Syriac Christians in Mardin, southeastern Türkiye, marked Christmas with a traditional liturgy at the historic Forty Martyrs Church, highlighting the city's centuries-old culture of religious coexistence.
Coexistence between Muslims and religious minorities, particularly Christians, has a long history in Iran, stretching back centuries. Despite persistent criticism in some Western media outlets over the state of religious freedoms in the Islamic Republic, realities on the ground often present a more complex and nuanced picture than the one commonly portrayed.
The House of Representatives of Cyprus has adopted a resolution condemning the historical massacre of Assyrians in a unanimous vote during its plenary session on Monday, the Cyprus News Agency reports. The measure, put forward by Independent Socialist MP Kostis Efstathiou, formally recognizes and denounces the atrocities suffered by Assyrians.
In a land where civilizations were born, and religions lived side by side long before the borders of modern states were drawn, Iraq's Christian presence endures like an old bell--weathered by centuries, cracked by violence, yet still echoing. Here, where prayer once rose in many languages, Christmas was never a fleeting ritual. It became a memory layered with faith, joy, loss, and survival.
The Chaldean Patriarchate clarified on Wednesday that remarks made by Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako during a Christmas Mass in Baghdad, in which he used the term "normalization," had been misunderstood and taken out of context.
As Christmas approaches, the town of Shaqlawa in the Kurdistan Region is marked by lights, church decorations, and a renewed sense of unity among its Christian community, even as Christians from Sinjar continue to voice frustration over prolonged displacement and neglect eleven years after fleeing their homes, following ISIS attack.