The Assyrians, a transnational Christian population indigenous to northern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), have existed in the region since the 24th century BC, tracing their lineage back to the ancient Assyrian Empire. In August 1933, under the newly formed Iraqi state, a massacre of Assyrians resulted in the deaths of 600 Assyrian Christians and the destruction of over 120 villages in northern Iraq, with the event commonly being referred to as the Simele Massacre. In the years leading up to the massacre, the Assyrian population feared for their stability and continued existence as the British were preparing to terminate their mandate over Iraq (1921–1932). Following World War I, the Hakkari Region—formerly the Assyrian homeland—was absorbed into Turkey, leaving the Assyrians scattered across northern Iraq.
The Assyrians felt threatened for two primary reasons. They had long been targeted by the majority Arab population for their Christian faith, the issue becoming particularly dangerous in the 1920s as Pan-Arab nationalism surged, promoting both Arab unity and the rejection of Western influence. Because of their religious ties to the West, Assyrians were perceived as foreign agents in the region. Moreover, their association with the British exacerbated tensions. In 1921, the British had formed the Assyrian Levies, a military force tasked with guarding British assets such as Royal Air Force bases in northern Iraq. By 1933, many Iraqis feared that Britain might use the Assyrians to reverse its decision to withdraw, effectively creating a fifth column against nationalist aspirations.
Arab fears were intensified by Britain’s actions elsewhere in the Middle East. During this period, Britain was heavily involved in Palestine, where—following the Balfour Declaration of 1917—it supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland. Many Iraqis feared similar developments in their own homeland as the sight of Palestinians living in refugee camps without a nation terrifying the Iraqi Arabs, with a pro-Arab newspaper in the 1930s warning its readings that, “Iraq cannot let a similar situation happen to that in Palestine: Zionists.” In an effort to secure their safety, Assyrian Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun petitioned the League of Nations in 1931 and 1932, requesting either an independent Assyrian state within Iraq or resettlement elsewhere. The League rejected both requests, deferring the decision to Britain. Despite Britain’s wartime promise to find a homeland for the Assyrians, all repatriation efforts were blocked by neighboring Arab states.
The immediate trigger for the massacre occurred in July 1933, when a group of Assyrians attempted to cross into Syria. Their motivation stemmed from both Britain’s failure to secure their safety and a meeting in which British and Arab officials told them they could leave Iraq if they felt unsafe. Upon reaching the border on July 26, Assyrians sent a letter to the British High Commissioner, requesting safe passage. In response, British officials consulted with France, which controlled Syria at the time. Ultimately, under British pressure, the French denied them entry, violating the 1927 Provisional Accord between Iraq and Syria. Forced to return to Iraq, the Assyrians were met by thousands of Iraqi soldiers at Feshkhabur. According to Iraqi accounts—particularly General Bakr Sidqi, who led the operation—the Assyrians fired first. However, other sources, including Sargon Donabed’s Reforging a Forgotten History and Yusuf Malek’s The British Betrayal of the Assyrians, claim that Iraqi forces opened fire immediately upon the Assyrians’ arrival, without provocation.
Following the clash at Feshkhabur, news spread across Iraq that the Assyrians had attacked the army. In the days that followed, Iraqi soldiers, along with Arab and Kurdish militias, systematically hunted down and massacred Assyrians across northern Iraq. The most devastating act of violence occurred on August 11 in the village of Simele, where all Assyrian civilians—primarily women, children, and non-combatant men—were slaughtered. While the massacre is named after Simele, over 120 villages were destroyed, abandoned, or razed during this wave of violence. In the aftermath, neither Iraq nor Britain faced consequences for the massacre. The League of Nations merely ruled that Britain would remain in the region for “minority protection,” while Iraq provided vague assurances of Assyrian safety. Despite continuing to use the Assyrian Levies—most notably in quelling the 1941 Rashid Ali Kaylani coup—Britain offered little aid to the community and maintained close ties with the Sunni Iraqi elite responsible for the massacre.
The Simele Massacre marked the beginning of an ongoing pattern of violence against Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia. Notably, the Anfal Campaign of 1988, led by Saddam Hussein, targeted both Kurds and Assyrians. More recently, the Islamic State (ISIS) has persecuted Assyrians for their Christian faith. Current estimates suggest that northern Iraq may be devoid of Assyrians by the end of the decade. According to the U.S. Department of State, Iraq’s Assyrian population stood at 1.4 million in 1987 but had fallen to 750,000 by 2005. Further erasure of the Assyrian experience is evident in Iraq’s historical narratives. The 2005 Iraqi Constitution claims to be “inspired by the suffering of Iraq’s martyrs” but makes no mention of Assyrians. Moreover, literature from an Assyrian perspective remains scarce due to ongoing persecution. A group that has lived in the region for millennia is now facing both physical and historical erasure from its ancestral homeland.
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Malek, Yusuf, The British Betrayal of the Assyrians (Forgotten Books, 1935)
Hamilton, Archibald, Road through Kurdistan: The narrative of an Engineer in Iraq (Faber and Faber, 1937)
Donabed, Sargon, ‘Iraq: Building a ‘Nation’-State’ in Reforging a Forgotten History (Edinburgh University Press, 2015)
Donabed, Sargon, ‘Iraq and the Building of an Arab Nation-State’ in Iraq and the Assyrian Unimagining (Edinburgh University Press, 2020)
Young, Robert Vernon Joseph, The History of the Iraq Levies 1915-1932 (Proquest Dissertations, 1997)
Assyrian Cultural Foundation, ‘The Assyrians, Simele, and Its Aftermath: A Narrative of Resilience’ < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgKfvCQ8jmo> (2023)
Kochavi, Arieh, ‘The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine’ in Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 34, No. 3 <The Struggle against Jewish Immigration to Palestine on JSTOR> (1998)
Desplat, Juliette, ‘British and Assyrian Refugees after the First World War’ in The National Archives Record of Research < https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/britain-and-assyrian-refugees-after-the-first-world-war/ > (2020)
Eppel, Michael, ‘The Elite, the Effendiyya, and the Growth of Nationalism and Pan-Arabism in Hashemite Iraq, 1921-1958’ in The International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 30, No. 2 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/164701 > (1998)
British Military History, ‘Middle East 1930-1947’ <Documents – Middle East 1930 – 1947 – British Military History>