Assyrian Democratic Movement
Assyrian Democratic Movement ܙܘܥܐ ܕܝܡܘܩܪܛܝܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ الحركة الديمقراطية الآشورية | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Yonadam Kanna |
| Founded | April 12, 1979 |
| Headquarters | Baghdad, Iraq |
| Student wing | Chaldo-Assyrian Student Union |
| Military wing | Nineveh Plain Protection Units |
| Ideology | Protects and upholds the interests and rights of the Assyrian people in Iraq and Conservatism |
| Colours | Purple |
| Seats in the Council of Representatives of Iraq: |
2 / 325 |
| Seats in the Kurdistan Parliament: |
2 / 111 |
| Website | |
| http://www.zowaa.org/ ,- English | |
The Assyrian Democratic Movement (Syriac: ܙܘܥܐ ܕܝܡܘܩܪܛܝܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ; Zawʻá Demoqraṭáyá ʼÁṯuráyá) popularly known as Zowaa ("The Movement" in Syriac) is an ethnic Assyrian political party in Iraq, and is currently the only Assyrian-based political party to be voting in the Iraqi parliament.
The party was established on April 12, 1979 to satisfy the political objectives of the Assyrian people in Iraq, in response to the oppressive brutality of the Al-Baath regime and its attempts to forcibly expropriate ethnic Assyrians from their native lands. The movement took up armed struggle against the Iraqi regime in 1982 under the leadership of Yonadam Kanna, and joined the IKF in early 1990s. Yonadam Kanna in particular was a target of the Saddam Hussein Ba'ath regime for many years.
Prior to the Iraqi invasion
Due to successful lobbying from influential Assyrian-Americans and from Congressman Henry Hyde, American President George W. Bush designated the ADM an officially recognized Iraqi opposition movement. In a December 9, 2002 memorandum, President Bush invoked both articles four and five of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 as a means of allowing the United States government to provide financial resources to the ADM and other Iraqi opposition groups. Kanna himself participated in a September 2002 meeting of Iraqi opposition leaders in New York and addressed the London conference of Iraqi opposition leaders in December 2002. In February 2003, Kanna addressed both Iraqi opposition leaders and U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at a conference in northern Iraq. Just hours prior to the American-led war against Iraq in March 2003, Kanna stressed the importance of the coming war for the history of the Assyrian people. He noted that some Assyrians were leaving the cities for the villages and urged diaspora Assyrians to provide humanitarian aid to their brethren.
After the fall of Baghdad
Yonadam Kanna is now the president of the party. He served on the temporary Iraqi Governing Council before it was disbanded in favor of the elected body formed after the January 2005 Iraqi elections.
The party's website, zowaa.org, describes it as "a democratic and political organization -- national and patriotic -- to defend our people and their legitimate rights and to struggle under the banner of [a] free democratic Iraq." The site's declarations include calls for official recognition of the rights of Assyrians and "unity of our people under their several religious identities": Chaldean church, Syriac church, and Assyrian church (various Christian denominations in the Assyrian demographic). The group supports the idea of a federal Iraq, and is on good relations with other Assyrian and Kurdish groups present in northern Iraq, as well as with Shi'a leaders in southern Iraq. The movement is also represented in the Kurdistan parliament. Party members and Assyrians in general have been the focus of some Islamic insurgent attacks in the time since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The party also operates Ashur TV and Ashur Radio and issues Bahra newspaper.
Post War incidents and events
The party has been hit with many setbacks since the beginning of the Iraq invasion.
- On November 17, 1994, one of ADM's militia soldiers, Zia Zia, was killed while guarding a headquarters of the party in a remote Assyrian village in northern Iraq.[1]
- On October 20, 2003, reports indicated of a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the ADM office of Kirkuk, injuring one member official.
- On November 18, 2003, Sargon Nano, the ADM representative in Basra, was killed by masked gunmen.
- On February 11, 2004, The Associated Press reported gunmen firing from a car attacking an office of the ADM in northern city of Mosul, injuring one ADM member guard.
- On March 26, 2004, gunmen killed ADM official Romeo Esha David in the northern city of Kirkuk.
- On November 29, 2005, gunmen opened fire on four party members as they were hanging Iraqi election posters in northern city of Mosul (in the al-Shuhadaa district,) killing two ADM members.
- On December 2, 2005, ADM election candidate Sarmas Behnam Ibrahim was gunned down in Kirkuk.
- On January 1, 2006, 44-year-old ADM official Ayad Loqa Lazar was killed in the Baghdad district of Dora.
- On May 6, 2006, an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the party's leader, Yonadam Kanna, as his convoy came under improvised explosive device attack in Baghdad.
See also
References
External links
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