This paper will explore the events of the 1933 massacre in Iraq through the Assyrian narrative. Arguments around nationalism and conflict between the Assyrians and other elements of Iraqi society will be borrowed from Sami Zubaida and Sargon Donabed, who have both considered the impact of nationalism on Assyrian–Iraqi relations. But, by utilizing Assyrian eyewitness accounts and accounts of the political wrangling in the run-up to the events of August 1933, the paper will argue that neither Assyrians nor the Iraqis saw the other side as a legitimate political adversary. In fact, the Assyrians saw the demands and concerns expressed by the Iraqi state as baseless and irrational. On the other hand, Iraqi government officials saw the grievances and actions of the Assyrian community after the end of the British mandate in 1932 as being based on colonial rhetoric that was contrary to the aspirations for independence of the Iraqi people. The paper will first introduce previous academic and non-academic writing on the subject of the Simele massacre. Although the massacre has been studied by a small number of academics, they have generally made use only of colonial British documents to analyze the events of the massacre. This paper will discuss not only the massacre but also the August 1933 battle of Dearaboun, that preceded the larger events in the summer of 1933 and is generally thought to be its precursor. I will analyze the events by making use of Assyrian, Iraqi, and British sources, which will be able to provide a more holistic view of the political and social narrative that led to the outbreak of violence against the Assyrian community in the Simele region by the Iraqi army. I will argue that, by making use of documents from the various perspectives involved in the conflict, it is possible to shed new perspective on the massacre and on various political debates that have not been discussed by academics previously. Discussing and analyzing the massacre particularly from an Assyrian perspective, the paper will shed new light on the violence that took place in 1933. It will also contribute to the non-state narrative that analyses the formation of the modern Iraqi state.