Tag: Syriacs

Assyrian Christians flee jihadists to southeast Turkey

March 27, 2015 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Qamishli, Syriacs, Turkey

A harsh Islamic State offensive begun in late February against Syria’s dwindling Assyrian Christian population is accelerating a steady trickle of Christian refugees trying desperately to reach safety in Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon. But their future is far from guaranteed as refugees in Muslim-majority Turkey, where according to Turkish . . . Read More

23 Assyrian Christians released in Syria

March 6, 2015 Syria Assyrians, Hasakah, Islamic State, Kidnapping, Kobani, Qamishli, Syria, Syriacs

Assyrians from Tel Goran village, abducted by Islamic State kidnappers in late February, were released and returned safely in Hassaka on March 2.Photo provided by CAPNI Ten days after the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s harsh offensive emptied out a cluster of Assyrian Christian villages in northeast Syria, the extremists’ intentions . . . Read More

Turkey ‘promises’ first new church in 90 years

January 20, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Greek Orthodox, Istanbul, Midyat, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish government allowed the first Syriac pre-school to open in Istanbul in September 2014.Mor Efrem Syriac Preschool’s Facebook photo The Turkish government has renewed its promise to allow the construction of a new church in Istanbul, a promise first made by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . . . Read More

New US-based Syriac Patriarch says he’ll return to Syria

April 1, 2014 Syria Aleppo, Damascus, Syria, Syriacs, Yohanna Ibrahim

The Syriac Orthodox Church, one of the oldest churches in the world and seated in the heart of war-ravaged Syria, has selected a US-based archbishop as its next patriarch. Mor Ignatius Aphrem II Karim, a native of Syria, has been Metropolitan and Patriarchal Vicar to the Archdiocese of the Syriac . . . Read More

Sara got married

March 26, 2014 Turkey Assyrians, Islamic extremism, Kidnapping, Kurds, Malatya, Mardin, Marriage, Midyat, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Syriacs, Turkey, Women

On March 8, International Women’s Day, many of the people in southeastern Turkey only want to discuss one thing. She is Sara, an 18-year-old Assyrian/Syriac woman, who was allegedly kidnapped by sympathizers of Huda-Part, Allah’s party, the Kurdish equivalent to Hezbollah. Others say she merely followed her heart and converted . . . Read More

Turkey returns less than half of monastery land it seized

March 13, 2014 Turkey Europe, Mardin, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish Ministry of EU Affairs welcomed March 2 the return of property, seized by the country’s treasury, to the world’s oldest Syriac Orthodox monastery, Mor Gabriel. In February, the head of the Mor Gabriel Religious Foundation, Kuryakos Ergun, received the property deeds to 12 plots of land totaling 244,000 . . . Read More

A postcard from ‘Little Baghdad’

December 12, 2013 Assyrians, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Refugees, Sweden, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

Nuri Kino Södertälje, Sweden, is also known as Mesopotälje – “Little Baghdad”. One in four people in Södertälje is a Christian from Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or Egypt. Most are Assyrian/Syriacs. The city was once home to more Iraqi refugees than the United States and Canada combined. Every week, 30 . . . Read More

Archbishop of Canterbury and UK Foreign Office Minister alerted to need of Syrian Christians

July 10, 2013 Aleppo, Armenians, Bashar al-Assad, Damascus, Homs, Islamic extremism, Justin Welby, London, Middle East, Minorities, North Africa, Refugees, Religious freedom, Shia, Sunni, Syria, Syriacs, UK

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the UK Foreign Office Minister responsible for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), have both acknowledged the findings of a report which says that Christians in Syria are increasingly targeted and vulnerable to persecution, amidst the on-going conflict there. Syria: Church on . . . Read More

The Camp

May 5, 2013 Syria Assyrians, Free Syrian Army, Refugees, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

Earthwork at the site of a planned refugee camp for Syrian Christians at Midyat, Turkey. The Mor Abrohom Monastery is in the background, right.Saima Altunkaya for World Watch Monitor Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria live in camps just inside Turkey. So the April 10 . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye