“But Jesus was Middle Eastern!”

This is the cry of many protesters striving to acknowledge the Western world’s connection to the global refugee crisis – and the Arab world overall.
Although Jesus himself is not known to have spoken Arabic, his connection to a particular community in the region is undeniable.
Syriac Arameans are an ethno-religious group from the Middle East. They originate from the Biblical region of Aram, known today as Syria. Though they do not possess a country, their diaspora has led them to Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and now to many regions in Europe.

This often forgotten and often misunderstood community carries a deep and rich history dating back to the pre-biblical ages. They are among the first to have adopted the faith movement Jesus initiated, today known as Christianity.

Perhaps one of the most spectacular elements of the Aramean community is the astonishing fact that they have preserved their use of the ancient Aramaic language, the same language Jesus of Nazareth spoke. The same language spoken in the award-winning film, the Passion of the Christ. It is not only recited in the Syriac Orthodox Christian Church’s liturgy, but also spoken regularly in the home. Syriac Arameans are not the only community speaking Neo-Aramaic, Assyrians and Chaldeans, additional native Christian groups from the Middle East, namely Iraq, also speak the language.

From the initial Islamic Conquests that attempted to “Arabize” all peoples in the region, to the Ottoman Empire’s bloody massacres, and now with the presence of ISIS, it is quite literally a miracle that the Aramean community is still standing today, grasping its ancient cultural and faith values. The size of their population may have decreased, but their faith has not.

This miracle, however, has been extremely challenged with today’s increasingly complicated political climate. Besides Israel, which has a small population of about 200 Aramean families, most of the Middle Eastern countries hosting Syriac Arameans have refused to provide a structured recognition for the community.

 

According to Melki Toprac, President of the Syriac Aramaic Federation of Switzerland, as countless refugees flee to Europe and elsewhere seeking safety, Christians in the Middle East, particularly Syriac Arameans, have struggled to have paperwork processed because they did not possess formal recognition as a people-group in the countries they are fleeing from. This causes asylum seekers to face many hurdles, and limits the rights and resources that are often available to Muslim refugees.

“Having grown up in Turkey, as a Christian Syriac Aramean, though I expressed my faith privately in church, I was only allowed to speak Aramaic at home – learning the Aramaic language in public schools was forbidden,” Toprak noted regarding his upbringing in Turkey.

 

Many European countries’ immigration policies tend to favor Muslim communities as the refugee influx continues. Not just because they are the majority, but because their identification and paperwork is more smoothly processed since registration often is reliant upon their organizational representation in their native countries. Since Arameans are not formally recognized in Syria or Iraq, the resources they receive are limited. If they cannot prove they were previously registered as minorities, they do not have full access to necessary resources.

Although the World Council of Arameans has been around since 1983 to operate as a voice for Syriacs, it has not ended the ongoing persecution endured by the community. Toprak noted that although the current humanitarian tragedy ISIS continues to execute has caused a gloom of hopelessness throughout the world, he hopes that it may also spring forth as a light to expose the plight of the Aramean community – providing them with the support and resources they need to continue to survive as an ancient community in a modern world.

By: Loureen Ayyoub