For most Western readers, a glimpse of the city of Mosul, Iraq, reveals nothing short of complete devastation. A great majority of the once-thriving Christian population in the city remain exiled, in fear of a resurgence of Islamic terror.
A melody is slowly quieting in Turkey. For centuries, the soft chanting of psalms flowed across churches flooded with worshipers. They knelt in prayer, their petitions floating like the incense which enveloped them. Candles were lit as they exited, a reminder of Christ's light to the world. This is the country where the New Testament church came to life.
Groups representing Christians in northeast Syria are appealing for prayer, fearful that Turkey plans to make good its numerous threats to invade the region with its military forces. Since November 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch a large military operation east of the Euphrates River to "clear Kurdish terrorists" from the area.
At the invitation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Mar Louis Raphael Sako, the annual Chaldean Synod was held at the Patriarchal summer headquarters, Ankawa, Erbil, Iraq, from 3 to 10 August 2019, attended by Bishops from the dioceses of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, America, Canada and Australia.
Jimmy Aldaoud, a 41-year-old Chaldean Catholic, was deported from the US in June. Last week he was found dead on the streets of Baghdad. According to US law, there was a prima facie case for his deportation: Aldaoud had an extensive criminal record, involving multiple convictions.
House Democrats urged President Donald Trump to stop deporting Iraq nationals on Tuesday after a deported Michigan man died last week of a diabetic crisis. In a letter signed by dozens of Democrats, the lawmakers expressed their "outrage and grief" over the death of Jimmy Aldaoud, a Michigan man who died last Tuesday after being deported to Iraq in June.
California's Jewish population does not exist, a new state-mandated ethnic studies curriculum for high school students implies. The draft curriculum being considered by the California Department of Education ignores Jews as a minority group.
Jimmy Al-Daoud is dead. An Iraqi refugee and Chaldean Christian whose family fled to Detroit when he was less than a year old, Al-Daoud was deported in June and died on the streets of Baghdad. He was 41 years old. Al-Daoud's death was unnecessary. His family said he was bipolar, schizophrenic, and diabetic.
You've seen the video, or maybe thumbnails of the video. It features a Michigan man speaking directly to a camera, pleading to come home. I begged them, I said 'please, I've never seen that country, I've never been there.' They forced me. I'm here now." Jimmy Al Daoud said in a video that's gone viral.
BAGHDAD -- The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced July 18 new sanctions on four Iraqi citizens, including Rayan al-Kildani, head of the Christian minority's Babylonian Brigades, and Waad Qado, head of the Shabak minority's Brigade 30 -- two influential armed factions in the Ninevah Plains.
Hundreds of thousands of innocent Assyrians were brutally murdered by political and religious extremists, wiping out two-thirds of the Assyrian population by 1934. Between 1914 and 1934, there were two genocides against the Assyrian people in the Middle East. The first occurred during World War I, committed by the Ottoman Young Turks, who killed over 700,000 Assyrians.
In Syria's northeast, in Qamishli, al-Hasakah, and other cities and their surrounding villages, a renaissance is under way in the area's beleaguered Syriac Christian community, which is attempting to revive the Syriac language and culture after decades of neglect and oppression.
(AINA) -- A report published by the Assyrian Policy Institute "provides a summary of five major events in modern history during which Assyrians were subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing: The Massacre of Assyrians at Hakkari (1843); the Assyrian Genocide (1914-1923); the Simele Massacre (1933); the Soriya Massacre (1969); and the more recent genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns at the...
(AINA) -- Several large fires have broken in six Assyrian villages and their surroundings in Turkey. The villages are Elbeğendi, Güzelsu, Dibek, Üçköy, Üçyol and Dağiçi. The fires have threatened an Assyrian monastery. Assyrians in the villages suspect arson.
(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.
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.
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 Aksaray Malaklısı -- the largest of the Anatolian sheep dogs, also known as the Turkish mastiff or Anatolian Lion -- was used a war dog by the Assyrians 2,000 years ago, according to a Turkish breeders association. The Aksaray Malaklısı Breed Improvement Association (AKMID) said Sunday that the dog breed is one of the oldest in the world, and has a 3,500-year-long history in Anatolia.
According to a newly translated cuneiform tablet, ancient Babylonian astronomers were the first to use surprisingly modern methods to track the path of Jupiter. The purpose of four ancient Babylonian tablets at the British Museum has long been a historical mystery, but now it turns out that they describe a method that uses figures on a graph to calculate the motion of Jupiter.