ATOURAYA KHATA: The New Assyrian & Assyria Rising
In 1975, after spending many years actively involved in and studying our nationalistic efforts, Malfono Ninos Aho came to the conclusion that the strategies being used to help our nation were not effectively working. As a result, Malfono’s ideology of Atouraya Khata (The New Assyrian) was born. He realized that there were flaws, in terms of nationalistic work, in each of us, and just as everything in the world requires renewal, so did we as a people.
The poem “Atouraya Khata” is the blueprint for what the New Assyrian should embody; his characteristics, his strengths, his message and his resolve. Though the New Assyrian is referred to in the masculine form, that is solely for poetic purposes; Atouraya Khata is not specifc to one gender and is something all Assyrians should strive for. When the New Assyrian is born, he will unite our organizations, our churches and our community. The renaissance of the Assyrian individual is needed in order for us to liberate our homeland. Working together we will set new standards and our nationalistic endeavors will bear the ultimate fruit; Atouraya Khata’s main purpose is to ensure Assyria will rise again.
Of all the empires in the world that have perished, the Assyrian empire is the only one which has fallen but has not disappeared; this speaks to our indomitable will of survival and tenacity. Nevertheless, it has also not risen. In the year 2000, Malfono Ninos put forth the idea that “Assyria will rise in 2050.” This fifty year period is the timeframe in which he believes Assyria must rise or we will lose our chance forever. Our people in the East are steadily emigrating and within a few decades, we will no longer have a presence in Occupied Assyria. Too many of us who live in the West are assimilating into other cultures, so much so that we are veritably melting away. These two certainties leave us with no foundation with which to reclaim and rebuild our homeland; if this happens, our nation’s survival will be at great risk.
Assyria must rise again and must do so soon, before the ancestors of one of the most powerful empires of ancient civilization vanish for eternity.
Atouraya Khata
M’libbid noura
M’umqeh d’umqa
M’khutet qaya m’ilpapa d’Toura
Min hehmizman d’aywekh shmayya
Atouraya Khata breeleh
Min yiqrutha d’alpeh d’shinneh
M’kipna w sahwa w sneeqootha
M’dugleh d’tareekh
Min taggareh d’neesha w omtha, idyum priqleh
Qa salbaneh d’haquyatheh
Qa zalmaneh d’kul omwatheh
Shlamou ileh golla w bomba
Qa sarwaneh zoda itleh
In buqerokh bnay eekehwit, min dim pathe’t dehdi omra’t
Bitjoweblokh b’sharirootha
“La Tyaraya w la Tkhomnaya,
La bnay dashta w la bnay Toura,
Yaqubaya w Kaldanaya w Nasturnaya w Presbitraya obzi l’ewin”
W b’qala rama b’tamir qatokh “Akhchi ewin Atouraya”
Dakh bit khayeh, mu bit lawish, eeka b’mayith hich leh takhmin
Qad bar minnu b’tatheh jwanqeh
B’Tehnee chakkeh b’tamri shrara
Libbu b’eedu w ktawu minnu
B’khdareleh w m’akruzeleh
B’kyan Atour, b’eethu d’Atour
B’khela w dimma, b’shimma d’Ashour… w b’imareleh
“Ana? Ana biryin min qam d’barya ayya araa w aha shimsha
Ana wiyin min qam zona; l’itli mota, l’itli ramsha
Ana ewin kikhwa d’Atour gu Bet Nahren balbusewin
Ana ewin Alaha Ashur gighla d’doreh makhdurewin
Ana wiyin shraya d’bahra l’alma d’tiwel manhurewin
Mijid idyum ana littin, neekha b’neekha bitlaqewin?
La w alpayeh d’la!
Atour pesha w zona b’shatiq
Atour pesha w tareekh b’saghid
Atour pesha w burja b’yasiq
Atour pesha w hich leh napla”
The New Assyrian
From the heart of fire
From the depths of eternity
From under the rocks to the peak of the mountain
From the words of the clouds in the heavens
A New Assyrian is born
From the burden of thousands of years
From hunger and thirst and destitution
From the lies of history
From the merchants of goals and nation, today he is free
For the deniers of rights
For the oppressors of nations
His greeting is a bullet and a bomb
And for those who forsake him, he has more
If you ask him where he is from, or to which church he belongs
He will answer you honestly,
“I am not Tyaraya and not Tkhomnaya,
I am not a son of the valleys nor a son of the mountains,
A Jacobite, a Chaldean, a Nestorian and a Presbyterian also I am not”
And with a firm voice he will tell you, “I am an Assyrian”
He does not care how he lives, what he wears, and where he dies
And following in his footsteps, a new armed generation
Will come and speak the truth.
With his heart on his sleeve and his book always with him
He tours, preaching the nature and existence of Assyria
By force and by blood, and in the name of Ashur, he declares,
“Me? I was born before the earth and the sun
I existed before time; there is no death for me, nor end
I am Assyria’s star, shining in the sky between the two rivers
I am the god Ashur, I turn the wheel of time
I was the torch of light guiding the people of the world,
Is it true that today I do not exist and I am slowly vanishing?
No and one thousand no’s!
Assyria endures and time will be silenced
Assyria endures and history will bow
Assyria endures and its tower will rise
Assyria endures and will never fall”
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Lets post the poem on the website in Syriac in order to give the poem its intended heroic effect.
Melfano Ninos Aho, our hero, the true Assyrian patriot, the Assyrian with a nationalistic ideology that will live forever in the hearts of thousands of young Assyrians throughout the world. An ideology that was imbedded in our hearts through his sensational poetry, devoted love, unconditional respect, lasting hope, strong aspiration and sincere passion for the rise of the Assyrian nation. Rest in peace with the rest of our national martyrs, and may the God of Asshur bless your soul.