Tag: Kurds

Iraqi MPs reject ‘safe areas’ for Christians

September 28, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Shia, Sunni, Yazidis

A majority of Iraq’s Members of Parliament have rejected any proposals to set aside safe areas for Christians and other indigenous minorities in the country’s Nineveh Plains, once the province is liberated from the “Islamic State” (IS). “The Parliament has voted to keep Nineveh’s provincial boundaries as they were prior . . . Read More

When Mosul is freed, Christians may face a new crisis

September 23, 2016 Iraq Islamic State, Kurds, Nineveh Plains, Refugees

The eventual liberation of Mosul, Iraq, from the so-called Islamic State will end one crisis for dislocated Christians only to create a new one, a religious-freedom expert says. Planning documents drawn up by the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government anticipate that driving IS out of Iraq’s second city will create a . . . Read More

Kurds ‘expel Christians’ in Hassaka

September 23, 2016 Syria Aleppo, Churches, Hasakah, Islamic State, Kurds, Qamishli, Syria

Christians are being targeted as Kurdish militia assert their control in Syria’s north-eastern city of Hassaka, a senior local Christian leader has said. “Whenever the Kurdish militia enter in action to reaffirm its military hegemony over the city, the epicentre of their raids and acts of force is always the . . . Read More

Aleppo church helped ‘almost 2,000 Muslim refugees’

August 19, 2016 Syria Aleppo, Armenians, Greek Orthodox, Hasakah, Islamic State, Kurds, Refugees, Syria

A church in the beleaguered Syrian city of Aleppo has opened its doors to Muslims as well as Christians fleeing the war. Nearly 2,000 Muslims have benefited from the help offered by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, including by the Church of Elias the Prophet, reported Ruptly.tv, an affiliate of Russia . . . Read More

Iraq: 2 years since Nineveh fell to IS, displaced Christians pray for ‘liberation’

August 8, 2016 Iraq Islamic State, Karamles, Kurds, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, Qaraqosh, Refugees

It’s been two years since thousands of Christians fled their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains to run away from the advancing armies of the so-called Islamic State. But now, as Iraqi forces plan to retake Mosul, the Christians are praying they will soon be able to return home. . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians confront two-year trauma with drama

August 5, 2016 Iraq Christina Abada, Erbil, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Lebanon, Qaraqosh

Part of a play performed by Iraqi Christians forced to flee to Kurdistan after the self-proclaimed Islamic State seized their northern town of Qaraqosh.Video capture / World Watch Monitor “The streets are empty! Why are the streets empty?” The shocked actor shouts at the top of his lungs: “Qaraqosh, . . . Read More

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

Aleppo Christian areas shelled, scores casualties

April 28, 2016 Syria Aleppo, Armenians, Children, Civil War, Kurds, Syria

Despite a fragile truce helped by both US and Russian efforts, at least 19 people have been killed and scores injured this week in continued shelling in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Coinciding with the 101st anniversary of the Turkish genocide of Armenians and other Christians, areas of notable . . . Read More

Hate speech fuels violence vs. Turkish non-Muslims

April 22, 2016 Turkey Armenians, Churches, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kurds, Minorities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Sunni, Turkey

A new report analysing freedom of religion or belief in Turkey faults both strong nationalism and the Erdogan government’s public endorsement of a Sunni Muslim identity for rising levels of hate speech against the nation’s religious minorities. According to studies cited in the April report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, “religious . . . 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

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