Erbil, Iraq -- Opposition parties in Iraq's Kurdish region have rejected the final results of the September 30 parliamentary elections. After a delay of three weeks, the regional election commission announced late on Saturday that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won the most votes in the elections, securing 45 out of the 111 seats in the local parliament.
(Xinhua) -- The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has won the most seats in the Sept. 30 parliamentary elections of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Around midnight Saturday, the Kurdish Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission (IHERC) announced the final results, which showed the KDP, headed by Masoud Barzani, took the lead with 45 seats of the 111-seat...
(AFP) -- Russia's defence minister said on Saturday that almost 88,000 rebels had been killed in Syria in the three years since Moscow's intervention to back government forces. "Over the course of the operation, a total of more than 87,500 rebels have been eliminated, 1,411 settlements have been liberated and more than 95 percent of Syria's territory," Shoigu was quoted as saying at a forum in...
An ivory tablet dating back 3,200 years was found in eastern Turkey's Malatya province, giving clues on a potential link between Assyria and the region, the head of an excavation team said. "The ivory tablet is a very important finding, as it was found for the first time here," the head of an excavation team and professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, Marcelle Frangipane, told Anadolu...
The government formation inched further along Thursday, with President Michel Aoun telling journalists that the government "is around the corner," even as another obstacle surfaced over the Armenian sect's representation in the new Cabinet. At the same time, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea expressed skepticism, admitting that problems still need to be ironed out.
After an Iraqi cardinal said Tuesday that the U.S. government has "done nothing" to aid beleaguered Christians in his country, a Trump administration official on Wednesday insisted that "the U.S. is helping a tremendous amount, by any measure.
GENEVA (AP) -- A U.N. humanitarian aid official said Thursday that Syria's government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled the country's civil war, calling it a good sign that "diplomacy can win -- even in Syria." Jan Egeland said he was told of the decision by Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In September of 2008 I went to Syria for a few weeks. I only had two contacts in the country, and one of them was F, a middle class Christian and the prominent owner of local bakeries and a local pizzeria who lived in Syria's Western province of Latakia. I had never met F before, but according to friends at the University of Leuven, F would most likely be willing to take me in for a few days.
ROME (AP) -- A senior American diplomat briefed the leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholics on U.S. development aid Wednesday after the cardinal accused the United States of failing to help rebuild Christian villages devastated by the Islamic State group.
At last, after months of deadlock following national elections in May, Iraq is on its way to a new government. The president, Barham Saleh, and prime minister, Adil Abdul Mahdi, are both veteran Iraqi politicians known as technocrats and reformers.
Christianity has been around in Iraq for approximately 2,000 years -- one of the oldest Christian heritages. However, Iraqi Christians are teetering on the knife's edge of extinction, according to Chaldean Archbishop Habib Nafali of Basra. The Archbishop suggests that all it would take is one more wave of persecution to wipe out Christianity from the country entirely. It's not hard to imagine.
The United States has warned of a heightened risk of countries attacking one another over the war in Syria, where recent international incidents have raised new concerns that a wider conflict could be sparked. U.S. Special Representative for Syrian Engagement James Jeffrey recounted to reporters on Wednesday "five examples of state-on-state violence" over the past six weeks in Syria.
Berlin (AINA) -- In a letter sent to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Nechirvan Barzani on October 4th, 2018, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the Assyrian Federation in Germany and European Sections (ZAVD) urged Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to respect Assyrian rights and political participation in the KRG region and to give pro-active support for Assyrians...
(AINA) -- Father Athanasis Toma, who lives in Los Angeles, returned recently from a trip to Iraq, his country of origin. Fr. Athanasis is an Assyrian, a chorbishop in the Ancient Church of the East, with a diocese in San Fernando, CA. Fr.
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...
Baghdad -- It does not seem that the 3,000-year-old Royal Library of Ashurbanipal in Mosul will reopen soon, even though international institutions and universities pledged to donate hundreds of titles to the project. This library was one of the victims of the war and the fighting between the Islamic State and the Iraqi forces and Popular Mobilisation Forces. The library stopped operating in 2014.
Early in the eighth century b.c.e., the nation of Assyria was weak politically and militarily. It was under the dominion of its northern neighbor, Urartu. When a weak king came to power in Urartu in 746--745 b.c.e., Assyria rebelled and a new ruler emerged. Pulu (or Pul) assumed the name Tiglath-Pileser iii after one of Assyria's greatest kings.