Athra Alliance demands urgent action to save Ankawa’s cultural soul

ANKAWA, Kurdistan Region of Iraq — In a forceful statement released on 6 May 2025, the Athra Alliance — a coalition of four Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian political parties: the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (Huyodo Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA), the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian Popular Council, Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party, and the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ZOWAA) — denounced the accelerating cultural and social decay in Ankawa, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The statement, delivered on behalf of an indigenous community long under siege by shifting demographics and opportunistic politics, called on the government to urgently reverse policies that are eroding the town’s historical identity.

According to the Athra’s statement, Ankawa, a vibrant bastion of a proud cultural heritage in northern Iraq, is now witnessing a transformation far removed from its storied past. “For years, our beloved Ankawa has been besieged by negative phenomena — land sales to outsiders, arbitrary confiscations without proper compensation, and blatant favoritism in the allocation of municipal services,” the statement asserted. The coalition bemoaned the rise of hotels and so-called “recreational tourism” establishments that, in reality, function as bars, nightclubs, and centers for behavior antithetical to the community’s longstanding customs. These developments, the parties contend, are not benign modern additions but deliberate steps in a broader drive toward demographic reengineering and cultural dilution.

The Athra Alliance’s message is both a mournful recounting of lost traditions and a call to arms for political accountability and action. The statement warns that unless the government intervenes decisively, the steady deterioration of Ankawa’s social fabric will force the community into an untenable situation, where the only viable option left to its people will be emigration. “If our pleas are not heeded, we will be compelled to adopt measures that ensure each citizen’s rights are restored and that this multifaceted injustice is finally lifted from our beloved Ankawa,” the coalition declared.

Supporting this stern warning, HBA head Joseph Sliwa released his own statement sharply criticized the ruling Kurdish-aligned party for its “honeyed rhetoric” about peaceful coexistence — a rhetoric he claims has brought nothing but emptiness to the streets of Ankawa. According to Sliwa, while billions of dollars are funneled into grand slogans of tolerance, the reality is a systematic transformation of the town into a landscape of bars and nightclubs at the expense of memorials honoring the martyrs of the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian community. He underscored that such policies have led to a profound cultural, and even ethnic, cleansing, leaving the town’s original residents disillusioned and marginalized.

Both the Athra Alliance and Sliwa emphasize that the current state of affairs in Ankawa is not merely a matter of aesthetic or economic change but a critical issue that threatens the very essence of a community that has long defined its identity through resilience and sacrifice. They point to government policies that favor outsiders and opportunistic investments over the preservation of historic sites, including those that commemorate the heroic legacy of victims and martyrs of past struggles.

In a broader sense, the Athra Alliance statement and Sliwa’s remarks serve as a powerful plea to Iraqi authorities and the international community to step-up and protect one of the region’s most significant cultural enclaves. The call is clear: safeguard Ankawa’s heritage, restore fair governance, and ensure that the voices of its indigenous people are not drowned out by policies that prioritize economic expediency over cultural survival.

As tensions rise and public discontent intensifies, Ankawa’s future hangs in the balance. For its people, the fate of the town is not merely a matter of political debate. It is an existential question, one that will determine whether Ankawa remains a living testimony to centuries of cultural legacy or becomes a cautionary tale of lost identity and irreversible change.