Qasha Nikademus Youkhanaev is the priest of the Assyrian Church of the East in Armenia, overlooking the Assyrian parishioners in Armenia, told SBS about the reason behind the dissatisfaction and anger of the Assyrian villagers in Armenia as the government decided to finish the independence of the individual villages municipality and join other villages under the same council.
Qasha Yukhanaev says the Assyrians settled in these lands and established villages of Devin, Arzani, Qulasa ( Dimitrov) and Shahriar, almost two hundred years ago when they were brought from Iran by the Tsar army to the land which then, was under the Russian rule in 1828.
All these years, Assyrians had their own mayors who understood the culture, heritage and language of the Assyrian people.
Now, the Armenian government decided that these villages along with other Armenian ones, will be amalgamated and governed by one appointed mayor.
Qahasha Yukhanaev says this will create many problems and issues and the villages will lose their distinctive characters and eventually, will lead to the disappearance of Assyrian identity in Armenia .
Few hours after this interview, the Armenian parliament passed the motion and voted for the Amalgamation, saying that this move will be for the better for all villages.
Source: Nikademus.jpg
Source: Nikademus.jpg
