THE JÖNKÖPING DECLARATION OF THE ASSYRIAN PARLIAMENT 2026
Final Statement of the First Annual Assyrian Parliament Conference and International Assyrian Consultative Summit & Cultural Festival
Jönköping, Sweden | 25–27 September 2026 | 6776
We, the members and participants of the Assyrian Parliament, gathered in Jönköping, Sweden, from 25 to 27 September 2026, from the homeland and the diaspora, in person and online. We meet one year after the founding of our Parliament in Gothenburg, when the Assyrian people, for the first time in the modern era, established a representative institution of their own through their free will and democratic participation. We address this Declaration to the Assyrian people, to Assyrian organisations worldwide and to the international community.
The Conference examined the internal situation of the Parliament, its challenges and its opportunities, and reviewed the work of its first year. In its final session it adopted the resolutions, declarations and future strategic direction of the Parliament. Guided by the will of our people and the memory of our martyrs, the Assyrian Parliament declares the following.
The Assyrian people are one indigenous nation, with one history, one language and one homeland. For thousands of years our people have lived continuously on their ancestral land, and their identity, language and culture have endured through every attempt to erase them. The Assyrian question is not a matter of religion or minority status. It is a matter of indigenous rights, homeland, national identity and survival. We therefore reaffirm the inalienable right of the Assyrian people, as an indigenous nation, to self-determination in the Land of Assyria, in accordance with international law and the human rights declarations, specifically the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This right is not negotiable.
Our historical homeland extends across present-day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. It is one land, and no part of it, including the Nineveh Plain, can be separated from the whole. The rights of Assyrians must be protected in every part of it, and no authority has the right to alter its demographic character. The future of the Land of Assyria must be determined by its indigenous Assyrian people, with security, protection and genuine political participation. We condemn the continuing seizure and confiscation of Assyrian lands and properties. We demand that they be restored, that court rulings in favour of Assyrian owners be enforced, and that displaced Assyrians be enabled to return in safety and dignity. Through its Committee on Assyrian Lands in the Homeland, the Parliament will pursue justice before national and international courts.
We honour the victims of the Assyrian Genocide committed before and during the First World War, and of all the massacres that followed, from Simele to the Nineveh Plain and the Khabour. Their memory obliges us. The dispersion of our nation across the world is the direct consequence of these crimes, which have never been brought to justice. We call upon every state that has not yet done so to recognise the Assyrian Genocide, for recognition is a matter of justice, not of history alone.
The Assyrian people have the right to be represented by those they themselves elect, and not by those chosen for them by others. The Assyrian Parliament stands as the democratic voice of the Assyrian nation, accountable to its people and committed to transparency, integrity and responsible governance. It serves no foreign interest and depends on no authority other than the will of the Assyrian people. It extends its hand to all Assyrian institutions, churches and organisations to act together on the matters that unite our nation, for our strength lies in our unity.
Our diaspora is not a separation from our homeland but an extension of our nation. Assyrians in every country carry the same identity, the same history and the same responsibility for the future of our people. We commit ourselves to the Assyrian language, culture and heritage, which are the foundation of our national existence, and to placing our youth at the heart of our national work, for they will carry this cause forward.
We call upon the United Nations, the European Union and all democratic governments to recognise the Assyrian people as an indigenous nation, to protect their rights in the homeland, and to engage with the Assyrian Parliament as their representative voice. The international community cannot speak of justice, human rights and the protection of indigenous peoples while an ancient nation is being uprooted from its own land. To this end, the Conference mandates the Assyrian Parliament to deliver this Declaration to the United Nations, the European Union and the governments concerned, and to report on its implementation at the Second Annual Conference.
The Assyrian Parliament thanks the organisers and hosts in Jönköping, and all organisations, delegations and individuals from the homeland and the diaspora who took part in person or online. We also thank the speakers, artists, volunteers and supporters who made this Conference possible, and the Kingdom of Sweden for its hospitality and its commitment to democracy and the rights of indigenous peoples.
The Assyrian nation has survived genocide, dispossession and dispersion. It will not be silenced, and it will not be spoken for by others. Through its Parliament, it speaks for itself: with one voice, in the homeland and in the diaspora. We leave Jönköping with renewed determination to defend our rights, to protect our land and to secure the future of our nation.
Long live Assyria.
Adopted in Jönköping, Sweden
27 September 2026 – 6776
ASSYRIAN PARLIAMENT