s2cid=162686283}}
* {{cite book|last=Joseph|first=J|title=The modern Assyrians of the Middle East: encounters with Western Christian missions, archaeologists, and colonial powers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=79wj2hj4wKUC|year=2000|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-11641-2}}
* {{Cite book|title=The Integration of modern Iraq |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANMNAAAAQAAJ|first=A |last=Kelidar |year=1979 |location=Jefferson, NC |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-85664-510-5}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Levene |first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Levene |title=A Moving Target, the Usual Suspects and (Maybe) a Smoking Gun: The Problem of Pinning Blame in Modern Genocide |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |date=1999 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=3–24 |doi=10.1080/003132299128810678|pmid=22043525 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Makiya|first=K|title=Republic of fear:the politics of modern Iraq|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frDO73fi83IC|year=1998|orig-year=1989|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21439-2}}
* {{Cite book|title=Minorities in the Middle East: a history of struggle and self-expression |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=keD9z1XWuNwC |first=M |last=Nisan |year=2002 |location=Jefferson, NC |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-1375-1}}
* {{Cite book|last=Omissi|first=D|title=Air power and colonial control: the Royal Air Force, 1919–1939|year=1990|publisher=Manchester University Press ND|isbn=978-0-7190-2960-8|page=65|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9QYNAQAAIAAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Shimun|first=E|title=The Assyrian Tragedy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VyxS-4ILXFAC|year=2010|orig-year=1934|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=978-1-4535-1143-5}}
* {{Cite book|last=Simon|first=Reeva S.|title=Iraq between the two world wars: the militarist origins of tyranny|year=2004|orig-year=1986|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13215-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UEpVvrdhLKUC}} 
* {{Cite book|last=Sluglett|first=P|title=Britain in Iraq: contriving king and country|year=2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-769-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCdlZA0OvfcC}}
* {{Cite book|last=Stafford|first=R|title=The Tragedy of the Assyrians|year=2006|orig-year=1935|publisher=Gorgias Press LLC|isbn=978-1-59333-413-0}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Zubaida|first=S|title=Contested nations: Iraq and the Assyrians|journal=Nations and Nationalism|date=July 2000|volume=6|issue=3|pages=363–382|doi=10.1111/j.1354-5078.2000.00363.x|url=http://www.aina.org/articles/contestednations.pdf|access-date=23 September 2011}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Kakovitch |first=I |year=2002 |title=Mount Semele |location=Alexandria, VA |publisher=Mandrill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NplWPQAACAAJ |isbn=978-1-931633-70-3}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Llewellyn-Jones |first1=Rosie |authorlink=Rosie Llewellyn-Jones |date=2019 |title=The Assyrians in World War One and the 1933 Massacre: New Discoveries in the RSAA Archives |journal=Asian Affairs |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=569–587 |doi=10.1080/03068374.2019.1672427|s2cid=211652462 }}

{{Middle East conflicts}}
{{Assyrian topics}}
{{Protests in Iraq}}

[[Category:1933 murders in Iraq]]
[[Category:20th-century mass murder in Iraq]]
[[Category:August 1933 in Asia]]
[[Category:History of Dohuk Governorate]]
[[Category:Looting in Iraq]]
[[Category:Massacres committed by Iraq]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1933]]
[[Category:Massacres in Iraqi Kurdistan]]
[[Category:Massacres of Christians]]
[[Category:Massacres of ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Persecution of Assyrians in Iraq]]
[[Category:Simele]]
[[Category:History of the Assyrians]]