On the occasion of the centennial of the assassination of the Assyrian Catholicos Mar Shimoun Benyamen in March 1918, his eminence Mar Odisho Oraham, bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Europe, tells about the importance of the Shamounite family to the church and the nation, and the sacrifice of martyr Mar Shimoun Benyamen.
He was murdered by the Kurdish warlord Simko Shikaki in a betrayal that still continues by today’s Kurdish leaders towards the Assyrians . The most well known recent case is the assassination of David Jendo, the commanders of the Assyrian guards of Khabour, in April 2015 by five leading members of the PKK Syrian brach YPG.