Alabama has officially become the 49th U.S. state to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Governor Kay Ivey issued a powerful proclamation recognizing the Ottoman Turkish Empire's centrally-planned and executed annihilation of close to three million Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Syriacs from 1915-1923, according to the Armenian National Committee of America -- Eastern Region (ANCA-ER).
(AFP) -- Over 2,000 artifacts, including about 100 that were looted and found abroad, were unveiled Tuesday in a museum in Basra province on the southern tip of Iraq, authorities said. On Tuesday between 2,000 and 2,500 pieces went on display in the Basra Museum, the second largest in Iraq, said Qahtan al-Obeid, head of archeology and heritage in the province.
To reach her home, Ms Vaic, a 90-year-old woman from Turkey's northeast Black Sea region, must climb a steep hill to the village of Xigoba, where she lives in a traditional wooden house. Here in the hills of Hopa, the traditional language spoken by the people is Homshetsi. It is one of many endangered languages in the country and speaking it is dear to Ms Vaic's heart.
Catholic prelates in Syria, accompanied by Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, president of Caritas Internationalis, visited the eastern Ghouta region outside of Damascus and saw "unspeakable suffering". "In every face, mostly the children" was a "very confused" expression, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan said.
Will the Middle East's shattered Christian villages, towns and cities somehow retain their religious and cultural heritage -- which dates back to the first century? No one knows for sure, but due to Iranian aspirations, the answer is far from encouraging. In November 2014, I visited the devastated survivors of Islamic State's genocide who were sheltering in Erbil, Kurdistan (Iraq).
Damascus (AFP) -- Syrian government forces will reclaim control of northeastern areas controlled by the US-backed Kurds, whether by force or through reconciliation, the defence minister warned Monday. Marginalised for decades, Syria's minority Kurds have carved out a de-facto autonomous region across some 30 percent of the nation's territory since the devastating war broke out in 2011.