After the First World War, our Assyrian nation was reduced to a struggle for existence having been subjected to a deliberate policy of genocide, well over seven hundred thousand of our men, women and children were brutally murdered and those that survived the atrocities were left homeless and destitute, plundered of their wealth and ancestral lands. Without a credible political movement to defend the rights and interests of our Assyrian nation and divisions within the various religious and tribal denominations, the Assyrians fell victims of domestic and foreign policy, including exclusion from constitutional recognition and other calamities that were to unfold, directed towards the extinction of the indigenous people of Iraq. Consequently our nation suffered horrendous persecution, suppression and division of our ancestral land between the nations that were created after the First World War.

Following the creation of the Iraqi State in 1920, we were once again targeted because of our Christian faith and ethnicity. Another disaster befell our nation, in the form of the Simele Massacre of 1933 in which well over three thousand unarmed men, women and children were savagely murdered for claiming their lawful human and political rights following the independence of Iraq from colonial Britain in 1932.

The suffering of our people continued after 1958 despite the new directives of the republican regime in Iraq. Persecution and suppression of our people was stepped up and forced national and baathist integration after the present baath regime came to power in 1968. Between 1976 and 1978, as many as 200 Assyrian villages were destroyed and our ancient Churches and Monasteries razed to the ground.

As a result of this tragic situation of our people, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ZOWAA) dawned on 12 April 1979 in Iraq as a democratic and political organization – national and patriotic - to defend our people and their legitimate rights and to struggle under the banner of FREE DEMOCRATIC IRAQ – RECOGNITION OF THE NATIONAL ASSYRIAN RIGHTS and dedicated towards the unity of our people under their several identities (Chaldean, Syriac and Assyrian) of which we are proud of. We are the children of one indivisible nation and inheritors of the Mesopotamian civilization be it Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and inheritors of the Syriac (Aramaic) Christian culture united by one ancient language and a history filled with human achievements and gifts.

Our movement struggles for our national legitimate rights in the homeland in accordance to international treaties and laws and for a democratic national coalition government that will end dictatorship and will achieve peace, security, social justice, equality and confirm the constitution which will guarantee liberty, ethnic differences, law and order, lawful election of government and the establishment of organizations for a civil society. Our movement also struggles to strengthen the national brotherly ties based on respect and common destiny between our people and other ethnic groups in the homeland being Arab, Kurds, Turkman, Armenians and others. Our movement also believes in the rights of people for self-determination.

The Assyrian Democratic Movement began its’ struggle against the dictatorial regime in Baghdad in May 1982 side by side with other Iraqi and Kurdish oppositions groups. Our movement made huge sacrifices and gave a series of martyrs on the altar of liberty for the cause of our nation. Since the mid eighties, our movement has joined in the work of the Iraqi opposition and has strived to achieve Assyrian political unity which is at present taking shape both in the homeland and in Diaspora.

Internally, the movement has reflected its democratic ideology and its foundation through continued progress and renewal. It has held three conferences in the years 1979, 1983 and 1994. It also held three wider congresses in the years 1992, 1997 and 2001.

Our movement will continue its struggle and its efforts through all available means to defend the welfare of our people in the world and achieve their lawful aspirations in the homeland.

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