President-elect Donald Trump (R) and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. (AINA) -- The following letter was sent to President-elect Donald Trump by the American chapter of the Assyrian Universal Alliance.

On behalf of the Assyrian Universal Alliance and its affiliate organizations I extend our heartfelt congratulations to you for your election as the President of the United States.

You are assuming the responsibilities of this most-powerful and honorable office at a time the world needs clear direction from the United States for achieving long-lasting peace and security, especially in the Middle East. The Assyrian people, who are Christians of different denominations and the indigenous people of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, have been victims of genocide by ISIS since its rise in the Middle East. The US government formally recognized this on March 17, 2016 through a formal Press Release by the US Secretary of State, the Hon. John Kerry.

The Assyrian people need your support to return to their ancestral lands and remain a viable segment of the fabric of the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria. We need your support to equip and train the Assyrians in Northern Iraq to defend themselves and their homes on their ancestral lands in the Nineveh Plains in a self-governed Assyrian province. We need your support to establish a special zone in the Nineveh Plains for the indigenous people, which should include the areas currently under the control of the Iraqi government army and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. For the sake of the defenseless ethnic and religious minorities, the Nineveh Plains should not be turned into a battle-ground for a proxy war between the regional powers, and the Kurds' struggle for independence.

We need your support to encourage the Iraqi government to approve the creation of the Nineveh Plains province and rebuilding it so that the displaced Assyrian people may return to their homes and live free on their ancestral lands in a self-governed Assyrian province.

Best regards,

Carlo Kooktapeh Ganjeh

Chapter Secretariat

Assyrian Universal Alliance Americas Chapter Inc.