Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent interview with Patrick Bet-David on August 26 declared that Israel had recognised the Armenian genocide. "I think we have. I think the Knesset passed a resolution to that effect... I just did." As expected, his statement went viral. But it was not accurate.
In a striking statement that has reignited debate over the Sayfo Genocide against Armenians, Syriacs (Arameans-Chaldeans-Assyrians), and Greeks in 1915 by the hands of Ottoman Turks and Kurds, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country has reaped no tangible benefits from the growing international recognition of the tragedy.
On an otherwise quiet day in a small village in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, visitors encircle a small plot almost indistinguishable from the dust-brown earth around it, solemn and still. At the base of a mound of sand, a jagged slab of rock juts out of the ground, featuring the hand-painted date "1933" above the pale blue, four-pointed star of the modern Assyrian flag.
For over a century, the Assyrian people--an ancient indigenous community rooted in the heartlands of Mesopotamia (modern-day Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria)--have endured a haunting legacy of violence, displacement, and erasure. Their history is not marked by a single tragedy, but by a series of genocidal campaigns that have spanned through generations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, for the first time, publicly recognised the genocide carried out by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the early 20th century. Speaking during an interview on Tuesday with American podcaster Patrick Bet-David, Netanyahu was asked why Israel had yet to recognise these atrocities.
Parishioners from six churches in Suwayda, Syria, have been displaced in recent weeks, underscoring the mounting humanitarian crisis in the governorate, according to Greek (Rûm) Catholic Father Tony Boutros, pastor of Saint Philip's Church. The situation reflects the broader fragility and complexity of life in Suwayda, where security and humanitarian conditions are rapidly deteriorating.
When U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack recently suggested that the country may need to explore alternatives to an overly centralized state, his remarks reverberated beyond the halls of Daramsuq (Damascus).
LANSING, Michigan, USA -- The US city of Detroit, Michigan, is home to the world's largest concentrated Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian diaspora, numbering more than 160,000 people. On August 21, the Michigan House of Representatives approved legislation officially designating May as Chaldean American Month.
Sydney -- The French documentary Return to Babylon will be screened for Australian audiences at a cinema in Wetherill Park, Sydney, on Saturday evening, 23 August. Directed by French filmmaker Sébastien Daycard-Heid, the documentary explores Assyrian--Chaldean cultural heritage and the ties of the diaspora to their ancestral homeland.
Baghdad -- Joseph Sliwa, head of the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (Huyodo Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA) and former member of the Iraqi Parliament, has spoken out after being barred from contesting the upcoming parliamentary elections as a representative of the Chaldean--Syriac--Assyrian community.
Nohadra, Iraq -- The Simele massacre remains an open wound in the collective memory of the Chaldean--Syriac--Assyrian people. Since 1933, the tragedy has lived on in the hearts of descendants who hold annual memorials in churches, local communities, and international forums across Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) and the diaspora, continuing to call for official recognition by the international community...
Bet Zalin, North and East Syria -- A century ago, a city was built in the far northeastern corner of Syria, at the junction of the borders with Turkey and Iraq. What began as a small settlement on the banks of the Al-Jaghjagh River soon grew into a vibrant town, carrying within it a unique blend of authenticity and openness, and preserving the stories of diverse communities that found in it both...
(AINA) -- There were three Assyrian empires in BC times. The first was from 2000 BC to 1750 BC; the second was from 1365 BC to 1076 BC; the third and most famous and influential was called the Neo-Assyrian Empire, ruling from 911 BC to 609 BC. The following video from the History Time youtube channel presents the history of the neo-Assyrian empire. ...
(AINA) -- The following report by CBN addresses the issue of "protection" of Assyrians by the Kurdish regional government in north Iraq. ...
(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) -- 'Syria is free'; thus screamed the Syrians as they celebrated the tumbling down of the criminal regime during a whole week. Thousands, even millions, of Syrians strolled the streets of the entire major cities of Syria. They were from all societal segments, strata, trends, genders, religious beliefs and non-religious ones, convictions, sects, confessions, parties, and orientations.
(AINA) -- The collapse of the Syrian regime has added yet another chapter to the cycle of deep crises that perpetually plague the Middle East. Yet, these devastations increasingly render ancient peoples, burdened by the weight of historical memory, invisible.
What if I told you that the core principles driving blockchain technology were actually explored over 5,000 years ago? Not in Silicon Valley boardrooms, but in the dusty archives of ancient Mesopotamia. Sounds unlikely, so let me explain how it worked.
Perceptions of ancient Mesopotamia -- the birthplace of the world's first civilisations, which emerged more than 4,000 years ago across what is now Iraq -- are dominated by stories of divine kings, their monumental stepped ziggurats, and vast libraries brimming with forgotten knowledge.