By Abdulmesih BarAbraham
Göttingen (AINA) -- Tilman Zülch, the founder and long-time Secretary General of the Society for Endangered People (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker e.V. - GfbV), died on March 17, 2023 in Göttingen at the age of 83. He led the international organization for several decades. Zülch is regarded a visionary in human rights work.
By Natasha Dado
Two decades after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the country's dwindling Christian community continues to fight for survival. Christians from the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac churches have ancient roots in the Nineveh Plain of northern Iraq, but the war made religious minorities increasingly vulnerable.
By Abdulmesih BarAbraham
Lyon (AINA) -- The French Senate voted with overwhelming majority on February 8, 2023 in favor of a resolution calling on the government to recognize the genocide of the Assyro-Chaldeans of 1915-1918 and to make the day of April 24th a joint day of commemoration for the Armenian and Assyro-Chaldean genocides (AINA 2023-02-09). The bill is now being considered by the National Assembly.
By Matija Šerić
At the beginning of this year, the Christian international network Open Doors presented data on the oppression, discrimination and persecution of Christians around the world. It was announced that between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, 5,621 Christians were killed, 4,542 were arrested, and 5,259 were kidnapped. As many as 2,110 churches and church buildings were the target of violence.
By Fırat Bulut
The Çavuşoğlu and Salköprü neighborhoods, where almost all of Malatya's Armenians and Assyrians resided, were heavily damaged by the major earthquakes that hit southeastern Turkey in February. In both neighborhoods with old buildings, 90 percent of the houses collapsed or are severely damaged. Some 60 people from both communities lived in the neighborhoods before the quakes on Feb. 6.
By Ahmed Rasheed and Maher Nazeh
BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- Iraq has begun enforcing a 2016 ban on alcoholic beverages, an official document showed, a move some Iraqis attribute to the growing clout of Islamic religious parties that they fear is threatening social freedoms. Enforcement took effect when the law was published in Iraq's official gazette on Feb. 20, seven years after its passage by parliament.
BAGHDAD (AP) -- The head of the United Nations cultural agency promised Monday to continue helping to repair the damage done to Iraq's historic sites by decades of war. In a visit to Baghdad ahead of the 20-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay met with officials including Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
By Abdulmesih BarABraham
(AINA) --A scholarly book on the Turkish genocide of Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians was published in the Czech language in 2017. The book is titled Catastrophe of the Christians: the Liquidation of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in the Ottoman Empire in the years 1914--1923 (Katastrofa krestanu. Likvidace Arménu, Asyranu a Reku v Osmanské ríši v letech 1914--1923).
By Julian Bechocha
An ancient Assyrian archeological site in Duhok was vandalized on Friday and defaced with Islamic writings, the third time in seven years that this site has been damaged. The perpetrators are unknown. The site at Halamata cave on Zawa Mountain, south of Duhok city, is nearly 3,000 years old.
By Benjamin Margin
(AINA) -- In December, Patriarch Awa spoke of the possible reunification of Assyrians and Chaldeans within one Church of the East. He also mentioned an objection to the union that must be addressed first: uniatism. His words were reported as follows: With the Chaldeans, who are certainly our brothers, we are always ready to talk about unity and reunification in a single Church of the East.
By Seda Sevencan
Adiyaman, Turkey -- An 18th-century Syriac church in southern Türkiye was heavily damaged in powerful earthquakes that shook the region earlier this month. Built in 1701, the Mor Petrus and Mor Paulus Church in Adiyaman province is just one of the historical monuments on which the twin back-to-back earthquakes on Feb. 6 took their toll.
Qamishli, Syria (AINA) -- A monument to the Assyrian victims of the Turkish genocide in World War One was vandalized on February 25. The monument was erected on June 16, 2019 ((AINA 2016-06-19)). The Syriac Military Council reported the news of the vandalism. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.