IRAQ: Zakho welcomes new Syriac Chaldean Archbishop

ZAKHO, Iraq – In a festive church ceremony, the new Syriac Chaldean Archbishop Felix Said Daoud Chebbi was installed for Zakho and environs in northern Iraq. The new Chaldean Catholic Church Diocese Archbishop’s ceremony was presided over by Syriac Chaldean Archbishop of Diyarbakir and the whole of Turkey Ramzi Garmou, and local priests from Zakho.

Archbishop Ramzi Garmou substituted and represented in the inauguration for Syriac Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon His Holiness Mar Louis Raphael Sako. Several more (arch-)bishops could not attend the ceremony due to Coronavirus measures. The ceremony was however attended by Syriac Catholic Archbishop of the Mosul Archdiocese Mar Youhanna Boutros Moshe and Mar Youssef Abba, priests from the Syriac town of Karemlash in the Nineveh Plain, Aqra and Nohadra (Dohuk) in northern Iraq.

At the inaugural ceremony the Patriarchate’s Decree was read, a word of thanks was given to former Archbishop Raban al-Qass, and words of congratulations to the new Archbishop on behalf of the Patriarchate. The new Archbishop Felix Said Daoud Chebbi also held a speech in which he referred to essential points in the Apostles’ letters as road map for the way of the eparchy, communion and parish. Archbishop Chebbi said:

“Hand in hand with the fathers, priests and nuns of the diocese, and with the different sects, components and doctrines of the people of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, Christians and Muslims, we are all human beings and we should not look at with eyes of division but with the eyes of human brotherhood and cooperation for a better future for all.”

The ceremony was followed by a grand and festive procession held by the people of Zakho to welcome the new Archbishop.

Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian presence in Zakho District

The diocese of Zakho was formed in 1851 and merged with the ʿAmadiya diocese in 2013 to become the Chaldean Catholic Church diocese of ʿAmadiya and Zakho. According to Jean Pierre Paulin Martin, the Zakho diocese had a population of some 3,000 Syriac Chaldeans settled in 15 villages. In 1913 the Syriac population of the 15 villages had grown to 4,880 settled and was served by 13 priests with 17 churches (J. Tfinkdji in “L’église chaldéenne catholique autrefois et aujourd’hui).

After World War I, a large number of Syriac Assyrian refugees a.o. fleeing massacre in Hakkari, Turkey, settled in the Zakho district. Today there are some 30 villages in the Zakho district and thousands of their Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian residents, together with Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians in Nohadra (Dohuk district), are heavily impacted by the Turkish incursion into northern Iraq.

For the article in Arabic