Hundreds of civilians, including Christians, were "indiscriminately" massacred last Friday (7th March) in north-west Syria, aggravating the existing fear and uncertainty in the country, according to local sources.
A Sweden-based Christian human rights watchdog on Monday reported that at least four Christians have been killed and several Christian villages evacuated due to recent violence in western Syria. "These massacres that unfolded [in regions along] Syria's [western] coast, while primarily targeting Alawites, who suffered the most casualties, also led to the killing of Christians," said the director...
Washington -- In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nation's leading advocacy organization for Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East, condemns in the strongest terms the systematic massacre of religious minorities in Syria by various Islamist factions affiliated with the group formerly known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now known as the Syrian transitional government.
In recent days, Syria has witnessed a dangerous escalation of violence, brutality, and killings, resulting in attacks on innocent civilians, including women and children. Homes have been violated, their sanctity disregarded, and properties looted--scenes that starkly reflect the immense suffering endured by the Syrian people.
Baghdad -- The imminent inauguration of a Church in Ur of the Chaldeans, four years after the visit of Pope Francis, is a "message" and a sign of "openness", this according to Card Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans.
If you're a fan of ancient history, I heartily recommend the Lost Civilizations series published by the University of Chicago Press through its Reaktion Books imprint, which I first encountered via Frances F. Berdan's outstanding 2021 volume on the Aztecs. The latest entry is The Assyrians, by British Museum Mesopotamia expert Paul Collins (who also wrote the Sumerian entry back in 2021).
Something wonderful happened as Iraqi and University of Pennsylvania archaeologists worked to undo the devastation inflicted by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) in two Gulf Wars. Excavating in Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian capital, in what is now Northern Iraq, they discovered 2,700-year-old sculpted marble reliefs depicting the reign of King Sennacherib.
Marking 10 years since ISIS swept into Mosul and the towns of the Nineveh Plain, EWTN News, in collaboration with its sister agency covering the Middle East and North Africa, ACI MENA, has released a documentary delving into the roots of Christianity in Iraq, its history dating back nearly 2,000 years, and how Christians there have survived despite attempts to erase their presence.
(AINA) -- Assyrian leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm on escalating human rights violations in Iraq and Syria, where forced displacement, systemic discrimination, and cultural erasure continue unabated. As political disenfranchisement and targeted violence drive Assyrians from their ancestral lands, the urgent need for intervention grows stronger.
On Feb. 6, President Donald Trump issued an executive order on "eradicating anti-Christian bias," ushering in a new task force to revoke policies aimed at oppressing America's Christians. Since introducing the executive order, Trump has faced backlash for the decision's potential to "misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani reaffirms his commitment to promoting peaceful coexistence and interfaith harmony among all communities in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. On Monday, the Kurdistan Region Presidency released a statement detailing Barzani's meeting with a delegation from the Iraqi diaspora in the United States, led by Martin Manna, the President of the Chaldean-American...
This 3,000-year-old artifact has turned the world of archaeological understanding on its head - or at least, that's what social media would have us believe. Housed in the British Museum's Northwest Palace collection, an intriguing Assyrian relief has sparked intense debate about ancient underwater capabilities that would make modern diving pioneers question everything they thought they knew about...
(AINA) -- Assyrian leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm on escalating human rights violations in Iraq and Syria, where forced displacement, systemic discrimination, and cultural erasure continue unabated. As political disenfranchisement and targeted violence drive Assyrians from their ancestral lands, the urgent need for intervention grows stronger.
(AINA) -- Professor Mikhail Davidov has died at the age of 77 in Moscow. Dr. Davidov was an oncology surgeon and a member of the the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was born on October 11, 1947 in the Ukrainian city of Konotop, Sumy region, a descendant of Assyrian refugees from the Gawar region in southeast Turkey.
(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- 'Syria is free'; thus screamed the Syrians as they celebrated the tumbling down of the criminal regime during a whole week. Thousands, even millions, of Syrians strolled the streets of the entire major cities of Syria. They were from all societal segments, strata, trends, genders, religious beliefs and non-religious ones, convictions, sects, confessions, parties, and orientations.
(AINA) -- The collapse of the Syrian regime has added yet another chapter to the cycle of deep crises that perpetually plague the Middle East. Yet, these devastations increasingly render ancient peoples, burdened by the weight of historical memory, invisible.
If you're a fan of ancient history, I heartily recommend the Lost Civilizations series published by the University of Chicago Press through its Reaktion Books imprint, which I first encountered via Frances F. Berdan's outstanding 2021 volume on the Aztecs. The latest entry is The Assyrians, by British Museum Mesopotamia expert Paul Collins (who also wrote the Sumerian entry back in 2021).
This 3,000-year-old artifact has turned the world of archaeological understanding on its head - or at least, that's what social media would have us believe. Housed in the British Museum's Northwest Palace collection, an intriguing Assyrian relief has sparked intense debate about ancient underwater capabilities that would make modern diving pioneers question everything they thought they knew about...