Background
Lady Surma was born in Qodshanis in Hakkari.
leader Catholics Patriarch Metropolitans
Lady Surma was born in Qodshanis in Hakkari.
She was educated by Rev. W.H. Browne of the Archbishop of Canterbury mission where she became fluent in English. Surma Khanum (Lady Surma) practically became regent, and in 1918 she was invited by British authorities to present the Assyrian question in London and she also attended the Treaty of Versailles negotiations, probably as the only woman regent.
The descendants of the Assyrian Empire had lived as a semi-independent nation in the Hakari mountains, but they were massacred and driven out by the Ottomans and Kurds in 1915. In return they were promised an independent homeland by Britain, France, and Russia in 1918 in Northern Iraq - the Mosul district - but this promise was not fulfilled. She continued to act as a consultant throughout Mar Eshai's life, given her temporal and secular expertise.
At the time of the disturbances in 1933 in Iraq, the Patriarchal family were taken to Cyprus, where they remained until 1949 when they moved to USA. She died in the year of 1975 in the city of Turlock, California.