Discontent is growing among Iraq's Christian community. Many cite years of marginalization, poor services, and doubts over whether their parliamentary quota seats still truly represent them. Out of 329 total seats in the Iraqi Parliament, five are reserved for Christians, distributed across Baghdad, Nineveh, Kirkuk, Dohuk, and Erbil.
Church schools in northeast Syria will keep teaching the Syrian Ministry of Education curriculum after the Council of Churches and the Autonomous Administration's Education Authority reached an agreement, ending a dispute over education policy.
On 1 November 1849, in the city of Urmia in contemporary Iran, the first Assyrian-language newspaper in history, Zahrire d'Bahra "Rays of Light", was published. Printed in the Assyrian language, it covered a wide range of topics for many years.
The sounds of northern Syria came alive at the Damascus Opera House on Thursday evening, as musicians and vocalists from across the region blended Arabic, Kurdish, and Syriac folk traditions in a vibrant celebration of cultural diversity.
The future of Iraq's Nineveh province has been a subject of debate and competing initiatives since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Home to around 3.7 million people, Nineveh is Iraq's second most populous and third largest province. Often described as a miniature Iraq, it mirrors the country's ethnic and religious mosaic since the construction of the country by the British in the 1930s.
Representatives from Australia's leading Assyrian institutions met recently with Tony Burke MP, Minister for Home Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship, and Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, to discuss the ongoing humanitarian challenges facing displaced Assyrians in the Middle East.