Name Ashur Yousif | Role Politician | |
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Died June 23, 1915, Diyarbakir, Turkey | ||
Ashur Yousif (born Abraham Yusef), (Syriac: ܐܫܘܪ ܝܘܣܦ ܐܦܢܕܝ) (1858 Harput, Ottoman Empire - June 23, 1915 Diyarbekir, Ottoman Empire) was a professor and an ethnic Assyrian intellectual prior to World War I and the Assyrian Genocide. He was Protestant, as was his wife - Arshaluys Oghkasian, daughter of an Armenian Protestant minister. He studied (but did not graduate) at the Central Turkey College in Antep, and later became professor of Classical Armenian language at the Euphrates College in Harput. In 1909, Ashur started publishing a Turkish-language newspaper named Murshid Athuriyion ("the spiritual guide of the Assyrians"). He also composed poems in Armenian and Turkish.
Ashur and his brother Donabed along with other Assyrian leaders from the town of Harput were arrested on April 19, 1915 and were all later hanged. His children and grandchildren have written numerous books on him. On June 24, 2006, Ashur Yusef's great-grandson Tigran Hovsepyan gave an emotional speech in the "Assyrian Society of UK" regarding the Assyrian Genocide and praised UK politicians Councillor Mike Elliot and Stephen Pound MP for their efforts on the issue.