On July 3, 2016 about 35 representatives of Assyrian associations and organizations gathered to a meeting in Hengelo, Holland, to establish a new Assyrian Federation. Admittedly, there has previously been an Assyrian Federation in the country, but the Assyrian Movement has experienced a political vacuum, during last decade, says Attiya Gamri – one of the initiators. She believes that the new Federation will lift the Assyrian question to a higher level, both in the Netherlands and by its vicinity to Brussels. About 40,000 Assyrians live in Holland but other ethnic groups such as Armenians and Yezidis are better known among the general public, despite the fact that their number is about 5,000 respectively.

Already, the new Assyrian Federation has made the Parliament in The Hague aware of the difficulties and abuses the Assyrians within KRG are facing, as well as the Assyrian IDP’s situation. The Dutch Foreign Affairs Committee is working actively in issues related to northern Iraq, but its members know far too little about the conditions of the Assyrians within the KRG and met no Assyrian MPs during their recent visit to Arbil. For this reason, the new Assyrian Federation is planning to invite the Assyrian members of the Kurdish parliament to Holland to tell their Dutch colleagues about the situation of the Assyrian indigenous people and the land confiscations.

Attiya Gamri also  invites the Assyrian organizations in the Netherlands who are outside the newly formed Federation to work together in order to unite the Assyrian movement on a common strategy and goals.