Statement by the Assyria Liberation Party on Assyrian Martyrs' Day

The tragic events of August 7, 1933, in Simele and its surroundings in northern Iraq, remain a deep and bleeding wound in the memory of the entire Assyrian people. This is the very atrocity that Polish-American lawyer Raphael Lemkin would be the first to call genocide and in 1948, the UN General Assembly would adopt the Convention recognizing genocide as a crime against humanity.

very year, as we commemorate the martyrs of Simele we respectfully remember not only those massacred in 1933, but all the Assyrian martyrs who were massacred, exiled, and uprooted from their lands throughout history, from Hakkari to Tur Abdin, from Urmia to the Nineveh Plain. The spilled blood of the Assyrian people will neither be forgotten nor go unpunished.

By killing thousands of unarmed Assyrian civilians—women, children, the elderly and men—the Iraqi kingdom and Kurdish tribes committed ethnic cleansing, aiming to destroy the very existence of the Assyrian people in their historical homeland.

Today, we witness how Kurdish and Mosul administration with Baghdad remaining silent are implementing the same policies of demographic change that Saddam Hussein's regime resorted to. The attempt to seize officially registered lands from Assyrians in the village of Bakhetme (Dohuk province), Ankawa (Erbil province) and the latest land seizures in Nahla  and Telkepe (Nineveh province) are nothing more than a direct confirmation of these evil intentions which have occurred before.

The Assyria Liberation Party stands in solidarity with the demands voiced during the protest in Dohuk demands an end to the raiding of Assyrian property in north Iraq. The demographic changes and land grabbing policies directed against the Assyrian people must be stopped immediately.

Respecting Assyrian Martyr's Day is not simply a tribute to our victims it is a symbol of Assyrian resilience. We were expelled from our lands and our homes, but no power will be able to sever the Assyrian people from their history, identity, and homeland. Truly crimes against humanity and human nature itself cannot be justified, forgotten, or undone by time.

Recognition and universal, unconditional condemnation of the Assyrian Genocide is not only the duty of our people but also the sacred obligation of all civilized humanity.

As the Assyria Liberation Party we once again call on the Iraqi Parliament, the United Nations and all international organizations to officially recognize the 1933 Simele massacre as genocide, to condemn the perpetrators and to inscribe their names in criminal history in order to prevent such crimes in the future.

The innocent victims of Simele are not forgotten and those who perpetrated this atrocity are not forgotten.

Long live the Assyrian resistance!

Long live the free Assyrian homeland!

Martyrs never die!

Assyria Liberation Party

07.08.2026