By Solomon (Sawa) Solomon:
It is said that when the Baquba Refugee Camp folded in 1920 the Assyrian population of that camp was moved to northern Iraq to be settled there. The refugees train would arrive at Baghdad-East Railway Station, close to the mosque of Sheik Abdul Kadir Al Gailani and then be transported straight to Baghdad-West Railway Station in Karkh. From there they would be transported by train to Sharqat and thereafter to Mosul and Mandan. However a small group of Assyrians, mainly Jeelus and Urmians, stayed behind in the place now called Gailani Camp. It was an uninhabited land full of date palms about 20 minutes walking distance from the railway station in Bab-Al-Sheikh.
In 1920 this place was considered way out of the city. These Assyrians lived in make shift tents amid date palm trees. The so called streets were dark at night and unsafe to walk through. Later on, oil lamps were posted at a distance of 100 feet apart. An old Assyrian from Urmia, who was present at the camp those days told me the following: There was a water tank for local use; two mud brick churches served the Chaldeans and the Church of the East members. There were two priests by the name of Rev. Moshe DeGalla and Rev. Shlemon Ardeshai. Although there were no shops in the camp, Arabs would bring food stuffs and milk for sale.
In 1923 a great flood took place in this area. Also there was a big disturbance between the Assyrians and the Arabs of Bab-Al-Sheikh. Police had to be brought in to quell the disturbance and established order. In 1922 Rabee Andrious Odisho and his wife Almas opened a school that lasted four years. Rabee Andrious became the first Mukhtar of the Assyrians in Gailani Camp. As time passed life started improving. Mud brick houses replaced the tents. Schools and churches were established and by the late thirties electricity was brought in, and the camp by then had become a major Assyrian Center in Iraq.
For some of the Assyrians who found employment with the British Occupation authorities in Baghdad, a small temporary camp was established in 1920 across the British army barracks near Baghdad's North gate. This camp was under the supervision of Nimrod Tower of Mata De Mar Zaya. The inhabitants of this camp then moved to the newly established Railway camp at Baghdad-West, called by the Assyrians Jeelu Camp and by the Arabs Camp Al Sikak. Much credit for the establishment of this camp goes to Rev. Marcus Gilliana of Jeelu.
This highly educated and capable Assyrian was able to induce British authorities to accept Assyrians who could read and write as employees in the various railway departments, and in the summer of 1920 the Jeelu Camp was opened with 50 tents, plus an extra tent to be used for church services. Next came the men who were taken in groups to railway departments and gradually employed. Those who could not read and write were given suitable jobs. Later on the tents were replaced by mud brick houses and at one time 200 families lived in Jeelu Camp. By 1930 a large mud brick church, Mar Zaya, was constructed under the supervision of Bishop Mar Zaya Sarkis and Rev. Yousip De Jeelu, and so a second Assyrian Center had emerged in Baghdad.
In early 1950 the newly built church of Mar Qardagh was consecrated, thanks to a group of dedicated and capable Assyrians, and among them were: Deacon Sawa Shalita, Deacon Goliad Antar, Richard D'Kalaita and Mikhail Kachow. In October of the same year Rev. Goriel Suleiman was ordained as priest for the new church and among his first actions was to establish a committee to purchase the Assyrian cemetery in Baghdad.
The members of the committee were: Rev. Goriel, Leera Esho, Rabee Koorish Shlemon, Rabee Yacu of the Orthodox Church and Daniel Paris. They eventually purchased 5000 square meters from an Arab by the name of Hamza who sold it at cost price. The property was located in New Baghdad.
During the fifties it became apparent to the Assyrians of Gailani Camp that their landlord, a certain Ismael Al Chorbachi, was not going to give them the deeds to the land that their houses stood on for decades, so they decided to look for property in a suburb of Baghdad to relocate them. Again a committee was established by Rev. Goriel and it consisted of Rev. Goriel, Leera Esho, Rebee Mishael Aghakhan, Shawil Mikhail, Baba Israel Sarkis, Mishael Canoon, Deacon Ishak Shimonaya, Mikhael Warranso, Dinka Sliwoo, Pilatus Rabee Bahrain and Mikhail Kachow. Rev. Goriel made 13 trips to the many suburbs of Baghdad before he was satisfied with the present location in Nuairiah and Gayara. 140,000 square meters were purchased.
These were divided into several hundred pieces of land which were parceled out among the Assyrians of Baghdad. However the first group of houses did not go up until 1962. At this time the original owners approached the committee with an offer to sell a parcel of land in Gayara adjacent to the Assyrian property for the same price, but they needed a swift answer. Rev. Goriel rushed to Habbaniya and informed the Levy Commander Rab-Khaila Zaya Giwargis about the offer. The Rab-Khaila promised to convene the officers of the Levy to discuss the matter but nothing came out of this. The Habbaniya Assyrians were later settled in the Baghdad suburb of Dora. In 1963 the first of three committees was established to build a church in Gayara.
Finally, in 1971 the church of Mart Mariam was dedicated amid great pomp and ceremony. Much labor of love and sacrifice was poured into that project by the Assyrians. In 1928, the Assyrian Levies, now much reduced in strength, were moved to the R.A.F. Base in Hanaidi in South Baghdad from northern Iraq and there followed thousands of Assyrians, some Levy dependents and other civilian employees of the R.A.F. In Hanaidi the prominent educator Rabee Yacu D'Yacu opened his famous Union School, but Hanaidi was a temporary arrangement and the Assyrians were to be relocated in the course of eight years to the new R.A.F. Base in Habbaniya.
During the fifties a dedicated and wealthy Assyrian by the name of Leera Esho of Jeelu donated a valuable parcel of land in west Baghdad for the express purpose of building an Assyrian cathedral. Later on he personally led an effort that culminated in the building of the beautiful cathedral of Mar Zaya , which was dedicated on June 24, 1959. Leera later died and was buried in the same Assyrian cemetery that he helped to establish.
During the sixties the Assyrian population of Baghdad grew rapidly while the city of Baghdad was expanding on all sides of the Tigris. Assyrians were pouring in from Habbaniya, northern Iraq and other places. Today not less than six churches serve the membership of the Church of the East alone. Bishop Mar Sarkis heads the church in Baghdad from his seat in the cathedral of Mar Zaya in the mechanic area near Dora. Besides Dora, Gailani Camp, Nuairiah and Gayara, Assyrians live in Garage Amana area (HAY-AL-WAHDA), Ameen Al-Thaniya among others. However, due to the effects of the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War and the economic stagnation caused by both, many Assyrians have left the country and relocated mainly to Europe, Australia and the United States.
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Updated Jun 10, 1997
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