The Destruction of Assyrian Graves in Iraq: Causes, Motives, and Future Risks
By Ablahad Hanna Saka
Cemeteries are sacred spaces of peace and dignity -- places meant to preserve and honor a human being after death. Yet the recurring violations against and desecrations of Christian graves in various parts of Iraq -- from Mosul to Najaf and even Armota in the Kurdistan Region -- have reopened a deep wound regarding the status of Christians, their rights, and the level of social tolerance toward...
Metin Rhawi is a Swedish-Assyrian political and human rights advocate committed to advancing democracy, coexistence, and justice for persecuted minorities in the Middle East. As a leading representative of the European Syriac Union, he has long worked on international advocacy for Assyrian Christians and other vulnerable communities.
Anitli, a charming Assyrian heritage village located about 30 kilometers from Midyat in Turkey's southern Mardin Province, has been named one of the United Nations World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) "Best Tourism Villages 2025.
Armota, Iraq -- The town of Armota, a predominantly Assyrian community in the Koy Sanjaq (Koya) district of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), has been targeted by yet another assault on its historical and religious heritage.
In the heart of North and East Syria's Jazira Canton (Cizîrê), on the main street of Al-Hasakah (Hesekê), there is a small shop where the moment you step inside the scent of the past wraps around you. Shelves, walls and even the floor are crowded with hundreds of objects. Kurdish kilims sit beside Armenian copper trays. Arab pottery stands next to Yazidi symbols.
(AINA) -- The recent completion of Dr. Sabro Bengaro's doctoral dissertation, Germany's Islamic Strategy During the First World War and the Impact of the Jihad Declaration on the Assyrian Genocide of 1915, marks a significant milestone for both Assyrian scholarship and the global pursuit of recognition for the Seyfo genocide.
Dayro Zcuro, North and East Syria -- Along the banks of the Euphrates River stretches Deir ez-Zor Province, a region with an ancient history marked by the succession of Mesopotamian and Roman civilizations, and later modern Syrian cultures.
Dyana Dawood is of Assyrian background, and at just four years old she left Mosul with her family, fleeing the violence and instability that had devastated her city. They moved to Jordan, where she discovered football playing with neighborhood kids, often being the only girl among them.
The online dictionaries hosted at assyrianlanguages.org are among the most enduring community projects dedicated to the preservation of Assyrian heritage. Conceived in France by the Association Assyrophile de France (AAF), the association began with the digitization of printed resources and gradually expanded into two major online tools: first the Akkadian--French/English dictionary, and later the...
The British Museum is well placed to refer to the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal as "one of the most important" archaeological finds of all time. Almost everything we know about the Assyrian Empire comes from the library's 30,000 or so cuneiform tablets. The empire is one of the oldest known civilizations on the planet. Founded sometime during 14th century B.C.E.
(AINA) -- Assyrian identity is not a passing affiliation or a distant historical memory; it is a living, evolving project that carries within it thousands of years of civilization, knowledge, resilience, and renewal.
(AINA) -- The recent decision by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of the Region of North and East Syria (DAARNES) to officially incorporate the Assyrian language into its website marks a significant milestone for cultural representation, linguistic rights, and digital inclusion.
(AINA) -- Dr. Sabro Bengaro is the Director of the Assyrian Genocide Research Center. His recently completed dissertation, titled Germany's Islamic Strategy During the First World War and the Impact of the Jihad Declaration on the Assyrian Genocide of 1915, at the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas, examines, among other things, the German Empire's Islamic...
(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.
We think of ancient civilisations as operating very differently from the way our economy works today. Yet the Bronze Age Assyrians living in Mesopotamia, around 4,000 to 3,000 years ago, began the basis of modern capitalism, in a region spanning most of modern-day Iraq, eastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. The Assyrian empire was the root of what many scholars would now call "the West".