Mr. Erik Valencic and Mr. Miha Mohoric from Slovenia are on their way to make a documentary about the Assyrian Christian heritage in Turabdin, Nineveh and Gozarto. Recently they witnessed how Kurds who are occupying the Assyrian village of Zaz, threaten the only Assyrian remaining in the Village, a nun in the monastery of Mor Dimet. They have killed both her watchdogs and try to force her away. Valencic and Mohoric were ousted from the monastery by Kurdish village guards with Kalashnikovs, backed by Turkish local police.
The team has also been in Nineveh and documented same kind of vulnerability of the indigenous Assyrian Christians. In the pure Assyrian town of Alqosh they witnessed how all Peshmerga checkpoints are decorated with huge posters of the KRG President Massoud Barzani – a signal to the Assyrians that “this is Barzanistan”, Mr. Valencic says. They saw no such Barzani posters in the towns within KRG like Arbil, Duhok or Zakho.
The team has met different parts of the Assyrians and all lack confidence to Kurdish or Arab rulers. They do not see any hope for future life in occupied Assyria, but the emigration. However, if the West is going to let this happen, our Christian roots in the cradle of civilization will disappear for ever and our only place will be in the grave, Mr Valencic concludes in disappointment over the nonchalance of the Vatican and the rest of Western Christian world to the ongoing Genocide of the Assyrians.