(AP) -- France is committing $1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) to help Iraq rebuild after its war against the Islamic State group, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday. Le Drian was in Baghdad on a busy day that also saw Iraq's top officials receiving King Abdullah II of Jordan. The French diplomat said the aid would go to rebuilding Iraq's most devastated areas.
President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 4, 2019 following a meeting with Congressional leaders on the government shutdown.
The United States has started the "deliberate withdrawal" process of its forces from Syria, US military officials confirmed on Friday, but they refused to provide any details on exactly what troops and equipment were being moved. "Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troop movements," military spokesman Sean Ryan said in a statement.
On Thursday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the recently opened Coptic Cathedral of the Nativity, not far from Cairo. "It is a very special thing to have this in the heart of the Middle East, this enormous cathedral where people can come worship in Egypt," he told the press. "It's a land of religious freedom and opportunity. It's remarkable.
(AFP) -- Iraqi special forces deployed Thursday in Kirkuk after the raising of the Kurdish flag over a political party headquarters revived tensions more than a year after Baghdad seized the disputed northern city.
If 2014 was "the black year" with the flight of the bishop, priests and faithful following the rise of the Islamic State (IS, ex Isis), then 2019 will be the year "of our rebirth, of pastoral and social challenges, of the return of the refugees," says Fr. Paul Thabit Mekko, the head of the Christian community in Karamles, on the Nineveh plain, in northern Iraq.
The Assyrian community, a Christian group concentrated in southeastern Turkey, has seen its numbers rise again in recent years with those who emigrated to other cities and countries returning. In Mardin, the centuries-old hometown of the ancient community, those who left years ago amid lack of security and economic prospects have started returning home in the past fifteen years.
Construction of the first-ever church built in Republican-era Turkey will begin at the end of the February, said an official in Turkey's largest metropolis on Tuesday. The paperwork has been done and a permit issued, Bulent Kerimoglu, the mayor of Istanbul's Bakirkoy municipality, told reporters while meeting with Yusuf Cetin, the Syriac Orthodox Church's metropolitan for Istanbul and the capital...
In a move described as an insult to Iraq's history, several churches have been put up for sale to be converted into commercial or residential units. Joseph Saliwa, a Christian who formerly served in parliament, accused the Christian clergy of being complicit in the "sale and destruction of churches in Iraq.
Kurdish security forces in Erbil are continuing to torture children to confess their involvement with Islamic State, according to allegations in a report released by Human Rights Watch. According to the organisation, which first raised the alarm about the mistreatment of child detainees by Kurdish security forces nearly two years ago, it has collected claims of the continued regular use of...
AMMAN -- Growing numbers of Christians in North America and Europe are joining Christians in Syria's northeast in expressing concern for the future of religious minorities and Kurds in that region should the U.S. give Turkey the "green light" to take over the fight against Islamic State.
Turkey is recruiting and retraining Isis fighters to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-Isis source. "Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the YPG [People's Protection Units] are Isis, though Turkey has trained them to change their assault tactics," said Faraj, a former Isis fighter from north-east Syria who remains in close touch...
(AINA) -- An estimated 20,000 Assyrian refugees celebrated Orthodox Christmas in Beirut, where they have sought refuge after fleeing Iraq. The population of Assyrians in Iraq has declined precipitously, from 1.4 million in 2003 to about 300,000 today.
The Assyrian Policy Institute has obtained a letter dated December 22, 2018 signed by Shabak MP Qusay Abbas Mohammed which calls for the distribution of public lands in Hamdaniya District in the Nineveh Plain to Shabak families. The letter was signed by an additional 58 members of parliament and has alarmed members of the local Assyrian community who fear demographic change in the region.
On January 2, 2018, Judge Goldsmith from the federal court in Michigan ordered the release of Assyrian (also known as Chaldean or Syriac) Christian detainees who had been held for deportation. In his decision, the judge cited that the country conditions in Iraq precluded the possibility of returning the refugees to their homes safely.
Berlin (AINA) -- By an overwhelming majority, the German parliament (Bundestag) passed a symbolic and long overdue resolution on Thursday, June 2, 2016, recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman government as a genocide.
(AINA) -- When speaking about the Ottoman Empire and Turkey today, it is not their contribution to civilization that comes to mind. Instead it is human rights violations, confiscation of land and property, genocide and genocide denials that are most frequently discussed in the public discourse. Today's Turkey is still far from being ruled by democratic principles.
(AINA) -- Much has been swirling around on social media about an EU Conference (AINA 2017-06-24) organized by Swedish MEP Lars Adaktusson alongside sponsors such as Demand For Action. No sooner had I heard about it did I also see that it had been boycotted by the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) and the Chaldean Church, together with various other Assyrian parties and organizations, including...
(BBC) -- Eastern Turkey had a large and thriving community of Christians a little over 100 years ago, but since then most have been dispersed or killed. The BBC's Eli Melki went to look for traces of a relative, who was martyred at the age of 33. One evening in June, I sat in the sunset among the Roman ruins of Zirzawan hill, in south-east Turkey.
Dere, North Iraq -- Mar Odisho Monastery, dating back to the fourth century, still serves the Assyrian community in the tiny village of Dere just four kilometers east of the ancient town of Amedi in Duhok province. Father Elias Daud, born in Dere in 1935 but raised in Baghdad, returned to the village in 1973. He's been leading services and taking care of the monastery for the past 30 years.