This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, together with members of the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.
In the hours after the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) published a statement on Facebook, a message swirled across the internet: "The NPU is restored to its independent status." In reality, what unfolded on Oct. 20 is more complex. The NPU is an Assyrian fighting force, cobbled together in 2014 as locals volunteered to defend their towns from a surging Islamic State invasion.
Vienna -- In the hushed world of Assyrian (Syriac) manuscripts, where the faint ink of saints, poets, and scholars still murmurs through the centuries, damage is more than decay; it is silence. A tear in a vellum leaf, a page charred by humidity or neglect, is not simply a technical problem for preservationists.
Baghdad -- On Monday morning, October 20, 2025, Chaldean Patriarch Mar Louis Raphaël Sako welcomed Dr. Margarete Van Ess, head of the German Archaeological Mission in Najaf, along with Dr. Mohammed Hadi Badan, Director of the Najaf Antiquities and Heritage Inspectorate, and their accompanying delegation, at the Patriarchal Residence in Mansour, Baghdad (Baghdeda).
ARBO, Tur Abdin -- The Assyrian village of Arbo in Tur Abdin is getting its original Assyrian name back. The renaming comes after villagers submitted an official request to the municipality of Nsibin (Nusaybin) to change the name of their village from the imposed Turkish name, Tasköy, to the original Assyrian name, Arbo, states Assyrian member of the Turkish parliament George Aryo (mandatory...
Nineveh Plains is considered one of the most sensitive and complex regions in Iraq, both politically and in terms of security, due to the diversity of its ethnic and religious components -- including Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, Shabaks, Yezidis, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Kakais -- in addition to its strategic geographic location between Mosul and the Kurdistan Region.