IRAQ: Ankawa’s largest family park inaugurated by residents’ voluntary work

ANKAWA, Iraq — Following the decision to grant Ankawa, a predominantly Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian suburb of Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, district status and the appointment of its first mayor, the first voluntary initiative by Ankawa’s residents, civil society organizations, and churches has launched. With help from the municipal government, the first phase of the Ankawa Park on the Bahraka road was inaugurated, according to SorayaPress.

The initiative broke ground in the presence of the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil Mor Bashar Matti Warda, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul, Kerkeslokh (Kirkuk), and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Mor Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf, Minister of Transport and Communications in the Kurdistan Regional Government Ano Abdoka, Mayor of Ankawa District Ramy Noori, representatives of official directorates, and representatives of the national institutions of the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian people.

It was reported that the land on which the park was established was previously a camp for the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian people of Nineveh Plains following their displacement by the Islamic State (ISIS).