Ninos Aho

Ninos Aho was an Assyrian poet and activist who was born in a small village in Syria. He moved to Qamishli and later to Damascus to pursue his studies. He joined the Assyrian Democratic Organization in 1961 and used his poems to promote the Assyrian cause. He emigrated to the United States in 1971 and became widely popular for his poems and songs that were performed by prominent Middle Eastern musicians. He returned to Syria in 1991 with his wife and four children, but came back to the United States in 2001 when he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He died in 2013 in San Pedro, Los Angeles. He is recognized as one of the pioneers of the modern Assyrian nationalistic movement and his poetry has been preserved in various media and languages. He also established the Ninos Aho Assyrian Poetry Fund at Harvard University to support the study and preservation of Assyrian poetry.