The Syriac Tel Mukhada village in Khabur Region of North and East Syria abandoned after 2015 ISIS attack

KHABUR REGION, Syria – Tel Mukhada is a village of our Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people in the Khabur Valley, and it is known in Eastern Syriac dialect as Bergnaya.

Since the arrival of our Syriac people to the Khabur Valley, they established the Church of Mor Koryakos in Tel Mukhada village. The church was made of mud until it was restored in April 2004.

The destruction that the Islamic State (ISIS) has inflicted on the churches of Khabur in 2015 did not extend to Mor Koryakos Church. However, the ongoing war at that time caused a mass displacement of the village’s residents. Since then, the Mor Koryakos Church has remained closed, without the ringing of its bells or any Divine Liturgy.

Suroyo TV correspondent in Tel Tamr, Ahmed Samila, interviewed one of the remaining Syriac (Aramean-Chaldean-Assyrian) residents of the village.

“It is called Mor Koryakos Church, and it has been restored before a few years,” said the Syriac villager. “Prayers and Divine Liturgies used to be held here, amid a large participation of our Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people.”

According to the villager, the church has been closed since the mass displacement of the village’s Syriac residents.

Attempts to make the area of the Khabur Region a separate canton for the Suraye people have so far been unsuccessful.