IRAQ

IRAQ – Three Assyrians have died in a tragic car accident on the road from Nohadra (Duhok) in northern Iraq to Baghdad. The deceased are the Swedish couple James Sanharib Mikhail (49) and Maranita William (34), and their driver Dinkha Khoshaba. James Sanharib Mikhail and his wife Maranita lived in…

ALQOSH, Iraq — The Syriac Directorate of Culture and Arts in Nohadra (Duhok), in collaboration with the Chaldean Church of Alqosh and the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, hosted a children’s festival to mark International Children’s Day. Held in the courtyard of the historic monastery in Nineveh Plains, the festival…

BETH ZALIN, North and Syria / BAGHDEDE, Iraq — On the 110th anniversary of the 1915 Sayfo Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire and its Kurdish tribal allies against the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) people, the Syriac Union Party (SUP) in Syria and the Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (Huyodo d’Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA)…

BANDAWAYA, Iraq – In an effort to build community and strengthen cultural identity, the Beth Nahrain Youth Organization hosted a recreational youth trip to the scenic region of Bandawaya, a valley north of Mosul, this week. The event drew young Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian men and women from various towns and villages, united…

MOSUL, Iraq — The Beth Nahrain Organization for Women (BNOW) in Iraq successfully concluded its Psychological Art Therapy course with a closing ceremony at the Youth and Sports Directorate Hall in Nineveh Governorate. The initiative, part of BNOW’s ongoing efforts to empower and support the psychological well-being of youth in…

ANKAWA, ARBA’ILO (ERBIL), Iraq — Jonson Siyawash, a former Assyrian Minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government under (then) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, issued a forceful statement this week calling for an emergency summit that brings together Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian church patriarchs, civil society institutions, political leaders, and parliamentarians. He declared that the…

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet al-Abbasi has emphasized the importance of maintaining the U.S.-led coalition’s presence in neighboring Syria, citing ongoing threats posed by Islamic State (ISIS).  In a recent televised interview with a Saudi news channel, Al-Abbasi emphasized the vital role of the U.S.-led coalition forces in countering…

BAGHDAD — The head of the Syriac Writers Union Rawand Boulos has been elected to the position of deputy Secretary-General of the Writers and Authors Union in Iraq. The election took place at the Union’s headquarters in Baghdad.   After the announcement, literary and cultural Syriac organizations congratulated Boulos on his appointment.…

BETH NAHRIN — The Beth Nahrain Patriotic Union (Huyodo d‘Bethnahrin Athroyo, HBA) extended its congratulations to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its founding.  In an official statement, the HBA praised the PUK, describing its emergence on the Iraqi political scene as…

By Denho Bar Mourad-Özmen | Former Special Educator and Advisor at Sweden’s National Agency for Special Education The Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq represent one of the most historically sensitive regions in the Middle East. This land, home to the Assyrian people, contains some of the world’s oldest Christian communities,…