The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-09-05
NEWSPAPERS OPINIONS
THE ASsYRIAN. ATROCITIES

| The recent massacres of refugee Assyrans jus
over the border in Iraq from Syria has brough
worldwide attention to a once great people. Still
calling themselves Assyrians these descendants o.
the one-time rulers of the ancient world have to-
day no place which they can call their home, Al
though few in numbers they have steadfastly re-
fused to be submerged by ethnic religious and cu
tural surroundings. Driven out of Turkey during
the World war, they sought an asylum IN lraq
Thence some of them crossed into the French man
date of Syria, taking with them the arms which
they had used on the side of the Allies but leaving
most of their property, well as their wives and
children, behind. The French stored their arms.
But the Iraq government now complains that the
Assyrians have been rearmed and have been in re-
belon.
France disclaims responsibility and says that she
had no idea that an Assyrian revolt was impending.
Meanwhile in England there is much sympathy for
: ancient people. The London Times declares
that they did good service for the Allies during
the War of Nations. Thus the British government
promised them suitable highland home under a
benevolent government. Yet the promise has never
been carried out. And King Fesal of Iraq and his
officials have been tyrannical to degree in their
treatment of these warlike mountaineers.
Doubtless there is right and wrong on both sides
in the controversy This is usually the case in the
Near East, where one warlike race has supplanted
another-only to be itself conquered in turn. It
is hard to apply Anglo-Saxon rules of justice to
disordered and restless Asia Minor. Yet it all goes
to show that "They that take the sword shall perish
by the sword" The Assyrians of antiquity were
the most ruthless of conquerors that the world
had ever known. Introducing the use of iron
weapons they overwhelmed Babylonians, Egyptians
and all others with whom they came in contact.
Their movable towers and battering rams enabled
them to breach the walls of great cities Assyrian
archery was unexcelled Their ferocity spread ter
ror everywhere And their kings from Nineveh
ruled Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt
They mixed up the peoples of their vast empire by
policy of wholesale deportations and they levied
crushing taxes both for the splendor of Nineves
and for carrying out their ambitious military poll
cies.
Thus the AssyrlanS were essentially a race of
ruthless conquerors. They imposed energy
into the jaded life of the Near East Yet they con-
trbuted little to the permanent advancement of
civilization. Their military enterprises paved the
way for the later-and greater-Persian and Ro-
man empires. Hence the news of the fall of Nine
veh in the seventh century B. C. was received with
peoples. When Xenophon and his Greeks marched
by the site of Nineveh two centuries later it's very
name was forgotten And the modern Assyrians
are petty people in backward region of the
world.
So the fate of Assyria may serve as an object
lesson to the modern world with its vigorous ma
tionalism and teeming national rivaries. Japan is
rising military power in the Far East with an
ambitious program of conquest. Hitlerism in Ger
many may be productive of much national benefit.
Nevertheless it stands for and preparation for
war. And militarism in the twentieth century con-
tains the same fatal seeds of decay which it had
for the Assyrians of antiquity. Every progressive
people is compelled to be armed for self-defense.
But countries which hold to policies of "blood and
iron" usually pave the way for their own decline.
-Asheville Citizen.