WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A vote by the Iraqi parliament to expel American troops into the country is concerned about whether their absence will make minority communities vulnerable to attacks by the Islamic State.
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Michigan -- He has been the face of the Iraqi deportation fight here in metro Detroit. Now after a 2 1/2 year legal battle, a judge has ruled Sam Hamama can stay with his family in West Bloomfield. The 7 Investigators were the first to take you inside the lock-up facility where Hamama was being held back in 2017.
Since January 11, an elderly Assyrian Christian couple, Hurmuz Diril (71) and his wife Şimoni (65), have been missing from the Assyrian village of Mehr, Kovankaya in the province of Sirnak, in Turkey's southeast. In wintry, sub-zero conditions, their children, followed by military special units, have been searching for them. "We found out that my parents were missing when I and my relatives...
The main street of Tal Hafyan in Syria's northeast is as packed as ever, but almost no one is from here. "A local family? I think there's still one in that house but I couldn't tell," says a man among a group of five struggling to get a car out of the mud. Most of those here are displaced families from Ras al-Ayn, one of the Syrian locations under control of Turkey's proxy militias.
Security forces have stepped up a search operation for a couple belonging to the Chaldean Catholic minority group in Turkey's southeastern Şırnak province (story). No sight or sound have been caught of Hurmuz and Şimuni Diril, ethnic Assyrians living in the remote village Kovankaya near the town of Beytüşşebap, since Jan. 11.
They died as martyrs, killed in December 2016 by a gang of militiamen who had held them hostage for years. This is apparently the fate of the two Archbishops of Aleppo, the Greek Orthodox Boulos Yazigi and the Orthodox Syrian Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, who disappeared on April 22 without leaving a trace, in the area between the Syrian metropolis and the border with Turkey.
Patriarch Louis Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church took the unprecedented move of cancelling Christmas celebrations in Iraq, following the violence unleashed upon regime protesters in Baghdad and elsewhere that left hundreds dead. "Morally and spiritually," Cardinal Sako told Associated Press, "we cannot celebrate in such an atmosphere of tension ...
BAGHDAD -- In 2021, Iraqis will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Iraq. In light of the current major changes in Iraq, Iraqi Christians feel 2020 will be different. They welcomed the new year with a different spirit and unprecedented optimism.
A group of Italian archaeologists from the University of Udine in Italy has made significant progress at an ancient site in the Kurdistan Region's Duhok province. Il Giornale Dell'Arte published some photos of the excavation site on Tuesday, describing the recent progress as "extraordinary.
Istanbul -- Turkish authorities yesterday released the monk Sefer (Aho) Bileçen, from the church of Mor Yakup in the province of Mardin, detained for a few days on the charge - never officially formalized by the prosecutor's office - of "terrorism". In reality, the Assyrian priest had been targeted by security forces for sharing food [a piece of bread, ed.
Catholics, at least in theory, are supposed to have a special filter for viewing politics. That perspective is to be shaped primarily by the Church's social teaching, but also by other considerations, including how political choices may affect their brothers and sisters in the faith around the world.
Turkey on Tuesday released a Syriac priest days after his arrest for sharing food with a member of an outlawed Kurdish group, Euronews Turkish reported. Priest Sefer Bileçen was arrested on January 9 along with two other Christians in the country's southeast following an anonymous tip that they had shared food with a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at...
(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.
(AINA) -- According to an article published on a Polish language website, shop windows in a region dominated by Kurds in northern Iraq displayed footwear with a crucifix embossed on the sole. The shoes are sold, among others, in a center called "Mega Mall" in Erbil.
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.
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.
That moment in the earth's celestial orbit fast approaches whereby a family meeting is called at Casa della Kalimniou. The sole purpose of same is to allocate by means fair and consensual, the task of preparing the traditional sweets for the Christmas and New Year period.