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Guatemalan Literature

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Syriac literature accounts for 90% of the total Aramaic literature. The literature was written in the Esṭrangelā (Classical) form. The earliest forms of Syriac literature were based in Edessa and were written by pagans, agnostics, Jews, and Christians. The exact origins of these works were never found. By the start of the third century the Old Testament had already been translated into Syriac from Hebrew. Around the same time is when one of the earliest versions of the New Testament known as the Diatessaron came into being. This work was used by the Syriac Church for two centuries until a prominent bishop claimed that the author, Tatian was a heretic. This book consisted of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and was morphed into one …show more content…

Though called the Assyrian genocide a better suited name would be the Assyrian/Syriac/Chaldean genocide. between the years 1914-1920 along with the better-known Armenian genocide and the Greek genocide. This event was not the first tragedy in Syriac history as Byzantine oppression, slaughter at the hands of the Crusaders, and Mongol invasion occurred prior (The Syriac Orthodox Church a Brief Overview, NP). The rise of nationalism among the Christian citizens of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Young Turk government that preached a Turkey for the Turks was recipe for a disaster. The Young Turk government staged a successful coup in 1913. Following the entrance of the Ottoman Empire into World War I in November 1914 simultaneous genocides against Assyrians, Armenians, and Greeks occurred along with the help of Kurdish tribes. Victims were plundered, raped, deported, and massacred horrifically. The Assyrian genocide is treated slightly differently from that of the Armenians as there were no specific orders to attack and deport Assyrians from Ottoman leaders since they were not assisting the Russian Empire and did not desire their own nation state. The genocide was carried out by local leaders and Kurdish tribes. In some cities the entire adult populations were wiped out whereas in other cities such as Mardin only the male population was killed and the widows and children were forced to leave on foot which caused many more deaths. The deaths were not limited to just the Ottoman Empire as Assyrians in Persia were also slaughtered when the Ottoman Empire invaded northwestern Persia (The Assyrian Genocide, 1914 to 1923 and 1933 up to the Present, NP). The death toll was believed to be 300,000 Syriacs yet has only been recognized by the Swedish and Armenian Parliaments (Centenary of 1915 Syriac (Sayfo) genocide, NP). As the Middle East has been thrown into turmoil the

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