Boston (AINA) -- Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) held a rally yesterday to protest the October 31 Baghdad church massacre, which claimed 58 Assyrians lives at Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Church. Protesters called for an end to the ethnic cleansing of Assyrians of Iraq, and for the establishment of an autonomous Assyrian region in north Iraq, to be governed and policed by Assyrians.

Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution guarantees the administrative, political, cultural, and educational rights of Assyrians and other minorities in Nineveh and other areas where they are concentrated. Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, has expressed support for establishing an Assyrian autonomous region (AINA 11-19-20).

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