(AINA) -- The Holy Cross Primary School in Wellington, New Zealand has begun teaching the Assyrian New Year (Akitu) to junior students as a subject through the Intensive Oral Language program to learn about the Assyrian culture, language and heritage. The school provides opportunities for children to learn about different cultures. The course on Akitu extends over two weeks.
Syria (AINA) -- Four Christian children and one woman were killed in a terrorist attack on the government controlled town of Suqaylabiyah, in the Hama province of Syria. The funeral service was held at the Syriac Orthodox Church. The names of the victims were Bashar, Angie, Suhel, Jessica and Hala. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Christian town.
(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.
Munich (AINA) -- A unique, disturbing and touching exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum under the title In the Crossfire: Christian Persecution in the Middle East drew attention to the sad reality of the persecution, suffering, fear and destruction of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa.
Augsburg, Germany (AINA) -- In a lecture at the Assyrian Mesopotamian Association of Augsburg on April 22nd to mark the commemorative event of the 104th anniversary of Assyrian Genocide, Mr. Abdulmesih BarAbraham examined a sociological aspect of genocide, how victims of genocide view themselves given their unique experience of mass murder.
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.