WASHINGTON, DC: August 10, 2018. (PCP) During August 1933, Assyrians of Northern Iraq were systematically targeted, and the Simele massacre was the first of many massacres committed by the Iraqi government at that time. The term Simele is used to describe not only the massacre of Simele, but also the killing spree that continued among 63 Assyrian villages in the Dohuk and Mosul districts that led to the deaths of an estimated 3,000 innocent Assyrians. At that time, the Assyrian people were emerging from one of the darkest periods of their history, which was the Assyrian genocide at the end of the World War I whereby an estimated two-thirds of their population was massacred by Ottoman Turks and Kurds. August 7 is the day Assyrians around the world remember this massacre. IDC stands with the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Syriacs of Iraq who have endured ongoing persecutions and massacres since 1915. "We pray for their families who have survived all these mass atrocities, and we will continue to advocate for their protection, security, and rights to live in their ancestral homeland", stated IDC Executive Director Philippe Nassif.