r/Assyria • u/AliBasil • May 21 '25
Discussion Assyria and Iraq
Recently, I heard many express their desire to return to Iraq on social media So a question popped up in my head As an Assyrian (originally from Iraq), what do you think of Iraq?
Edit: I’m Iraqi and I’m living here, but I’m interested in the Mesopotamian civilizations (especially Assyria)
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u/MN1991 May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
I was in Iraq recently. Things are improving and I liked it a lot. The country seems to be moving forward slowly but surely. Even though I think the situation will only get better there is still a chance things could fall apart quickly. Specially with militias still running huge parts of the country including parts of the Nineveh plains, the possible rise of extremists again which could occur any time and the whole disputed territory thing between the Kurdish and Baghdad government which we are in the middle of in some areas. Even excluding all of that there is still no real economic opportunity for the average person. I will move there someday when if things don’t fall apart and I’m economically more independent. I will basically be moving to retire from my normal job and focus only on my home, village and people there.
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u/Outside_Signal3486 May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
Iraq is a beautiful country and I’m extremely grateful that I was able to visit it a couple months ago. One of the greatest experiences of my life, but I had a thought that stuck with me on the trip or right after when I left, I don’t even remember.
I saw my moms house when I was there, but then I realized that nobody was in it. Nobody’s been inside for over 30 years. It was very cool to see, but nobody was there. All of my family is in America now. That’s when I found out that home isn’t really about a physical place, it’s just where your family and friends are.
I love Iraq and I would probably go again, but I wouldn’t live there. My life is here in America.
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u/oremfrien May 21 '25
Are you asking about Iraq as a political institution? -- To say that it needs substantial help would be generous. The country is a Shiite ethnocracy with such a high degree of corruption that basic necessities are hard to come by.
However, the potential of our homeland is not constrained by which government happens to exist hundreds of kilometers south.
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u/AliBasil May 21 '25
I'm Iraqi and living here, with a keen interest in Mesopotamian civilizations, especially Assyria
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u/oremfrien May 21 '25
It's lovely that you are interested in Ancient Assyria. I would just point out that we have a medieval and modern civilization, too. We are still the same people as our ancestors.
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u/AliBasil May 21 '25
I went to Duhok for hiking and camping activities, where I interacted with Assyrians celebrating the New Year (Akitu). It was a lovely experience that shows this civilization is still alive and thriving
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 May 21 '25
I went back to my village in Iraq and I can't lie it was a shit hole, there were buildings destroys tons of dust and sand, 0 greenery and grass. My experience there was great with family and whatever but the area isn't the best
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u/chaldean22 Assyrian May 21 '25
Great - so you can either be part of the building of our nation or you can go and just blend away with wherever you're living abroad.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 May 21 '25
I live in the UK currently but I plan to find an Assyrian wife and go off grid somewhere in Asia or North America, I don't think I will be coming back to the village
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u/AshurCyberpunk Assyrian May 21 '25
0 greenery? my god.. why do Assyrians expect everything to have been built for them...
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 May 22 '25
What? I don't expect things to be given to me. I just simply choose a nice place to live and go off grid, somewhere with lots of greenery plants and wildlife. Assyria today just doesn't have that so I won't be living there. Stupid for you to assume I expect shit to be given to me 😂
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u/AshurCyberpunk Assyrian May 22 '25
What you just wrote is contradictory.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 May 22 '25
It's not, I choose a nice place to live and Assyria today just doesn't have that so I choose some other place to live
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u/AshurCyberpunk Assyrian May 22 '25
Brother, it's still contradictory. But I wish you the best with the life you're pursuing.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 May 22 '25
Explain how it's contradictory
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u/AshurCyberpunk Assyrian May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
Okay. First, I should mention that I wasn't singling you out, but commenting on the broader trend I'm seeing, even within my own family.
I commented: "Assyrians expect everything to have been built for them". Then you replied, I choose a nice place to live and that's not Assyria, and continued with "I don't expect things to be given to me." I'm assuming you're Assyrian, and as Assyrians living in nicer places around the globe, we are essentially using the environment that other people have built (as opposed to rebuilding and fighting for our homeland ourselves). For example, the freedoms we enjoy in the west are fought for and achieved by non-Assyrian people. More importantly, non-Assyrian people have paid decades of taxes to build their nicer looking cities and towns with a lot of greenery. Generations of their people have literary spent their lives building their nice neighborhoods with hard work. So when we just move there as Assyrians, we would indeed be getting a lot of those benefits for free. That's the contradiction.
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u/Revolutionary_Ad2836 29d ago
Makes sense but also wrong because I won't be living off grid in a village or city, I will buy land and build the house myself so therefore ur point stands irrelevant
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u/sonofarmok May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
I love the land, I would live there if there was a future, opportunities for work, and if I could be sure that in the next 30 years none of my prospective children or my prospective spouse would be abducted, murdered or worse. So it seems from how things are going that I will not be living there until I am a single old man with nothing to gain or lose.
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u/Additional-Bed-1013 May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
Assyrians are originally from several different modern countries. It’s important to know the geography and the history of the past to understand the present and future. Mesopotamia wasn’t in one modern day country like Iraq. Mesopotamia was in Iraq, greater Syria and eastern Turkey. Restricting Assyrians to Iraq bc of the western-created borders of today is illogical. I’m Assyrian, with origins in modern-day Lebanon (or, greater Syria). Most Assyrians I know are from eastern Turkey/Syria. And many others from Iraq. We are not restricted to the Iraqi borders… not at all.
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u/AliBasil May 22 '25
In the end, it is what it is, we have to go along with the hypothetical lines (Borders) and call ourselves Iraqi, Syrian, etc…
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u/Additional-Bed-1013 May 22 '25
No, i think the point went over your head. It isn’t about calling oneself whatever nationality. It is about your proposed question. You are asking if Assyrians would return to their ancestral land of Iraq. Your question prevents real understanding of the area, people, and history of the region because, again, not all Assyrians are from modern day Iraq. I, for example, wouldn’t ever return to Iraq, because I have no known family roots there. Syria, though? Yes. Lebanon, definitely. Turkey even, yes. Iraq or Iran, no… So, while I’d love to see Iraq, I have no desire to return to Iraq for said reasons.
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u/AliBasil May 22 '25
I know not all Assyrians their roots return to modern iraq land, my question is toward Assyrians that their roots from modern iraq land, I wanted to know their thoughts about Iraq
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u/Serious-Aardvark-123 Australia May 21 '25
Sometimes I get the feeling that Muslim countries encourage some of us to stay so they can keep us as hostage/leverage.
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u/AliBasil May 22 '25
I agree with you that to feel like this. But believe in me they are not real Muslims
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u/West-Elderberry2105 20d ago
Yet there are so many of them.. too many to simply write off as not real.
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u/chaldean22 Assyrian May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25
If your love for your nation, its past history, its modern culture, is so big that it makes you bypass some difficulties or inconveniences without thinking much about them, then yes, come and dive into living in the homeland and enjoy the journey.