Football is more than a sport in Iraq -- it is a unifying passion that transcends ethnicity and religion. Among the many communities that have shaped the nation's football story the Assyrians have played an outsized role. Their journey into Iraqi football cannot be told without first looking back at their history of displacement and survival.
As Iraq prepares for its parliamentary elections on 11 November, the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (Huyodo Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA) announced it will boycott the vote, declaring that Iraq's political system no longer represents its "original components" and that the electoral process has been "hijacked" by dominant political blocs.
In a significant step toward improving the situation of Iraq's Christian population, Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader al-Dakhil met with Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Timotheus Mousa al-Shamani, head of the Diocese of Mor Mattai Monastery and Honorary President of the Assyrian Council in Bartella (Baritle).
The Syriac Orthodox church in the village of Bote, Tur Abdin, home to several historic churches and shrines, has become the target of illegal practices against its Christian heritage. Assyrian villagers from the diaspora--no Assyrians live year-round in Bote anymore--had decided to build a protective wall around the Syriac Orthodox Virgin Mary Church, whose structure had collapsed since the Sayfo...
The Syriac Union Party today visited the office of the Suraya Democratic Party in Tel Tamr, Khabur River Valley, North and East Syria. The visiting delegation included members of the Syriac Union Party's Executive Committee Gabriel Shamoun and Simon Gerges. They were received by Madeleine Warda, Co-Chair of the Suraya Democratic Party, and several party members.
Iraq's parliamentary system reserves nine of its 329 seats for ethnic and religious minorities, ensuring representation for Christians, Yazidis, Shabak, Sabean-Mandaeans, and Feyli Kurds. Together with the constitutional requirement that at least 25 percent of seats be held by women, these quotas form the backbone of Iraq's inclusive electoral framework ahead of the November 2025 elections.
A detailed field report by the Syriac Strategic Research Centre (SSRC) has documented what it calls a "pattern of escalating violations" against Syria's Christian population since the fall of the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
(CNA) -- In the Vatican Apostolic Library rests one of its most treasured possessions: the "Gospel of Qaraqosh," a richly illuminated Syriac manuscript dating back to the 13th century. Catalogued as "Vat. Syr. 559," it was penned in A.D. 1220 by monk Mubarak ibn Dawud al-Bartelli of the Monastery of Mar Mattai near Mosul.
An archbishop in Syria who survived being kidnapped by jihadis has warned the "Church in Syria is dying" as the number of Christians in the country continues to drop. Syriac Catholic Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama and Al-Nabek, said the country's "disastrous political and economic situation" was causing waves of migrations at the launch of Aid to the Church in Need's Religious Freedom in...
A documentary film on the Assyrian Genocide (also known as Sayfo, "the sword"), released recently in France, highlights the Assyrian tragedy during World War I. It is entitled Les Genocides D'Orient: La Tragédie Des Assyriens [Genocide in the Orient: The Tragedy of the Assyrians].
Growing unease is spreading among Syria's Christian communities as reports of targeted violence against civilians multiply across several regions. Activists warn that "security complacency" and "official silence" are fueling fear, mistrust, and a sense of abandonment among citizens. In the city of Jaramana, on the outskirts of Daramsuq (Damascus), a brutal killing has shaken the local population.
Vatican officials do not understand the situation of Christians and must learn to "work with the local churches, not above", according to the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon Cardinal Louis Raphaël I Sako told The Tablet that the Dicastery for Eastern Churches fails to treat Eastern Catholic patriarchs as heads of their own sui iuris Churches.
(AINA) -- From the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, the land of prophets and sages, arose one of the most profound spiritual voices of all time -- Saint Isaac of Nineveh (also known as Isaac the Syrian). Born in the region that once formed the cradle of civilization, he became a radiant beacon of divine wisdom, humility, and compassion.
(AINA) -- Local Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq have pursued a quiet but systematic policy of granting Iraqi citizenship and residency rights to large numbers of Kurds, estimated at more than two million, arriving from neighboring countries such as Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- The reopening of the Egyptian Museum stands as a powerful symbol of cultural rebirth and national pride. Egypt, one of the world's oldest civilizations, has long recognized that the preservation of its heritage is not merely an act of remembrance--it is an act of self-affirmation.
(AINA) -- The use of the term "minority" to describe Assyrians in Turkey and later in Iraq is deeply tied to the political and nationalist agendas of these nations, particularly in the 20th century. While Assyrians are undoubtedly the indigenous people of the land of the two rivers (Mesopotamia), the term "minority" was used to undermine their presence, deny their historical rights, and...
The earliest form of the signature came from ancient Iraq in the form of cylinder seals. Mesopotamians, the ancient inhabitants of the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, are credited for many firsts in human history, including writing, urbanism and the state. Among these inventions, cylinder seals are perhaps the most distinctive but least known.
Do you worry about things? Do you wake up in the middle of the night, sweating about what might happen to you, to your family, to the world in general? I do. If you do too, rest assured you're not alone. It's a natural human trait, and it's something people have been doing for millennia.