"Change is in the air" in Aleppo as people "seem to show greater confidence" following the advance of the Syrian army, which is now in "full control of the highway that connects the city to Damascus," said Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo.
The United Nations heritage agency said on Monday that it will start the reconstruction of Mosul's Syriac Catholic Al Tahera Church destroyed by ISIS, which was known to be a symbol of the city's rich diversity. The church was severely damaged by the insurgents during the battle for the northern Iraqi city that was seized back by government forces in December 2017.
(AINA) -- Several news agencies in Iran have published a story claiming that Assyrians are "indebted to General Soleimani" for his help in securing the release of Assyrians captured in Syria by ISIS in 2015. The Fars News Agency (FNA) has a story with the headline Senior MP: Assyrian Society Indebted to General Soleimani.
The Syrian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday that called for the recognition and condemnation of the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Syriacs that took place in the early part of the 20th Century.
The Assyrian Policy Institute is deeply concerned by the indictment of Assyrian Priest Sefer Aho Bileçen (who leads Mor Yacoub Syriac Orthodox Monastery) on terrorism charges in Turkey. He was formally indicted on January 16, 2020, however, Turkish authorities withheld the information until February 8, 2020.
BEIRUT -- In a private meeting with Pope Francis, Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East had an opportunity to sound the alarm regarding the survival of Christians in the region as a result of persecution, extremism, economic insecurity and immigration to the West.
Christians in Iraq are continuing to flee the country even though the violence has slowed. According to The Christian Post, families are choosing to leave the country that they say is becoming a "land of militias." "They feel there is no peace, law or justice here in Baghdad, and that our country has become a land of militias," the parish priest, Father Nadheer Dako, told The Telegraph.
Wissam Ablahad (26) is a Syriac Orthodox young man who lives with his parents and two siblings in the township of Ba'ashiqah, on the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. Wissam and his family, like many thousands of Christian families who live on the Nineveh Plains, fled the 2014 ISIS invasion of the region and spent several years living in Erbil, Kurdistan.
In northeastern Syria, the Christian minority is caught in the crossfire. When Turkey launched Operation "Peace Spring" against Kurdish YPG fighters on the Turkish-Syrian border last October 9, Christians found themselves surrounded by fighting. Turkish forces and their allies took control of a handful of predominantly Christian villages in the Khabur Valley.
Iraq must preserve its "unity" in the "diversity of its components" and their "multiplicity", although in recent years "most political parties" have fueled and sharpened "sectarianism and fragmentation" writes the Chaldean primate Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako.
WASHINGTON -- Persecuted Iranian Christian Dabrina Bet Tamraz vividly remembers the day that her family's church was shut down. The day was Monday, March 30, 2009, when her family home received a phone call from the government demanding that her father, Victor Bet Tamraz -- the pastor of an Assyrian Pentecostal congregation in Tehran -- meet at his church.
The New Year opened with an unexpected airstrike in Baghdad that substantially changed the tenor throughout Iraq, thrusting the Nineveh Governorate into a fresh state of uncertainty that many expect will continue for months, if not years.
(AINA) -- Several news agencies in Iran have published a story claiming that Assyrians are "indebted to General Soleimani" for his help in securing the release of Assyrians captured in Syria by ISIS in 2015. The Fars News Agency (FNA) has a story with the headline Senior MP: Assyrian Society Indebted to General Soleimani.
(AINA) -- Most countries of the Middle East, are undergoing difficult political circumstances, and these circumstances affect public security and reflect the transgressions of civil and human rights by their non-democratic governments; governments that control the people of these countries, especially the oppressed indigenous peoples in the region.
Chicago (AINA) -- In September of 2014, Attorney Robert DeKelaita was indicted for helping a handful of Assyrian (also known as Chaldean or Syriac) asylum seekers obtain asylum. The government, represented by the US Attorney's Office, alleged that the means used to obtain asylum for the handful of the witnesses chosen to testify against DeKelaita was fraudulent.
(AINA) -- On May 4-5 the Salahaddin University in Erbil, Iraq and the French Institute of the Near East (IFPO) organized a workshop titled Christianity in Iraq at the turn of Islam. Its aim was to discuss important institutional changes for Christians in areas of the collapsed Persian Empire and retreated Byzantine Empire which were conquered by Muslims.
During the years of World War I 75% (750,000) of the Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire was systematically murdered. That genocide of Assyrians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is a fact, but it has largely been forgotten by the world.
(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.
(CNN) -- To trace the origins of the David Gareja monastery complex, a series of nearly 30 frescoed monasteries hewn into sandstone, you have to time travel to the sixth century AD, when the Holy Assyrian Father St. David broke ground here to establish an order of Christian monks.
Assyria Township, Michigan -- Assyria Township is the least assessed, lowest taxed township in Barry County, according to township Supervisor Mike Timmons. "We primarily dig holes to bury people," Timmons said during Monday's board meeting. "We facilitate voting and facilitate tax paying and that's about it.