On September 14 each year, Greek communities worldwide commemorate the Greeks of Asia Minor who were murdered by the governments of the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal Pasha. This commemoration is part of the wider Greek Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman authorities and the Young Turks that targeted not only Asia Minor Greeks, but also Greeks in the Pontus region of the Black Sea and in Eastern...
Hatred against non-Muslims is so intense in Turkey that even the dead cannot escape it. A recent demonstration of this hostility took place in the Turkish capital of Ankara. Graves in an Armenian cemetery there were reportedly desecrated, according to the news website Bianet: The Armenian Stanoz Cemetery in Ankara’s Sincan district has been the target of treasure hunters for years.
When Mosul fell to the Islamic State in June 2014, its residents suddenly found themselves living in one of the most heinous regimes since Nazi Germany. Women and girls were openly sold into slavery on the main street next to the market, people were publicly beheaded, and others had their hands chopped off because they didn't pay their utility bills.
Baghdad -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and his government are trying to build "a strong state and army" to counter violence, corruption and force the country's militias "to hand over their weapons," said the Chaldean Patriarch, Card Louis Raphael Sako, speaking to AsiaNews.
Federal Senator for Western Australia, Louise Pratt has joined Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian calls for national recognition of the 1915 Genocide committed against their ancestors by the Ottoman Empire, by signing an Affirmation of Support backing the Joint Justice Initiative.
The restoration and rehabilitation of the Al-Tahera Church in the Old City of Mosul is well underway. In close coordination with UAE and local authorities, UNESCO concluded the first phase of activities by clearing the rubble and Unexploded ordnance, UXOs, from the complex as well as securing the project site for reconstruction.
Missiologists have long spoken of the explosive growth of the church in Iran. Now they have data to back up their claims--from secular research. According to a new survey of 50,000 Iranians--90 percent residing in Iran--by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based research group, 1.5 percent identified as Christian.
A new five-hour documentary series on the social impact of the Iraq War made for the BBC and PBS has been roundly criticized for entirely ignoring the plight of Iraq's persecuted Christians and other minorities. In an Aug.
Parts of Syria's north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have practiced religious freedom in recent years are reportedly again under attack by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters.
The Chair of the Australian Parliament's House of Representatives Standing Committees on Migration and Indigenous Affairs, Julian Leeser MP has signed an Affirmation of Support backing the Joint Justice Initiative for national recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides.
(AINA) -- Reflecting back to the 1950's much has changed in the last several decades. Today, we are able to freely share information, have numerous sources of entertainment and the human connection is all the ever closer. Growing up in the Northern Village of Lower Chaqala in Ashur Land ( Iraq ) -- province of Barwari Bala, books were rare, televisions and radio were a luxury.
A recent academic report entitled Inclusive Education for Religious Minorities: The Syriacs in Turkey evaluates how the country's education system impacts a group of Christians not officially recognized by the authorities. The report was published by Mardin Artuklu University, which is located in an area that historically has had a significant Syriac / Assyrian Christian population.
(AINA) -- Reflecting back to the 1950's much has changed in the last several decades. Today, we are able to freely share information, have numerous sources of entertainment and the human connection is all the ever closer. Growing up in the Northern Village of Lower Chaqala in Ashur Land ( Iraq ) -- province of Barwari Bala, books were rare, televisions and radio were a luxury.
(AINA) -- On the 87th anniversary of the massacre of Simmele, where the Iraqi Army systematically massacred the inhabitants of more than one hundred Assyrian villages in north Iraq, Joseph Yacoub, honorary Professor of political science at the Catholic University of Lyon, published an article in French titled Le drame des Assyro-Chaldéens ne commence pas aujourd'hui (the Drama of the...
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.
The Mongolian government on March 18 announced plans to restore the use of its traditional alphabet by 2025, replacing the Cyrillic script adopted in the 1940s under the Soviets in a move away from Russian influence. The Times of Australia reports that the Mongolian government will take transitional measures to prepare for the full restoration of the traditional alphabet.
For more than 2,500 years, giant human-made mounds of earth and stone, some as high as a six-story building, have stood in the southwestern suburbs of Jerusalem. Their purpose: unknown. Their origins: unclear. Their builders: hotly debated. The mounds are a familiar site to locals.