Nineveh Plain, North Iraq -- As the United States has completed its military withdrawal from Iraq, Joseph Sliwa, a former member of the Iraqi Parliament and head of the Bethnahrin Patriotic Union (HBA), argues that the departure should be viewed less as a security vacuum than as a test of the Iraqi state's ability to consolidate control over the country's disputed and vulnerable regions.
Beth Zalin, Syria -- Amid Syria's ongoing political and cultural transformations, renewed debate is emerging over the future of the Assyrian language and its place in the country's educational and constitutional systems, with advocates calling for its recognition as an integral part of Syria's national identity and historical heritage.
On a Sunday morning somewhere in the Middle East, an old church bell still rings. It may sound across a neighborhood in northern Iraq, an ancient quarter of Damascus, or a village tucked into Lebanon's mountains. Inside, families gather beneath stone arches worn smooth by centuries of worship. Some recite prayers in Arabic.
Stockholm -- The Assyrian presence has not been absent from the electoral scene in Sweden. Rather, it has been present, active, and influential, with considerable popularity at the parliamentary and municipal levels.
A security force detained Amer Abdullah Najm al-Jumaili, a lecturer at the University of Mosul, on Monday after he alleged in a Facebook comment that state land near an ancient Assyrian site in Nineveh province was being handed to influential figures, a source told Shafaq News.
The kings of Assyria made certain that history would remember them. Their victories covered palace walls, their names filled cuneiform tablets, and colossal stone guardians stood at the gateways of cities built to display their power. For much of modern archaeology, however, the women who shared that royal world remained little more than shadows beside them.