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Believing in the unity of organizational ranks as an important means to ensure the activation and advancement of the national struggle, and to give it momentum and strength towards achieving the aspirations of our people to obtain their legitimate national rights in Iraq. Especially amidst the complex circumstances our country is going through on various levels, which constitute a significant pressure factor pushing our people towards migration and leaving the homeland, thus diminishing their presence in Iraq and its historical land of Assyria.
After the division that lasted for more than a decade due to various reasons and factors, and after the availability of common will and suitable conditions for unifying Zowaa’s ranks. The leaderships of both parties held a series of meetings aiming to succeed in the efforts of unification and integration. These efforts culminated in an agreement on the following:
National Axis:
Given what our beloved Iraqi people have been suffering for more than two decades as a result of the policies of sectarian quotas in all its forms, and the consequent loss of trust among the Iraqi street in the political process as a whole, due to the absence of the simplest components of decent life in its various forms, such as the lack of job opportunities, absence of freedom of expression, and total failure to provide basic services such as health, education, electricity, and many other necessities of daily life for the Iraqi citizen in general. As well as the shrinking of freedoms, the decline of democracy and its concepts in national political practices, and the deliberate targeting of human rights. The two sides agreed on the following:
- Working with partners in the homeland who reject this bitter reality to adopt the democratic principles to build a civil democratic Iraq far from the detestable quotas in all its forms, and to adopt the principle of citizenship and equal opportunities in all state institutions. Otherwise, they will turn to effective opposition, whether from within the political process or outside it, if all these principles are ignored. This is to exert the required political pressure to correct the course of the political process and achieve social justice.
- Working to lift the oppression imposed on our people through the legislation of laws and mechanisms for their implementation.
Assyrian Axis:
After our people had hoped for the demise of the defunct regime, the suffering continued during the past two decades from exclusion, marginalization, and the seizure of their will. This was due to the policy of sectarian and racial quotas practiced since 2003, where they were not considered a primary partner in the political process, neither in Baghdad nor in the Kurdistan Region. Instead, they were merely participants. From this perspective, those in power dealt with them, leading to the marginalization of their political role as an original component with a civilization extending for about seven thousand years. Additionally, they were targeted by operations of abduction, identity-based killings, church bombings, notably the bombing of the Church of Our Lady of Salvation, followed by the terrorist massacres of ISIS which spared neither stone nor human. The latest being the massacre of Baghdeda which claimed the lives of 150 innocent civilians including children, women, and elders, and the release of real estate mafias who looted homes and properties of our people. As a result of this reality, their numbers dwindled to become a minority, and many of their properties were systematically seized in Baghdad and other provinces. The same applies to the continued encroachments on their lands in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the disregard for the implementation of decisions issued to rectify many of these encroachments, which the courts ruled to be in favor of our people. Therefore, facing this reality, the two sides agreed on the following:
- Working to establish the province of Nineveh Plain on a geographical basis and within legal frameworks, to preserve its demographic composition for the benefit of its residents from our people, Yazidis, Shabaks, and other components in the region.
- Working to approve self-governance for our people in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
- Affirming that our people are among the indigenous peoples of Iraq, with all the consequent constitutional entitlements and legitimate rights.
- Working towards the enactments of Article 125 of the effective Iraqi Constitution.
Second: In order to improve the reality of our people, which we described since 2003 until now, to a better reality where our sons and daughters live with dignity and assurance about the future of their existence, the two sides agreed to follow new mechanisms for advocating and demanding the rights of our people and lifting the oppression they face in various files. This includes the issue of not considering them a primary partner in the political process, amending the current quota elections law, both for legislative and municipal elections, whether in the central government or the KRI. This is through enacting a law that guarantees the right of our people to choose their representatives according to their will, as well as reconsidering participation in these elections if the elections law regarding the quota is not amended.
Third: Regarding the issue of naming, the two sides agreed on the following:
– Working to unify the national internal front and adopt the struggle on the Assyrian national intellectual foundations upon which the Assyrian Democratic Movement was founded. The final decision on this matter will be referred to the unification conference.
Fourth: Regarding participation in the elections, whether at the level of Iraq or the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, it was agreed to diligently seek legal and advocacy means to amend the current component quotas election law to safeguard the will of our people and ensure their right to elect their representatives according to their will. Additionally, to reconsider participation in these elections or not in case the elections law regarding the quotas is not amended.
Internal Axis:
After discussing and evaluating the internal axis, and understanding the organizational procedures and practices that negatively affected Zowaa in general, the two sides agreed on the following:
– Criticizing the organizational procedures and practices that led to the division, and directly affected the national and organizational work of the movement.
– Officially announcing this agreement in the media, then dissolving the Abnaa Al Nahrain party after holding its party conference for this purpose, and merging it with the Assyrian Democratic Movement.
– The Assyrian Democratic Movement will hold an expanded meeting to approve the integration mechanisms agreed upon between the parties in its next conference.