Assyrians in Iraq are still awaiting Baghdad's formal recognition of the 1933 Simmele massacre as a genocide, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Mar Awa III said on Sunday. Related: The 1933 Massacre of Assyrians in Simmele, Iraq In a speech following a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Simmele massacre, Awa III described violence...
(AINA) -- The laying of a foundation stone for a memorial commemorating the Simmele Massacre by parties historically responsible for the massacre itself is not an act of reconciliation, it is an act of moral violence. It represents a deliberate attempt to appropriate Assyrian suffering while stripping it of truth, responsibility, and justice.
In a solemn moment of remembrance in the town of Simmele, the laying of the foundation stone for the Assyrian Martyrs Monument brought renewed attention to the 1933 genocide, as the Assyrian Patriarch publicly thanked the Kurdistan Regional Government and President Masoud Barzani for supporting the project.
Not only war but also a U.S. prioritization of the Kurdistan Regional Government's stability over decades has accelerated the displacement of Assyrians. Churches remain open, Assyrians celebrate holidays publicly, and Kurdish officials highlight Assyrian neighborhoods as evidence of coexistence. Yet despite this visibility, Assyrian communities continue to shrink.
The foundation stone for a memorial commemorating the victims of the Simmele Massacre was laid this week in the town of Simmele, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), in a ceremony attended by senior Kurdish and Christian leaders.
In an era when history is increasingly consumed through short videos, algorithms and fleeting online trends, a group of young Assyrian activists in Germany is attempting something both ambitious and quietly radical: to restore a long-marginalized history to the digital public square, without mythmaking or ideology.
Under the patronage of President Masoud Barzani and His Holiness Patriarch Mar Awa III, head of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Kurdistan Region will lay the foundation stone for a memorial commemorating the Simmele Massacre. The ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, January 4, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. local time in the Directorate of Culture in Simmele town, Duhok province.
Damascus -- Syria said Thursday a suicide bomber who killed a security forces member in Aleppo on New Year's Eve was in the Islamic State group, which planned attacks on churches and gatherings. ISIS recently increased its attacks in areas of Syria controlled by the Damascus authorities, and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three Americans.
The Chaldean patriarch, Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, has received threats from Islamic groups based in Iraq and Iran following a misinterpretation of a message delivered during the Christmas Mass, according to Chaldean Press. During the liturgical celebration, the patriarch used the term "normalization" in a spiritual sense, exhorting the faithful to reconcile and live in peace with one another.
For more than a century and a half, Eastern Christian peoples, particularly the Assyrians, have endured massacres, displacement, and structural statelessness. At the same time, their ecclesiastical institutions have survived.
Baghdad -- Iraq's new Parliament convened this week for the first time since the November elections, opening its sixth legislative term with the familiar rituals of state: verses from the Quran, constitutional citations, and solemn oaths sworn in Arabic and Kurdish.
Baghdede, Iraq -- Nineveh Governor Abdul Qader al-Dakhil inaugurated the "Monument of Immortality" last night, Ishtar TV reports. The monument commemorates the victims of the tragic wedding hall fire in Baghdede in 2023. The monument was erected in the courtyard of the Syriac Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul in Baghdede, in the presence of a number of officials and religious and civil society figures.
(AINA) -- Dr. Sophia Isaac is a scholar, educator, and cultural advocate whose own life reflects the very journey she studies. Born in Urmia, Iran, and brought to the United States as a child before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, she grew up navigating the space between two identities--Assyrian heritage and American life.
(AINA) -- For three decades the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) has served as one of the most influential and authoritative voices documenting the life, heritage, and challenges of Assyrians and their Syriac-speaking Churches, both in the homeland and the diaspora. AINA is a privately funded, independent news agency founded by Peter Pnuel BetBasoo and Firas Jatou in 1995.
(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) -- The laying of a foundation stone for a memorial commemorating the Simmele Massacre by parties historically responsible for the massacre itself is not an act of reconciliation, it is an act of moral violence. It represents a deliberate attempt to appropriate Assyrian suffering while stripping it of truth, responsibility, and justice.
(AINA) -- In contemporary political discourse, the rights of indigenous peoples are too often reduced to numbers--population size, electoral weight, or demographic dominance. For the Assyrian people, this reduction is not only unjust; it is historically illiterate.
Kochi, India -- As the Yuletide spirit fills the air, posters, cutouts and dolls of Santa Claus crop up everywhere, heralding the season of love and sharing. However, not many may know that Santa, the most popular symbol of Christmas, is inspired from and modelled after St Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop from Myra in ancient Turkey known for his generosity and secret gift-giving.
Archaeologists in northern Israel uncover a luxurious Iron Age cremation burial, revealing elite lifestyles, long-distance trade, and Assyrian influence thousands of years ago. For a long time, life in the ancient world has been imagined as harsh, modest, and largely deprived of luxury.