Freydun Atturaya | |
|---|---|
| ܦ̮ܪܝܕܢ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ | |
 Portrait photograph | |
| Born | Freydun Bet-Abram 1891 Charbash, Urmia, Qajar Iran |
| Died | 2 October 1926 (aged 35) |
| Cause of death | Execution by shooting |
| Political party | Assyrian Socialist Party |
| Spouse | Sonia |
| Children |
|
| Parent(s) | Yacob Bet-Abram Insoph Taimoorazy |
Freydun Bet-Abram[1][a] (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦ̮ܪܝܕܢ ܒܝܬ ܐܒܪܡ; 1891 – 2 October 1926), better known as Freydun Atturaya[b] (ܦ̮ܪܝܕܢ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ), was an Assyrian national leader, politician, doctor and poet. Atturaya was one of the founders of the first Assyrian political party, the Assyrian Socialist Party, and a prominent early advocate for Assyrian independence. He is remembered by Assyrians today as a romantic figure, considered by some to be a national hero and martyr.[3]
Born in the village of Charbash in Urmia, Iran, Atturaya grew up in Tbilisi in Georgia. He studied medicine at a Russian missionary school in Harpoot, graduating in 1915, and perhaps then went on to study in Russia itself. During World War I, he was recruited as a medical doctor into the Imperial Russian Army and he held various positions and offices, both medical and political, before returning to Urmia in 1916 as a political officer and the head of an army hospital. In Urmia, Atturaya organized the Assyrian National Committee of Urmia, which sent young Assyrians to study in Russia. Inspired by the February Revolution in Russia, Atturaya early in 1917, together with the other Assyrian activists Benjamin Arsanis and Baba Parhad founded the Assyrian Socialist Party, which prominently advocated for the creation of an independent Assyrian state in the Assyrian homeland, closely allied to the nascent Soviet Union. In April 1917 he published the Urmia Manifesto of the United Free Assyria.
Atturaya also partook in other Assyrian cultural efforts. He published articles in the prominent Assyrian magazine Kokhva ("Star") and for a time published his own Assyrian magazine, Nakusha. He also founded Assyrian libraries in both Tbilisi and Moscow and as a poet wrote numerous poems dedicated to the Assyrian cause and Assyrian culture. On Atturaya's initiative, the Assyrians of Tbilisi organized the National Council of Transcaucasia, an organization founded to help Assyrian refugees during the Sayfo (Assyrian genocide). He was also a prominent member of other Assyrian organizations; in 1921 he was elected as the chairman of the Assyrian People's Council, the executive committee of the Assyrian National Council of Georgia. Though Atturaya tried to align his efforts with the policies of the Soviet Union, the Soviets opposed his movements on account of his Assyrian nationalism and some of his other policies being opposed to what they viewed as the principles of communism. He was arrested twice by the Soviet authorities, first in 1924 and then in 1926. After his second arrest he was executed by shooting.[8]
- ^ Donabed 2019, p. 122.
- ^ Petrosian 2006, p. 138.
- ^ a b c d Becker 2015, p. 328.
- ^ Woźniak-Bobińska 2020, p. 111.
- ^ a b Akopian 2017, p. 397.
- ^ a b Donabed 2015, Chapter 2.
- ^ Margulov 2021, p. 99.
- ^ a b Margulov 2021, p. 101.
- ^ Chikhladze & Chikhladze 2003.
- ^ Travis 2017.
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