NORTH AND EAST SYRIA: Syriac Cultural Society visits Culture and Art Authority to present new projects

ZALIN (QAMISHLI), Syria – Officials of the Syriac Cultural Society in Syria Amal Gawria, Hanna Soumi, and Rabi Gawria visited yesterday the Democratic Autonomous Administration’s Culture and Art Authority in a regular periodic meeting of coordination with the Culture and Art Authority and the affiliated Abdulmasih Qarabashi cultural center and Naoum Faeq center for culture and art. Furthermore, the Syriac Cultural Society’s future projects were presented to the Authority.

The Syriac Cultural Society is affiliated with the Beth Nahrin National Council (MUB). MUB has several organizations and cultural centers in North and East Syria in the fields of culture and language.

The Olaf Taw Association association for example is based in Zalin (Qamishli) and works towards ensuring a future for the Syriac language in Syria. The idea behind the establishment of Olaf Taw was to create an all-encompassing secular education and language organization free from the oppressive, assimilative, and Arabist ideologies of status-quo regimes of the Middle East. The Olaf Taw Association includes a language institute that prepares Syriac schoolbooks, trains teachers, gives language lessons, and organizes cultural language activities.