Jeremy Barker, Associate Vice President for International Strategy at the Religious Freedom Institute moderated a panel concerning religious freedom in Iraq at the International Religious Freedom Summit on February 4. He said that legislation to protect religious freedom in Iraq is being formulated to be presented in the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
Nearly 8 years after Iraq declared victory over ISIS, the return of the country's Christian population to their ancestral homeland in Nineveh remains an unattainable dream for many. While the initial displacement was caused by terrorism, new challenges--ranging from armed militia threats to stalled reconstruction efforts and governmental neglect--continue to hinder their resettlement.
A draft constitutional declaration signed by Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa (aka Julani) on 13 March has been met with condemnation by minority groups in Syria, including Kurds, Assyrians, Syriacs and women's organisations. These groups have argued that the draft declaration will entrench authoritarianism and exclude significant parts of Syrian society.
(CNA) -- The Greek-Catholic archbishop of Homs, Jean-Abdo Arbach, condemned the massacres of civilians that occurred in Syria last weekend -- which left at least 1,000 dead -- and urged Christians to maintain hope for an end to the violence and a return to unity and reconciliation.
A Christian political party on Friday rejected the constitutional declaration adopted by the interim authority in Damascus, calling it a tool to entrench the "exclusion and marginalization of Syrian components." "The constitutional declaration does not pave the way for the required transitional phase in Syria, but rather for an unstable period," the Syriac Union Party said in a statement.
The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, in Iraq, Mar Bashar Warda, has denied allegations made in a US lawsuit that he was complicit in the kidnapping and torture of an Iraqi-US businesswoman, Sara Saleem. Ms Saleem has filed a lawsuit naming Archbishop Warda among 16 defendants accused of being involved in undermining her business interests, and in kidnap and torture.
A pastor in Syria's Hasaka province said on Wednesday that the country's constitutional declaration, which was leaked earlier in the day and publicized on Thursday, fails to guarantee true religious freedom and risks deepening divisions by placing Islamic jurisprudence at the core of the legislation.
Los Angeles -- Zaya Younan, an American billionaire entrepreneur and global innovator, has forged a remarkable path across multiple industries, leaving a profound impact on each one. Born in Assyria and immigrating to the United States at the age of 13 with only $25 and a Bible, Younan's life embodies unwavering determination, visionary thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit.
Authorities have halted the construction of a mosque in Zaz, a historic Syriac village in the Midyat district of Mardin, southeastern Turkey, following opposition from local Syriac groups. George Aslan, a Syriac MP from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party representing Mardin, had raised concerns about the construction in Jan 2025, questioning why a mosque was being built in a village...
Iraq's General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage announced on Tuesday the recovery of 27,000 looted relics from within Iraq and abroad, confirming their return to the National Museum of Iraq. "The issue of recovering looted and smuggled antiquities is receiving direct attention from Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani and the Minister of Culture, with efforts being coordinated with the...
Hundreds of civilians, including Christians, were "indiscriminately" massacred last Friday (7th March) in north-west Syria, aggravating the existing fear and uncertainty in the country, according to local sources.
A Sweden-based Christian human rights watchdog on Monday reported that at least four Christians have been killed and several Christian villages evacuated due to recent violence in western Syria. "These massacres that unfolded [in regions along] Syria's [western] coast, while primarily targeting Alawites, who suffered the most casualties, also led to the killing of Christians," said the director...
(AINA) -- Assyrian leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm on escalating human rights violations in Iraq and Syria, where forced displacement, systemic discrimination, and cultural erasure continue unabated. As political disenfranchisement and targeted violence drive Assyrians from their ancestral lands, the urgent need for intervention grows stronger.
(AINA) -- Professor Mikhail Davidov has died at the age of 77 in Moscow. Dr. Davidov was an oncology surgeon and a member of the the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was born on October 11, 1947 in the Ukrainian city of Konotop, Sumy region, a descendant of Assyrian refugees from the Gawar region in southeast Turkey.
(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.
If you're a fan of ancient history, I heartily recommend the Lost Civilizations series published by the University of Chicago Press through its Reaktion Books imprint, which I first encountered via Frances F. Berdan's outstanding 2021 volume on the Aztecs. The latest entry is The Assyrians, by British Museum Mesopotamia expert Paul Collins (who also wrote the Sumerian entry back in 2021).
This 3,000-year-old artifact has turned the world of archaeological understanding on its head - or at least, that's what social media would have us believe. Housed in the British Museum's Northwest Palace collection, an intriguing Assyrian relief has sparked intense debate about ancient underwater capabilities that would make modern diving pioneers question everything they thought they knew about...