In a landmark address delivered during the Jubilee of Hope in 2025, Pope Leo XIV turned the world's attention to the Eastern Churches--not only to honor their sacred past but to demand a reckoning with their precarious future. Among his most urgent appeals was a renewed call to preserve and promote the heritage of Eastern Christians living in diaspora.
Among the remains of the great Library of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-c. 630 BC), are clay tablets containing an incredible medical handbook. The "Nineveh Medical Encyclopaedia" is the world's most standardised, structured and systematised corpus of medical literature prior to Galen. The tablets were broken into fragments during the sack of Nineveh in 612BC.
Örebro, Sweden -- Religious and cultural institutions representing the Syriac (Aramean--Assyrian--Chaldean) community held a protest rally in Örebro, Sweden, denouncing the recent attack on the Mar Elias Greek (Rûm) Orthodox Church in Daramsuq (Damascus), Syria.
North and East Syria -- In an escalating humanitarian response to the dire crisis gripping Syria's southern Suwayda province, the Syriac Cross for Relief and Development and the Shlomo Organization have launched a wide-scale civil solidarity campaign under the slogan "We Are All with Suwayda-- Open the Corridors -- Stop the Attacks.
MICHIGAN -- In her latest poetry collection "The Tablets: Secrets of the Clay", Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian poet Dunya Mikhail resurrects the world's earliest script--ancient Sumerian cuneiform--transforming it into a living, modern poetic form. Each of the book's ten sections consists of 24 short poems, blending text and visual art in ways that make ancient symbols feel startlingly contemporary.
Ankara -- Deputy leader of the IYI Party ("Good Party") MP Buğra Kavuncu announced today that the 'slanderous' remarks of Syriac Member of Turkish Parliament for Merde (Mardin) George Aryo have been removed from the minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly at the request of his party.
A series of Christian communities in Syria have come under violent attack, according to fresh reports received by a leading Catholic charity. Several local sources told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that yesterday (15th July) the faithful were targeted in the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira, in the Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria.
In a move highlighting the precarious state of Iraq's ancient Christian heritage, Cardinal Louis Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, has issued an urgent appeal to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani to halt what he describes as attempts to destroy historic Christian cemeteries in Najaf province for commercial development.
Three weeks after dozens of Christians died in a church bombing in Damascus, another church in Syria has narrowly escaped a similar attack. On Sunday 13 July, three people were arrested after being discovered with explosives close to a church in Al-Kharibat village, near Tartus in the west of Syria.
(AINA) -- There were three Assyrian empires in BC times. The first was from 2000 BC to 1750 BC; the second was from 1365 BC to 1076 BC; the third and most famous and influential was called the Neo-Assyrian Empire, ruling from 911 BC to 609 BC. The following video from the History Time youtube channel presents the history of the neo-Assyrian empire. ...
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for the protection of Christian minorities in Syria, following the terrorist attack on the Church of Prophet Elijah in Damascus on June 22, which claimed the lives of 25 people and left dozens injured.
Perceptions of ancient Mesopotamia -- the birthplace of the world's first civilisations, which emerged more than 4,000 years ago across what is now Iraq -- are dominated by stories of divine kings, their monumental stepped ziggurats, and vast libraries brimming with forgotten knowledge.
(AINA) -- There were three Assyrian empires in BC times. The first was from 2000 BC to 1750 BC; the second was from 1365 BC to 1076 BC; the third and most famous and influential was called the Neo-Assyrian Empire, ruling from 911 BC to 609 BC. The following video from the History Time youtube channel presents the history of the neo-Assyrian empire. ...
(AINA) -- The following report by CBN addresses the issue of "protection" of Assyrians by the Kurdish regional government in north Iraq. ...
(AINA) -- The Assyrian Arts Institute (AAI) is an organization founded by Nora Betyousef Lacey in 2017 and claims to support Assyrian arts. AAI has sponsored a few events since its founding, including an Assyrian women's choir.
(AINA) -- On July 12 Iraqi president Abdul Latif Rashid repealed the decree recognizing the appointment of Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako as head of the Chaldean Catholic Church and which appointed him to the office of the waqf (وقف), the endowment which oversees all church property. The details of the events leading up to this action are exhaustively covered in this report by MEMRI.
(AINA) -- 'Syria is free'; thus screamed the Syrians as they celebrated the tumbling down of the criminal regime during a whole week. Thousands, even millions, of Syrians strolled the streets of the entire major cities of Syria. They were from all societal segments, strata, trends, genders, religious beliefs and non-religious ones, convictions, sects, confessions, parties, and orientations.
(AINA) -- The collapse of the Syrian regime has added yet another chapter to the cycle of deep crises that perpetually plague the Middle East. Yet, these devastations increasingly render ancient peoples, burdened by the weight of historical memory, invisible.
Perceptions of ancient Mesopotamia -- the birthplace of the world's first civilisations, which emerged more than 4,000 years ago across what is now Iraq -- are dominated by stories of divine kings, their monumental stepped ziggurats, and vast libraries brimming with forgotten knowledge.
A full house at the Clocktower Centre gathered on 29 June for Alexander's Journey, a dramatic oratorio written by Dean Kalimniou and staged by the Pan-Macedonian Association of Melbourne under the direction of its President, Peter Stefanidis. Among the attendees were community dignitaries, including Bishop Evmenios of Chora.