“What we want to
push for — the prag- matic individuals within the Chaldean/Assyrian community — is to cre- ate a safe haven; a new province in Iraq where it houses a lot of these minorities — Chaldeans, Assyrians, Yazidis, and what have you. The west- ern-developed countries like France, Germany, United States, and Eng- land [could] carve out a piece of land, like the Plains of Nineveh, which is mostly modern-day Mosul, and train a force there made up of these people and to say this is a new province that has our blessing. That would pay dividends to both sides. It just seems like there isn’t a return on investments for the western coun- tries to do that. I think it’s more about getting a cheap workforce like what
Al Sanati
is going on in Germany. There is actually talk right now in Syria about cre- ating a federation within Syria for the refugees, so it’s obviously possible.” However, Kalasho is
unsure if Chaldeans are up for the challenge. “Chaldeans aren’t
RESEARCH STUDIES
really fighters, espe- cially the ones in Iraq. Their whole lives revolve around going to church. It’s like having an army of Jains. You can only pro- test so many times. You can only go to the United Nations and cry wolf so many times. The Kurds have a female army. You can’t even get a male army on the Christian side. The teaching is so passive. If someone slaps you, give them the other cheek, love your neighbor. If you look in the Koran, that is just not in their book. How do [Chaldeans] fight them when they want to die? [Chaldeans] could have a gun and [Muslims] will have a spoon and they will still fight you. That is a problem. That is the thing that no one wants to talk about.” Before wrapping up
our interview, Kalasho points out that being Chaldean is not an eth- nicity, it is a rite in the Catholic Church. “There is no dif-
ference between Assyr- ian people and Chal- dean people. The divide between the Chaldeans and Assyrians started 400 or 500 years ago, when the churches split. One went with the Vatican and one became an Eastern church. That is a problem, because we are so divided. Had these people been united I think they would have been a force in Iraq and would’ve stopped a lot of the problems going on right now. The Chal- deans don’t want to join the Syrian army and the Syrians don’t want to join the Chaldean army. Divide and conquer is the magic formula. The other side just looks and laughs because you don’t have that on the Kurdish side. If you’re Kurdish you are Kurdish even though there are different kinds of Kurds.” Al Sanati, a refugee
who fled Iraq in the ’70s, has a few opinions that differ from those of Ben Kalasho. Sanati spent a large portion of his life assisting not only Chal- deans, but Cubans, Soma- lis, and Russians, among
18 San Diego Reader April 21, 2016
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116