Chicago -- The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has officially approved the inclusion of the Assyrian Genocide after meeting the State's Social Science Standards, marking a significant step towards broader historical education in Illinois schools.
The so-called "12-Day War" has also caused concern and fear in Iraq. This was confirmed by the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, in a brief interview with Fides. The Iraqi Cardinal sees recent events as a further sign of the crisis in the international order.
A Chaldean archbishop told OSV News June 23 that he has been unable to contact his fellow bishop in Iran, following recent strikes by the U.S. and Israel on various sites in that nation. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar M. Warda of Irbil, Iraq, said he has been attempting to call fellow Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Imad Khoshabeh of Tehran over the past few days, but without success.
A suicide bombing by Islamic State (IS) targeting a church in Damascus has killed 20 people and wounded 52, Syrian authorities have said. The attack on Sunday night was the first major IS operation and the first suicide bombing in Syria since former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December and replaced by an Islamist-led government.
On June 13th and 14th, an international conference titled '1915-2025: 110 Years Since the Assyrian Genocide' was held in Athens. Many genocide scholars and historians spoke regarding the causes and consequences of the genocide, as well as how its denial by Turkey still affects Turkish politics, amongst other topics.
"It's amazing to see people living the Christian faith -- and especially when they don't have to." That's what Chaldean Paul Thabet Habib Yousif Al Mekko of Alqosh in Iraq told me during an interview two years ago. A soft-spoken man, he knew why he and his people were following Christ. They were given an ultimatum by ISIS: Convert or die.