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78-592: The alliance was initially hailed as a major breakthrough for Iraqi Assyrians , believing that a uniting political force was needed to regain political representation. Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East , Awa III , noted the necessity of unity amongst Assyrian political parties, citing the Athra Alliance as a step in the right direction. The five parties that had joined the alliance originally convened to discuss

156-571: A Christian man was beheaded by a Salafi extremist in Mosul. On 2 August 2011 a Catholic church was bombed by Sunni extremists in the Turkmen area of Kirkuk, wounding more than 23 Christians. On 15 August 2011 a church was bombed by al-Qaeda in the center of Kirkuk. In 2014, during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive , the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) ordered all Christians in the area of its control, where

234-569: A Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad during Sunday evening Mass on 31 October, killing more than 60 and wounding 78 Iraqi Christians. In 2011, Islamist extremists assassinated Christians randomly using sniper rifles. Two months before the incident, two Christians had been shot for unknown reasons in Baghdad and two other Christians had been shot by Jihadis in Mosul. Human rights organizations have recorded 66 assault cases on churches and monasteries until 2012, as well as about 200 kidnappings. On 30 May 2011,

312-467: A better human rights situation overall in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Northern Iraq than exists elsewhere in the country" (AI 2000, 135; U.K. Immigration & Nationality Directorate Sept. 1999; USDOS 25 Feb. 2000) Also, according to the reports, "while freedom of speech, religion, movement, and press are strongly restricted throughout Iraq, these freedoms do exist to a certain extent in parts of

390-675: A commission appointed by the KDP but no results of the investigation were reported by year's end. There were also incidents of mob violence by Muslims against Christians in northern Iraq. Christian Assyrians were also targeted in a series of bombings in Erbil in 1998 to 1999, and Assyrian groups have criticized the KRG for the lack of investigation. According to the AINA, the KDP blockaded Assyrian villages in 1999 and "later entered

468-576: A leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement and an opponent of Saddam Hussein since 1979. Assyrians in post-Saddam Iraq have faced a high rate of persecution by fundamentalist Islamists since the beginning of the Iraq War . By early August 2004 this persecution included church bombings, and fundamentalist groups' enforcement of Muslim codes of behavior upon Christians, e.g., banning alcohol, forcing women to wear hijab . The violence against

546-586: A longer period received residence permits for humanitarian reasons. Södertälje is considered the unofficial Assyrian capital of Europe because of the city's high percentage of Assyrians. The Assyrian TV channels Suryoyo Sat and Suroyo TV are based in Södertälje . From 2005 to 2006 and since 2014, the Assyrian Ibrahim Baylan has been a minister in the Swedish government. About 8,000 Assyrians live in

624-1111: A major problem. Many Christians and Europeans regarded the Kurds as barbarians and a major threat, the French consul at Erzurum describing them as a blood-thirsty savage population which is used to plundering and a nomadic life. Kurds also played a major part in the Ottoman army, also through the Hamidiye. The Kurdish chieftain Bedr Khan during his rise to power massacred about 10,000 Assyrians in 1842. Nestorian tribes were massacred by Kurds in 1843. In 1915 Kurds massacred more than 27,000 Assyrians in Urmia region alone and destroyed more than 100 villages Assyrian villages in March 1915 alone. In 1916 Kurds and Turks massacred Assyrians in Bohtan region. Both Kurdish and Turkish nationalists deny

702-717: A process of " de-Baathification ". This process became an object of controversy, cited by some critics as the biggest American mistake made in the immediate aftermath of the Invasion of Iraq, and as one of the main causes in the deteriorating security situation throughout Iraq. Social unrest and chaos resulted in the unprovoked persecution of Assyrians in Iraq mostly by Islamic extremists (both Shia and Sunni ) and Kurdish nationalists (ex. Dohuk Riots of 2011 aimed at Assyrians & Yazidis ). Iraqi Christians have been victims of executions, forced displacement campaigns, torture, violence and

780-916: A region roughly corresponding with Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD. Assyrians are predominantly Christians ; most are members of the Assyrian Church of the East , the Ancient Church of the East , the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syriac Orthodox Church , the Syriac Catholic Church , the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and the Assyrian Evangelical Church . The terms "Syriac", "Chaldean" and "Chaldo-Assyrian" can be used to describe ethnic Assyrians by their religious affiliation, and indeed

858-655: A report by The World Directory of Minorities "Assyrians were unable to avoid the Kurdish conflict. As with the Kurds, some supported the government, others allied themselves with the Kurdish nationalist movement" (Minority Rights Group International 1997, 346). After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US and its allies , the Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded the Iraqi military, security, and intelligence infrastructure of former President Saddam Hussein and began

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936-620: A series of bombings in Erbil in 1998 to 1999, and Assyrian groups have criticized the KRG for the lack of investigation. According to the US Department of State the KDP blockaded Assyrian villages in 1999 and "later entered the villages and beat villagers". However, after invervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross the KDP left the villages again. An example of Kurdification

1014-528: A sizeable community is also found in Sydney, Australia. The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Ancient Assyria , one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia . Scholars have said that Kurds also fought against the Assyrian Christians because they feared that Armenians or their European allies could take control of

1092-553: Is the attack on the Assyrian town Rabatki in 2013 by General Aref al-Zebari and his brother Habib al-Hares Zabari, reportedly by Kurdish peshmerga soldiers. It has been reported that many Assyrian girls are forced into prostitution by Kurdish criminal organizations, and the families of these girls have also been threatened. In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need , bishop Jules Boutros, of

1170-608: The Assyrian Democratic Movement also took part in the liberation of the key oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul in the north, the Assyrians were not invited to join the steering committee that was charged with defining Iraq's future. The ethnic make-up of the Iraq Interim Governing Council briefly (September 2003 – June 2004) guiding Iraq after the invasion included a single Assyrian Christian, Younadem Kana ,

1248-534: The Bakhdida wedding fire , which occurred on September 26th, 2023. A public protest was organized demanding accountability and compensation, concerned with the Iraqi government's lack of credibility regarding investigations. The Athra Alliance's chosen candidates for the 2023 Iraqi governorate elections were Walentina William Youssef ( Kirkuk ), Sharara Yusuf Ishaq ( Baghdad ), and Ma'rib Imad Elias Hanno ( Nineveh ). During

1326-534: The Porte refused reforms and persisted in "maintaining a veritable regime of terror, arrests, assassinations and rape.". In 1924 the Muslim Kurds around Sheik Said "rose in revolt against the "atheist government of Ankara" and demanded autonomy, the restoration of religious laws and of the sultanate". In 1932 Iraqi forces commanded by Kurdish general Bakr Sidki killed 600 Assyrians at Simel, near Mosul. Kurds committed

1404-670: The Simele massacres of the 1930s also stimulated emigration . Additional emigration occurred in the 1980s, as Assyrian communities fled the violence of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran . During the 1990s and 2000s, Assyrians left the Middle East to evade persecution in Ba'athist Iraq and from Muslim fundamentalists. The exodus continued into

1482-531: The Syriac Catholic Church , said most young Syriacs were trying to get out of Iraq. "Most of our young people are trying to get out of Iraq and Syria. They find it difficult to stay in Iraq, because they have lost confidence in their government, they have faced so much persecution. More than 60,000 Syriacs were forced to leave the Nineveh Plain in one night. In total, more than 120,000 Christians were obliged to flee to Kurdistan, and from there they have been going to

1560-879: The Turkish towns of Midyat and Mardin in Tur Abdin . Most belong to the Syriac Orthodox Church, but some belong to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Their three main settlements are in the Brussels municipalities of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (where their municipal councilman, Christian Democrat Ibrahim Erkan, is originally from Turkey) and Etterbeek , Liège and Mechelen . Two more councilmen were elected in Etterbeek on October 8, 2006:

1638-718: The United Kingdom , primarily in London and Manchester . The first Assyrians arrived during the 1850s, most immigration began in the 1950s. In the 2016 census , 46,217 people identified themselves as having Assyrian ancestry, 0.13 percent of Australia's population. Of the Assyrians in Australia , 21,000 are members of the Assyrian Church of the East and 9,000 are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church . The City of Fairfield , in Sydney , has

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1716-572: The Victorian era , the Assyrian diaspora began in earnest during World War I (1914–1918) as the Ottoman Empire conducted both large scale genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Assyrian people with the aid of local Kurdish , Iranian and Arab tribes. This genocide was coordinated alongside the Armenian genocide , Greek genocide and Great Famine of Mount Lebanon . Further atrocities such as

1794-700: The 1980s and 1990s as refugees from the Kurdish–Turkish conflict . The first Assyrian migrants arrived in Greece in 1934, and settled in Makronisos (today uninhabited), Keratsini , Pireus , Egaleo and Kalamata . The vast majority of Assyrians (about 2,000) live in Peristeri , a suburb of Athens . There are five Christian Assyrian marriages recorded at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Athens in 1924–25 (the transcripts can be viewed on St. Paul's Anglican Church website), indicating

1872-615: The 20th century, many Assyrians arrived from Turkey seeking a better life. The first large wave arrived during the 1960s and 1970s as part of the gastarbeiter (guest worker) economic program. Germany was seeking immigrant workers (largely from Turkey) and many Assyrians, seeing opportunities for freedom and success, applied for visas. Assyrians began working in restaurants or in construction, and many began operating their own shops. The first Assyrian immigrants in Germany organized by forming culture clubs and building churches. The second wave came in

1950-626: The Americans. A total number of 239 similar cases were registered by police between 2007 and 2009. In 2008, a priest called Ragheed Ganni, was shot dead in his church along with three of his companions. In the same year, there were reports that Christian students were being harassed. In 2008, the charity Barnabas conducted research into 250 Iraqi Christian IDPs who had fled to the north of the country (Iraqi Kurdistan) to seek refugee status and found nearly half had witnessed attacks on churches or Christians, or been personally targeted by violence. In 2009,

2028-703: The Argentine Census does not ask for ethnicity. Furthermore, their assimilation rate is very high, as it happens with other Middle Eastern communities settled in the country. There is an Assyrian presence in Buenos Aires , La Plata , Córdoba , Salta and Frías . In the past, intellectuals like Farid Nazha went into exile in Argentina. Although 2,000 Assyrians are listed in Argentina, the actual number may be lower. Assyrians arrived in Belgium primarily as refugees from

2106-562: The Army of Justice" demanding that Christians "halt their religious rituals in churches and other worship places because they insulted Islam and Muslims." The Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy arose from a lecture delivered on 12 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in Germany . Many Islamic politicians and religious leaders registered protest against what they said

2184-464: The Assyrian village of Haftvan almost 1000 people were beheaded and 5000 Assyrian women were taken to Kurdish harems. In 1894, the French diplomat Paul Cambon described the creation of Kurdish Hamidies regiments as "the official organization for pillage at the expense of Armenian Christians ". In these places "the system of persecutions and extorsions became intolerable to populations who had become accustomed to their slavery". According to Cambon,

2262-862: The Assyrians formed their own militia, the Qaraqosh Protection Committee to protect Assyrian towns, villages and regions in the north. In 2008 the Assyrian Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul was assassinated by some Kurds while some have claimed assassins were hired by local Arab tribes. Rahho was a defender of Assyrian self-administration. Some observers have claimed that Kurdish KDP forces often used to practice their shooting on important Assyrian cultural heritage sites. Kurdish KDP security forces have been criticized for human rights abuses, abuses "ranged from threats and intimidation to detention in undisclosed locations without due process." In 2015,

2340-436: The Athra Alliance demanded the return of allocated minority seats in the parliament and boycotted the upcoming 2024 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election . Iraqi Assyrians 300,000 - 400,000 (pre 2014 Isis invasion ) Iraqi Assyrians ( Syriac : ܣܘܪ̈ܝܐ , Arabic : آشوريو العراق ) are an ethnic and linguistic minority group , indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia . They are defined as Assyrians residing in

2418-781: The Christian population decreased. During July 1933, about 800 armed Assyrians headed for the Syrian border, where they were turned back by the French. While King Faisal had briefly left the country for medical reasons, the Minister of Interior, Hikmat Sulayman , adopted a policy aimed at a final solution of the "Assyrian problem". This policy was implemented by an Iraqi-Kurd, General Bakr Sidqi . After engaging in several unsuccessful clashes with armed Assyrian tribesmen, on 11 August 1933, Sidqi permitted his men to attack and kill about 3,000 unarmed Assyrian civilian villagers, including women, children and

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2496-459: The Egyptian media picked up on the publication in late December 2005, violence and protests erupted around the world. On 29 January, six churches in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Kirkuk were targeted by car bombs, killing 13-year-old worshipper Fadi Raad Elias. No militants claimed to be retaliating for the pictures, nor was this the first time Iraqi churches have been bombed; but the bishop of

2574-453: The Iraqi Army had collapsed, to pay a special tax of approximately $ 470 per family, convert to Islam, or be killed. Many of them took refuge in nearby Kurdish-controlled regions of Iraq. After Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, the Assyrian Democratic Movement was one of the smaller political parties that emerged in the social chaos of the occupation. Its officials say that while armed members of

2652-484: The Iraqi city of Mosul issued a fatwa stating, "Expel the (Assyrian) Crusaders and infidels from the streets, schools, and institutions because they have offended the person of the prophet." It has been reported that Muslim students beat up a Christian student at Mosul University in response to the fatwa on the same day. On 6 February, leaflets were distributed in Ramadi , Iraq, by the militant group "The Military Wing for

2730-576: The Iraqi president, removed its official recognition of Louis Raphaël I Sako as the authority of the Chaldean Church, sparking protests amongst the Assyrian community in Ankawa . Additionally, the Babylon Brigade under the leadership of Rayan al-Kildani had stolen the political seats designated for Assyrians and Christians in Iraq in the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary election . In its message of founding

2808-471: The Kurd-controlled area "(USDOS 25 Feb. 2000). However, reports regarding isolated human rights abuses continued in 1999. The US State government reported that in 1999 Assyrian Christian Helena Aloun Sawa was murdered, and according to AINA, "the murder resembles a well-established pattern of complicity by Kurdish authorities in attacks against Assyrian Christians in the north". The murder was investigated by

2886-466: The Kurdish Muslims to fight a sacred war against Christian Syriac, Nestorian, Chaldean and Armenian people and ordered to massacre and annihilate them". Kurdish writers have recounted that "the Kurdish troops attacked the Assyrians and started slaughters. Consequently, a few Assyrians were killed, their villages were destroyed and set into fire... For the second time, in 1846, the Assyrians residing at

2964-410: The Kurdistan Regional Government reported that more than 40,000 Christians had moved from Baghdad, Basra and Mosul to the Iraqi Kurdistan cities. The reports also stated that the number of Christian families moving to Iraqi Kurdistan is growing and they were providing support and financial assistance for 11,000 of those families, and some are employed by the KRG. In 2010, Sunni Islamist groups attacked

3042-400: The Liberal Sandrine Es (whose family is from Turkey) and the Christian Democrat Ibrahim Hanna (from Syria's Khabur region). Flemish author August Thiry wrote Mechelen aan de Tigris ( Mechelen on the Tigris ) about Assyrian refugees from Hassana in the southeastern Turkish district of Silopi . Municipal candidate Melikan Kucam is one of them. In the October 14, 2012 municipal elections , Kucam

3120-419: The North, including Turcomen, Arabs, Christians, and Shabak", and that Kurdish authorities "denied services to some villages, arrested minorities without due process and took them to undisclosed locations for detention, and pressured minority schools to teach in the Kurdish language". Christian minorities in Kirkuk also "charged that Kurdish security forces targeted Arabs and Turcomen". Assyrians have criticized

3198-494: The Pope does not apologize to Muhammad within three days. Christian leaders in Iraq asked their parishioners not to leave their homes, after two Assyrians were stabbed and killed in Baghdad. There have been reports of writing on Assyrian church doors stating "If the Pope does not apologise, we will bomb all churches, kill more Christians and steal their property and money." The Iraqi militia Jaish al-Mujahedin (Holy Warriors' Army) announced its intention to "destroy their cross in

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3276-459: The Thuma region have been massacred...." British writer William Eagleton said that "in 1843 and 1846, Bedirhan started a massacre and booting campaign against the Christian Assyrians (Nestorians) he was anxious about whose getting stronger and independent through becoming able to rule themselves. It was intolerable for Bedirhan to see the Assyrians living on his own territories getting stronger. Thus he killed ten thousand Assyrians. Even though Bedirhan

3354-444: The accusations. In 1999, the Kurdistan Observer claimed that "the Central Government had warned the administration in the Kurdish region against allowing Turkoman , Assyrian, or Yazidi minority schools." According to the UK Immigration & Nationality Directorate, "the Central Government has engaged various abuses against the Assyrian Christians, and has often suspected them of 'collaborating' with Kurds" (Sept. 1999). According to

3432-408: The alliance, the Assyrian Democratic Movement stressed the importance of gaining political representation in the 2023 Iraqi governorate elections , as well combatting discrimination and allocating resources to rebuild the Nineveh Plains post- ISIS . The party was registered under the Independent High Electoral Commission in Baghdad on July 22, 2023. The Athra Alliance was active in investigating

3510-401: The ancient Assyrians and are one of the few ancient Semitic ethnicities in the Near East who resisted Arabization , Turkification , Persianization and Islamization during and after the Muslim conquest of Iraq , Iran , Syria and Turkey. The indigenous Assyrian homeland is within the borders of northern Iraq , southeastern Turkey , northwestern Iran , and northeastern Syria ,

3588-462: The area. Both Arabs and Kurds thought of the Assyrians as foreigners and as allies of colonial Britain. Persecution of Assyrians has a long and bitter history. In 1895 in Diyarbakır Kurdish and Turkish militia began attacking Christians, plundering Assyrian villages. In 1915 Kurds and Turks plundered villages, about 7000 Assyrians were killed. In 1915 Turkish troops "with Kurdish detachments" committed mass slaughters of Assyrians in Persia . In

3666-625: The arrival of refugees at that time. The first Assyrians came to the Netherlands in the 1970s, primarily from Turkey and observing the West Syriac Rite . The number of Assyrians in the country is estimated at 25,000 to 35,000. They primarily live in the eastern Netherlands, in Enschede , Hengelo , Oldenzaal and Borne in the province of Overijssel . In the late 1970s, about 12,000 Assyrians from Turkey , Iran , Iraq and Syria emigrated to Sweden . Although they considered themselves persecuted for religious and ethnic reasons, they were not recognized as refugees. Those who had lived in Sweden for

3744-417: The capital. An Association of Syriac-Speaking Authors and Writers had also been established. The bill turned out to be a failure. The radio stations created as the result of this decree were closed after a few months. While the two magazines were allowed to be published, only 10 percent of their material was in Aramaic. No school was allowed to teach in Aramaic either. Reports from various sources "indicate

3822-403: The church stated "The church blasts were a reaction to the cartoons published in European papers. But Christians are not responsible for what is published in Europe." Many Assyrians in Iraq now feel like "Westerners should not give wild statements [as] everyone can attack us [in response]" and "Today I'm afraid to walk the streets, because I'm Christian." Also on 29 January, a Muslim Cleric in

3900-617: The community has led to the exodus of perhaps as much as half of the community. While Assyrians made up only just over 5% of the total Iraqi population before the war, according to the United Nations , Assyrians are over-represented among the Iraqi refugees (as much as 13%) who are stranded in Syria , Jordan , Lebanon , and Turkey . A large number of Assyrians have found refuge in ancient Assyrian Christian villages in Nineveh Plains and Kurdistan Region . This led some Assyrians and Iraqi and foreign politicians to call for an Assyrian Christian autonomous region in those areas. In 2008

3978-412: The country of Iraq, or members of the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common history and ethnic identity , rooted in shared linguistic , cultural and religious traditions , with Assyrians in Iran , Turkey and Syria , as well as with the Assyrian diaspora elsewhere. A significant number have emigrated to the United States, notably to the Detroit and Chicago;

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4056-422: The country's largest number of Assyrians. In Sydney, Assyrians are the leading ethnic group in the Fairfield LGA suburbs of Fairfield , Fairfield Heights and Greenfield Park . In Melbourne , Assyrians live in the northwestern suburbs of Broadmeadows , Craigieburn , Meadow Heights , Roxburgh Park and Fawkner . In 2016, Melbourne had 13,812 people who claimed Assyrian ancestry. The Assyrian community

4134-399: The elderly, at the Assyrian villages of Sumail (Simele) district, and later at Suryia . Having scapegoated the Assyrians as dangerous national traitors, this massacre of unarmed civilians became a symbol of national pride, and enhanced Sidqi's prestige. The British, though represented by a powerful military presence as provided by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930 , failed to intervene or allow

4212-418: The election, campaigning for Hanno was done with the collaboration of the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union, visiting areas in the Nineveh Plains and encouraging voter participation. Following the elections, the party criticized the lack of Assyrian voter turnout, with additional criticism levied towards electoral laws regarding minorities in Iraq. Following changes to the Kurdish region 's minority seats in 2024,

4290-446: The fact that Assyrians were the original inhabitants of south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The Assyrian population was so small in the aftermath of the genocide that the region called Assyria in ancient times came to be known as "Kurdistan". The Kurds and Turks cynically resisted Assyrian and Armenian efforts to attain statehood after World War II. While the Kurdish population doubled from two million in 1970 to four million in 2002,

4368-463: The first female Peshmerga) and Francis Shabo. Many of these figures were killed "in spite of their attempts to engage with, or work under, Kurds". The US State government also reported that in Kurdish controlled areas Assyrian schools and classes Syriac were not permitted or prevented in some cases. There were also incidents of mob violence by Kurdistan Workers party (KWP) against Christians in northern Iraq. Christian Assyrians were also targeted in

4446-407: The heart of Rome… and to hit the Vatican." Despite the Pope's comments dying down in the media, attacks on Assyrian Christians continued and on 9 October Islamic extremist group kidnapped priest Paulos Iskander in Mosul. Iskander's church as well as several other churches placed 30 large posters around the city to distance themselves from the Pope's words. The relatives of the Christian priest who

4524-418: The jurist who coined the word "genocide. The Simmele Massacre is also commemorated yearly with the official Assyrian Martyrs Day on 7 August. The massacre was carried out by the Iraqi Army, led by Kurdish General Bakir Sidqi , and Kurdish and Arab irregulars. There were about 3,000 victims of the massacre. Kurdish-Christian Armenian relations were bitter at the turn of the 19th century and land conflicts were

4602-527: The kurdification of the school curricula, and have complained about the confiscation and occupation of Assyrian lands, and "that the Kurds invent new and impossible laws when the legitimate owners ask for their lands". Assyrians have criticized that while Kurds are very well funded, the Assyrian Christians receive almost no funding for their schools. Assyrians have also said that Kurds have modified and falsified school textbooks (kurdification) and changed traditional Christian names to Kurdish names. In textbooks it

4680-455: The local KDP security forces arrested and detained political activist Kamal Said Kadir , for having written articles on the Internet critical of the KDP. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Some activists have claimed that membership in Kurdish parties is necessary to obtain "employment and educational opportunities" in Iraqi Kurdistan. The US State department report said that "Kurdish authorities abused and discriminated against minorities in

4758-433: The mid-2010s, as Assyrians fled Iraq and northeastern Syria due to genocide by the Islamic State and other Sunni Islamist groups. From 1937 to 1959, the Assyrian population in the Soviet Union grew by 587.3 percent. Assyrians came to Russia and the Soviet Union in three large waves. The first wave was after the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828, that delineated a border between Russia and Persia . The second

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4836-408: The political situation of Assyrians in Iraq, and the need to prevent demographic changes in the Nineveh Plains . The alliance was formed around the same time that the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako moved the Patriarchal headquarters from Baghdad to Erbil , in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, following political tension between the Patriarch and Iraqi government. Abdul Latif Rashid , then

4914-414: The same way that they persecuted Russians who remained members of the Russian Orthodox Church . Most Assyrians are members of the Assyrian Church of the East ; other churches include the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Next to Uruguay, in Argentina the Syriac Orthodox Church counts with a Patriarchal Vicar. However, the actual number of Assyrians is hard to know because

4992-682: The slaughter "in which 65 Nestorian villages in northern Iraq were plundered and burned down, priests were tortured and Christians were forced to renounce their religion while others in Dohuk were deported and about a 100 were shot". In 1843 Nestorians in the Tauris region refused to pay Kurds the jizya , and "by way of reprisal 4350 Nestroians were slaughtered, about 400 women and children were reduced to slavery and all their houses and churches destroyed". Historians have noted that in "Kurdistan Jews, Nestorians and Armenians were subject to tallage and corvees at whim of authorities". Historians have noted that Bedir Khan Beg (also known as Bedirhan) called

5070-605: The suppression of Assyrians in Iraq through different laws that were passed. On 20 February 1972, the government passed the law to recognize the cultural rights of Assyrians by allowing Aramaic be taught schools in which the majority of pupils spoke that language in addition to Arabic . Aramaic was also to be taught at intermediate and secondary schools in which the majority of students spoke that language in addition to Arabic, but it never happened. Special Assyrian programs were to be broadcast on public radio and television and three Syriac-language magazines were planned to be published in

5148-446: The target of Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Christians have fled from the country and their population has collapsed under the Government of Iraq . On 1 August 2004 a series of car bomb attacks took place during the Sunday evening Mass in churches in Baghdad and Mosul, killing and wounding a large number of Christians. The Jordanian jihadist and 1st emir of Al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

5226-407: The terms "Syriac" and "Syrian" are much later derivatives of the original "Assyrian", and historically, geographically and ethnically originally meant Assyrian (see Name of Syria ). Before the Assyrian genocide , the Assyrian people were largely unmoved from their native lands which they had occupied for about 5,000 years. Although a handful of Assyrians had migrated to the United Kingdom during

5304-408: The villages and beat villagers". However, after invervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross the KDP left the villages again. According to the UK Immigration & Nationality Directorate "despite Tariq Aziz's lofty position in the Baghdad regime, Christians have little political influence in the Ba'ath government" (Sept. 1999). Education in any language other than Arabic and Kurdish

5382-401: The well-disciplined Assyrian Levies under their command to do so, and indeed helped whitewash the event at the League of Nations . The Assyrian repression marked the entrance of the military into Iraqi politics, a pattern that has periodically re-emerged since 1958, and offered an excuse for enlarging conscription. In the early 1970s, the secularist Ba'ath regime initially tried to change

5460-439: The west. A good number returned home, and that is a good sign, because we have a mission in this part of the Middle East. But many families are still trying to get out." The publication of satirical cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 led to an increase in violence against the Assyrian community. At first, the cartoons did not get much attention, but when

5538-407: Was a feudal tribal leader, he was expressing the aspirations of Kurdish nationalism." Kurdish and Arab attacks on Assyrians continued, culminating in the August 1933 Simele massacres. About 3000 Assyrians were killed in that single month alone. Beginning in August 1933 Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish militia killed thousands of Assyrias in Simele (Iraq). The massacre had a big influence on Raphael Lemkin,

5616-661: Was an insulting mischaracterization of Islam, contained in the quotation by the Pope of the following passage: Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. After the Pope's comments were known throughout the Arab world , several churches were bombed by insurgent groups. A previously unknown Baghdad -based group, Kataab Ashbal Al-Islam Al-Salafi ( Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions) threatened to kill all Christians in Iraq if

5694-582: Was as a result of the Assyrian genocide during and after World War I ; the third was after World War II , when the Soviet Union unsuccessfully tried to establish a satellite state in Iran. Soviet troops withdrew in 1946, and left the Assyrians (who supported the coup) exposed to retaliation identical to that received from the Turks 30 years earlier. Soviet authorities persecuted Assyrian religious and community leaders in

5772-409: Was beheaded three days later in Mosul, have said that his Muslim captors had demanded his church condemn the pope's recent comments about Islam and pay a $ 350,000 ransom. Assyrian diaspora The Assyrian diaspora ( Syriac : ܓܠܘܬܐ, Galuta , "exile") refers to ethnic Assyrians living in communities outside their ancestral homeland . The Eastern Aramaic -speaking Assyrians claim descent from

5850-485: Was blamed for the attacks. In 2006, an Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, was snatched off the streets of Mosul by a Sunni Arab group that demanded a ransom. His body was later found, with his arms and legs having been cut off. In 2007, there were reports of a push to drive Christians out of the historically Christian suburb of Dora in southern Baghdad, with some Sunni extremists accusing the Christians of being allies of

5928-906: Was elected in Mechelen as a member of the Flemisch nationalists N-VA . An estimated 20,000 Assyrians live in France , primarily concentrated in the northern French suburbs of Sarcelles (where several thousand Chaldean Catholics live) and in Gonesse and Villiers-le-Bel . They are from several villages in southeastern Turkey . The number of Assyrians in Germany is estimated at 100,000. Most Assyrian immigrants and their descendants in Germany live in Munich , Wiesbaden , Paderborn , Essen , Bietigheim-Bissingen , Ahlen , Göppingen , Köln , Hamburg , Berlin , Augsburg and Gütersloh . Since they were persecuted throughout

6006-589: Was even claimed that some biblical figures were Kurdish. It was reported that the man accused of killing the Christian politician Francis Yousif Shabo in 1993 is "allowed to walk around freely" in Kurdistan. The impunity for those who attacked or killed Assyrians in the Kurdistan region was criticized. Assyrian Christian David Jindo was one of many murdered Christian politicians. Other prominent Assyrian leaders who were killed by Kurdish nationalists include Patriarch Mar Shimun , Franso Hariri , Margaret George (one of

6084-453: Was prohibited by the government in Baghdad. Therefore, Assyrians were not permitted to attend classes in Syriac. In the Kurdish-controlled northern areas, classes in Syriac have been permitted since 1991. However, according to some Assyrian sources "regional Kurdish authorities refused to allow the classes to begin." However, details of this practice were not available, and Kurdish authorities denied

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