INTERVIEW by Rafael Pinto Borges, European Conservative.
Juliana Taimoorazy, an Assyrian American activist born in Iran, is the founder and president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council. Since establishing the organization in 2007, she has worked tirelessly to highlight the plight of persecuted Christians in Iraq and the Middle East, raise millions in humanitarian aid, and advocate globally for religious freedom. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 and 2022.
You are an Iraqi Assyrian Christian—you’re the heir of one of the world’s most threatened ancient Christian communities. What motivated you to found the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, and how has the mission evolved as the situation of Iraqi Christians has changed over the years?
Yes, I am an Assyrian. I was not born in Iraq. I was born in Iran, but my ancestral homeland is indeed Iraq. We are known as the heirs of the cradle of civilization. Unfortunately, not many people know that we still exist. Many believe that with the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC, the Assyrians were also destroyed. That is not true.
Without any break in our continuity, we are today the heirs of ancient Nineveh. There are approximately two and a half million Assyrians left in the world who speak a form of Aramaic known as Neo-Aramaic. It is a living language, a mixture of Aramaic with many Akkadian words. Akkadian is recognized as the ancient Assyrian language.
I founded the Iraqi Christian Relief Council because of the complete lack of attention being paid, especially in the United States, to the persecution of Assyrians in Iraq. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, nearly one and a half million Assyrians who were still living there fell to the sword. Our churches were bombed. Our women were kidnapped and raped. Our men were murdered. Our children were abducted. Our clergy and nuns were decapitated.
Today, our numbers in Iraq have been reduced to barely 100,000 people, most of whom are now concentrated in northern Iraq.