‘Represented in Skokie’: Assyrian flag raised at Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park

A circle of flag poles, each one flying the colors of a different nation, welcomes all to the head of the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park, near the intersection of Dempster Street and McCormick Boulevard.

The Ethiopian flag waves with the wind next to the Irish flag, which flutters next to the flags of Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Pakistan, Russia and half a dozen others.

Together, they surround the American flag and those of the State of Illinois and the Village of Skokie. As of Monday, the curved red, white and blue bars of the Assyrian crest fly among them. 

Skokie Mayor Ann Tennes, Niles Township trustees, a crop of other area officials and more than 200 community members gathered below the sculpture park’s flag poles on Monday evening, March 2, to watch the installation and celebration of the Assyrian flag. 

The ceremony marked the culmination of advocacy from members of the local Assyrian community who sought for years to see their sizable population in Skokie gain more recognition in the village. 

Assyrians do not have a single home country, and many have migrated to the U.S. to escape instability and persecution in parts of the Middle East like Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran. According to one 2023 survey, more than 2,700 Assyrians reside in Skokie. 

“It’s so much more than a flag being raised. It represents generations who have survived displacement, who have rebuilt their lives in a brand new country where they didn’t even know the language,” said Diane Pathieu, an Assyrian and television anchor for ABC7 Chicago, addressing the assembly.

“You worked hard, you opened businesses, you raised families, you helped raise me, you contributed to this community in ways that no one will understand your sacrifice. It tells us that this is time to celebrate us,” Pathieu continued. 

Marie Benyamin, a Niles Township trustee, said she and Ashur Shiba, executive director of the political group Vote Assyrian, met with Mayor Tennes and village staff in 2025 to discuss adding the Assyrian flag to the Skokie sculpture park. 

Members of the local Assyrian community — including those with the Assyrian American Civic Club of Chicago — had already worked for close to a decade to see the flag raised in Skokie, so Benyamin was building upon those discussions, Benyamin said.

During that meeting, however, Benyamin recalled that Tennes expressed concern about adding the Assyrian flag because it the community lacked an independent nation, and raising its flag could set a precedent for other groups — even hate groups — to push for their symbols to join the display. 

Understanding those concerns, Benyamin said she continued to talk with Tennes to find a solution that would allow Assyrians to feel included. Tennes eventually returned with a solution. 

According to previous Skokie policy, flags could only be added to the sculpture park’s flag circle if they represented a country recognized by the U.S. State Department, were a member of the United Nations and participated in the village’s annual Festival of Cultures. 

The mayor’s office amended that policy in January so that flags for any “founding participants” of Skokie’s first Festival of Cultures held in 1991 could be added to the sculpture park as long as they participate in the latest Festival of Cultures.

Those first participants included the Assyrian culture, as well as the Austrian, Chinese, Filipino German, Greek/Hellenic, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Israeli, Korean, Luxembourgian, Russian and Swedish cultures, the policy shows.

For Benyamin, ensuring the flag was part of the display was personal. She recalled growing up in Skokie and, after leaving for college, realizing how her hometown was unique for its tight-knit, proud Assyrian population.

“I wanted to have my kids feel like they also belong,” she said. “We often take bike rides through the sculpture park and we admire the different flags, but I do want them to have that opportunity to see that they are also represented here and this is also home to them.

“Because they may also go away to school and feel like they are the outsider and they have to explain who they are and what nationality they are. But here is always home. You will be represented in Skokie.”

People at the gathering on Monday waved Assyrian flags, wore traditional Assyrian garb and stood patiently in the cold as the Assyrian Chamber of Commerce’s Ramsin Benjamin, Niles Trustee Marryann Warda, State Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-8th), Pathieu, Tennes and Benyamin all gave remarks. 

“As Skokie’s new mayor, I am so very proud of this moment and grateful to the Assyrian community for their decades-long involvement in Skokie. We are better because of you,” Tennes said.

Finally, amid fading light, a village public works employee was lifted in a van-mounted bucket truck and attached the Assyrian flag to the one bare flag pole. An Assyrian song played from speakers while members of the crowd sang, cheered and snapped pictures. 

The sculpture park’s flag display is updated every two months and village staff typically develop a flag rotation schedule each summer after the village’s annual Festival of Cultures, said Patrick Deignan, Skokie’s communications manager.

There are 26 total flags in rotation for the display’s 14 poles, and flags for The Bahamas, Cameroon, Eritrea and Ethiopia were the most recent additions after the groups representing those countries participated in Skokie’s 2025 Festival of Cultures.

The Assyrian flag will fly there for at least six months, Deignan said.

Standing near the back of the gathering, Ashur Sangari, an Assyrian resident, said he and his family have lived in Skokie since after the Iranian Revolution in 1978. 

“A lot of our history has always been erased and we’ve always been attacked as people, and a lot of people don’t consider us as a real ethnicity,” Sangari said, “and I think it’s great to see the flag risen up here, especially as a lot of people are now going to see our flag and now are going to know us.”  

“It’s an honor to see,” he said.

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