Celebrations for Akitu, the Babylonian-Assyrian New Year have been cancelled in Iraq due to the ongoing war in the region, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) announced Saturday. This year's Akitu comes amid near-daily drone and missile attacks across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, as the country has been subjected to attacks from both sides of the US-Israel war with Iran.
Suqaylabiyah, Syria (AP) -- An argument between two men in a Christian town in central Syria led to sectarian attacks that caused widespread damage to homes, shops and cars in a reminder of religious violence that followed the fall of longtime leader Bashar Assad two years ago.
Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Syriac Orthodox, has joined the campaign calling for the recognition of the Syriac language and urged its adoption as an official language in Syria.
Tel Tamar, Syria -- Flooding in Hasakah province has become an urgent test of the response capabilities of local authorities and the Syrian Ministry of Disasters and Emergencies, as affected residents search for temporary shelter and call for long-term solutions to prevent recurring crises.
Armenia is the most homogenous country in the post-Soviet world, with 98% of its citizens identified as ethnic Armenians. Nevertheless, other ethnic groups live in the country, including Russians, Kurds, Greeks, Jews, Ukrainians and Assyrians. Assyrians are indigenous to Mesopotamia, where they have lived for thousands of years.
Chaldean Catholics were surprised this month, when the Eastern Catholic Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako saw his resignation accepted March 10 by Pope Leo XIV. Sako told Catholics that he had resigned "so that I could devote myself quietly to prayer, writing, and simple service.
Beirut -- As part of ongoing efforts to preserve the identity of younger generations and strengthen their connection to their cultural roots, renewed attention is being given to teaching the language of their ancestors -- the Syriac language.
The Indian Consulate in Arba'ilo (Erbil) hosted a meeting on Tuesday between Mar Awa III and the Consul General of the Republic of India, Brijesh Kumar, as part of efforts to strengthen dialogue and enhance joint cooperation. The meeting addressed the broader situation in the Middle East amid escalating security and humanitarian challenges.
A leading scholar from the University of Customs and Finance in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, Professor Dr. Artur Margulov appeared recently on the Assyrian think tank Platform Turabdin to share his extensive research into the harrowing and often overlooked history of the Assyrian minority in Ukraine and the broader Soviet space.
Omid, Turkey -- Kurdish filmmaker Rojhilat Aksoy is facing trial in Turkey on charges of "publicly insulting the Turkish nation and state institutions" after organizing a screening of the animated documentary film "Aurora's Sunrise," which addresses the events of the Assyrian Sayfo Genocide and Armenian Genocide of 1915.
Mehri, Sirnak, Turkey -- A major development has occurred in a 6-year-old mystery in southeastern Turkey, with a court ordering the arrest of the primary suspect in the disappearance of Hurmuz Diril. Apro Diril has been detained in connection with the case file regarding Hurmuz's disappearance, which has remained unsolved since his wife, Smuni Diril, was murdered under unexplained circumstances...
As many military analysts feared, the U.S. and Israeli air campaign over Iran has quickly broadened into a conflict that now engulfs much of the Persian Gulf and Holy Land regions. Iraqi Kurdistan has endured missile and drone attacks from Iranian or Iraqi proxy forces that have targeted the Erbil airport and the headquarters of a remnant U.S. military presence in Erbil.
Skokie, Illinois (AINA) -- A flag raising ceremony was held in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, with a population of 68,000, 25,000 of which are Assyrians. The Assyrian flag was added to the flags of other nations in Sculpture Park. The flag will be permanently displayed there. Skokie is referred to as Little Assyria.
(AINA) -- Dr. Sophia Isaac is a scholar, educator, and cultural advocate whose own life reflects the very journey she studies. Born in Urmia, Iran, and brought to the United States as a child before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, she grew up navigating the space between two identities--Assyrian heritage and American life.
(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) -- The security situation in northern Syria has reached a critical stage. What was previously described as allegations is now substantiated by multiple field reports and security assessments confirming the existence of established tunnel networks linking Syrian territory with both Iraq and Turkey.
(AINA) -- Iraq is being dismantled deliberately. This destruction is not the result of fate, historical inevitability, or the diversity of its people. It is the outcome of calculated decisions made by political elites who chose loyalty to power, parties, and foreign patrons over loyalty to the Iraqi nation.
Researchers are painstakingly reconstructing the oldest-known map of the night sky -- previously thought lost forever -- by X-raying parchment that contains the star catalog hidden beneath other text. The map of the cosmos is thought to be the work of the renowned ancient astronomer Hipparchus, who lived from around 190 to 120 BCE, long before the invention of the telescope.
Three hundred and fifty years separate us from the last medieval Maronite epigraph, that of Our Lady of Ilige dated 1277 and the new inscription, dated 1628, at Mar Chalita of Ghosta, which marks the beginning of a renaissance that Lebanon was to experience under Ottoman rule.