Four Assyrian political parties in Iraq have issued a statement concerning encroachments on the lands of Bakhetme village in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The four parties, being the Bethnahrin Patriotic Union (Huyodo d'Beth Nahrain Athroyo, HBA), Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party, Assyrian Democratic Movement, and Assyrian Patriotic Party, declare that despite repeated appeals since 1992, the...
Assyrians in Iraq are still awaiting Baghdad's formal recognition of the 1933 Simmele massacre as a genocide, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Mar Awa III said on Sunday. Related: The 1933 Massacre of Assyrians in Simmele, Iraq In a speech following a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Simmele massacre, Awa III described violence...
In a solemn moment of remembrance in the town of Simmele, the laying of the foundation stone for the Assyrian Martyrs Monument brought renewed attention to the 1933 genocide, as the Assyrian Patriarch publicly thanked the Kurdistan Regional Government and President Masoud Barzani for supporting the project.
Not only war but also a U.S. prioritization of the Kurdistan Regional Government's stability over decades has accelerated the displacement of Assyrians. Churches remain open, Assyrians celebrate holidays publicly, and Kurdish officials highlight Assyrian neighborhoods as evidence of coexistence. Yet despite this visibility, Assyrian communities continue to shrink.
The foundation stone for a memorial commemorating the victims of the Simmele Massacre was laid this week in the town of Simmele, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), in a ceremony attended by senior Kurdish and Christian leaders.
In an era when history is increasingly consumed through short videos, algorithms and fleeting online trends, a group of young Assyrian activists in Germany is attempting something both ambitious and quietly radical: to restore a long-marginalized history to the digital public square, without mythmaking or ideology.