Tag: Assyrians

Attempt on Syriac Patriarch commemorating genocide

June 23, 2016 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Genocide, Kurds, Qamishli, Syria

As Christians were celebrating Pentecost in Qamishli, Syria, a suicide bomber disguised as a priest struck, killing three Assyrians and wounding five others. The Sunday attack on 19 June was apparently targeting Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II, and was reminiscent of another nearly a century ago which killed the . . . Read More

Iraq’s Christians ‘could be gone in 5 years’

May 16, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Chaldeans, Iraq, Islamic State, Jizya, Kirkuk, Middle East, Mosul, Nineveh Plains

ISIS’ jihadist actions mean Christians could disappear from Iraq in five years, says an Iraqi Assyrian priest. Fr. Martin Hermis Dawood told the Telegraph the latest phase of Islamic extremism has only precipitated the trend of Christians exiting their ancestral lands. “Everyone sees himself outside Iraq in a few years. . . . Read More

Calls for Christian asylum centres in Sweden

April 29, 2016 Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Converts, France, Germany, Iran, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Pakistan, Refugees, Sweden, Women

Increasing reports about Christians harassed by hardline Muslim fellow migrants are prompting calls for non-Muslim asylum centres to be set up in Sweden. According to the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, one Christian refugee in Kalmar in the southeast of the country was threatened with having his throat slit by a man . . . Read More

Turkey seizes six churches as state property in volatile southeast

April 6, 2016 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Diyarbakir, Kurds, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Syriacs

The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church in Diyarbakir was one of the churches seized.World Watch Monitor After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. . . . Read More

Assyrian Christian girl released in Syria

March 29, 2016 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Khabur, Qaryatain, Syria

An Assyrian Christian girl taken hostage 13 months ago by Islamic State (IS) militants in northeast Syria‘s Hasakah province has been set free after “intense negotiations” for her release. Miriam David Talya, who had been captured with more than 250 other Khabur villagers in Feb. 2015, arrived in Tel Tamar . . . Read More

Islamic State releases 43 Assyrian hostages

February 22, 2016 Syria Assyrians, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Syria

The so-called Islamic State has released 43 Assyrian Christians – the remaining hostages of the . The group is on its way to Tel Tamr, a town close to the villages they were abducted from, according to Younan Talia of the Assyrian Democratic Organization. Talia said the release came after . . . Read More

Fierce battles in southeast Turkey hedge in Christians

February 1, 2016 Turkey Assyrians, Diyarbakir, PKK, Syria

The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, Diyarbakir, Turkey has been damaged in fighting between government forces and Kurdish separatists.World Watch Monitor One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists. Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a . . . Read More

Assyrians seek world support vs. Turkish bombings

January 27, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Dohuk, Iraq, Nineveh Plains, PKK, Turkey

A coalition of Assyrian organisations in Europe has urged Turkey to stop bombing Assyrian villages in northern Iraq “under the pretext of fighting the Kurdish PKK”, on 26 Jan. The aerial bombardment by Turkey was part of an intensified campaign, ongoing since late August 2015, according to a statement by . . . Read More

Iraqis who fled Mosul and IS flee Turkish bombing

January 19, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Louis Raphael I Sako, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, PKK, Saddam Hussein, Turkey

The Turkish air force has bombed the Assyro-Chaldean Christian village of Upper Sharanish in northern Iraq. Condemning what he called the “unjust act”, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako urged Ankara to “respect the lives and properties of the inhabitants and not to displace them under the pretext of fighting” the Kurdish . . . Read More

16 more Assyrian hostages freed

January 14, 2016 Syria Assyrians, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Syria

Another 16 Assyrian Christian hostages of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, abducted 10 months ago, have been released, The were among 230 people abducted nearly a year ago when IS raided dozens of villages in northern Syria. Middle East Concern said “many months” of negotiations involving church representatives have resulted in . . . Read More

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