"Help us."
This was the plaintive cry of Assyrian Christians to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as they drew his attention to the campaign of genocide currently being undertaken against them by the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
In an open letter addressed to Trump, the American chapter of the Assyrian Universal Alliance said the world needs "clear direction from the United States for achieving long-lasting peace and security, especially in the Middle East," The Christian Post reported.
The group said the Assyrian people "have been victims of genocide by ISIS since its rise in the Middle East," noting that the U.S. government formally recognised the ongoing genocide on March 17 through a statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Assyrians are Christians of different denominations who are the indigenous people of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
In an earlier statement, the group described how ISIS and other terrorist groups are implementing their campaign of genocide against the Assyrians.
"Rape and murder of women and children, slaughter of the elderly, occupation of Assyrian lands, forced displacement of the Assyrians, and using them as human shields are only a small sample of the crimes of these terrorist groups, which unfortunately have yet to be effectively addressed by international human rights organizations and states claiming to defend the Assyrian population," it said.
The group's letter says the Assyrian people need Trump's support to enable them to return to their ancestral lands in Iraq and Syria.
"We need your support to equip and train the Assyrians in Northern Iraq to defend themselves and their homes on their ancestral lands in the Nineveh Plains in a self-governed Assyrian province. We need your support to establish a special zone in the Nineveh Plains for the indigenous people, which should include the areas currently under the control of the Iraqi government army and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces," it says.
The group also made specific recommendations to Trump, saying the U.S. should not allow the Nineveh Plains to be "turned into a battle-ground for a proxy war between the regional powers, and the Kurds' struggle for independence."
The Assyrians are also seeking Washington's support to "encourage the Iraqi government to approve the creation of the Nineveh Plains province" and rebuild it "so that the displaced Assyrian people may return to their homes and live free on their ancestral lands in a self-governed Assyrian province."
