Hopes to Revive the Christian Area of Turkey

BREAKING NEWS

Eight of nine members of Syriac Party Union in Syria had been released. Only one member is still arrested.

During the 1st April (Akitu) Festival celebrations and during the protestations that followed, Syrian Security Forces had been arrested 9 members of the Party.

The released members are in good health and they join their families and their domicilies.

We will up-date our bulletin as fast as possible with new developments.

Update Information concerning Syriac détenues in Syria

Consequently to this incident ESU organises protest meetings around European cities

Places and dates:

Place:	Stockholm	Genève	Brussels	Berlin
Adress:	Vendevagen 90 183 32 Danderyd	La Place des Nations 1202 Genève	Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 3 1050 Ixelles	Rauchstraße 25 10787 Berlin
Date:	06-04-2012	07-04-2012	10-04-2012	10-04-2012
Time:	14:00 PM	14:30 PM	13:00 PM	10:00 AM

Following the arrest of five members of Syriac Party in Syria, Syriac people organised peaceful protestation in front of the gendarmerie.

During the protestation Syrian Security Forces attacked people and injured more than 20 demonstrators within them 4 injured gravely.

Meanwhile, Security Forces arrested nine other people in the demonstration and held them with unknown place to the Syriac people and to the Syriac Party in Syria authorities. Syrian authorities refuse all kind of information and they do not provide any relevant help to Syriac authorities.

By the way, two arrested women had been released.

The identity of nine arrested people is mentioned:

Hanna Lahdo

Afram Bahine

Mirza Hanna

Suphi Malke

Muosa Hanna

Issa Shukri Murad

Gabi Hanna

Philip Juju

Mark Kerim Saliba

Kind regards,

Rima Tüzün

ESU – Head of Foreign Affairs

rima.tuezuen@esu.cc
0032 – 485 75 49 67
0049- 176 628 70 683

SYRIAC MEMBERS CAPTURED IN SYRIA

URGENT RELEASE

Brussels April 04. 2012

Today at the morning hours, the Syrian Security Forces captured five members of Syriac Party in Syria in the city of Qamishli and Malikiye. Syrian Security Forces continue to terrorise people and they realized raids to the domiciles for further arrests.

According to the latest information that we receive, five members, 2 women and 3 men, are at the gendarmerie of Qamishli. The identity of the five members is known to the Syriac Party in Syria.

Recently, Syriac Party in Syria had celebrated the 1^st April (Akitu) Spring Festival in the in Syria with the present of Syriac Christians. Akitu Festival is traditional and cultural festival among Syriac people as the beginning of the spring.

Eurpean Syriac Union (ESU) strongly condemns this shameful arrest of the Syriac people in Syria. Arrested people did nothing against the rule of the country and they use only and basic right of assembly to celebrate traditional festival peacefully.

The Assad regime shows once more time its real face to the entire world with this unacceptable arrest of peaceful people.

ESU calls kindly to international community, regional powers and relevant actors to monitor this situation, staying sensible and acting with responsive way for the liberation of the five people.

We will keep you informed with up-dated and detailed information as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

PS: Following the arrest wave of members of Syriac Party in Syria, Syriac people in Qamishli organized peaceful and passive demonstration in front of the gendarmerie in which members were arrested. With the aim to release members of Syriac Party in Syria people came together while Syrian Security Forces attacked people in the manifestation and injured several people and also they arrested more people present in the demonstration. According to the latest news, Security Forces continue to attack people and try all means to disperse people.

For further information please contact:

Rima Tüzün

ESU – Head of Foreign Affairs

rima.tuezuen@esu.cc

+49 176 628 70 683

  I. INTERNATIONAL SYRIAC STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
                 Syriac in Its Multi-Cultural Context   Mardin Artuklu University Institute of Living Languages 20-22 April 2012



First Turkish-Syriac paper hits the shelves

Thursday, March 15. 2012
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Sabro will be based in Mardin’s Midyat district.

A new monthly Turkish-Syriac journal, “Sabro” (“Hope”), will hit the shelves this week, marking the first time in the history of the Turkish Republic that a Syriac Christian newspaper will enter circulation.

“As Syriacs, we also maintain hopes about the future in Turkey, and thus we named our newspaper ‘Sabro,’” the journal’s chief editor, Tuma Çelik, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Çelik also said he could not learn the Syriac language due to Turkey’s policies toward its minorities. Turkish society is not sufficiently familiar with the Syriac community, and the general discourse in the country makes it seem as if the ongoing problems regarding the Mor Gabriel Monastery in the southeastern province of Mardin constitute the community’s sole problem, he added.

“For that reason, we placed a greater emphasis on [using] Turkish. We are both going to inform our people about their culture while [providing them] with news and inform the people of Turkey about Syriacs and their problems,” he said.

Sabro will be based in Mardin’s Midyat district, the historical homeland of Syriac Christians. The paper will also maintain offices in Istanbul and the southeastern provinces of Hakkari and Şırnak, according to Çelik, who said the 25,000-strong population of Syriacs in Turkey was predominantly concentrated in Istanbul.

The paper, which will become a weekly journal in the months following its initial launch, will also feature the writings of Turkish, Armenian and Greek intellectuals.

“Syriacs always lived in the countryside. We had much difficulty getting our voice heard despite the many critical problems [we] experienced,” Çelik said.

Many Syriac Christians emigrated to Europe in three separate waves, the biggest of which was in the 1960s, due to the outbreak of political turmoil in their historical homelands.

“We could not [uphold] our intelligentsia until they left for Europe. Syriacs educated in Europe have begun to return in the past six years and bring our problems to the fore,” he said.

Sabro will initially be distributed in the Simurg and Medya bookstores in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood, the Anatolia Culture and Research Association (AKADER) in Ankara and Antalya, as well as the Virgin Mary Syriac Church in Diyarbakır, but there are plans to subsequently expand distribution to other cities.

Donations and advertisements will constitute the chief income streams for the journal.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Exodus From North Signals Iraqi Christians’ Slow Decline

The New York Times, March 10, 2012

At monasteries in Qosh

At monasteries in Qosh, Christians who fled Baghdad's strife for the Kurdish north are now abandoning the area, ground down in part by a lack of jobs. More Photos »
Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

TENNA, Iraq — Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that the violence they had fled was catching up to them.

Their quiet exodus to Turkey, Jordan, Europe and the United States is the latest chapter of a seemingly inexorable decline that many religious leaders say tolls the twilight of Christianity in a land where city skylines have long been marked by both minarets and church steeples. Recent assessments say that Iraq’s Christian population has now fallen by more than half since the 2003 American invasion, and with the military’s departure, some Christians say they lost a protector of last resort.

Their flight is felt in places like the wind-scoured village of Tenna, which has sheltered dozens of Christian migrants over the past nine years. The families fleeing Baghdad’s death squads and bombings found safety here beneath the hulking mountains, but little else besides poverty, boredom and cold. Villagers estimate that half of the 50 or so Christian homes are now empty, their families abroad.

Walid Shamoon, 42, wants to be the next to leave. He said he left Iraq’s capital in January 2011 after a confrontation with Shiite militia members set off a nightmare of escalating death threats and an attempt on his life. A brother had already been killed in a mortar attack six years earlier, so he said he quit his contract job with the Australian Embassy, giving up a $1,500 monthly salary, and came here.

These days, all he can think about is his application to emigrate to Arizona.

“This is not a life,” he said one recent afternoon, as a blizzard raced down from the mountains. “There is no improvement. There is no work.”

Many of the people now struggling in Iraq’s Kurdish north came in the wake of a suicide attack in Baghdad at Our Lady of Salvation Church in October 2010. It was the single worst assault on Iraq’s Christians since the war began, one that left 50 worshipers and 2 priests dead and that turned the church into a charnel house of scorched pews and shattered stained glass.

Christian families in Baghdad grabbed clothing, cash and a few other provisions and headed north for the Christian communities along the Nineveh plain and Kurdistan’s three provinces. They joined tens of thousands of other Christians from the capital, Mosul and other cities who traced similar arcs after earlier attacks and assassination campaigns.

“They traded everything for security,” said the Rev. Gabriel Tooma, who leads the Monastery of the Virgin Mary in the Christian town of Qosh, which took in dozens of families.

The Christians in northern Iraq make up a tiny fraction of Iraq’s legions of displaced people. In all, there are 1.3 million of them across the country, according to the most recent United Nations estimates. Many live in garbage dumps, shanty towns and squalor far worse than anything facing the Christian families in Kurdistan.

Still, Christians and other minorities were singled out in the years of sectarian cleansing that bifurcated a once-diverse Baghdad into pockets of Sunnis and Shiites. Estimates by the United States and international organizations say that Iraq’s prewar Christian population of 800,000 to 1.4 million now stands at less than 500,000.

“The consequence of this flight may be the end of Christianity in Iraq,” the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote in its most recent annual report, summarizing the concerns of church leaders.

In January, the International Organization for Migration found that 850 of 1,350 displaced Christian families it was tracking in northern Iraq had left in the past year. Many cited fears about security as well as the strains of finding work, housing and schools in an unfamiliar place where they had few connections and spoke only Arabic, and not Kurdish.

“No one has done anything for us,” said Salim Yono Auffee, a member of the Chaldean/Assyrian Popular Council, a Christian group in northern Iraq. “These people are trying to figure out how to build their futures, to find homes, to get married. And they are leaving Iraq.”

Even in the relative safety of Kurdistan, some Christians say they still live in apprehension. A kidnapping of a Christian businessman in Erbil, the Kurdish capital, and a recent outbreak of riots and arson attacks against Christian-owned liquor stores in Dohuk Province — the northernmost in Iraq, along the Turkish border — have deeply unsettled Christian migrants to the area.

Seven years ago, after retrieving his son from kidnappers, Salam Meti Abdul Karim moved his family from Mosul to the small Christian community of Shioz, a half-hour’s drive from the center of Dohuk Province. The years passed quietly, until one night in December, when a pickup truck full of men pulled up at the edge of town and set fire to a liquor warehouse.

“I felt like history was repeating itself,” Mr. Abdul Karim said. “We worry the situation is just going to devolve into violence. I was thinking to just take my family and go up to the mountains.”

The village hired armed guards after the attack, Mr. Abdul Karim said.

No Christians were killed in the riots against Christian store owners. Local officials say they were not specifically targeted because of their religion, but because the mobs who burned their stores — and the conservative clerics who had incited them — viewed the alcohol sales as un-Islamic.

Still, Kurdish officials, who have welcomed Christians to the region, rushed to defuse fears conjured by the clash. Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish president, visited Christians in Zakho, the city where the riots were centered, and a parade of government officials and religious leaders emphasized Kurdistan’s historical tolerance, and its deep ties to Assyrians, Chaldeans and other branches of Christianity.

“They are part of us,” said Fadil Omar, the head of the provincial council in Dohuk.

The Kurdish government has offered land, free fuel and other assistance to Christians as they have arrived from Baghdad, and it has opened its universities to students from Mosul, officials say. And Christians do not lack a political voice. They sit on local and provincial councils throughout the north, and hold seats in Parliament in Kurdistan and Baghdad.

Despite the help, many families say they are straining to stay afloat. Those close to cities have found jobs, but those in villages are largely unemployed, and they subsist on government pensions or relief payments of about $200 per month. They skip meals and share heating fuel. They are often miles from schools that teach in Arabic, and some parents say their children have dropped out.

The mountain village of Dawudiyah is a study in trade-offs, a place whose residents share similar stories of fear and flight from their homes in Baghdad. One man was threatened with death if he did not hand over his daughter to militants. A couple’s son was killed on his way home from work. Another family’s son was gunned down with three friends. They gave little thought to the consequences of leaving. They just had to get out.

“It was unbearable,” said Berkho Odeesho, the village’s mayor. “We found safety in Kurdistan, but things are getting unstable. We don’t know where to go.”

But like others here, Mr. Odeesho has a plan. He has applied for an immigration visa, and he is now busy preparing for his consular interview. Uprooting his family from Iraq may be difficult, he said, but it would be in service of a new future, away from Iraq, in a distant place called Illinois.

Omar al-Jawoshy contributed reporting.

Source: The New York Times

Syriac Organisations meet Turkish Constitution Conciliation Commission

On February 27, 2012 Syriac organisations from Europe and Turkey met the Turkish Constitution Conciliation Commission in Ankara to present and deliver the demands and expectations of Syriac people concerning the new constitution. This meeting has another important point is that for the first time of the history of Turkish Republic the National Parliament met with the political and NGO groups of Syriac people.

Syriac organisations consisting from European Syriac Union (ESU), Federation of Syriac Associations in Turkey, Mezo-Der and Federation of Syriac People in Germany (HSA) had meeting at the parliament with the Commission which is consisted from the deputies of all political parties present at the Turkish Parliament.

Nearly one our of the meeting representatives of Syriac organisations focused their attention at the most important and fragile issues that face Syriac people and explain the historical and current situation of Syriacs to the Commission.

The Syriac representatives present the report concerning the demands and expectations of Syriac people from the new constitution and the highlight the injustice concerning lack of status of the Syriac people, inter alia, the suppression of unjust and false passages at the schools manuals which defined Syriac as “traitors”, the views concerning definition of “citizenship” in the new constitution and problems concerning land issues in the Turabdin region.

Syriac committee which were consisted from Tuma Çelik (ESU), Evgil Türker (Federation of Syriac Associations in Turkey), Tuma Özdemir (Mezo-Der) and Saliba Joseph (HSA) will continue their meetings with the all political parties that are present at the Turkish Parliament.

ESU member Tuma Çelik declared that they have very useful meeting for two sides and that the meeting passed with very good atmosphere.

ESU condemns the attack against Syriac Association

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brussels, February 16, 2012

At the night of February 12, 2012 Syriac Institution in the city of İdil, Şırnak in Turkey had been attacked by unknown people. The cultural institution “Süryani Kültür, Kardeşlik, Sevgi ve Hoşgörü Derneği” established in 2001 in the city which has few Syriac families.

The Syriac institution has especially works in the field of culture and is respected in the city from habitants. The city of İdil which was once one of the centers of the Syriacs in the Turabdin region, after migration and difficulties Syriac people left the city and today there are only few Syriac families continue living there. The city also has great historical importance which served to the Syriac people culturally, religiously and economically.

European Syriac Union (ESU), working for the Syriac people in the diaspora and in the homeland countries will continue closely to monitor the situation of Syriacs in Turkey at the period of tumultuous politic atmosphere.

During last years Syriac people in the region face some difficulties especially at the land registration field which has files many Syriac villages to the courts and as well the Mor Gabriel Monastery. Mor Gabriel Monastery is seeking their rights at the European Court of Human Rights.

ESU demands from local authorities to work seriously to find perpetrators of this shameful and unaccepted attack against Syriac institution and to deliver them to the justice. ESU will continue to monitor and follow closely all developments related to this aggression.

We declare our support and friendship to the Syriac institution in the city of İdil and to the President and all members as well. Considering the difficulties in the city and in the region, the presence and works of such institutions is vital for the society and for the next generations.

European Syriac Union (ESU) condemns this shameful attack against Syriac institution and demand from governmental and local authorities to take necessary measures to prevent and secure the presence of Syriac people in the region. ESU will continue closely to watch all steps concerning this incident.

Christianity in the Middle East Must Be Safeguarded

Wednesday, January 25. 2012

A cross is staked into rocks looking over into Mount Lebanon. Photo: wiki commons.

It’s time for journalists, human rights activists and church leaders in the U.S. to confront the prospect of Christianity’s destruction in the region of its birth.

That’s the message that came out of a one-day conference that took place in Framingham, Massachusetts on Jan. 21, 2012. The conference, titledThe Persecuted church: Christian Believers in Peril in the Middle East was sponsored by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary in 2012.

Andrea Levin, CAMERA’s executive director said the goal of the conference was to draw attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East.

“If the media shines a light consistently and clearly on the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians, that can make a crucial difference in restraining potential violence,” she said. “Silence on the other hand may do the opposite.”

Walid Phares, an American scholar born in Lebanon who advises the U.S. Congress on issues related to terrorism, said Christians and other minorities have been the victims of violence for decades. “I lived through it in the 20^thcentury. Now we’re all living it, trying to witness for it,” he said. “We have crossed the threshold of a new century and yet it’s still happening.”

Attendees of the conference heard testimony from Juliana Taimoorazy, founder of the Iraqi Christian relief council and Egyptian human rights activists Cynthia Farahat. Taimoorazy, who reported on the plight of Assyrians in Israq stated that since June 2004, churches in Iraq have been bombed more than 80 times. Sometimes, multiple churches would be bombed at the same time as part of a coordinated attack.

“Most of these attacks happened on Fridays, marking the day of Islamic prayer,” she said. Clergy have been routinely kidnapped and killed on a regular basis. Even children have been killed by Islamists, Taimoorazy reported.

“In October of 2006 – in the 21^st century – a 14-year-old boy was crucified in Basra, in the center of the city,” she said.

Farahat reported that Copts are second-class citizens in their homeland

“But for me, as a woman and a Copt, I am a fourth-class citizen,” she said. “The first class citizen is the Egyptian Sunni Muslim male, the second class is the Sunni female. The third is the Christian male. The fourth is the Christian female. I’m a fourth-class Egyptian citizen with absolutely no legal rights.”

The plight of religious and ethnic minorities in Muslim and Arab majority countries in the Middle East has largely been ignored because of an obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict, Phares said during his keynote address. Phares first witnessed this after immigrating to the U.S. from Lebanon in the 1990s.

“In the 1990s, if there as an incident in the West Bank, the son-in-law, the mom, the uncle of both sides would be interviewed and the psychologists would come in and talk about the deep roots of the conflict,” Phares said. “At the same time, two villages were burned in Egypt or the Kurds would be gassed. Zero [coverage] in the New York Times.”

Franck Salameh, assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies at Boston College, echoed Phares’ complaint.

“There’s clearly a prevailing hierarchy in the media’s treatment of Middle Eastern violence,” he said. “Some victims get airtime on prime time, all the time. Others simply don’t. Middle Eastern Christians are not a top priority. Those uncouth, cross-wearing primitives are not cause for curiosity. They are too Christian in a world plagued by political correctness, cultural relativism and a false conception fo the Middle East as an Arab Muslim preserve.”

Documenting attacks on Near Eastern minorities is not fashionable, Salameh said, because it is viewed as being anti-Arab and anti-Muslim and part of a Western attempt to divide a cultural and linguistic monolith. If this thinking were applied to North America, no one would talk about the plight or fate of Native Americans because it would be regarded as subversive to the Anglo-European paradigm.

“Middle Eastern minorities, Christians and Jews, are the native Americans of the Middle East,” Salameh said. “The dominant Arab-Muslim culture is indeed the colonizing intruder culture here.”

Richard Landes, associate professor of history at Boston University and author of Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of Millenial Experience reported that Islamists have worked assiduously to disarm Westerners by engaging in cognitive warfare against democracies. This cognitive warfare is pursued, Landes explained, by using self-criticism and concern for the other to undermine the ability of democracies to defend themselves. “The purpose of cognitive warfare is to turn your own people into patriots and your enemies into pacifists,” Landes said.

This strategy has had “staggering success” over the past few years, he said. The success is due to “an unholy marriage between pre-modern sadism and post modern masochism,” Landes said.

“The pre-moderns accuse us of the most vicious things in the world and we say, ‘You’re right, I’m sorry,” Landes joked.

Source: the algemeiner

Turkey, Syriacs talk to host Patriarchate

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

AA Photo

Photo: AA

Turkey would provide no benefits to the Syriac community, as we have no parish left,” Mor Melki Ürek the metropolitan of the eastern province of Adıyaman, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

A large of proportion of Turkey’s Syriac population has already emigrated abroad due to problems in their homeland, according to Ürek.

“We have maintained our silence for too long on every matter. We could not seek our rights. The Syriac Church is a universal church, but Turkey did not appreciate the significance of this invaluable asset. Everyone is responsible for bringing about the current state of our church,” Ürek said.

The Ancient Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate remained in service for six centuries. Initially located in the southern province of Antakya, it moved for some time to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, and finally to the Deyrulzafaran Monastery in the southeastern province of Mardin. When the Patriarchate was abolished in 1930, its last leader, Patriarch Mor Ignatius III Ilyas Şakır, was also deported.

“The Syriac Patriarchate might decide [to relocate to Turkey] due to the ongoing [political] turmoil in Syria. Turkey might also derive some merit for itself from this. Meetings could be underway, but it is the substance [of the meetings] that matters,” political scientist Professor Doğu Ergil told the Daily News.
Ürek, however, denied any link between the decision to move and the unrest in Syria. “I do not think there is any direct connection because as far as I know, the meetings have been going on for five years,” he said.

“Turkey might be trying to put some new squeeze on the patriarchate because the Syriac Church bears the ecumenical title. As such, the Turkish Republic might be [trying to avoid] a new problem, similar to the example of the Fener Greek Patriarchate. If the invitation truly sprang out of Turkey, that is very important and meaningful,” Ergil said.

The meetings to move the patriarchate back to Turkey have been taking place since 1997, Tuma Çelik, head of the Turkey branch of the European Syriacs’ Union, told the Daily News. The return of the patriarchate back to its homeland bears great spiritual significance, he added.

“If the Turkish Republic wants to take this step, it will not amount to granting a favor. Let us assume the patriarchate moved back to Turkey. Is it not going to be strange for the patriarchate to gain legal status when Syriacs in Turkey are still lacking an official status themselves?” David Vergili, a member of the European Syriacs Union, told the Daily News.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Chairman’s Message

Brussels, January 2011

Dear readers,

Before a month we turned out the year of 2011 that was a year with great changes, developments and risks. The manifestations and falling regimes with Arab awakening, economic crisis and the natural disasters were among the priorities. We are witnessing very important periods in century that we will see and observe their effects and influences in the future. The world face a new era.

ESU from first day until now, with great attention and confidence observe the new dynamics and offering new policies and activities to be ready for the processes and maintain solution for our people everywhere in the world.

Today, Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people are the period of transition at the all present countries. The situation in Syria is in front of our eyes. With the important population present at the soul of Syria, the CSA people must be ready for the new period and their rights and demands have to be accepted. National, regional and international actors have to take account of CSA people during the re-establishment of new order in Syria.

In Iraq following the US troops attacks continue and federal government is no more attentive to our demands. The same for Turkey, regardless to economic success, minority rights are far from the priority of government and democratic waves looks far for ever.

My best wishes for the year 2012.

European Syriac Union, Chairman
Lahdo Hobil

Read ouer latest Newsletter!

Ancient Language Gets Extended Life In Iraq

JANUARY 10, 2012 MIDDLE EAST NEWS

By BROOKE ANDERSON | Special to the Wall Street Journal Europe

ANKAWA, Iraq—It is commonly known as the language of Jesus and is the root of both Arabic and Hebrew. But what's less widely known is that Aramaic is still spoken, and is in fact thriving in some parts of Iraq.

"We're very proud of our language," says Sister Jermine Daoud, a nun originally from Baghdad who grew up speaking the language and who now lives in Shaqlawa, in northern Iraq, one of the few places in the world where Aramaic is still spoken on the street. "After the war so many [Aramaic speakers] left. But I'm not worried about the language disappearing."

For years, extinction looked like a real possibility for Aramaic, especially after the Anfal campaign that lasted from 1986 to 1989, in which Saddam Hussein's government is believed to have destroyed more than 4,000 Kurdish, Christian and other minority villages in Northern Iraq, where Aramaic was widely spoken, in an attempt to "Arabize" the country's minorities.

This push was halted with the imposition of the no-fly zone in Iraq in 1991, and the subsequent establishment of the Kurdistan Regional Government in 1992, as Aramaic was increasingly taught in Christian churches. Then, in 2003, following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Syriac—the classical written version of Neo Aramaic—along with Kurdish, Arabic and English classes became part of the curriculum of many schools.

Today, with the increased stability in the country's Kurdish region, and the subsequent move north by Christians fleeing inter-communal violence elsewhere in the country, the ancient language is making a comeback in the area. Of the estimated 30,000 people world-wide who speak a dialect of Neo-Aramaic, most live in Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the classical language is being taught in classrooms in Iraqi Kurdistan, the modern language is being broadcast from satellite stations. Two of the most popular stations that feature Aramaic are Ishtar, a privately funded station based in Ankawa, and Ashur, funded by the Assyrian Democratic Movement party.

Ishtar, which started in 2005, has a world-wide audience, broadcasting on five different satellite networks. "This was the first professional [media] experience for our people in Iraq and abroad," says Ishtar founder George Mansour, who set up the station in response to demand from the local community. "We worked to make Ishtar a bridge connecting [Aramaic-speaking] Christians from Iraq to those outside Iraq."

There is debate among both speakers and academics as to whether to call the language Aramaic or Syriac, or whether they're two separate languages or dialects. In general, people tend to refer to the spoken language as Aramaic and the written as Syriac. Regardless of its name, all seem to be in agreement about its cultural significance and the need to preserve it through education.

These days it is seeing an increased interest from students and parents. "We're planning on opening more classes," says Galawish Touma, a Syriac teacher in Shaqlawa, where students learn the language at state schools up to the age of 14. "As long as the [Syriac] church is here, the language will stay. If we stay, the language will stay."

Iraq's Kurds, who now run a state-within-a-state, managing their army, judiciary and oil wealth, have been eager to present themselves to the West as protectors of minorities, including Christians.

According to the ministry of religious affairs in Erbil, the provincial capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, there are 140 Christian villages in the province. At least 70 of their churches have been renovated by Sarkis Aghajan Mamendo, who helps in the production and funding of Ishtar. An Iraqi-Assyrian politician who previously served as minister of finance and economy, he is considered controversial by some because of his close ties to Kurdish politics. Mr. Mamendo now lives in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil, whose population has doubled to 20,000 since 2003 because of a large influx of refugees from the south.

At two schools in Ankawa, all teaching is in Syriac. There, Shwan Kakona teaches his third-grade students what he says is "the modern version of what Jesus spoke." In the class, the children learn grammar and read Assyrian fables.

But the language is caught in struggle between preserving it in its classical form and encouraging a modern version suitable for day-to-day use.

"Writing is taught strictly in classical Aramaic, which is barely understood by modern speakers of Neo-Aramaic," says Daniel Kaufman, an adjunct professor of linguistics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. "When younger people want to write in Aramaic they use an improvised orthography in the Arabic script. This can then be considered a case of a classical language having a suffocating influence on its modern descendant."

Meanwhile, despite the apparent academic renaissance of the language, there is still the problem of finding Assyrian-speakers qualified to teach academic subjects at higher levels. Nizar Hanna, director of Assyrian education in the KRG, says that "the lack of academic specialists in the field creates a clear limit on the instruction."

Mr. Hanna has long been campaigning for a Syriac department at the ministry of higher education in Kurdistan, to organize and regulate the language, and introduce quality control in teaching. So far, he says, his requests have failed—the ministry has said there aren't enough specialized staff to make it viable.

Advocates argue that the need to keep the language alive in Kurdistan is even greater because it is dying out elsewhere. "I can see it right in front of my eyes vanishing in [the] diaspora," says Ghaith Hadaya, who grew up in Karada, a once largely Christian district of Baghdad and now works as an Arabic translator at the United Nations in New York, says: "My aunt and her husband came to the States in the late 70's. Their kids were taught the neo-Aramaic; after going to school they were more focusing on learning English. For young people, learning Aramaic isn't a priority."Mr. Mansour, founder of the Ishtar satellite TV station, is also well aware of the vulnerability of Aramaic, even with its historical ties to the region. "I think the fact that it is an ancient language means that it demands a lot of linguistic attention to bring [it] to the modern-day level," he says. "Its roots are in Iraq, and I hope it can remain here."

Source: The Wallstreet Journal

Archives 2011

Syriacs frustrated by trial deciding fate of monastery

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Mor Gabriel

The trial on the Mor Gabriel Monastery, or ‘Deyrulumur’ in Syriac, was filed in 2008
Photo: Hürriyet

Syriac Christians living both in Turkey and abroad are growing weary over an ongoing trial about the fate of their most revered place of worship, the 1,700-year-old Mor Gabriel Monastery in the southeastern province of Mardin. The case is presented to the public as if it were merely a simple suit filed by villagers, whereas in truth, the trial has transformed into a political one, Evgil Türker, the head of the Federation of Syriac Associations, recently told the Daily News.

“There are currently a total of five more lawsuits that were filed by the Forestry [and Waterworks] Ministry, [the Directorate of Land Registry and] Cadastre, the Treasury and [one trial] against the administrators of the Mor Gabriel Foundation, in addition to the current trial that seems as if it were opened by villagers [but] is backed by locals,” Türker said.

The current trial regarding the Mor Gabriel Monastery, or “Deyrulumur” in Syriac, was filed in 2008, and the next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 10, 2012, in Mardin’s Midyat district.

“We very much would have wanted the trial to reach a conclusion in Turkey. Lands that had been ours for thousands of years were expropriated. We wanted the trial to reach a resolution very much but to no avail,” Türker said, adding that they could not file any suits to retrieve thousands of hectares of expropriated land due to fear and financial constraints.

The Forestry Ministry claims the monastery lands constitute a forest, he said. Syriac representatives have consequently brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights, though the first hearing is yet to be held.

As more and more villagers began settling on the lands in question, the monastery was gradually encircled by the communities. The inhabitants of the villages of Yayvantepe, Çandarlı and Eğlence subsequently filed a suit against the monastery in 2008 on the grounds that it was occupying their lands.

“Our sanctity was violated with this case. What Jerusalem means to the Christian world, Mor Gabriel means that to Syriacs,” Tuma Çelik, the head of the Turkey branch of the European Syriacs Union, told the Daily News.

The Supreme Court of Appeals overturns the decisions of local Midyat courts that rule in favor of the Syriac community, Çelik added.

Syriacs were caught in the crossfire during clashes between government forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeast during the mid-1980s. Many of them have consequently left for abroad while the current Syriac population in Turkey is estimated to be in the thousands. “They ask us why we blow the monastery case out of proportion. They advance the decision made by the Swedish Parliament regarding the genocide of 1915,” Çelik said in reference to the alleged Syriac genocide.”

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

ESU condemns the Eradication of Christianity in Iraq

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 10. 2011

The attacks against Christians and other minorities now started in the Northern part of Iraq. The first attack took place on December 2^nd. Islamic Kurds in Zakho following the Friday Prayer and with the instructions of the Imam attacked and destroyed all Christian owned businesses from liquor stores to beauty salons plus the Chinese owned massage shops. The following days these attacks spread to other cities of Northern Iraq.

Since a heavy security presence in the Nineveh Plain, the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian (CSA) people are concerned, because this can be a laying of groundwork for eventual annexation by the Kurdistan region. Kurds came into villages where exclusively Christians live.

This year an assembly of political parties and organisations delivered an official request concerning a province project in the Nineveh Plain for Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians. With this province a solution for the situation of Christians and other minorities would be finding. Although the official request has been sent to representatives of the Iraqi government, it has not been responded until today.

Referred to latest statements of Kurdish leaders, Christians would be better off joining the Kurdistan region, because of more protection and free practicing of their religion.

But latest developments show us, that even in the “secure North Iraq” Christians are not in security. Latest attacks against Christians determined a big lack of confidence and security. Especially the latest decision of Masoud Barzani concerning the contingent of minorities in the Kurdish parliament is a cause of concern on the rights of minorities. Five Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian and one Armenian member of the Kurdish parliament and the assembly of political parties and organisations showed a reaction on the decision of the Kurdish parliament. Also they wrote a letter to Barzani to not undersign this decision. Unfortunately last days Barzani signed this letter, so that now this contingent has been reversed.

The situation of Christians in the Middle East is very alarming. The Northern part of Iraq was seen as a secure place for Christians and other minorities. But latest outcomes show that even there a future for Christians is not guaranteed.

During last decade, we have been observed the escalation of violence against Christians in the Middle East countries. The annihilation policies are conducted to eradicate the Christian presence from the concerned countries. The ongoing policies of Western countries remain weak and passive to protect autochthon Christians minorities of Middle East and preserving their existence in the region.

At the current process the developments of Iraq and Syria are related to each other. The potential of our people could emerge on surface within this context. Especially Syria has very great importance for us. In order to avoid the wave of migration also in Syria from now on, the conditions should be prepared for our people.

The presence of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East is crucial and vital for the establishment of democratic, humanism and open society. Therefore, our call is clear; Christians of Middle East have to be protected and new policy toward them has to be realized.

European Syriac Union (ESU) is highly concerned about the future of Christians in the Middle East and asking to the Western powers, where can Christians continue to their existence and which measures have to be taken in order to secure Christians in the region.

European Syriac Union demands that regional and federal governments have the obligation to bring the responsible of these barbarous in front of the justice, compensating all damages caused during the attacks.

ESU condemns firmly the latest attacks against Christians at the Northern Iraq and demands to the regional and federal governments to take necessary measures to prevent similar attacks and create the atmosphere of security. Finally, on the basis of the Federal Constitution, Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people have to acquire the right of the autonomy as soon as possible in order to continue to flourish their existence and culture as autochthon people of the region.

Archbishop fears for Christians in Middle East

Friday, December 9. 2011

BBC News UK

Dr Rowan Williams says some Christians in the Middle East are under "constant threat"

Christians in the Middle East are "more vulnerable" than they have been for centuries, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

Dr Rowan Williams said that many Christians were leaving countries such as Iraq and Egypt in the face of persecution.

Many others had been forced to retreat to enclaves for their safety, he said.

Dr Williams added that the treatment of Christians would be the "litmus test" of the success of the Arab Spring.

The head of the world's Anglicans made his claims in the House of Lords.

He said: "At the present moment the position of Christians in the region is more vulnerable than it has been for centuries.

"The flow of Christian refugees from Iraq in the wake of constant threat and attack has left a dramatically depleted Christian population there."

Segregated

Those who chose to stay in the country had often withdrawn to segregated enclaves for their safety, he said.

The Archbishop says Coptic Christians living in Egypt are facing persecution

"Many recognise with heavy hearts things may come to such a pass that there are few, if any other options that will actually guarantee the safety of Christians there," the Archbishop said.

"But they still feel, surely rightly, that the creation of enclaves would be the yielding of a vitally important principle."

Besides Iraq, Dr Williams lamented the fact that many Coptic Christians were leaving Egypt, despite the faith having had a presence in the country for many centuries.

He said: "In a way that would have been unthinkable even a very few years ago, they are anxious about sharing the fate of other Christian communities that once seemed securely embedded in their setting."

Turning to the impact of the Arab Spring in the Middle East, Dr Williams said: "My contention has been that the security and wellbeing of the historic Christian communities in the region is something of a litmus test in relation to the wider issues of the political health of the region."

He added: "No-one is seeking a privileged position for Christians in the Middle East, nor should they be.

"But what we can say, and I firmly believe that most Muslims here and in many other places would agree entirely, is that the continued presence of Christians in the region is essential to the political and social health of the countries of the Middle East."

Source: BBCNews.uk

           I. INTERNATIONAL SYRIAC STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
             Syriac in Its Multi-Cultural Context
           I. ULUSLARARASI SÜRYANŠ SEMPOZYUMU
               SÜRYANİLER VE DİĞER KÜLTÜRLERLE ETKİLEŞİMLERİ

                   Mardin Artuklu University
                                     Institute of Living Languages
                                                    20-22 April 2012, Mardin

Turnbull and Fitzgibbon among seven Australian MPs to call for Genocide recognition

The Peak Public Affairs Committee of the Armenian-Australian Community

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

CANBERRA - News.am

Australian MP, Hon. Malcolm Turnbull

CANBERRA: In an unprecedented development, seven Federal Members rose in the House of Representatives on November 21, 22 and 23 to affirm the historical reality of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides and call for Australian recognition of these crimes against humanity, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia).

MPs Craig Kelly, Malcolm Turnbull, Michael Danby and Joel Fitzgibbon – new supporters of this fundamental issue of humanity – added their voices to long-time friends of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian communities in MPs John Alexander, Joe Hockey and Paul Fletcher and paid tribute to the victims of the first genocide of the 20^th century.

The speeches coincided with the visit of a delegation of ANC Australia, the Australian Hellenic Council (AHC) and the Assyrian Universal Alliance of Australia (AUA) to Canberra to further the cause of genocide recognition as part of ANC Australia’s Advocacy Week 2011.

In his first parliamentary speech on this issue, the Member for Hughes, Craig Kelly, spoke in detail about the genocidal policies of the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian populations.

“The Armenian Genocide and the related Assyrian and Greek Genocides were the result of a deliberate and systematic campaign against the Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923,” Kelly said.

“Aside from the deaths, Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire had their wealth and property confiscated without compensation. Businesses and farms were lost, and schools, churches, hospitals and monasteries became the property of the Ottoman Empire.”

The Member for Hughes underlined the importance for Australia to recognise this crime against humanity.

“It is now time for our parliament to join other parliaments around the world and recognise these genocides for what they were,” Kelly stated.

The Member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, also delivering his first parliamentary speech on this issue, welcomed the representatives of ANC Australia, AHC and AUA in the public gallery of the Chamber of the House of Representatives.

“They are assembled here, as we are, to lament what was one of the great crimes against humanity, not simply a crime against the Greeks, the Assyrians and the Armenians but a crime against humanity—the elimination, the execution, the murder of hundreds of thousands of millions of people for no reason other than that they were different. This type of crime, this sort of genocidal crime, is something that sadly is not unique in our experience,” Turnbull said.

The Member for Wentworth reflected on the Ottoman Empire’s record of multiculturalism of which these genocidal crimes constituted an aberration.

“We lament today great crimes but also the loss of diversity and the loss of tolerance,” Turnbull said.

The Member for Melbourne Ports and Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Michael Danby, affirmed the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide during a debate in the House of Representatives on a motion related to the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

“… Adolf Hitler, said on 22 August 1939, on the eve of perpetrating another genocide, 'Who remembers the Armenians?', referring to the failure of anyone to react to Turkey's genocide of two million Armenians. It is because he was able to say that in Europe in the 1930s that further tragedies engulfed Europe,” said the Member for Melbourne Ports.

Danby emphasised the need to acknowledge and remember past genocides in Armenia, Rwanda, Darfur and Srebrenica to prevent such horrible crimes from recurring.

The Member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon voiced similar sentiments in his first public statement on this issue.

“We should collectively spend more time recognising that between 1915 and 1923 hundreds of thousands of Armenians had their lives cut short for no other reason than for their ethnicity,” said Fitzgibbon.

“The best and most effective way to heal the wounds carried still by Armenians today is to recognise and acknowledge both the events of the past and the motivations behind them. Only then will the global community collectively be able to offer the Armenian people and others sufficient empathy. And only then will the international community be able to genuinely claim an unqualified determination to identify and eradicate genocide in any and every corner of the globe.”

The Member for Bennelong, John Alexander, reaffirmed his support for the recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides during an adjournment speech on November 21.

Recalling the 1948 United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Alexander said: “From the eyewitness accounts of ANZAC soldiers and survivors there is little doubt that the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, one million Greeks and 750,000 Assyrians fits this definition.”

Alexander called upon the Australian government to join the wave of international recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocide.

“I urge the government to follow in the footsteps of so many nations in formally recognising these genocides. The actions of members of this parliament will help to solidify the global movement to identify these atrocities for what they are.”

The Member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey emphasised the strong connections between Australian history and the genocide that began in 1915 during an adjournment speech on November 21.

“Our country has a strong association with the events beginning in 1915. The Ottomans began their genocide of the Armenian people on 24 April 1915—the day before the first Australian soldiers landed at Anzac Cove—and many Australian soldiers witnessed the tragic events the Armenian race suffered at the hands of the Ottomans.”

Hockey firmly called for an official Australian recognition of this crime against humanity.

“We as a nation should no longer fail to recognise the truth of history—truth that was recorded even by the Australian media as it was occurring, at the beginning of the 20th century—and so I officially call on our parliament again to recognise the genocide of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians that occurred in Ottoman Turkey between 1915 and 1923.”

The Member for Bradfield, Paul Fletcher once again affirmed the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide and called for its official recognition by the Australian government during a constituency speech on November 22.

“Consistent with the definition of genocide, these deaths took place with the clear intent of destroying Armenians as an ethnic group.”

“Some 20 countries around the world have declared these events as genocide. These countries include Canada, France and Germany. It is time that the Australian government also recognised what happened in the early decades of the last century as genocide,” stated Fletcher.

The seven Federal Members join Shadow Minister for Immigration Scott Morisson, Senator Nick Xenophon and Senator Lee Rhiannon, who in recent months called for recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides by the Federal government of Australia.

The Canberra leg of Advocacy Week 2011 concluded with a first-ever presentation to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence on the historical reality of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides, its ongoing implications, its links to Australian history and the importance of official Australian recognition of this crime against humanity.

The presentation, entitled “Consequences of an Unresolved Crime against Humanity”, was delivered by ANC Australia’s international guest for Advocacy Week 2011, Chairman of the ANC World Council Hagop Der Khatchadourian and ANC Australia Executive Director Varant Meguerditchian.

“The progress we were able to make in Canberra over the last two days has been outstanding, with several Federal Members placing on public record their support for Australian recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides and a first ever presentation delivered to the peak foreign affairs body of the Australian government on the urgency of this issue,” said Meguerditchian.

“Working together with our colleagues in AHC and AUA, we have been successful in garnering support for this important issue of humanity from all sides of the Australian political spectrum and have no doubt built an irreversible momentum across the political spectrum for Australian recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides,” he noted.

THANK THE 7 MPS BY CLICKING HERE

Source: News.am

Minorities retrieve their property

Monday, October 31, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation is among ones that retrieve properties.
Photo: Hürriyet

Representatives of Turkey’s minority communities have begun filing lawsuits to retrieve confiscated property, following the recent enactment of a new foundation law.

“We have had numerous gains due to the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). We are going to solve our problems regarding [our] appropriated lands through dialogue,” Bedros Şirinoğlu, president of Yedikule Surp Pırgiç Hospital Foundation, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Certain Armenian and Anatolian Greek foundations, however, had already started recovering some of their property before the new law went into effect.

Turkey’s Armenian community took the lion’s share in retrieved property, including the Selamet Han building in Istanbul’s Eminönü district, which was granted to the Yedikule Surp Pırgiç Hospital Foundation by Kalust Gülbenkyan, the founder of the Gülbenkyan Museum in Lisbon.

“There is nothing to be done about it, even if only a miniscule payment was made during nationalization. We are only going to request compensation for [property that was confiscated] without following due legal processes,” Şirinoğlu said.

The Anatolian Greek community also retrieved a historical school building in Istanbul’s Galata district, while Anatolian Greek schools that remained shut due to lack of attendance were also allowed to obtain revenue before the law went into effect.

“Many more appeals have to be issued for all the minority foundations to retrieve their rights,” Laki Vingas, the spokesman for Anatolian Greek foundations and a member of the Foundations General Council, told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The process for retrieving confiscated property is taking shape normally, as it should be, Vingas said.

Members of the Syriac Christian and Bulgarian foundations also followed suit and took legal action, even though the new law is relevant only for Turkey’s Armenian, Jewish and Anatolian Greek communities, which constitute the three officially recognized minorities as defined by the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.

Source: Hüriyetdailynews

Unterschriften-Aktion für Syrisch-Orthodoxes Kloster

19. Oktober 2011

sieveke100317_219 Daniel Sieveke MdL im schwedischen TV

Bereits im letzten CDU-Journal haben wir von der Initiative zur Bewahrung des Syrisch-Orthodoxen Klosters Mor Gabriel in der Türkei berichtet.

Die laufende Unterschriftensammlung wurde von unserem Landtagsabgeordneten Daniel Sieveke initiiert, Schirmherr ist Elmar Brok MdEP.

Daniel Sieveke und Carsten Linnemann hatten zuvor bereits Gespräche mit Vertretern Syrisch-Orthodoxer Gemeinden in Deutschlandgeführt.

Daniel Sieveke: „Bis Ende Oktober werden wir wohl die Grenze von 5.000 Unterschriften überschreiten.“ Bisher liegen dem Paderborner Landtagsabgeordneten bereits Sendungen unterschriebener Listen zum Beispiel aus Hamburg, Köln, Süddeutschland und Österreich vor, die Aktion läuft jedoch mittlerweile auch in der Schweiz, in Schweden, Norwegen und seit kurzem auch in Belgien. Ende des Monats fliegen Daniel Sieveke und Ibrahim Cicek, aramäischer Christ und Mitglied des CDU-Stadtverbands Delbrück, in die schwedische Hauptstadt Stockholm, um die Aktion dort in Live-Sendungen bei zwei aramäischen Satelliten-TV-Sendern vorzustellen und im Fernsehen mit Syrisch-Orthodoxen Geistlichen sowie Vertretern christlich-demokratischer Parteien aus dem schwedischen Nationalparlament die Sachlage zu erörtern und die Initiative noch weiter öffentlich bekannt zu machen.

Die Listen liegen zur Unterschrift weiterhin im CDU-Center Paderborn bereit.

Link to the article

Australian Senator calls to officially recognize Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

CANBERRA - News.am

Australian Senator Nick Xenophon

Australian Senator Nick Xenophon reaffirmed the historical reality of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides, paving the way for the Upper House to officially recognize these crimes against humanity.

Speaking in the Senate on October 12 Xenophon declared: “From 1915 to 1923, the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian people were the victims of one of the first modern genocides. The exact figures are not known, but it is estimated that over 3.5 million people died as a result of deliberate, systematic actions by the Ottoman Empire.”

According to him, the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian communities in Australia and around the world deserve to have these past atrocities acknowledged as what they were: genocide, armenia.com.au website reported.

The Senator also paid tribute to the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) and the Australian Hellenic Council (AHC) for their efforts at raising awareness of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides.

“In the coming months I will be working with the Armenian National Committee and the Australian Hellenic Council to formulate a motion to put to the Senate, and I will encourage all of my colleagues to support it,” he added.

Xenophon recalled that Australia had not formally acknowledged this genocide because of our diplomatic relationship with Turkey.

“If we do not acknowledge this history for fear of offending another country, where do we draw the line? When is an event or issue serious enough for us to take the risk? It is time for Australia to choose a position. Either we acknowledge these genocides, or we refuse to. If we do not take a stand on this issue, we need to consider what it says about our country,” emphasized the Senator.

Source: News.am

Syriac Christians to get first church in Istanbul

Wednesday, October 5. 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Turkey’s Syriac Christian community has secured approval from officials for the construction of its first church. The church, planned to be constructed in the Yeşilköy neighborhood, is expected to host 17,000 Syriacs who live in Istanbul

Prominent Syriac community leader, Kenan Altınışık (C) says the construction is set to begin as soon as suitable lands for the new church building are allotted.

After years of tussling and hairsplitting, Turkey’s Syriac Christian community has secured approval from both the prime minister and the president for the construction of its first church in the Yeşilköy neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul.

“Half of our community lives in and around Yeşilköy. We rent churches for Sunday rites, but we can only start morning mass at 11:30, whereas we are supposed to finish our Sunday rites before 10:30 in accordance with our tradition,” Kenan Altınışık, a prominent Syriac community leader, told the Hürriyet Daily News via e-mail.

The church site will be allocated to the ancient community by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, while construction expenses will be paid for by the Syriacs. An official from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Hürriyet Daily News that they are searching for a suitable location for the new church.

The church architecture is planned to bear traces of the Syriac’s thousands-of-years-old culture, while the construction is set to begin as soon as suitable lands are allotted.

Community representatives held a series of talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül and EU Minister Egemen Bağış regarding their problems concerning the new church, including the allocation of land for its construction, Altınışık said.

“Afterward, we also met with the head of the Istanbul Metropolitan Construction Affairs Committee upon a directive issued by the Istanbul metropolitan mayor,” he said, adding they have no communication problems.

“We presented several files to the head of the construction affairs committee and he offered a few places, but they were not suitable for us,” said Altınışık, a businessman and head of the Syriac community’s Foundation for the Church of Mother Mary, which is located in the Tarlabaşı neighborhood in central Istanbul.

The community holds the title deed to the Church of Mother Mary and the metropolitan center that houses it, Altınışık said, adding that about 17,000 Syriacs live in Istanbul with scant numbers still living in the southeast as well.

A metropolitan center acts as a higher institution for an orthodox church. Many of Turkey’s Syriacs migrated to Europe during the mid-1980s, when there was political turmoil in the southeast.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Syriacs dispute claims in school history book

Monday, September 26, 2011

ANKARA - Radikal

The information pertaining to the merging of the Syriac church with the Armenian church in the school history book is also incomplete, according to the report. AA photo

Representatives of Turkey’s Syriac Christian community have claimed that a section in a 10th grade history course book pertaining to events around the time of World War I misrepresents their history and fans the flames of enmity toward them.

“A classroom textbook ought to be [written] in a way that [reinforces] the unity of citizens. The text in this book has been penned in a way that would cause the people in this country to view Syriacs in a different [light],” Syriac writer Markus Ürek said.

The text claims the Syriacs revolted against Ottoman rule at the incitement of both European states and Russia during World War I, a claim rejected by Syriacs. The text goes further to state that a great majority of the Syriacs left Anatolia after the failure of this uprising.

“It is said a so–called Syriac genocide was committed in 1915. The Syriacs became a party to World War I by supporting the Russians. Conflict with the Syriacs occurred under the circumstances of war. As such, there is no genocide to speak of. Syriacs have conducted their religious and social activities without facing any problems,” read an excerpt from the course book. The course book also said the Syriacs were counted as citizens of the Turkish Republic in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne and that the emigration of Syriacs has increased in recent years due to economic reasons. “Syriacs who have emigrated abroad in particular have become instruments in the hands of the political and religious interests of [Western] states so that they can [share] in their economic prosperity,” the book said.

Chairman’s Message

Brussels, August 2011

Dear readers,

During the political and social movements of last months, our region and the world had witnessed the slow but sure transformation of the Middle East countries which were the centre of undemocratic systems. These social movements reversed some long lived regimes and the other still persist at the places.

Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people are passing very important period also as the other nations in the region. In Iraq, our people are target of systematic attacks and their presence becoming alarmist. Today the situation in Syria also is very important for our people. For this, establishing of democratic and modern systems in the region is the key for the future.

Our organisation, ESU, held the 4th Congress during the period of the social unrest which squeezes the region and the systems. Our Congress finished with great success and will the powerful solution to the period. To be ready and to give answer to the new process, ESU and with all relevant institutions and delegates are with the consciousness of the importance of the process and the works to be done.

Our region and the world are living difficult but necessary periods in terms of social, political and economic issues. The transformation of Middle East countries must bring democratic, open and pluralistic systems at the future.

Finally, I present all my deep gratitude to all my friends and delegates which accords me their confidence to take forward our organisation, ESU.

European Syriac Union, Chairman
Lahdo Hobil

Read ouer latest Newsletter!

Turkey's minorities condemn ‘Our Pledge’ but fear speaking out

Monday, August 15, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Members of Turkey’s minority communities criticize Turkey’s “Our Pledge”, recited by school children every morning, yet say they are hesitant to speak out their thoughts

All children attending Turkey’s primary schools are expected to read aloud the “Our Pledge” every morning when they come to school

All children attending Turkey’s primary schools are expected to read aloud the “Our Pledge” every morning when they come to schooll. DHA photo

Representatives of Turkey’s minorities are critical of Turkey’s “Our Pledge,” the oath recited every morning by primary school students, but are hesitant to voice their opinions on the matter, according to community representatives.

Many commentators who spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News on the issue asked for their names to remain anonymous, fearing they could face a serious backlash in case they openly propagate their views as members of the Kurdish political movement have done.

“[The pledge is] an assimilating slogan that [aims for] uniformity; it is rhetoric that causes the individual to draw away from his or her own culture, starting in childhood. This situation is causing damage to the people’s [sense of] self,” B.Ş., a prominent Syriac Christian, told the Hürriyet Daily News by phone.

“Everyday I was forced to say ‘I am a Turk,’ whereas I had storms brewing in me not to say that I am a Syriac. Once, I yelled that I am a Syriac. For that reason, I was attacked with the [derogatory term] ‘gavur.’ This state of affairs has to come to an end,” B.Ş. said.

Protests against the pledge

All children attending Turkey’s primary schools are expected to read aloud the “Andımız” (“Our pledge”) every morning when they come to school. The oath begins with the phrases, “I am a Turk; I am honest; I am hardworking. Let my entire being serve as a gift to Turkish existence.”

The recitation of the pledge has been protested by pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, leader, Selahattin Demirtaş, who said that he did not want his children to recite the oath.

Armenian and Greek community leaders, however, said they have no opportunity to express their thoughts as comfortably as the Kurds.

“I am irritated by all pronouncements pertaining to nationalism. We cannot express our thoughts as comfortably as the Kurds. If we did that, we would completely attract all the wrong attention,” E.O., a prominent figure within the Armenian community, told the Daily News.

E.O. also said he experienced great difficulties during his military service, just as in school. If someone from his own community had requested him to take the oath “Let my entire being serve as a gift to Armenian existence,” he would still object to it, E.O. added.

A.P., who spent about 40 years of his life as a lecturer in Greek minority schools, agreed. “If you ask me whether it is necessary or not, I do not think it is right for [the oath] to be recited every day; not in terms of nationality, [but because] I do not think it contributes anything to the child in terms of [their] education,” A.P said.

Meanwhile, B.C., the manager of a minority school who preferred not to publicly reveal his community identity, said there were more pressing concerns. “We have much deeper issues than [whether] to recite [the oath] every day. Our priority is to solve those issues [first.],” he said.

On the other hand, Marissa Gormezano, a Turkish citizen of Jewish descent, who became a deputy candidate from the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, during the 2011 general elections but was not included on the final election list, disagreed with other minority representatives.

“When [modern Turkish founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk said, ‘Happy is the one who calls himself a Turk,’ he was defining everyone who is a Turkish citizen. The opposing stance [rests on] a narrative that corrupts [Kemalist] nationalism,” Gormezano told the Daily News.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Anatolian Christians to celebrate Grape Festival

Friday, August 12, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Greeks, Armenians and Syriac Christians in Anatolia are observing a grape fast by refraining from eating from the new harvest until the fruit is consecrated in church on Sunday and Monday. Churches across Anatolia will be celebrating the festival with special masses on Aug 14 and 15

Anatolian Christian

Baskets of grapes blessed in churches will be distributed among the people on the day of the mass, after which time the fast is broken.

Christians throughout Anatolia are preparing to celebrate the Grape Festival and the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 14 and 15 with a variety of activities that stretch back into the pre-Christian era.

Churches across Anatolia will be holding mass for the occasion, including the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, Sümela Monastery in Trabzon, the Syriac Deyr ul-Zafaran Monastery in Mardin and the Surp Asdvazsazsin Armenian Church in Vakıflı, Anatolia’s last remaining Armenian village, which is located in the southern province of Hatay. During the celebrations of mass, newly harvested grapes will receive blessings as part of the festivities.

Assumption Day celebrates the ascent into heaven of Mary in accordance with Christian tradition. The roots of the festival, however, date back to the polytheistic era prior to Christianity; when Anatolian peoples were Christianized, new year celebrations and the vine harvest festival of the ancients were replaced by the Assumption Day and the Grape Festival, respectively.

Greeks, Armenians and Syriac Christians in Anatolia observe a grape fast and refrain from eating from the new grape harvest until grapes are consecrated in church. Ostentatious celebrations are also held in churches across Greece, as well as in the Central Armenian Apolostic church of Etchmiadzin in Armenia, the seat of the Catholicos of all Armenians.

Baskets of grapes blessed in churches are distributed among the people on the day of the mass, after which time the fast is broken, according to tradition, by eating blessed grapes mixed with non-consecrated grapes. The grapes also symbolize fertility and abundance.

Different Stories

There are several stories in circulation regarding the origins of the Grape Festival and Assumption Day. According to a story that has been transmitted through the ages within the Armenian community, when some children were poisoned by eating grapes that had not yet become ripe, the founder of the Armenian church, Surp Krikor Lusavorich (Saint Gregory the Illuminator), issued a ban on eating grapes until harvest time.

Such traditions have been preserved intact for centuries by being transmitted from generation to generation among the many Christian Anatolian peoples. This year’s celebrations will begin in the morning hours and last until around noon on Aug. 14 and 15. Baskets full of grapes will decorate sacred tables in churches.

Visitors are welcome to any number of Greek, Armenian and Syriac churches in Istanbul on Sunday and Monday to observe the vine harvest festivities during mass.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

Syriacs outline problems to EU, ask for removal of obstacles

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

A Syriac group recently presented a report on the problems of Syriac community in terms of ethnic, linguistic, religious and other rights, as well as the right of return

The total population of Syriacs who emigrated to the European Union numbers around 250,000, according to figures provided by the European Syriac Union, or ESU.

Turkey should remove obstacles preventing Syriacs from returning to the country and provide constitutional protection for their status and identity, according to a Syriac group that presented a report detailing the community’s problems in Turkey to the European Commission last week.

“Our message is clear. The obstacles that lie before the return [of Syriacs to Turkey] must be removed. An atmosphere of trust has to be established. Syriacs did not willingly desert the lands where they lived for centuries. Syriacs sought a solution abroad because they ran out of choices,” David Vergili, a spokesman for the European Syriac Union, or ESU, an umbrella organization that brings together 11 Syriac organizations based in Europe, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News by email.

Last week, the ESU presented a report to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement on Turkey detailing a number of problems experienced by Syriacs in Turkey in terms of ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and other rights, as well as the right of return. The ESU also addressed the contentious topic of the “Seyfo” – the name Syriacs give to what they claim was genocide perpetrated against them by the Ottomans in 1915. The report is expected to make its way into Europe’s agenda in September.

“The Syriac [community] was plundered during World War I, and [they] were subjected to genocide like other Christian peoples. There are many reasons why no ventures were ever undertaken to seek their rights until this day. Contrary to the official narrative and literature, Syriacs in Turkey could neither become first-class citizens nor take advantage of their rights granted to them by the [Treaty of] Lausanne. Constitutional guarantees must be given back first,” Vergili said.

“The case [of the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery in the southeastern province of Mardin] is still underway. The monastery bears great significance for Syriacs. As the European Syriac Union, we recognize that this process is a political, rather than a judicial one. This view is further clarified both by the feudal village guard organization that makes itself felt in the region, as well as by the lack of enthusiasm in Ankara’s attitude. The Mor Gabriel Monastery case is a test of democracy, good will and the project to live together,” Vergili said.

In 2008, the nearby villages of Yayvantepe, Çandarli and Eğlence filed a lawsuit claiming that the 1,700-year-old monastery was occupying the land of adjacent villages. The case is still underway.

“Dozens of villages were evacuated; people were displaced. A huge wave of emigration took place,” Vergili said in relation to the troubles faced by Syriacs during the 1990s when the Kurdish problem was at its height. Many people became the victims of unresolved murders, he added.

‘We left unwillingly’

News about the return of Syriacs in Europe back to Turkey were frequently circulated in the press several years ago, but contrary to expectations, no one has returned, save for a few exceptions, he said.

The total population of Syriacs who emigrated to the European Union numbers around 250,000, according to figures provided by Vergili. The number of Syriacs in Turkey, on the other hand, amount to around 15,000 people, official figures indicate, with most Syriacs being concentrated in Istanbul.

“The nationalist wave mounting across Europe is also affecting us negatively. These problems are mainly issues [we] face in daily life, rather than being systemic [problems,]” Vergili said, adding that the Syriac community stood up against problems not just in Turkey but also in Europe.

The fact that Syriac had entered UNESCO’s list of World Languages in Danger pointed to a vital problem, he added.

“Our community of 15,000 in Istanbul cannot set up schools and has to make do with a single church. Our region has been the center of attraction for repressive, outdated policies of annihilation and denial for decades,” he said.

Turkey’s Syriac community also cannot use their Syriac last names due to the Patronymics Law enacted in 1934, Vergili said. “Syriacs have begun using Turkish names for a lack of any other options.”

A Turkish citizen of Syriac descent, Favlus Ay, filed a lawsuit last year to change his first and last names to Syriac. Ay requested permission to change his last name to “Bartuma” and his first name to “Paulus.” The suit was filed to annul a provision in the Patronymics Law of 1934 that bars Turkish citizens from adopting foreign names. The case was first brought before a court in Mardin’s Midyat district before being passed to the High Court where the appeal was rejected, with eight judges voting in favor and nine against.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News

A Book came out about the History of Mor Gabriel Monastery

20 July 2011

A book which explains the lonq history of over 1600 years old of the Monastery of Mor Gahriel, one of the most important religious centers of Syriac Christianity, is published in the beginnings of July 2011. The work which is entitled Mor Gabriel Manastırı: 1600 Yıllık Gelenek (Mor Gabriel Monastery:1600-Years-Old Tradition) is written by Yakup Bilge who is known with his works related to Syriac people.

The book that relates the Monastery of Gabrial which is known as the Second Jerusalem by Syriac People and draws the attention with its saints, religious man, scribers and calliqraphers, contains the historical details of the monastery starting with its foundation in
397 through its long history to our day. Drawing the attention to the fact that the monastery is one of the few oldest functioning monasteries in the world, it is also explained in the book how the monastery is an important building of the region, of Turkey and of the World Cultural Heritage.

The book aims at relating to those readers and the guests who want to learn the details of the history of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel which is expressed in millennia, to hear its extraordinary effective founding story, to learn about its splendid church and its other buildings from a close, to see the beauty of the mosaics which one may find only in the cathedrals of big cities and to know and feel the atmosphere of the terraces, corridors and domas with other antique buildinqs from a close.

The first book on Mor Gabrial Monastery was written by late Bishop of Mardin Philoxenos Hanna Dolabani in Syriac and was publisbed in 1959; its Turkish translation was publisbed in 1971.The work entitled 'Mor Gabriel Manastırı: 1600 Yıllık Gelenek'
which is published by "Gerçeğe Doğru Kitapları" may be obtained from some publishing houses, from ''Gerçeğe Doğru Kitapları" and from Mor Gahriel Monastery.

Source: Morgabriel.org

Breaking news: dismantling of a third car bomb was prepared to explode near the Assyrian Church of Mar Georges in Kirkuk

August 2nd, 2011

Ankawa.com –Kirkuk- Exclusive

The features of the latest terrorist attack against the Christian churches in Kirkuk began this Tuesday morning. These attacks became more and more apparent from the frequency of information coming from there. According to informed sources in Kirkuk that reported to the site of Ankawa.com, the terrorists wanted today the bombing of three churches at the same time.
The sources said the third church that was a target by a car bomb at the same time with the other churches is the Eastern Assyrian Church of St. Georges which located in Almass area in the city.

The sources added, the terrorists parked the car bomb, that dismantled by the security forces, at the back of the church near the school attached to the church because they failed to parked it directly in front of the church.
The sources confirmed that a joint Iraqi and US forces discovered the presence of the car and defused the explosive that were inside before burning it.

The Church of the Holy Family of Syriac Catholic was attacked this morning by a car bomb. The attack resulted in wounding dozens of people by various injuries, including a baby and the priest of the church. The blast caused great damages to the building of the church and the nearby buildings and houses. In addition, the security forces were able to dismantle a third car bomb that was intended to explode in front of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in the area of Almass.

Source: ankawa.com

Attackers plant car bombs in front of churches in Kirkuk, Iraq

By Carol Glatz
Aug-2-2011 Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A car bomb exploded outside a Syrian Catholic church in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk leaving at least 20 people injured.

The early morning attack Aug. 2 was the first time the Holy Family Syrian Catholic church had been a target, Vatican Radio said.

Police defused two other car bombs -- one in front of a Christian school and another in front of a Presbyterian church.

Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk told Vatican Radio that the blast set nearby cars on fire and damaged not only the church, but also about 30 surrounding homes.

Most of those injured were in their homes at the time of the blast.

The archbishop said he visited the injured in the hospital.

"It's terrible," he said, as both Christians and Muslims were wounded in the attack. Many of the injured had been released by the end of the day, according to reports.

Reports said Aug. 2 that a nun and two priests were among those injured.

"We hope this is the last act of violence," Archbishop Sako said.

The bombing and planned attacks caused a great deal of sorrow because it happened just after the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, "a holy time of fasting and prayer and conversion," Archbishop Sako told the Rome-based AsiaNews Aug. 2.

"Christians are sad and in shock" because such a sacred place and innocent people were targeted, he said.

He said, "We are shocked because Christians play no role in the political games" in Kirkuk -- an oil-rich city rife with tensions between ethnic Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.

"We are always for what is good, for dialogue, and we have good relations with everyone," he added.

Source: catholicnews.com

Anayasa Mahkemesi'nin 'Soy' ile İmtihanı

İstanbul - BİA Haber Merkezi

24 Temmuz 2011, Pazar

Anayasa Mahkemesi'nin, Favlus Ay isimli Süryani vatandaşın anadilinde bir soyadı almasını engelleyen yasayı Anayasa'ya uygun bulan kararıyla beraber Türkiye'nin 'normali' ve 'hâkimi' tekrar tespit edilmiş, mevcut sorun derinleştirilerek yeniden üretilmiştir.

Anayasa Mahkemesi (AYM) iki hafta önce 'Favlus Ay isimli Süryani bir vatandaşın, anadilinde bir soyadı (Bartuma) almasını yasaklayan yasa hükmünü' inceledi ve bu hükmü, anayasaya uygun buldu. Bu, Anayasa Mahkemesinin 'soyadı' konusunda verdiği ikinci tartışmalı karar. Hatırlanacak olursa Mahkeme 'kadınlara, evli olduğu erkeğin soyadını taşımak zorunluluğu yükleyen yasa hükmünü' de anayasaya uygun bulunmuştu (*).

'Soyadı' başlığı altında birleşen bu iki karar, aslında farklı bağlamları varmış gibi görünse de, sosyolojik olarak hâkim kimliğin hukuksal olarak tescilinden ibarettir. Yani bu kararlardan, mesela şu mesajı almak garipsenmez: Kadın, erkeğe, etnik azınlık, çoğunluğa tabidir.

AYM'nin verdiği bu karar, farklı boyutlarla ele alınmaya müsait görünüyor. Ancak dağıtmamak adına şimdilik hukuk ve etnik bağlamla sınırlı bir incelemeyle yetinebiliriz.

Soru: Türk, Kimdir?

Türkiye'de azınlık hakları meselesinin bağrında yatan bu soruya Anayasa'nın 66. maddesi yanıt veriyor: "Türk Devletine vatandaşlık bağıyla bağlı olan herkes, Türktür."

Bilindiği gibi bu maddeye yönelik farklı kesimlerden itirazlar yükselmiş, ancak tartışmanın doruk noktası, 2004'te vatandaşlık için 'Türk' yerine 'Türkiyeli' kavramını öneren Azınlık Hakları Raporu'nun yayımlanması ve hocalarımız Baskın Oran ve İbrahim Kaboğlu'nun yargılanmaları olmuştu. Hal böyleyken o meşhur raporu hatırlamakta yarar var. Rapor konuşuyor:

"Bir millet olarak Türklerden söz ederken, "Türk" teriminin aynı zamanda bir etnik (hatta dinsel) grup anlamına geldiği görülmemektedir (...) Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda üst kimlik 'Osmanlı' iken, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde 'Türk' olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu üst kimlik, vatandaşı ırk ve hatta dinle tanımlama eğilimindedir. 'Türk' sayılabilmek için ayrıca 'Müslüman' olmak gerektiği, gayrimüslim yurttaşlarımıza 'Türk' değil, 'Vatandaş' denmesinden bellidir. Türkiye'de hiç kimse, örneğin bir Rum veya Musevi yurttaştan söz ettiği zaman 'Türk' dememektedir, çünkü Müslüman olmayan bir yurttaştan söz edilmektedir."

Yine hatırlanacak olursa o dönemde, bu tespitlerin geçersiz olduğu, 'Türk' kelimesinin asla etnik anlam taşımadığı, Türkiye'deki bütün yurttaşların hangi dili kullanıyor, hangi dine inanıyor, hangi etnik kökenden geliyor olursa olsun vatandaşlık bakımından 'Türk' olduğu ve aralarında herhangi bir ayırımcılık yapılmadığı iddia edilmişti. Geçen haftaki AYM kararı ne yazık ki bunun böyle olmadığının çelişkili biçimde kabulüdür.

Yasa ve AYM konuşuyor:

"Soyadı Kanunu madde 3: Rütbe ve memuriyet, aşiret ve yabancı ırk ve millet isimleriyle umumi edeplere uygun olmayan veya iğrenç ve gülünç olan soyadları kullanılamaz."

"Soyadının, bir kimsenin kimliğini belirleme işlevi yanında ailesini ve soyunu belirleme, kişiyi başka ailelerin bireylerinden ayırt etme ya da kişinin hangi kökene, topluluğa veya ulusa ait olduğunu belirleme işlevi de bulunmaktadır. Bu işlevleri nedeniyle yasakoyucu (...), ulusal birliğin sağlanması, dil ve dil kimliğinin korunması gibi sebeplerle soyadı kullanımını yasal düzenlemelerle kural altına almaktadır (...) Kural, yeni alınacak soyadını yabancı ırk ve millet ismi olarak almak isteyen herkese ayrım gözetmeksizin uygulanmaktadır."

Yani esasen dava konusu olay, 'Bartuma' soy isminin, 'yabancı' sayılıp sayılmayacağı veya daha özel olarak Anadolu coğrafyasında çok uzun zamandan bu yana yaşayan bir etnik kimlik olarak Süryaniliğin 'Türk' kavramı içinde görülüp görülmediği noktasında düğümleniyor. AYM'nin ise bu düğümü, Türk kavramını etnik Türklerle sınırlı olduğu, Süryaniliğin ve ona dair unsurların Anayasadaki 'Türk' kavramının içinde yer almadığı biçiminde bir yorumla 'körleştiriyor.' Yani Süryaniler, yine yeniden 'yerli yabancı' sayılıyor.

Gözden Kaçanlar ve Karşı Oylar

Anılan paradoksa rağmen, karara sekiz üyenin karşı oy yazmış olması, ehveni şer sayılabilir. Örneğin "Dil, din, etnik ve ırk farklılıkları millet olmaya engel değildir. "Yabancı ırk ve millet isimleriyle" ibaresindeki "yabancı" kelimesi Türkiye Cumhuriyeti vatandaşları arasında çoğunluğu oluşturanlardan farklı etnik ve/veya dini topluluklara mensup olanları ima edecek şekilde anlaşılmamalıdır." şeklindeki karşı görüşler, ne olursa olsun teselli edici nitelikte.

Diğer taraftan karar, uluslararası hukuk bakımından da eleştiriye açık durumda. İnsan Hakları Avrupa Mahkemesi (AİHM); insanların soyadlarını, onların özel hayatlarına ve aile yaşamlarına saygı hakkının bir parçası olarak kabul eder. Bu konuda devletlerin bu hakların sınırlanabilmesi konusunda takdir yetkisi olduğu kabul edilse de, İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesi asgari bir standarttır ve Sözleşme'ye taraf devletler, bu hakkı geliştirmekle yükümlüdür.

Ayrıca kararda Süryanilerin, bir insan hakları metni olarak Lozan Antlaşması bakımından 'azınlık grubu' niteliğinde olduğu dikkate alınmamış, Birleşmiş Milletler (BM) Çocuk Hakları Sözleşmesi Medeni ve Siyasal Haklar Sözleşmesi, Avrupa Güvenlik ve İŞbirliği Teşkilatı (AGİT) Oslo Tesviyeleri, Ulusal Azınlıkların Korunması için Çerçeve Sözleşme gibi metinlerde kişilerin ve azınlıkların isim haklarının açıkça güvence altında olduğu göz ardı edilmiştir.

Diğer taraftan karar gerekçesinde, meselenin eşitlik ilkesi bakımından da tartışıldığı görülüyor. Ancak AYM'ye göre 'Türkler', kendi dillerinde bir soyadı alabilirler. 'Türklük' dışında bir etnik kimliğe sahip vatandaşlar ise mensup oldukları kimliğin parçası olan bir soyadını alamazlar. Bu tespitin kendisi eşitsizlik yarattığı açık... Bu bakımdan BM Her Türlü Irk Ayrımcılığının Ortadan Kaldırılmasına İlişkin Sözleşmesi'ne aykırılık söz konusu.

Son olarak kişilerin soyadları, Anayasa'nın "kişinin dokunulmazlığı, maddi ve manevi varlığı hakkı" bünyesindedir. Anayasa'da ise bu hakka yönelik anılan şekilde bir sınırlama öngörülmemiştir.

Hal böyleyken anılan kararının özgürlükçü, insan haklarını geliştirici bir nitelik taşıdığı söylenemez. Dahası bu karar, AYM'lerden beklenen çatışmaları uyumlaştırma işlevine de son derece 'yabancıdır'.

Sonuç itibariyle bu kararla beraber Türkiye'nin 'normali' ve 'hâkimi' tekrar tespit edilmiş, mevcut sorun derinleştirilerek yeniden üretilmiştir.

* Bu yazı yazıldıktan sonra Ankara 11. Aile Mahkemesi'nin AYM'den daha ileri bir kararla evli kadınların tek başına bekârlık soyadını kullanabileceğine karar verdiğini öğrendik. Bkz. 17.07.2011 tarihli Radikal. Yerel mahkemelerin cesareti umut verici. (TŞ/ŞA)

* Tolga Şirin, Marmara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi'nde Anayasa Hukuku Anabilim Dalı öğretim görevlisi

Source: bianet.org

Link to the article

The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question mark

Credit: British Library Board

Manuscripts written in Syriac, an ancient language of the Middle East, are peppered with mysterious dots. Among them is the vertical double dot or zagwa elaya. A Cambridge academic thinks that the zagwa elaya is the world’s earliest question mark.

Cambridge University manuscript specialist, Dr Chip Coakley has identified what may be the world’s earliest example of a question mark. The symbol in question is two dots, one above the other, similar in appearance to a colon, rather than the familiar squiggle of the modern question mark. The double dot symbol appears in Syriac manuscripts of the Bible dating back to the fifth century.

Syriac is a language of the Middle East with a large Christian literature and its golden age was in the centuries before the rise of Islam. Syriac studies are blessed by the survival of a collection of very early manuscripts, the remnants of one derelict monastery library. In the 1840s, the British Museum stumped up almost £5000 to buy them, and scholars have lived off this purchase ever since.

Manuscripts of the Bible are not even the majority of the collection now in the British Library, but they have their special points of interest. One of these is the way that the graceful and flowing Syriac script is peppered with dots. Some of these dots are well understood, but some are not – some, indeed, probably not even by the scribes, who did not copy them consistently. All this made for a confusing picture, and it needed a patient scholar to start to make sense of it.

One step at least has been taken by Dr Coakley, a manuscript specialist at Cambridge University Library who teaches Syriac to students in the Divinity and Middle Eastern Studies faculties. “When you are sitting round a table reading a Syriac text with students, they ask all kinds of questions – like what the heck does this or that dot mean – and you want to be able to answer them,” said Dr Coakley. “In addition, as I’ve got older I’ve got fascinated by smaller and smaller things like punctuation marks.”

The double dot mark, known to later grammarians as zawga elaya, is written above a word near the start of a sentence to tell the reader that it is a question. It doesn’t appear on all questions: ones with a wh- word don’t need it, just as in English ‘Who is it’ can only be a question (although we use a question mark anyway). But a question like ‘You’re going away?’ needs the question mark to be understood; and in Syriac, zawga elaya marks just these otherwise ambiguous expressions.

“Reading aloud, the same function is served by a rising tone of voice – or at least it is in English – and it is interesting to ponder whether zawga elaya really marks the grammar of the question, or whether it is a direction to someone reading the Bible aloud to modulate their voice,” said Dr Coakley.

Question marks in Greek and Latin script emerged later than in Syriac, with the earliest examples dating from the eighth century. It is likely that these symbols developed independently from each other and from Syriac. Hebrew and Arabic, close neighbours of Syriac, have nothing comparable. Armenian, another neighbour, has a similar mark, but it seems to be later.

Last month Dr Coakley presented his theory that the question mark is a Syriac invention “rather nervously” at a conference in the United States. But so far none of his fellow scholars has come up with an earlier question mark in any other ancient language.

Dr Coakley is quietly thrilled by his finding. “I’d describe it as a significant footnote in the history of writing,” he said. “And it’s satisfying to have made sense of some of those weird dots.”

I’d describe it as a significant footnote in the history of writing."

— Dr Chip Coakley

Source:

Saving Christians in Iraq

History is at heart of current effort to fortify the faithful

Friday, July 15, 2011 By Michael De Groote, Deseret News

PROVO — When Saddam Hussein's regime toppled in 2003 there were about 1 million Christians in Iraq.
Now there are about 300,000.

But this exodus of Christian refugees isn't a matter of a foreign religion being forced out of an Islamic country. It is a cleansing of interlopers and Western influence.

"Christianity is not just something Western, but originally it was something Eastern," said Herman Teule, chair of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at the Netherlands' Radboud University Nijmegen. "So Christianity is at home in Iraq. Christianity is older than Islam. You cannot understand Islam unless you understand the early development of Christianity in that region."

U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Nelson walks beside a Christian church on patrol in Tal Kaeef, Iraq. (Associated Press)

And knowing the history of Christianity in Iraq opens a window into how missionary-minded churches grow and die. It explains why Iraq Christians are fleeing their country to places like San Diego, but also why keeping Christians in the Middle East may be important for the future of the world.

Teule spoke on June 7 at BYU's David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies on "Christians in Contemporary Iraq: Current Plight and Future Prospect," which meant he had to first explain what happened in the past.

The other branch of Christianity

Many Western Christians have a vague understanding of Christian history. That history follows the missionary efforts of the Apostle Paul and the spread of Jesus' teachings through the Roman Empire, eventual acceptance by Rome, and then progress north throughout Europe and from there out to the rest of the world.

But this understanding of history isn't entirely true.

Christianity also spread in other directions. East for example. East into Mesopotamia including what is modern-day Iraq. This growth was at the very beginning of Christianity — during the first quarter of the second century — the 100s.

And it flourished.

It developed its own liturgy. It developed schools, universities and monasteries. It sent out missionaries. It built churches and religious centers. And all this while most of Europe was yet to be converted and Islam was yet to be founded by the Prophet Muhammad.

It became larger than its Roman Christian cousin. But its glory wouldn't last long — only about 1,000 years.

The eastern branch of Christianity is usually called the Church of the East or, more precisely today, the Assyrian Catholic Church of the East ("Catholic" meaning "universal").

A Christianity of martyrs

At the start, the Christians got along well enough with the Arsacid dynasty of the Parthian Empire. But governments don't last forever and with the rise of the Persian Sassanides in the 3rd century, Christians came under hard times.

They didn't get along as well with the new official state religion Zoroastrianism.

"They didn't fit in," Teule said. "They became a Christianity of martyrs."

One of the problems they had is a problem Christians face today in Iraq. The majority suspected that the minority Christians had more loyalty to their religion than to their own country. The Persian Empire worried they would align themselves with Christians in enemy countries. To counteract this, the Church of the East showed its independence by having its own Catholicos or Patriarch.

Around the 6th century, some Christians came from the West and established their own group now called the Syrian or Syriac Orthodox Church (Also called "Jacobites" after Jacob Baradaeus, Bishop of Edessa from that time). The theological differences between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Catholic Church of the East were slight — but enough to cause tension.

Then the world changed.

Enter Islam

The Persians were defeated in 635 by the Muslims at the Battle of Qaddasiyyah. A new government was in town.

Zoroastrianism was out. Islam was in.

Teule said in many ways, this was a golden age for the Church of the East. By 781, the new capital, Baghdad, the center of the church. Christians proudly identified themselves as Arabs. They had prominent government positions. They sent out missionaries and had established Christian communities as far flung as Tibet, China and Afghanistan. They translated the writings of Greek philosophers into Arabic and engaged in deep discussions with Muslims.

Everything wasn't rosy, of course, but when the Mongols came and destroyed Baghdad in 1258, things got bad. The Church of the East found itself in the mountains of modern day Kurdistan. It had lost its power, its schools and developed a tribal form of governance.

At first the Mongols were sympathetic with the Christians (they hoped for an alliance with the Western Christians). But this changed, and when it did the results were disastrous for the Christians.

In the late 1300s the central Asian warlord Timur destroyed hundreds of Christian churches. "It was a dark night for Christians," Teule said, "and for Muslims as well."

But the Christians survived.

The Church of the East divided in the end of the 1500s when three bishops broke off and then aligned themselves with the Roman Catholic Church. This new split is now called the Chaldean Catholic Church — and is today the largest group of Christians in Iraq. A similar split happened around that time to the Syriac Orthodox Church, creating the Syriac Catholic Church.

These four churches, The Assyrian Catholic Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Syriac Catholic Church are now the main Christian traditions in Iraq. They survived 2,000 years of history in Iraq — but some experts do not think they will survive new challenges.

Theology of extinction

In 2008, historian Philip Jenkins wrote "The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died." Jenkins argued that the Iraqi churches need to face the inevitable and develop a "theology of extinction;" a way of coping doctrinally that the churches are dying. The consolation prize is that at least Christianity itself will go on, even if their ancient branch of Christianity doesn't.

"These Christians don't think about extinction, but are trying to survive and have a future in Iraq," Teule said.

A Christian homeland

One of the strongest voices in Iraq for Christians, according to Teule, is Sarkis Aghajan. Aghajan fought with the Kurds against Saddam and even had a place in the Kurdish government after the new Iraq Constitution was adopted. He hopes for a semi-independent homeland for the Christians in Northern Iraq and has worked to establish Christian cities and towns where Christians can flee violence.

And there has been violence.

Two-thirds of Iraq's Christians have fled the country. Many have fled their homes and found new homes in the relative peace of Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. But many of these refugees are not suited for life in the mountains. "You can have safety, but if there is no work what good is that?" Teule said. "But if they can adapt there is a possibility of building a future there."

Part of the difficulty in building a future, and something that Aghajan is working against, is the reluctance of the different churches to have all Iraqi Christians think of themselves as one ethnic identity. In the 19th Century, one identity began to rise up as archeologists unearthed the ruins of the huge pre-Islamic Assyrian civilizations. Christians began to think of themselves as the heirs to these glory days and identified themselves as ethnic Assyrians and less as Arabs. But the churches resist this because it is a more secular identity and lessens their direct control.

Teule worries that without a unifying identity, the Christians' influence is divided and lessened.

Fleeing Iraq

But the biggest danger is that the remaining 300,000 or so Christians in Iraq will also flee the country like those who have moved to Jordan and surrounding countries as well as those who went to Europe, Australia and the United States.

Bob Montgomery, the executive director of the International Rescue Committee in San Diego, is on the receiving end of many of those refugees who have fled Iraq. They come to San Diego where there is a large community of the Chaldean Catholic Church. The flow of refugees picked up following several attacks on Christians in December last year. The process to be resettled in a new country can take years.

"When refugees get to the United States they are coming to an economy that is not great and it presents new challenges," Montgomery said. "But they don't have the luxury to wait until the economy gets better. They are in dire straits now."

But even though Teule recognizes the cultural and economic pressures that are pushing individual Christians to flee the home of their ancestors, he worries the exodus has broader implications for the fate of the Middle East.

"I think it would be a disaster if Iraq is emptied of its Christian population," Teule said in an interview with the Deseret News. "It would mean the division of the world into two blocks. An Islamic Middle East and a so-called Christian West." Teule said this would create a true clash of civilizations and go against a history where Muslims and Christians have had long periods of peaceful co-existence. "It would make Islam an almost monolithic thing — something it has never been before. It has always been open to other ideas and open to the Christian minorities. It has always been the reality in Iraq that there was interaction between Christians and Muslims. It would be a pity if that would disappear."

Source: deseretnews.com

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Breaking News: U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Urges Turkey to Return Christian Churches

TAKE ACTION!

House Foreign Affairs Committee Passes Berman-Cicilline Amendment Calling on Turkey to Return Christian Churches

Amendment based on the “Return of Churches” resolution introduced by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Ed Royce (R-CA)

Armenian, Greek and Assyrian American communities mobilized in support of landmark religious freedom measure urging Turkey to allow freedom of worship

WASHINGTON – With a vote of 43 to 1, the House Foreign Affairs Committee today overwhelmingly adopted the Berman-Cicilline Amendment, calling on Turkey pressing Turkey to return stolen Christian churches and to end its repression of its Christian minority, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Today's overwhelming vote represents a powerful victory for religious freedom, and a step toward the rightful return of the thousands of Christian churches and holy sites stolen by Turkey through genocide,” said Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

“Ninety six years after the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, the Turkish Government has destroyed or confiscated the vast majority of their holy sites and places of worship. The Foreign Affairs Committee today sent a powerful message to Turkey that it must come to terms with this brutal legacy, respect religious freedom of surviving Christian communities, and return the fruits of its crimes.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-CA) was joined by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) in offering the amendment to the State Department Authorization bill, based upon language from H.Res.306, the “Return of Churches” resolution spearheaded by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA), both senior members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Armenian Americans across the U.S. made thousands of phone calls to their Representatives in support of the measure, following a week of action alerts issued by the Armenian National Committee of America.

Similar calls to action have been issued by Archbishops Moushegh Mardirossian and Oshagan Choloyan, Prelates of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Western and Eastern United States, respectively. His Eminence Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Fr. Sarkis Aktavoukian, Fr. Oshagan Gulgulian, Fr. Mesrob Hovsepyan, and Fr. Hakob Gevorgyan were in attendance at the Committee offering their support for the passage of this legislation.

The measure has also received broad-based support from the Greek and Assyrian American communities, with the American Hellenic Education and Progressive Association (AHEPA), the American Hellenic Institute, and the American Hellenic Council issuing statements calling their community to action. “This resolution stands in the proud American tradition of championing religious freedom around the world,” stated AHEPA Supreme President Nicholas A. Karacostas. “If adopted, this measure will further reinforce our nation’s commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and also build upon the passage by Congress of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and many other pieces of legislation promoting religious freedom abroad.”

The ANCA Webcast the proceedings live on its website – http://www.anca.org. Additional coverage of speeches offered by Committee members will be provided in the upcoming days.

Turkey’s Syriacs demanding right to own names

Thursday, July 13, 2011

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Turkey’s Syriac community, who adopted Turkish surnames, now want their original surnames back. Yet, a top cour says that the laws don’t allow such a move.

Syriacsdemanding right to own Names.jpg

This file photo shows members of the Debasso family, who have been living in Sweden, attending a ceremony in Midyat distrcit of the southestern city of Mardin last year.

Members of Turkey’s Syriac Christian community are leading a legal struggle to adopt last names that reflect their identity despite a Constitutional Court ruling earlier this year that barred one Syriac from altering his last name.

“As with every other citizen of the Turkish Republic, we also adopted Turkish last names with the advent of the Surname Law [in 1934.] Naturally everyone would want to bear names and last names that are in accordance with their own culture,” Mor Grigoriyos Melki Ürek, the Syriac Metropolitan of the eastern province of Adiyaman, told Hürriyet Daily News in a telephone interview.

On March 17, 2011, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ruled against the abrogation of the Surname Law of 1934 that forbids Turkish citizens from adopting foreign last names in a lawsuit filed by Favlus Ay, a Turkish citizen of Syriac descent, who wanted to change his name to Paulus Bartuma. Ay first appealed to a court in Midyat, a district in the southeastern province of Mardin, but the suit was then sent to the Constitutional Court which rejected the appeal by a very small margin, with eight judges ruling against the law and nine in favor.

Citizenship bond

“Politicians say the important thing is the bond of citizenship, whereas the laws are forcing everyone to become a Turk. It is not only Turks who live in Turkey; this is an extremely chauvinistic attitude,” Ahmet Fazıl Tamer, a lawyer working for the Human Rights Association, or the İHD, told the Daily News by phone.

Another Syriac Christian, İskender Oktay, who holds both Turkish and Swedish citizenship, did not encounter any problems when he appealed to the court to change his last name to Debasso.

“The reason why the suit filed by İskender Oktay came to such a rapid conclusion was because he is a Swedish citizen; the possibility of this issue entering Europe’s agenda was surely taken into consideration,” Tamer said. “The important thing is to prove that the last name you want to adopt truly belongs to your family. Plus you have to explain well the meaning [of your name...] I guess the course that a lawsuit will take depends on the court of the province where your name is registered, the discretion of the prosecutor and the civil registry,” said Tuma Özdemir, the president of the Mesopotamia Culture and Solidarity Association, or Mezo-Der, who acted as a court witness on Debasso’s behalf.

Even though they encountered no problems in altering Debasso’s last name, some members of the Syriac community face hardships when they attempt to change both their first and last names, Özdemir added.

“An individual bears no such responsibility in terms of explaining or proving anything. A person should be able to adopt any first and last name of their choice in a democratic system,” Tamer said.

Such appeals to the İHD by people who want to change their names have become more frequent, with the largest number of appeals coming from Kurds, he said. Ay could also bring his case before the European Court of Human Rights, based on the sixth and eighth articles of the Human Rights Treaty, he added.

Debasso said he had been living in Sweden for 35 years and that he had changed his last name while residing there. “I do not want anyone to be isolated because of my ethnic roots. I am a child of Mesopotamia, of this land. I did not immigrate back [into Turkey,] I [merely] stayed apart and returned back to my country. I wanted to be here,” he said.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News

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Southeastern university starts Syriac courses

Thursday, July 7, 2011

MARDİN - Doğan News Agency

Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin. DHA photo

Already providing Kurdish-language education, Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin, or MAU, is readying to open an intensive course on the Syriac language.

The courses will be provided by the university’s Living Languages Institute. Also, a committee from the faculty of letters is working on establishing a Syriac Language and Culture Department.

MAU is also the first university to start academic education on Kurdish Language and Literature.

“The Syriac language courses of the university have received a keen interest from all corners of the country,” according to the Deputy Rector and the Head of the Living Languages Institute Kadri Yıldırım who said during his attendance at the first lesson of the course that they would also initiate efforts to start a post-graduate program with a Syriac Language and Culture Department in September.

Yıldırım was accompanied by some 27 students as well as MAU Rector Serdar Bedii Omay and Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz at the first course.

“We have made another dream come true. This is a very important progression to overcome the fear, pressure and oblivion which have been continuing for two centuries. Just like the Aramaic courses at Nusaybin Academy and establishing the Kurdish Language and Literature Department, Syriac course will make a great contribution to cultural life in Turkey and the world.

The intensive course will last a month and give basic education of Syriac language, alphabet and grammar.

Professor Abdulmesih Saadi, also an academic at the University of Notre Dame in the United States, is considered as the head of the Syriac Language and Culture Department.

Caption: Kırklar Chapel’s Priest Gabriel Akyüz attended the first lesson of Syriac language courses started by Artuklu University in the southeastern province of Mardin.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News

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Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) hat zu dieser Stunde eine Mahnwache für das Kloster Mor Gabriel in der Südost Türkei vor Ort begonnen

Göttingen/Tur Abdin, 06. Juli 2011

Der GfbV-Nahostreferent Kamal Sido bei der Mahnwache vor dem Kloster Mor Gabriel.
Foto: Muzafer Duru

So eben hat eine Mahnwache der Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker-International (GfbV-Int.)vor dem ehrwürdigen assyrisch-aramäischen Kloster Mor Gabriel in der Region Tur Abdin im Südosten der Türkei begonnen.

Die Mahnwache von Freunden der GfbV-Int. unter Leitung ihres Nahost-Referenten Dr. Kamal Sido hat ein großes Banner mit dem Slogan "Save the monastary Mor Gabriel" aufgerichtet. Sie will das Zentrum der in der Türkei verbliebenen aramäisch-sprachigen assyrischen Christen mit dieser Initiative unterstützen. Die GfbV appelliert an die türkische Regierung, alle Gerichtsverfahren gegen das Kloster einzustellen und endlich den jahrhundertealten Besitz der umliegenden Klosterländereien anzuerkennen.

Jeder weitere Versuch dieses Land zu beschlagnahmen, beschädigt den Ruf der Türkei, gefährdet die Glaubensfreiheit ihrer Christen und muss als Akt der Diskriminierung der aramäisch-assyrischen Minderheit betrachtet werden.

Dabei ist die Wahl des assyrischen 47 jährigen Rechtsanwaltes Erol Dora als unabhängiger Kandidat in das türkische Parlament ein erfreulicher Schritt nach vorn. Dora wurde von der Kurdenpartei DTP unterstützt. Er möchte sich als "türkischer Bürger für die Demokratie im Land" einsetzen.

Source: Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Völker BfbV

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First Syriac metropolitan building opened since Ottoman times

Monday, July 4, 2011

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News / VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

Turkey’s ancient Syriac Christian community celebrated on Sunday the opening of the first new metropolitan services and cultural center in many decades and the re-opening of a long-unused church.

The ceremony was attended by hundreds of Syriacs both from Turkey and from abroad in the eastern province of Adıyaman. They gathered to mark the opening of the first metropolitan building since the end of the Ottoman era. The ceremony also marked the opening of a historical Syriac church that was shut in Adıyaman for a long period of time has been re-opened for liturgy after restoration work was completed.

“Lots of Christians live in Turkey’s eastern provinces. This metropolitan building will serve their needs first. Moreover, [the building] will also act as a cultural bridge,” said Laki Vingas, a Greek member of the Foundations General Directorate Council, who traveled to Adıyaman from Istanbul to attend the ceremony.

A consecration ritual was also enacted prior to the liturgy on Saturday for the Mor Petrus and Mor Paulus Church in accordance with the laws of the ancient Syriac church. The liturgy that took place between 10 a.m. and noon on Sunday was administered by Adıyaman Metropolitan Melki Ürek and Istanbul Metropolitan Yusuf Çetin.

The previous Adıyaman Metropolitan building, with 800 years of history, was already defunct when the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923.

“There are also Armenians besides Syriacs who are members of our metropolitan church. It was quite difficult for us to provide services to locations many kilometers away from the Mardin metropolitan center,” Melki Ürek told Hürriyet Daily News by e-mail shortly before the liturgy was held.

The Syriac community appealed to authorities nine years ago for the metropolitan building to be opened, but they were only able to achieve results after fighting a long and uphill legal battle about 1.5 years ago, Metropolitan Ürek said. Some 150 Syriacs and Armenians live in Adıyaman and its vicinity, while small numbers of Syriacs live in the city center, he added.

The Syriac community has four autonomous metropolitan centers across Turkey: the Mardin Deyrulumur (Mor Gabriel Monastery) and the Deyr-ul Zafaran in the southeastern province of Mardin, with two more centers in Adıyaman and Istanbul.

The metropolitan centers act as a sort of higher institution for the church.

“Our churches and property which were registered on the records of the Ancient Syriac Community until the 1990s were then registered upon the proprietorship of the Foundations General Directorate. Is this an irony, or is it a sign that our citizenship rights are not quite where they are supposed to be? I believe that our new government is aware of these flaws and will bring about firm and lasting solutions with radical decisions based on the law for Syriac citizens who have been wronged,” Ürek said.

Ürek also drew attention to the ongoing lawsuit regarding the historical Mor Gabriel Church in Mardin and said the monastery belongs not only to Syriacs but also to Arameans as well.

“The injustice here was incurred directly against us, not toward Mor Gabriel. Whatever the expectations of all our country’s people are from a free and prosperous country, our expectations are no different,” Ürek added.

A lawsuit was filed in 2008 regarding the Mor Gabriel Monastery, whereby the adjacent villages of Yayvantepe, Çandarlı and Eğlence claimed theird property was being occupied by the 1700-year-old monastery. The case is still ongoing.

“I do not approve of governments that implement such measures because of suggestions emanating from abroad. A country’s government passes favorable legislation with the happiness of her citizens in mind, [and] not because somebody else wants it,” said Ürek, adding that it was a major shortcoming that laws to relieve Turkey’s Christians had not been passed yet.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News

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First Syriac Mp in Turkey - Dora Defines His Election as Historic Step

Monday, 13 June 2011

Turkey's first Syriac lawmaker said on Monday that his election as a parliamentarian was an important and historic step for brotherhood of nations.
Erol Dora said there were not any non-Muslim lawmakers at the Turkish parliament, which he defined as a deficiency in regard to democracy, secularism and state of law.
"As our constitution says, all citizens are equal under laws, and my candidacy was therefore important," Dora told AA correspondent.
Dora was elected a parliamentarian from the southeastern province of Mardin with the support of the Peace & Democracy Party (BDP).
"I consider the behavior of Peace & Democracy Party as important for Turkey's future," he said.
Dora said different groups and nations were living in Turkey, and he was elected with votes of Kurds, Arabs, Syriac, Mhallami and Yazidi people.
"My election as a common candidate is important for the confidence and co-existence of people together," he said.
Dora also said his election was an important step for return of Syriac people living away from the region.

Source: turkishweekly.net

Syriac candidate hopes to represent all of Southeast Turkey

Monday, 13 June 2011

By VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL — Though poised to become the first ever Syriac elected to Turkey’s Parliament, independent Mardin candidate Erol Dora has stressed that his job will be to represent the southeast rather than simply his religious community.

“If I manage to enter Parliament, I will become the voice of the Syriac community, as well as all of the other ethnicities living in the southeastern region,” Dora told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

An independent candidate for the Labor, Democracy and Freedom bloc, which is supported by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, could enter Parliament as the platform’s third candidate from the southeastern province of Mardin to win in the June 12 elections.

Although Dora said he offered his name for individual reasons, he acknowledged that the Turkey’s Syriac community had been lending him support in his campaign. “The support that I have seen makes me happy.”

The candidate said the situation in Turkey was changing, allowing for people from previously unrepresented groups to join the race to enter the legislature.

“Whatever his ethnic identity, if a Turkish citizen displaying the moral courage wants to have a voice in his country, there is nothing wrong in that,” said Dora. “In previous years, the minority communities living in Turkey were looked upon as foreigners, nevertheless, with the European Union accession process, this situation is changing.”

Turkey is moving from a system of “compulsory citizenship,” in which only the country’s Turkishness is privileged, to a conception of citizenship that is more inclusive of diverse, non-Turkish groups. “All of the ethnic cultures of Turkey are” excited about this, Dora said.

Dora said he hoped that other ethnic groups, and not just non-Muslim groups like Syriacs, Armenians and Jews, would also run in politics.

“It is not important whether to be chosen or not. The pluralist participation will be the sign that everybody in Turkey has equal rights,” the candidate said. “Our entrance into politics from the bottom rung by showing effort … will certainly contribute to the improvement of Turkey.”

Explaining his preference for the Labor, Democracy and Freedom list, Dora said, “It was something that happened spontaneously; the offer was made and I accepted.”

The BDP had previously offered Rakel Dink, the widow of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, a chance to run as a candidate for the bloc, but she declined the offer.

Syriacs returning home

Syriacs, a Christian people, have been living in Mardin and other areas in Mesopotamia for millennia. Many Turkish citizens of Syriac origin, however, were forced to emigrate to the EU, the United States or the Middle East throughout the 20th century – most recently due to the instability during the 1990s due to the conflict in Southeast Anatolia, according to Dora.

In recent years, however, there has been a reversal of this emigration trend, Dora said.

“Thanks to the positive developments occurred lately, Syriacs have been returning. People who were forced out are now returning willingly,” he said.

“We’ve been living in Mesopotamia for hundreds of years. Our properties that are thousands of years old are in dispute. The problems concerning the 1,700 year-old Deyrulumur Monastery, known also as Mor Gabriel, are still continuing,” he said in reference to a lawsuit filed against the monastery by the neighboring villages of Yayvantepe, Çandarlı and Eğlence in 2008 in which locals claimed that the church was occupying their land.

If the ongoing case is decided against Mor Gabriel, the monastery could lose a significant amount of land.

Minority candidates

Dora is the not the only Syriac running for Parliament in the upcoming elections; Ferit Özcan, one of the founders of the People’s Voice Party, or HSP, is also a candidate.

At the same time, two members of the country’s Jewish community are also running for other parties.

Seven people from the Turkish Armenian community also attempted to run for the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and Labor, Democracy and Freedom bloc for the elections but failed to appear on the parties’ final lists.

Source: Hürriyet Daily News

ESU presents Annual Report to European Authorities

14/06/2011

Mr. Christos Makridis at the DG Enlargement of Turkey Unit received ESU delegation composed from ESU Secretary Rima Tuzun, member of administrative committee Suleyman Gultekin

Brusssls — A committee from ESU meet with European Commission authorities concerning situation of Syriacs in Turkey and presenting ESU Annual Report about the situation of the Syriacs in Turkey.

Mr. Christos Makridis at the DG Enlargement of Turkey Unit received ESU delegation composed from ESU Secretary Rima Tuzun, member of administrative committee Suleyman Gultekin and David Vergili.

ESU delegation presents the annual report to Mr. Makridis and had opportunity to deliver latest situation and expectations of Syriacs in Turkey.

At the discussed issues Mor Gabriel trials took important places and ESU members expressed their high concerns about ongoing trials. ESU members declared that Mor Gabriel trials will be test balance for the Turkey for the future democracy and living together.

Among discussed issues the cadastral survey problems that face Syriacs and constitutional change had been discussed during the meeting and ESU delegate highlighted the importance of the new constitution that will be prepared in Turkey.

Mr. Makridis express his gratitude for the report and he declared that during the preparation of EU Turkey Progress Report, they will take account of ESU report.

Dictionary of Assyrian language finished after 90 years

By Sharon Cohen
The Associated Press

POSTED: 06/05/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

Martha Roth, the dictionary's editor-in-charge, examines reliefs from the palace of Sargon II with Oriental Institute director Gil Stein in Chicago. "This has occupied my waking and sleeping moments for 32 years," Roth said. ( Photos by M. Spencer Green, The Associated Press )

CHICAGO — It was a monumental project with modest beginnings: a small group of scholars and some index cards. The plan was to explore a long-dead language that would reveal an ancient world of chariots and concubines, royal decrees and diaries — and omens that came from the heavens and sheep livers.

The year: 1921. The place: the University of Chicago. The project: assembling an Assyrian dictionary based on words recorded on clay or stone tablets unearthed from ruins in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, written in a language that hadn't been uttered for more than 2,000 years.

The scholars knew the project would take a long time. No one quite expected how very long.

Decades passed. The team grew. Scholars arrived from Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen, Jerusalem, Berlin, Helsinki, Baghdad and London, joining others from the U.S. and Canada. One generation gave way to the next; one century faded into the next.

The work was slow, sometimes frustrating and decidedly low-tech: Typewriters. Mimeograph machines. And index cards. Eventually, nearly 2 million of them.

And now, 90 years later, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is officially complete — 21 volumes of Akkadian, a Semitic language (with several dialects, including Assyrian) that endured for 2,500 years.

The project is more encyclopedia than glossary, offering a window into the ancient society of Mesopotamia, now Iraq, through every conceivable form of writing: love letters, recipes, tax records, medical prescriptions, astronomical observations, religious texts, contracts, epics, poems and more.

Why is there a need for a dictionary of a language last written around A.D. 100 that only a small number of scholars worldwide know of?

Gil Stein, director of the university's Oriental Institute (the dictionary's home), has a ready answer: "The Assyrian Dictionary gives us the key into the world's first urban civilization," he said. "Virtually everything that we take for granted . . . has its origins in Mesopotamia, whether it's the origins of cities, of state societies, the invention of the wheel, the way we measure time, and, most important, the invention of writing.

"If we ever want to understand our roots," Stein added, "we have to understand this first great civilization."

The translated cuneiform texts — originally written with wedged-shaped characters — reveal a culture where people expressed joy, anxiety and disappointment about the same events they do today: a child's birth, bad harvests, money troubles, boastful leaders.

"A lot of what you see is absolutely recognizable — people expressing fear and anger, expressing love, asking for love," said Matthew Stolper, a University of Chicago professor who worked on the project on and off over three decades. "There are inscriptions from kings that tell you how great they are, and inscriptions from others who tell you those guys weren't so great. . . . There's also a lot of ancient versions of 'your check is in the mail.' "

There were omens too — ways of divining the future by reading smoke patterns, the stars, the moon and sheep livers.

Now that the dictionary is finished, Martha Roth, the dictionary's editor-in-charge and dean of humanities, said there is a feeling of tremendous accomplishment and "a little bit of a sense of loss. . . . This has occupied my waking and sleeping moments for 32 years. You dream this stuff."

Robert Biggs, a professor emeritus at the university who devoted nearly a half-century to the dictionary, said the scholars are satisfied with the final version, but there is that lingering temptation.

"It might be nice to start over," he said, "but no one has the courage to do it anymore."

Work not done in a flash

By 1935, scholars already had 1 million index cards. It would take more than 30 years before the first of the 21 volumes was published. Most cover a single letter. The entire collection spans about 10,000 pages and 28,000 words. The definitions are more fitting for an encyclopedia; they provide cultural and historical context, similar to those in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Source: denverpost.com

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Breaking news:
The assassination of the Christian citizen Arkan Jehad Jacob in Mosul

Tuesday, May 30th, 2011

Ankawa.com – Mosul- Exclusive Sources of the site of Ankawa.com in Mosul said that unidentified gunmen assassinated the Christian citizen Arkan Jehad Jacob this morning, Monday the 30th of May 2011, by using silenced weapons.
The sources said that armed men carrying weapons fitted with silencers shot Arkan Jehad Jacob, the deputy of the Director of the North Cement Plant. Jacob was driving his car near Al-Khayat Circle on the right side of the city of Mosul when the attackers killed him instantly and fled away.
The source added that the victim is at the age of 43 years.

Source: Ankawa.com

Memorial of Iskender Alptekin

Iskender Alptekin

Friday, May 27, 2011

Last year around these days of May, ESU first Chairman Beloved Iskender Alptekin (Matay Rabo) passed away following a heart attack. This year as a memorial of Iskender Alptekin, ESU organized a great festival under the slogan of “Culture and National Festival “Matay Rabo” at Heilbronn, Germany on 21 May 2011.

For this great Festival, ESU expects attendance of all Syriacs from various countries around Europe. The programme of the day; several singers and musicians, photo exposition of Syriac artists, speeches among others…

The martyr Iskender Alptekin was born on 29 August 1961 at the Kafro village in Turabdin. He passed his childhood at the village while studying the primary at the same time learning Syriac language. He leaved his village at the year of 1977 to Istanbul for working as many other people. At the year of 1978 he get married with Ferida Cacan and at the same year he migrated to Switzerland. He was the father of two daughters, Sylvie and Suzan.

From the year of 1993, Iskender Alptekin adopts the way to work for his people for his nation and he became as a professional staff for the duties. He freed his time and consecrated his life for the Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean people. During his works, he passed at the every stage of work and responsibility. He had been present at the every corner that exist Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean people, from every country of Europe to Middle East and until America.

As a consequence of his high qualities Iskender Alptekin became the first Chairman of newly established ESU on 14^th May 2004. At the year of 2007 at the second ESU Congress, he had been elected once more time with unanimity to the chairmanship of ESU.

Our beloved Chairman and friend Iskender Alptekin was enormously appreciated by all his friends and colleagues. As a chairman he had been always the symbol of justice, great example of maturity and patience. Under the presidency of Iskender Alptekin, ESU had been enforced by all domains, respected organisation within Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac people and of course at the international sphere. Every moment of Iskender Alptekin was dedicated to his mission, ready to every kind of duty and infatigable to visit every corner of the rest of world to be efficacious to his duty.

The decease of Iskender Alptekin causes great sadness among his family, friends and within Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac community all over the world. From the first day of death until the last day of funeral realized in the Turabdin, all people stressed out their support, their chagrin and their condolences to the Alptekin family and ESU. From the H. H. Patriarch of Syriac Orthodox Church to bishops, from Lebanese President and Prime Minister to political parties in Turkey and to all Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac parties and organisations transmitted their condolences.

Iskender Alptekin left behind him great personality and full devotion to his responsibility. ESU is ready to revive this great personality at the every stage of the work within ESU.

Ongoing killing of Christians in Iraq

Thursday, May 19, 2011

The recent murder of a Christian in the north-Iraqi town of Kirkuk has again instilled terror in the small community.

Ashur lssa Yaqub, a 29 year old working class citizen, was found dead by the police on Monday morning after being kidnapped Friday night. His body was badly mutilated and his hear severed after his poor family failed to pay the close to $100,000 ransom demanded by the kidnappers.

Violence against Christians is part of everyday life in Iraq. According to the Catholic Church, since 2004 a series of churches have been bombed, 7 priests killed and several bishops kidnapped.

Talking to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Chaldean-Catholic Archbishop of Kirkuk, Louis Sako, said that he admires the endurance and strong faith of the Christians in his parish despite the continued violence.

“In all these years I never heard of one single Christian who converted to Islam,” Sako stressed.

In contrast, Muslims often came to his church and asked to be baptized. “But I´m not allowed to baptize Muslims,” Sako said. “That´s no freedom of religion!”

The Chaldean-Catholic Archbishop of Arbil, Bashar Warda, said, “The murder was supposed to intimidate us Christians. From now on, everyone will at once pay ransom if a relative is being kidnapped.”

Warda suspects radical Islamists are responsible for the murder and appealed to the Muslim clergy in Iraq to teach their faithful that such a murder is a crime against humanity and the faith of the individual.

“It´s not acceptable that there are still sermons of hate against Christians in some Mosques,” Warda stressed.

The Syrian-Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Yohanna Petros Mouche has a different opinion. In a statement to ACN, he said that he doesn´t believe there are direct religious motivations behind the violence in Iraq.

Instead, Archbishop Mouche believes that it is the work of criminals only interested in money. Mouche admitted however, that the actions of the bandits might be made possible by radical political parties.

“Some even say, the criminals are being paid by various parties to harass Christians,” he told the charity.

For the past week, a delegation of Aid to the Church in Need has traveled throughout Iraq to investigate the current situation of the church. In talks with the delegation, Iraqi Christians sincerely question the interreligious dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

A priest, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, said after the murder, “The Muslims are continuously talking to us about ‘living together peacefully.’ But when things like this happen, no Muslim clergy is ever condemning the murder. What are we supposed to think about that?”

Another priest added, “There is no interreligious dialogue. If we invite Muslim leaders to talk with us, they come, preach and then they leave. They never listen.”

The mayor of a predominantly Christian village near the terror-stricken north-Iraqi town of Mosul told ACN, “We´re only safe if we demonstrate strength towards the Muslims.”

His little village is protected against criminals and terrorists by concrete walls, checkpoints and heavily armed guards.

“Armed gangs are a big problem in Mosul and its vicinity,” the mayor said. “We have reasons to believe that there are politicians who pay the criminals to target Christians and kill them or chase them away.”

He agreed with Archbishop Warda saying that preaching of intolerance in some Iraqi Mosques still continues.

“If I would leave my Christian faith, nobody would chase me and cut off my head. That´s the difference between Islam and Christianity.”

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

Link to the article

Young Christian beheaded in northern Iraq

May 19th, 2011

By John Newton & Andre Stiefenhofer
The decapitated body of a Christian man has been discovered in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, a few days after he was kidnapped.

Ashur Yacob Issa, 29, was abducted late Friday night or early Saturday morning and his mutilated body was discovered Monday morning.

His family had been asked for a ransom but was not able to pay the sum of more than £61,500 (€70,000) the kidnappers demanded.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk condemned the killing, and went on to pay tribute to the strength and faith of his community despite the continuing threat of violence.

Archbishop Sako said: “In all these years, I have never heard of a single Christian converting to Islam, despite the many threats.”

He added that Muslims regularly go to his church seeking to convert, but he added: “I am not allowed to baptise them. There is no religious freedom!”

Speaking to Catholic News Agency Zenit, Archbishop Sako also appealed “to those who were capable of committing such an inhuman act” to remember Mr Issa’s widow and the children they orphaned.

He said: “If there is no human justice, sooner or later, there will be divine justice.”

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, who visited Britain in March to launch Aid to the Church in Need’s report on Christian persecution, told the charity: “The murder was meant to intimidate Christians so that in the future they will more readily pay ransom demands.”

Archbishop Warda suspected Islamist fundamentalists were behind the recent act of violence and called on Muslim clerics to make clear to their faithful that such murders are crimes against humanity.

He said: “It is unacceptable that in some mosques hatred towards other faiths is still preached.”

However Syrian Catholic Archbishop Boutros Moshe of Mosul told ACN that he thought the motive for the violence in the country was not primarily religious.

He suggested that it was driven by criminal gangs trying to make money, adding that some radical political movements were willing to use criminals – “Some even say the criminals are paid by the parties.”

A delegation from ACN is currently in Iraq evaluating the situation of the Church there.
Speaking with Iraqi Christians, they found that many of them question the value of interreligious dialogue with Muslims.

One priest said “The Muslims speak to us constantly about a ‘peaceful coexistence’, but then when something happens, violence does not seem to be condemned by Muslim clerics.”

According to Archbishop Warda since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 up to 573 Christians have been killed in religiously and politically motivated attacks.

He also stated that 66 churches have been attacked or bombed as well as two convents, a monastery and a church-run orphanage.

Hundreds of Christian families fled to the north at the end of 2010 after the attack on Baghdad’s Syrian Catholic Cathedral on October 31 where 58 people were killed and more than 70 others injured.

Source: Catholicherald.co.uk

Link to the article

Paris Sacré Coeur de Montmartre : Messe en rite syriaque catholique

12 May 2011

Célébrée par S.B. Ignace Youssef III Younan

Montmartre

Sacré Coeur de Montmartre / Messe en rite syriaque catholique

A l'occasion de la visite à Paris du Patriarche Ignace Youssef III Younan, messe célébrée en rite syriaque catholique

Date : Jeudi 12 mai 2011 à 18h30 Lieu : Sacré Coeur de Montmartre

Mardin, trésor caché de la Mésopotamie

Aux confins orientaux de la Turquie, perchée à 1 200 mètres d'altitude, à 20 kilomètres de la frontière syrienne, découvrez Mardin, joyau inexploré de la Turquie, aux antipodes des stations bétonnées du sud du pays.

9 May 2011 - C'est par la vaste plaine de Mésopotamie qu'il faut arriver la première fois à Mardin. A la fin de la journée, de préférence. Le soleil a disparu derrière la montagne à la teinte de miel, et la cité, lovée sur son flanc, se laisse aller à cette nonchalance annonciatrice de la nuit. Le vent s'est enfin levé et apporte la fraîcheur attendue depuis l'aube. Le rituel du soir commence. Les habitants ont installé des fauteuils sur les toits plats des maisons. Ils plongent leur regard et leurs pensées dans la vaste étendue en contrebas, grenier à céréales depuis des millénaires. Sur la table, le dîner est frugal : olives, concombres, fromage et ayran, boisson traditionnelle au yaourt salé. Dans le ciel, les cerfs-volants des enfants chatouillent une pleine lune encore pâle. Rare spectacle, de ceux où l'harmonie entre l'homme et son environnement s'impose au visiteur comme une évidence.

Cri d'alarme sur le sort des chrétiens d'Orient

Trois évêques d'églises catholiques d'Irak, du Pakistan et d'Egypte, ont témoigné mercredi, depuis le parvis de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, de la situation dramatique des chrétiens d'Orient, victimes de menaces, d'assassinats et d'intimidation.

4 May 2011 - Mgr Joseph Coutts, évêque de Faisalabad (Pakistan), Mgr Basile Casmoussa, ex-évêque des syriens-catholiques de Mossoul (Irak), et Mgr Youhanna Golta, évêque auxiliaire des coptes catholiques d'Alexandrie, venus à l'invitation de l'Association Aide à l'Eglise en Détresse (AED), se sont adressés à la presse.

Mgr Basile Casmoussa, qui n'a de cesse de s'élever contre le sort tragique des chrétiens de Mossoul, s'alarme de ce que "80% des chrétiens n'ont qu'une idée: quitter le pays, parce qu'ils ne s'y sentent plus en sécurité".

"Un évêque a été tué, des prêtres ont été tués, des dizaines d'églises ont été bombardées, des centaines de chrétiens tués". "Moi-même, poursuit l'ex-évêque de Mossoul, j'ai reçu une lettre de menaces d'un groupe terroriste qui me sommait de me convertir à l'islam. On m'a kidnappé, mis un couteau sous la gorge. Mais je suis resté", a-t-il dit. "Sur 1,2 million de chrétiens qui vivaient en Irak avant 2003, les trois-quarts ont pris les routes de l'exil", regrette-t-il.

Iraq: Christians fear more attacks, Iraqi ambassador in Rome pledges protection

In Iraq, Osama Bin Laden’s death might spark more terrorist attacks against religious minorities. The “most important thing is to ensure the security of Christians,” Saywan Barzani says. On Iraqi TV, the terrorist leader is described as a “saint”.

3 May 2011 - Baghdad – Osama Bin Laden’s death has raised fears among Iraqi Christians. Iraq’s ambassador to Italy, Saywan Barzani, has tried to allay such fears, saying that for his government, the “most important thing is to ensure the security and defence of Christians.” In Iraq, Church sources note “Osama Bin Laden is a strange and dangerous phenomenon. He has created a school, and an en entire generation has been indoctrinated by him. They number in the thousands in Arab nations but also elsewhere.”

Bin Laden’s death has caused dangerous reactions, a Christian priest told AsiaNews. “On TV, he is described as a saint. Even serious people view him as an actual mujahid (fighter), a shahid (martyr) who should be celebrated as such. An imam said that just [by shedding] a drop of his blood, he will go to heaven. Bin Laden has fought against Sufis, Christians and Shias… I am shocked.”

His legacy will survive his death, this according to Christians in Baghdad. “Bin Laden represents a radical movement against everything that is not medieval Islam. It is especially politicised against the West (seen as morally and culturally corrupt). In many Arab countries, intellectuals praised him. The danger, for the West, which is seen as the Great Satan, is now greater.”

For Mgr Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, a great educational effort is needed. “His death does not solve the problem. With his disappearance, there will not be more peace. His death will not increase pluralism and communal harmony. We need a campaign to re-educate young Muslims towards a moderate Islam that accepts others and respects diversity. War complicates matters and does not help positive change.”

Many also fear a possible “vengeance”. AsiaNews spoke to Saiwan Barzani, Iraq’s ambassador to Italy about it.

“Iraq is the main front in the worldwide fight against terrorism,” he said. “We have had the largest number of attacks in history as well as the greatest number of casualties. We have a long experience, and our security forces and military are on maximum alert.”

Barzani noted that terrorists began targeting Christians when they realised that this would attract media attention.” The government is doing everything it can to protect churches and Iraq’s Christian communities because they are an historical component of Iraq. Indeed, we must protect them by any means.”

Now the danger is greater. “In their strategy, terrorists will try to target Christians more than others, but the most important thing is to provide them maximum security, finding ways to protect them without raising too much their media profile or taking security measures that are so visible that they will draw terrorist interest. Terrorists want publicity, and this way, they destabilise the country.”

Source: Asia News

http://www.speroforum.com/a/53180/Iraq%E2%80%94Christians-fear-more-attacks-Iraqi-ambassador-in-Rome-pledges-protection

Bomb against church in Zahle as fear of a resurgence in terrorism grows in Lebanon

28 Mars 2011 - Bomb against church in Zahle as fear of a resurgence in terrorism grows in Lebanon
The blast occurred overnight on Saturday against Our Lady Syro-Orthodox Church in Zahle, in the Bekaa Valley. A few days ago, a group of Estonian cyclists was abducted in the same area. “It is the beginning of a new series of attacks,” says Amin Gemayel.

Saint Mary - Syriac Orthodox Church in Zahle - Lebanon Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A terrorist attack was carried out against the Syro-Orthodox Church of Our Lady of Zahle overnight on Saturday. Just after 4 am, a 2-kg device with TNT, nails and pieces of metal, exploded in front of the church’s main entrance, devastating the interior as well as parked cars and nearby houses. A man, Assad Bechara, was wounded when some pieces of glass struck his legs. Benedict XVI was probably referring to this and similar episodes yesterday, during the Angelus, when he said, “Finally, my thoughts turn to the authorities and citizens of the Middle East, where in recent days there have been several incidents of violence, so that the path of dialogue and reconciliation be privileged in the search for a just and brotherly coexistence.”

The attack did not discourage the faithful however, who took part in the Sunday morning Mass celebrated by Mgr Boulos Safar, the Syro-Orthodox bishop of Zahle, on the damaged parvis of the church.

The Minister of Culture, Salim Wardy, some members of the National Assembly, the local security chief in the Bekaa as well as the president of the Syriac League in Lebanon took part in the function.

In his homily, Mgr Safar said, “This attack is a message to undermine security in Lebanon”, but the “Church will not close its doors, whatever the consequences.”

Many take the abduction of a group of Estonian cyclists near Zahle a few days ago and this attack as a sign that terrorist groups are back in action.

Outgoing Minister Elie Marouni said it was a message, whilst Amin Gemayel, historic leader of the Phalange, said he feared the Zahle bomb was just the beginning of a new series of attacks.

Un monastère vieux de 1600 ans menacé en Turquie

18 Février 2011 - Le Président de la Fédération des Églises protestantes de Suisse, le pasteur Gottfried Wilhelm Locher, et l'Évêque Norbert Brunner, président du Conseil de la Conférence des évêques suisses sont inquiets au sujet de la vie du christianisme dans ce pays et spécialement de la survie d'un monastère orthodoxe.

Les psteurs et prêtres du pays ont reçu ce communiqué:

"C’est avec consternation que la Fédération des Églises protestantes de Suisse FEPS et la Conférence des évêques suisses CES observent les graves attaques contre les chrétiens en divers pays. Les tentatives répétées des autorités turques d’attaquer le cloître orthodoxe syrien de Mor Gabriel, au moyen de procédures douteuses en sont un exemple frappant. La situation s’est encore aggravée ces dernières semaines.
Le 26 janvier 2011 à Ankara, la Cour de Cassation a décidé l’expropriation d’éléments importants du domaine du cloître. Elle a justifié cette décision par le fait que la communauté se serait approprié indûment ce terrain. Or le cloître a été fondé en 397 déjà, et il peut attester de sa qualité de propriétaire du sol par des actes officiels valides, que l’instance précédente avait encore reconnus comme des preuves de propriété.
Nous constatons avec préoccupation que ce cloître vieux de 1600 ans est menacé par des forces visiblement gênées par des symboles de vie chrétienne. Des allégations sans fondement font le procès du chef de l’Église orthodoxe syrienne, l’archevêque Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas. Nous soutenons la direction du cloître dans sa décision de faire recours contre le jugement de la Cour de Cassation.

Nous appelons le gouvernement turc à reconnaître tous les groupes ethniques chrétiens dans le pays et à leur garantir le droit à la liberté religieuse. Au nom des Églises catholique romaine et protestantes en Suisse, nous appelons le gouvernement turc, en sa qualité d’exécutif du pays présidant actuellement le Conseil de l’Europe et candidat à l’adhésion à l’Union européenne, à contrer résolument ces atteintes aux droits de l’homme.
À nos Églises et à nos paroisses, nous demandons de suivre avec attention les développements en Turquie. Nous appelons les chrétiennes et chrétiens en Suisse à intercéder pour leurs frères et soeurs en Turquie".

Turkey: EP calls on Turkey to intensify reforms. Ria Oomen-Ruijten MEP

10 February 2011 - Turkey should intensify it reforms. This is Parliament's key message in its Resolution on Turkey's 2010 Progress Report which was adopted today in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee with a vast majority (51 votes in favour and 5 against).

Rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten said: "I would like to commend Turkish citizens and civil society for their support for further democratisation and their commitment to an open and pluralistic society. At the same time, I very much regret the confrontational political climate between the political parties and the strained relations between key political institutions."

According to the EP Rapporteur, the lack of a consensus on reforms between the government and the opposition is the real weak spot in Turkish politics today. Positive announcements therefore often have too little concrete follow-up.

Regarding religious freedoms, the European Parliament notes that there have been a number of positive gestures but stresses that a systematic approach towards Alevis, as well as the Greek, Armenian, Aramean and other Christian communities is needed. "Furthermore I call on the Turkish government to revitalise efforts in the framework of the democratic opening to comprehensively address the Kurdish issue", Ria Oomen-Ruijten said.

Ria Oomen-Ruijten also underlined the serious conclusions in the Resolution regarding the deterioration of the freedom of expression. "Pressure on newspapers, legal writs against journalists and the disproportionate ban of numerous websites are unacceptable. The judiciary should particularly protect the freedom of the press and contribute to a proper functioning of the system of checks and balances."

Furthermore, the European Parliament is worried about the increase in 'honour killings' and the very limited participation of women in the labour market. Ria Oomen-Ruijten continued: "I also call on political parties to use the opportunity of the upcoming elections to strengthen women's active engagement in politics."

However, MEP Oomen-Ruijten appreciates the number of positive developments related to the political criteria, in particular the judicial reform as well as the adopted constitutional amendments which provide the basis for the establishment of an ombudsman, improvements in trade union rights and an increased civilian oversight of the military.

The European Parliament also notes Turkey's increasingly active foreign policy, aimed at strengthening its role as a regional player and urges the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, to intensify the existing dialogue with Turkey on foreign policy issues of mutual interest and for the coordination of foreign policy objectives. The EP calls upon the Turkish Government to step up its foreign policy coordination with the EU.

Finally, there has been no progress towards the normalisation of bilateral relations with the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey has not met its obligation of the full, non-discriminatory implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Association Agreement. This will continue to affect the process of negotiations.

The plenary vote is expected in the second week of March.

Time for U.S. to protect Christians

8 February 2011 - In the wake of increased violence and targeted discrimination against Christians in countries like Egypt, Iraq, and Pakistan, a U.S. congressman has introduced legislation that calls for a special envoy to protect religious minorities.

At least 70 people were killed last October during a siege on Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, marking the worst massacre of Iraqi Christians since 2003. Also, a televised broadcast of Afghans being baptized resulted in the arrest of four Christians last August. And during the recent uprising in Egypt, Muslims reportedly attacked two Christian families and left 11 believers dead, including children.

Frank Wolf (R-VA) He notes the United States' efforts in Iraq, but points out that "50 percent of the Christian community has been forced out, living in ghettos in Damascus...Lebanon and Jordan." But though they are getting no help from the U.S. government, "there's almost a silence."

However, he acknowledges that advocacy is not simply up to the government.

"I also think it's important for the Church in the West to advocate for the Christian minorities in the Middle East," so he encourages believers to "contact their congressmen and contact their senators and urge them to support this effort to create a special envoy in our government so there's somebody who can advocate...within our government; [so] there will be somebody at the table. But also, [so] there will be somebody who can advocate with regard to the foreign governments."

Last year, the Pew Forum released a report on global restrictions on religion, finding that "nearly 70 percent of the world's 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion."

Mock trial: Turkey expropriates monastery

Dr. Renate Sommer (EVP/CDU):

Brussels, 27.01.11 - Christian Democrat MEP Dr. Renate Sommer, expert on Turkey in the European Parliament, slashes the expropriation of the Aramaic monastery Mor Gabriel in the south-east of Turkey. The high court in Ankara ruled that large parts of the monastery's land shall be revoked, despite the documentation of the right of property. The ruling is a harsh setback for the monastery and a big threat for the Aramaic community in Turkey as a whole.

"The grounds for the judgement show clearly, that the longstanding trial about the monastery Mor Gabriel was in fact only a mock trial" Sommer explains. "The court in Ankara asserts that the appropriation of the land by the Aramaic community was illegal. Some plaintiffs claim, the monastery is built on the land of a former mosque. However, the monastery is more than 1.600 years old and was built long before the existence of the Islam. Besides, Mor Gabriel has been paying land taxes to the Turkish state since 1937."

Map - Mor Gabriel Monastery National and religious zealots have the monastery in their sights for decades. Since the nineties Aramaic village chiefs, doctors and lawyers are being urged to leave the country. Many of them have paid for resistance with their lives. The monastery Mor Gabriel denies the payment of protection money to the Muslims in the neighbourhood. "The accusation by neighbouring mayors is obviously the bill for that," Sommer says."Unfortunately these fanatics are supported by the Turkish government, which has put a spoke in the monastery's wheels for decades. Since 1980 the monastery has been prohibited from educating priests. In addition to that the governing AKP supported the plaintiffs against the monastery. By postponing the judgement for several times, the Turkish government has pursued a strategy of stalling by which the Aramaic population is supposed to be demoralized and to be induced to leave the country. Now the judgement probably also determines the fate of the remaining 3000 Arameans- they have no future in the region." Aramaic Christians, unlike Greek-Orthodox and Armenian Christians, cannot rely on the protection of religious minority rights guaranteed by the Turkish constitution, since they are not officially recognised as a religious minority. Nevertheless, the expropriation is a slap into the face for all other Christian communities as well.

Since the early nineteen-thirties, they are confronted with expropriations and bans on building new churches. Celebrating their services is only allowed after preliminary approval by the state.
Sommer: "We have to face the truth: the Turkish government obviously tries to rule out the Christian influence in every way," Sommer says. The sneaky islamization of Turkey points in the same direction. "It is a shame that Turkey as a candidate for EU-membership spurns religious freedom in such way. Europe shall not longer look on helplessly!"

Related articles:

TURKEY: Syriac Orthodox land - All people are equal, but some are less equal than others? (F18News)

Battle Over a Christian Monastery Tests Turkey's Tolerance of Minorities (WSJ)

QUI EN VEUT AUX CHRÉTIENS DE TURQUIE ? (Le Figaro)

Les moines de Mor Gabriel résistent à l'État turc (Le Figaro)

Press Release – Mor Gabriel Monastery (Southeast Turkey)

On 27.01.2011, Turkish Supreme Court made decision against Mor Gabriel Monastery concerning lands dispute with the villages and Turkish Treasury.

One more time there is a try to seize values and assets of Syriac people by legal and juridical pressures with the example of Mor Gabriel Monastery. With unfair methods and ways, a lot of lands of Syriacs have been seized during cadastral survey works since 2007, and had been transferred to the state treasury. The most important and clear evidence is the Mor Gabriel Monastery trials. These actions take source from local villages and state institutions. The local court made decision about cases, but later on all parties decided to go to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court dealt with the cases and reversed even the case which was gained by the Monastery Foundation. Finally, on 27.01.2011 according to the recent decision made by the Supreme Court, the Mor Gabriel Monastery has to transfer most of its lands to the state treasury.

At the time when AKP (Justice and Development Party) government is trying to persuade the whole world with the democratic openings, taking actions against Mor Gabriel Monastery is completely contradictory to the reality. And thus the AKP government is seen insincere by the Syriacs.

With this latest development, the AKP government becomes a source of disappointment in the process of reforms towards European Union. These political decisions had always been reasons of discussion on the international arena and often Turkey had been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights. We also believe that Turkey will be condemned by the European Court of Human Rights concerning the Mor Gabriel Monastery case.

We call to the Turkish government to restore this unfair decision and make relevant legal arrangements. European Syriac Union (E.S.U.), on behalf of the Syriac people, is strongly condemning the decision of the Supreme Court and made its call to all Syriac people all over the world, to the world public opinion and to relevant institutions and governments to be responsive to this situation.

European Syriac Union

European Syriac Union

Christian communities could disappear from the Middle East, warns PACE

28 January 2011 (Emg) The Assembly called for a Council of Europe strategy to enforce “freedom of religion” – including the freedom to change one’s religion – as a human right. Member states should also promote educational material which addressed anti-Christian stereotypes and bias as well as “Christianophobia” in general.

Christian communities could disappear from the Middle East, where Christianity had its beginnings, if low birth rates and emigration – fuelled in some places by discrimination and persecution – are not properly addressed, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has warned.

In a recommendation adopted today, based on a report by Luca Volontè (Italy, EPP/CD), the Assembly unequivocally condemned the October 2010 massacre of worshippers in the Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad and the January 2011 suicide bombing in a Coptic church in Alexandria as two “particularly tragic” events in a growing number of attacks on Christian communities worldwide.

The parliamentarians said the co-existence of religious groups was a sign of pluralism and an environment favourable to the development of democracy and human rights: “The Assembly is convinced that the loss of Christian communities in the Middle East would also endanger Islam as it would signal the victory of fundamentalism.”

Relations between Christian communities in the Middle East and the Muslim majorities “have not always been easy”, the Assembly said, while public authorities in some Muslim countries “have not always conveyed the right signals” about other religious communities in these countries.

The Assembly called for a Council of Europe strategy to enforce “freedom of religion” – including the freedom to change one’s religion – as a human right. Member states should also promote educational material which addressed anti-Christian stereotypes and bias as well as “Christianophobia” in general.

They should also insist on a “democracy clause” when making agreements with third countries, and take account of the situation of Christian and other religious communities in their bilateral political dialogue with these countries.

The Parliamentary Assembly brings together 318 members from the national parliaments of the 47 member states.

Catherine Ashton EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and
Vice President of the European Commission :
Situation of Christians in the context of religious freedom - European Parliament Strasbourg

Strasburg, 19 January 2011

I fully share the concerns of this House about the recent violence against persons belonging to religious minorities as well as those who stand up for religious freedom.

I have expressed my views on this issue most recently on 6 January, when I visited Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity on the eve of Orthodox Christmas. There I underlined the need for all religious groups around the world to be able to gather and worship freely. I also stressed that the EU condemns all forms of intolerance and violence against persons because of their religion or belief, wherever it takes place.

In addition, I have strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Iraq and Egypt targeting places of worship, as well as the assassination of Mr Tajeer, Governor of Punjab in Pakistan. I think we can all agree that these attacks are unacceptable, perpetrated by extremists with an agenda of intolerance that must be condemned and resisted.

In today's world, all too often people's human rights are violated because of their religion or belief. The victims do not belong to one faith or region. Regrettably, no part of the world is spared from the scourge of religious intolerance. Any discrimination or violence against an individual because of his/her religious belief runs against the values that the EU upholds. Each violation must be taken seriously and condemned with the same force, wherever it takes place and whoever is the victim. Human rights are universal

Long-established Christian communities in the Middle East face difficulties, which have led to significant displacement in some countries and dwindling numbers in the region as a whole. The EU will not turn a blind eye to their plight. We consider their demand to have their rights respected as citizens of their own country as entirely legitimate. Freedom of conscience, religion or belief belongs to everyone, and every state has the duty to ensure that it is respected. The EU stands ready to enhance its cooperation with governments to combat intolerance and protect human rights.

We must not fall into the trap that extremists and terrorists are laying before us. We must resist the manipulation of religion into a source of division. The best response to extremism is a united international front based on the universal standards of freedom of religion and belief. The EU was the driving force at the UN General Assembly behind the resolution on the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief, which was adopted by consensus in December. The EU makes a concerted effort every year into building that consensus, so that the international community can send a firm and united message. We are considering another initiative to rally strong cross-regional support on this theme in the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council in March.

We also raise the issue of freedom of religion or belief during human rights dialogues and urge countries to eradicate discrimination and intolerance. The EU Delegations closely monitor such issues around the world, and the EU’s next annual human rights report this spring will address the situation of religious minorities around the world.

I am fully committed to keeping freedom of religion or belief at the top of the EU’s agenda. The next Foreign Affairs Council on 31 January will revert to the issue so that the EU can step up its efforts to promote religious freedom.

Christians in Middle East: MEPs condemn persecution, discrimination based on religion

Résolution du Parlement européen du 20 janvier 2011 sur la situation des chrétiens dans le contexte de la liberté de religion

PRESIDENT OBAMA CONDEMNS ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ AND EGYPT IN HIS PROCLAMATION FOR THIS YEAR’S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DAY

15 January 2011 (ANS) - He also calls on all Americans to commemorate this day

WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) - On Friday President Barack Obama condemned recent attacks against Christians in both Iraq and Egypt in his proclamation for Religious Freedom Day 2011 which is due to place on this Sunday, (January 16th).

In his message sent to the ASSIST News Service from the White House, Obama said, “We condemn the attacks made in recent months against Christians in Iraq and Egypt, along with attacks against people of all backgrounds and beliefs.

“The United States stands with those who advocate for free religious expression and works to protect the rights of all people to follow their conscience, free from persecution and discrimination.

“Across the globe, we also seek to uphold this human right and to foster tolerance and peace with those whose beliefs differ from our own. We bear witness to those who are persecuted or attacked because of their faith.” ...

Attacks in Iraq and Egypt

Among the violence against Iraq’s Christians that the President was referring to was the church attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic cathedral of Baghdad, Iraq, that took place during Sunday evening Mass on October 31, 2010. The attack left at least 58 people dead, after more than 100 had been taken hostage. The al-Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgent group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack; though Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and Iraq's highest Catholic cleric condemned the attack, amongst others.

Then in Egypt, the terrible New Year's Day bombing of an Alexandria church that left 25 Christians dead and scores more injured has unleashed a wave of anger among Egypt's minority Copts directed at their government and Muslim countrymen. The bombing highlighted discontent in the Middle East’s largest Christian community over how its members are treated in this country.

The most recent attack in Egypt took place on Tuesday evening of January 11, 20110 in which a 71-year-old Egyptian Christian was allegedly shot by an off-duty policeman who was said to have also injured five others on a northbound train in Upper Egypt.

Media sources say that a gunman entered the train while it was stationed at the southern Egyptian city of Samalout in the Minya governorate, some 161 miles south of Cairo. Security sources said that the assailant had checked passengers for the green cross traditionally tattooed on the wrists of Coptic Christians in Egypt. After identifying several Copts, the culprit killed one of them and injured five others.

Mideast Christians victims of 'cleansing': Sarkozy

07 January 2011 (AFP) - PARIS: French president Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.

A series of attacks against Christians "looks more and more... like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," Sarkozy said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.

A deadly attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on January 1 killed 21 people.

An al-Qaida-linked website had published threats against that church and other Coptic communities in various countries.

Forty-four worshippers and two priests died in an attack on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad in October, the worst of a series of attacks against Christians in Iraq.

Related articles:

Sarkozy parle d'"un plan d'épuration" des Chrétiens d’Orient (ParisMatch)

Les Chrétiens d'Orient victimes d'un "génocide", selon Amin Gemayel (NouvelObs)

Nicolas Sarkozy says Christians in Middle East are victim of 'religious cleansing' (Telegraph UK)

Italy''s FM urges EU to take steps to protect Christians around the world

ROME, Jan 7 (KUNA) - Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Friday sent a letter to the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, urging the bloc to take steps to protect Christians around the world.

The letter, signed by the Italian, French, Polish and Hungarian foreign ministers asks for the persecution of Christians to be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on January 31 in Brussels.

It also calls for concrete action to be taken to uphold respect for religious freedom and freedom of expression.
The request followed the New Year's Eve suicide bombing at a minority Coptic Christian church in northern Egypt that killed 23 people and injured almost 96 more and a series of attacks against Christians in Iraq. Christians have also been targeted by extremists in Pakistan and India and elsewhere.

He said he was "fully satisfied" with the direction of the Egyptian probe and the heightened security measures put in place by Egypt's authorities for the Coptic Christmas on Friday.
"I would like to express my appreciation for the Egyptian government's renewed commitment to fighting terrorism and defending the rights of all Egyptians, irrespective of their faith," Frattini's statement concluded.

Michèle Alliot-Marie: "il est urgent d'agir" en faveur des chrétiens d'Orient

6 janvier 2011 - PARIS (AP) — "L'antichristianisme est aussi intolérable que l'antisémitisme et l'anti-islamisme", estime la ministre française des Affaires étrangères Michèle Alliot-Marie, qui appelle dans "Le Figaro Magazine" de samedi à "aller au-delà de l'émotion et des actions ponctuelles pour définir une vraie stratégie et des réponses globales" en faveur des chrétiens d'Orient.

"Il est urgent d'agir", juge la ministre dans un entretien à l'hebdomadaire. Les chrétiens qui se sentent menacés en Irak et en Egypte "doivent pouvoir bénéficier du droit d'asile, évidemment, mais cette réponse, de notre part, ne peut être que ponctuelle", souligne-t-elle, notant que les responsables religieux et les gouvernements de la région "ne souhaitent pas le départ des chrétiens d'Orient".

Observant que plusieurs pays européens agissent aujourd'hui "de façon disparate", Michèle Alliot-Marie prône ainsi une "meilleure coordination" qui rendrait les actions "plus efficaces" et dévoile son plan en faveur des chrétiens d'Orient.

La ministre annonce son intention de lancer la semaine prochaine, à l'occasion du Forum pour l'Avenir qui se tiendra à Doha (Qatar), un "appel à la tolérance et au respect mutuel entre les trois religions monothéistes". Ce forum regroupe les pays du G-8 et ceux du grand Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord.

Michèle Alliot-Marie ajoute qu'elle va entamer une tournée "dans le Maghreb, au Moyen-Orient et dans le Golfe", où elle entend également "porter cette idée de tolérance et de respect" de la liberté religieuse.

Jugeant important que l'Union européenne s'exprime "fortement et concrètement en la matière", la ministre précise avoir saisi Catherine Ashton, haut représentant de l'UE pour les Affaires étrangères. Elle "demande que le problème de la sécurité des communautés chrétiennes du Moyen-Orient soit inscrit à l'ordre du jour de la prochaine réunion des ministres des Affaires étrangères" de l'UE le 31 janvier, à Bruxelles.

Si l'ONU a un "rôle à jouer", "je crois que l'Europe est un bon vecteur pour ce qui est des mesures concrètes", avance-t-elle. S'agissant, par exemple, de la zone kurde du nord de l'Irak, où "un grand nombre de chrétiens" sont "réfugiés", l'UE ne pourrait-elle pas aider les autorités locales à "faire face à cet afflux, de façon à ce que les réfugiés soient accueillis le mieux possible?", s'interroge la ministre. AP

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US worried by 'trend' of Christian attacks

06 January 2011 (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday it is "deeply concerned" about the rise in attacks against Christians in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

Christians are joined by Muslims during a rally in the mixed working class district of Shubra in the capital Cairo to condemn the New Year's Eve car bomb attack on a Coptic church in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria in which 21 people were killed. The United States said Tuesday it is "deeply concerned" about the rise in attacks against Christians in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

"We are certainly aware of a recent string of attacks against Christians from Iraq to Egypt to Nigeria," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We are deeply concerned about what seems to be an increasing trend."

Crowley, speaking to reporters, said the US State Department condemns all violence based on religion or ethnicity and includes such attacks in its annual human rights report.

But he added: "I'd be very wary at this point about... making any sweeping statements about whether what's happened in Iraq has a bearing on what's happening in other countries such as Egypt or Nigeria.

"These are all being investigated," he said.

"There are pressures on minority groups in these countries, and we would hope and expect that ... in those respective governments, we'll fully investigate these attacks and bring those responsible to justice," he said.

"That's what... for example, the people of Egypt are rightly demanding -- a credible, thorough investigation and those responsible brought to justice."

In the past few days, anti-Christian attacks left 21 people dead in Egypt, two slain in Iraq and 86 slaughtered in Nigeria.

On October 31, militants stormed a church in central Baghdad, leaving 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security force personnel dead, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Eastern Christians : joint letter to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

05 January 2011

From Michele Alliot-Marie, ministre d’Etat, minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Janos Martonyi, hungarian minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, italian minister of Foreign Affairs, and Radoslaw Sikorski, polish minister of Foreign Affairs

Dear High Representative,

Bloody attacks took place in Baghdad on 31 October and then in Alexandria on 31 December 2010. They bear witness to a terrorist strategy whose aim is to set religious communities against one another by striking at them, particularly in their places of worship. Christians living in certain Middle Eastern countries are today experiencing a worrying and indeed tragic deterioration in their situation which is driving them into exile. This also concerns other religious minorities.

The European Union cannot be indifferent to this. You have strongly condemned these attacks, in two public statements. With regard to Iraq, the Foreign Affairs Council of 22 November reiterated our deep concern and our condemnation of violence based on religious hatred and especially terrorist attacks on civilians, whatever their beliefs, and on places of worship.

We consider it necessary, in the present context, to confirm our commitment and constant vigilance, which complement our efforts to cooperate with the European Union’s external partners against terrorism and its effects on international stability. Incitement and recourse to violence against different religious groups and communities are unacceptable. The European Union and its Member States must remain firm on this point. They must not fall into the trap laid for them by terrorists who seek to endanger the universal principles on which our societies are based (particularly the respect for and guarantee of freedom of religion and belief, including freedom of worship). The diversity which has always characterized the East forms part of the values of tolerance and respect that we uphold. Our deep concern is not limited to the fate of Eastern Christians alone: we are conscious of our responsibility to protect all victims of threats and persecution on grounds of religion.

That is why we would like this issue to be registered as a full agenda item at the Foreign Affairs Council of 31 January 2011, with a view to a debate on respect for religious freedoms. We would also like you to make us concrete proposals to be implemented to foster respect for freedom of religion and belief. We could, moreover, hold a debate on the resources we can deploy to provide help and protection to people under threat.

Christian Who Survived Iraqi Church Attack Killed in Her Bed

03 January 2011 (AOL News) A Christian woman who survived an attack on a Baghdad church in October was shot dead in her bed early today by gunmen who made off with money and some of her possessions.

Rafah Butros Toma was most likely killed because of her religion, Agence France-Presse reported.

The gunmen used weapons equipped with silencers to shoot her as she slept. She was the latest victim in a string of attacks on Christians in Iraq. In Egypt, Coptic Christians were victims of a New Year's Day bombing at their church in Cairo.

Toma, who lived alone in central Baghdad, was one of 120 people at the Our Lady of Salvation church who were taken hostage by suicide-vest-wearing terrorists on Oct. 31.

Iraqi security forces confronted the militants, three of whom detonated their vests. After the raid, 53 people, including two priests and Toma's 27-year-old cousin, were left dead. The church is one of the largest Catholic houses of worship in the country.

"I am attached to this place," Butros Toma told CNN when she and 100 other people came to the church 40 days after the attack, a traditional period of mourning for some communities in the Middle East. "Every other day I come here. I feel like my soul is in this place with them."

Toma had not been to church for three years when she finally went on Oct. 31. She told CNN that her cousin had threatened to stop visiting her if she did not go.

Butros knelt to light candles on the floor during the memorial to the killed and wounded Christian victims that day. She said that she felt bound to the church ever since the attack and the loss of her cousin.

Butros said she could not forget the last words she said to him: "I will see you and talk to you after Mass."

On Dec. 30, at least two Christians were killed and 16 others wounded in a wave of bomb attacks on Christian targets in Baghdad.

Two U.S. service members were also killed in central Iraq Sunday night during an operation, the first deadly attack in 2011 on U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a statement released by the U.S. military.

Mideast Christians facing growing persecution

03 January 2011 (Euronews) - For Christians in the Middle East, there is no doubt that daily life has become more difficult. Many complain of attacks and persecution, forcing hundreds to flee their homes. Among the different Christian groups in the region, the Coptic Christians in Egypt is the largest, numbering some six million.

Attacks have also taken place on the homes of Iraqi Christians in recent months. Two people were killed and at least 16 wounded in attacks in Baghdad on New Year’s Eve. Al Qaeda-linked militants are suspected. This just two month after 52 people were killed when gunmen stormed the Syrian Catholic Cathedral in Baghdad.

There are some 15 million Christians in the Middle East and North Africa. In Lebanon, they represent a large slice of the population and have considerable political power. Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel and the West Bank are also among those with significant Christian populations.

The result of the persecution is an exodus. In Iraq, churches have gone from full to three-quarters empty in just a few years. Iraqi Christians once numbered about 1.5 million but are now believed to have fallen to less than half that.

The pope has urged Christian communities to “persevere in a non-violent manner”. He has condemned the bomb attack in Egypt as a “vile gesture of death … which offends God and all humanity”.

But finding refuge is not easy. Observers say Western countries have grown more reluctant to welcome persecuted Iraqi Christians, for example, with some governments stopping new arrivals.

Bombing of Christian church in Egypt kills 21 (LATIMES)

Iraqi Christians subjected to systematic killing

02 January 2011 (AP) - BAGHDAD: The latest bloody attack on Iraq’s Christians was brutal in its simplicity. Militants left a bomb on the doorstep of the home of an elderly Christian couple and rang the doorbell.

When Fawzi Rahim, 76, and his 78-year-old wife Janet Mekha answered the doorbell Thursday night, the bomb exploded, killing them, Mekha’s brother told the Associated Press. Three other people, apparently passers-by, were wounded.

“When I went there, I found both of them cut to pieces near the gate of their house,” said the brother, Falah Al Tabbakh, 47, who had been at a funeral nearby in the eastern Baghdad district of Ghadir. He rushed to his sister’s house after neighbours called him, and they told him what happened, he said.

The bombing was among a string of seemingly co-ordinated attacks on Thursday that targeted at least seven Christian homes in various parts of Baghdad that wounded at least 13 other people, a week after Al Qaeda-linked militants renewed their threats to attack Iraq’s Christians.

The attacks are the latest since an Oct.31 siege of a Baghdad church by Al Qaida killed dozens of worshippers, terrifying the minority community, whose numbers have already fallen dramatically in the past seven years of violence in Iraq.

The repeated attacks have infuriated many Christians who question why the government seems unable to protect them despite its repeated promises since the church siege to do so.

“The Christians in Iraq are always targeted because they do not have militias and they do not believe in the power of weapons,” said Father Nadhir Dakko, a priest at St.George Chaldean Church, who performed the funeral service for the slain couple.

Speaking to reporters after the service, Dakko railed against what he called the government’s inability to “establish peace and security” for all Iraqis, Muslim and Christian. All Iraqis are suffering, he said, but the situation is harder for Christians because they are a minority.

“Iraq is bleeding every day,” he said.

The government, while calling on Christians not to flee Iraq, has beefed up security around churches and dispatched extra police patrols in Christian neighbourhoods.

They have placed concrete blast walls around the Our Lady of Salvation Church where the siege occurred.

Still, authorities and Christian leaders have acknowledged that security forces cannot protect every single house, and asked Christians to be vigilant. ...

Link to full article

Egypt bomb kills 21 at Alexandria Coptic church

01 January 2011 - President Hosni Mubarak has urged Egypt's Muslims and Christians to stand united against terrorism after a bombing outside a church in Alexandria.

At least 21 people were killed and 70 hurt in the suspected suicide attack, which happened during a New Year's Eve service at the al-Qiddissin Church.

In a rare televised address, Mr Mubarak said it bore the hallmark of "foreign hands" seeking to destabilise Egypt.Several hundred Christians later clashed nearby with Muslims and police.

'In this together'

About 1,000 worshippers were attending the Mass at the al-Qiddissin (Saints) Church in the Sidi Bechr district of the Mediterranean port city.

As the service drew to a close after midnight, a bomb went off in the street outside.

"The last thing I heard was a powerful explosion and then my ears went deaf," 17-year-old Marco Boutros told the Associated Press from his hospital bed. "All I could see were body parts scattered all over."

Another witness told the private On-TV channel that he had seen two men park a car outside the church and get out just before the blast.

Officials initially thought the cause was a car bomb, but the interior ministry later ruled it out, saying the attack was instead "carried out by a suicide bomber who died among the crowd".

A nearby mosque was also damaged by the explosion and the casualties included eight injured Muslims, the health ministry said. ...

Link to full article

Related articles:

Attentat contre une église d'Alexandrie: 21 morts (NouvelObs)

Pope Denounces Religious Intolerance After Nigerian, Egyptian Attacks (NewsTime)

Bombs planted around homes of Iraqi Christians

01 January 2011 (ABC) - Two people were killed at least 16 injured in the latest attacks on Christians in Iraq.

Iraq's interior ministry says 15 bombs were placed around homes in Christian areas of Baghdad. Eleven of the bombs exploded.

The couple who were killed had found a bag at their gate which blew up when they opened it.

Church leaders are at a loss to explain the attacks, saying Iraqi Christians have no power and pose no threat.

Two months ago an attack on a church in Baghdad killed 56 people, including many in the congregation and two priests.

The latest bombings have stoked new fears in a community targeted by Islamic militants.

Many Christians have already fled Baghdad or left the country altogether.

Security forces say they are taking measures to stop the attacks.

U.S. Condemns Attacks on Iraqi Christians (State Gov.)

Related articles:

Canada condemns Iraq bombings (AFP)

A Christian priest faces grim New Year in Iraq

01 January 2011 (LATIMES) - Father Nadheer Dako's flock in Baghdad is shrinking, some having long fled the turmoil and others falling victim to a recent rise in anti-Christian violence. On the last day of 2010, he buries an elderly couple killed in a bombing.

Reporting from Baghdad - Father Nadheer Dako started the last day of 2010 with a funeral service for an elderly couple killed by a bomb during a string of attacks against Iraq's small Christian community.

The previous night, Fawzi Ibrahim, 80, and his 75-year-old wife, Jeanette, had opened their door to find a piece of luggage. When they touched the bag, a hidden bomb exploded. Their house was one of 10 Christian targets hit by militants Thursday night.

Now Dako, who is always ready with a sarcastic barb and a smirk, had to round up enough parishioners to join five relatives for the service at St. George Chaldean Church in Baghdad. It was a cold day with gray skies. Rain pounded the sidewalk and flooded the half-paved streets. ...

Link to full article

Related articles:

Iraq: As American Troops Leave, Persecuted Christians Flee (NewAmerican)

A doorbell rings, a new attack on Iraqi Christians (Washington Post)

Archives 2010

European Syriac Union (E.S.U.) wishes you a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2011. We also have special thoughts for the minorities in Middle East and Iraq, especially the Christian Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians who are suffering.

L'Union Syriaque Européenne (E.S.U.) vous souhaite un Joyeux Noël & une Bonne Année 2011. Nous avons également une pensée particulière pour les minorités du Moyen-Orient et d'Irak, et plus particulièrement les chrétiens Chaldéen-Syriaque-Assyriens qui souffrent.

Le Noël endeuillé des chrétiens d’Irak

22 Décembre 2010 - LaCroix - Deux mois après le massacre de la cathédrale de Bagdad, les chrétiens irakiens se préparent à célébrer Noël dans la plus grande discrétion, leur sécurité étant plus que jamais menacée.
Ce 25 décembre, ils fêteront la venue d’un enfant né au monde il y a 2000 ans. Un enfant dont personne ne voulait, et qui n’échappa que de peu au massacre décrété par les autorités de l’époque. Mais c’est la photo d’un autre enfant qu’ils auront sous les yeux, derrière l’autel : un bébé, assassiné, lors de l’attentat qui a eu lieu le 31 octobre dernier, dans la cathédrale syrienne catholique Al-Najat de Bagdad. Un bébé, mitraillé sur place par l’un des terroristes, simplement parce qu’« il faisait du bruit »…

La petite communauté syrienne-catholique qui s’apprête à célébrer Noël est encore traumatisée, raconte le P. Pascal Gollnisch, directeur général de l’Œuvre d’Orient, qui revenait mercredi matin de Bagdad, où il a rencontré les autorités chrétiennes. Dans l’église d’Al-Najat, rien n’a été bougé : les soutanes des deux prêtres tués avec leurs fidèles ont été suspendues au mur, sur lequel on n’a pas effacé les traces de sang. Les photos des victimes ont été accrochées.

Pour célébrer Noël, la communauté syrienne-catholique reviendra dans l’église. Mais « avec la peur au ventre », précise le P. Gollnisch. D’ailleurs, cette année, pas de messe à minuit, mais une célébration dans l’après-midi du 24 décembre, assez tôt pour pouvoir assurer la sécurité, et une autre le lendemain, jour de Noël.

Pas de messe de la nuit, pas de visite chez les familles

« Avant, nous célébrions la messe à minuit, puis les clubs de jeunes organisaient une grande fête », se souvient avec tristesse Mgr Athanase Matti Matouka, archevêque syrien-catholique de la ville. Cette année, ajoute-t-il, « pas de manifestations extérieures, pas de visites, pas de boissons. Rien. » ...

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Chrétiens d'Irak : partir ou pas?

21 Décembre 2010 - France 2 - Reportage sur le calvaire des chrétiens Chaldéen-Syriaque-Assyriens en Irak. Une équipe de France 2 est retournée sur les lieux 50 jours après l'attaque suicide dans l'église Syriaque Seydit El Najat qui avait fait plus d'une soixantaine de morts et près d'une centaine de blessés.

La France, par la voix de la Ministre des Affaires étrangères Michèle Alliot-Marie, demande également des mesures de sécurité pour les chrétiens d'Orient et plus particulièrement ceux d'Irak.

Lien vers la vidéo (Link to the video in French)

A Christmas of mourning for Iraq’s Christians

by Louis Sako*

20 December 2010 - After the series of anti-Christian attacks, Iraq will mark Christmas again under tight security. No functions will be held on Christmas Eve, nor decorations or ceremonies. A community enduring suffering and losses is preparing to experience the message of hope brought by Jesus to earth because, for Iraqi Christians, Christmas is always a time of joy as well as martyrdom. Mgr Louis Sako, Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, bears witness.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – Midnight Christmas Mass has been cancelled in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk as a consequence of the never-ending assassinations of Christians and the attack against Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral on 31 October, which killed 57 people. For security reasons, churches will not be decorated. Masses will be sombre and held during the day.

A sense of sadness and mourning prevails among Christians. There is much concern for the future of young people. For the past two months, they have been unable to go to university. The same is true for many families that fled north who now must plan a future without any concrete bases.

No one expects anything from the government as far as protecting Christians. Political leaders are too caught up in setting up a new administration.

Security is slightly better in Kirkuk than in the capital, but here too abductions and threats occur. For this reason, we have decided for the first time since the war began not to celebrate Midnight Mass. We shall simply not have any feast, period. Santa Claus will not be coming for the children; there will be no official ceremony with the authorities proffering their best wishes.

For the past six weeks, we have not celebrated Mass because of a lack of security, except late in the morning and Saturday afternoons. For now, we have also stopped teaching the catechism.

We do not have the right to put people’s lives in danger. All our parish churches have security guards, but when worshippers step outside the church and into the street, they become an easy target.

Yet, despite everything, we shall pray for peace this Christmas and help the poor families of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah. So far, 106 families have arrived from Baghdad and Mosul.

In my homily, I am going to focus on such problems, on the clashes and on people’s fears but also on the fact that Christmas brings a message of hope. Of course, heaven and earth are two different realities. The Massacre of the Innocents followed Christmas. Thus, for us in Iraq, Christmas is a time of hope and joy as well as pain and martyrdom.

Peace is a goal that people of good will should make happen. If we Christians want to be Christian and welcome Christmas and its message, we must be peacemakers, and build harmony among our Iraqi brothers and sisters.

* Chaldean bishop of Kirkuk

Iraqi Christians fear spike in Christmas attacks

20 December 2010 - Amnesty International today called on the Iraqi government to do more to protect the country’s Christian minority from an expected spike in violent attacks as they prepare to celebrate Christmas.

“Attacks on Christians and their churches by armed groups have intensified in past weeks and have clearly included war crimes,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“We fear that militants are likely to attempt serious attacks against Christians during the Christmas period for maximum publicity and to embarrass the government.”

Last year armed groups carried out fatal bomb attacks on churches in Mosul on 15 and 23 December. Some 65 attacks on Christian churches in Iraq were recorded between mid-2004 and the end of 2009.

The increase in violence against Christians in the last month takes place against a backdrop of sectarian violence in Iraq, including several bomb attacks on Shi’a gatherings last week during the Ashura period, which have reportedly killed more than a dozen people.

“We utterly condemn the ongoing attacks against Iraqi civilians carried out by armed groups, and call on the Iraqi government to provide more protection, especially for vulnerable religious and ethnic communities” said Malcolm Smart.

Attacks have increased since around 100 worshippers were taken hostage in a Baghdad Assyrian Catholic church by an armed group on 31 October, with more than 40 people killed as Iraqi security forces tried to free the hostages. The Islamic State of Iraq, an armed group linked to al-Qa’ida, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the hostage crisis, Christian families in Baghdad have been subjected to increasing bomb and rocket attacks on their homes, as well as systematic threats in the mail or by text message.

Christians in Mosul have also been increasingly targeted for assassination by gunmen, with reports in Iraqi media of at least five killed by armed men in November. Reports of killings and abductions of Christians in Mosul have continued in December. Dozens of Christian families have fled Baghdad, Mosul and Basra and have sought refuge in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

In May this year, a bus-load of Christian students were targeted in a bomb attack as they travelled from a predominantly Christian area in Mosul to Mosul University. A Christian from Mosul who must remain anonymous for security reasons has told Amnesty International: “Many students who were in those buses in May have not gone back to university.”

“The security situation in Mosul is very bad… 90 per cent of the Christian students have dropped university - they are all very afraid of something happening to them. …When I leave the house I am always under alert…”

These comments are consistent with a summary of testimonies from Iraqi Christians who have recently fled to Syria, released by a Christian organisation called the Church Committee for Iraqi Refugees in al-Hassake.

The summary, released by the Barnabas Fund, another Christian NGO, says that Iraqi Christians in threatened cities like Mosul “are living behind locked doors. They are compelled to take long leaves of absence from work, in Mosul and other cities, as a result of the dangers they face at work. The universities are almost empty of Christian students, as are the schools.”

The summary tells of regular threats against Christian families in Mosul and other cities, including a dead bird being nailed to the door in warning, extortion, and offensive graffiti on houses.

Tenants renting the homes of Christians who have fled Iraq are allegedly being forced to hand over the rent payments to armed groups who consider themselves the new owners, according to the summary. When Christian families have sold their houses to leave Iraq, armed groups have also allegedly threatened the new owners for taking ‘their’ property.

According to media reports, as Christmas approaches the Iraqi authorities have started constructing concrete walls to protect Mosul and Baghdad churches from security threats, and are introducing stringent security checks at their entrances. Religious services have been scaled back due to fear of attacks.

“Building walls around churches is a sign that the government has failed to provide real security” said Malcolm Smart.

The wave of attacks on Mosul Christians since the 2003 invasion of Iraq has greatly reduced the community’s population which then stood at over 100,000.

Iraqi politicians have taken since elections in May to form a government, creating a climate of uncertainty and power vacuum for months, which has been exploited by armed groups.

“Now that Iraq is finally forming a government, that new government’s effectiveness will be measured by whether it achieves an actual reduction in sectarian attacks by armed groups, and helps stem the flood of Christians fleeing Iraq to escape the violence” said Malcolm Smart.

Christians flee central Iraq in thousands, UN reports

17 December 2010 (BBC) - The UN refugee agency says thousands of Iraqi Christians are fleeing from central provinces of the country. They are seeking refuge in the relatively safe Kurdish-controlled region in the north.

The UN High Commission for Refugees said about 1,000 families have left Baghdad and Mosul province since an attack on a church left 68 people dead.

It said the flight of Christians to other parts of Iraq and abroad has become "a slow but steady exodus".

The UNHCR also said it was dismayed that European governments are deporting failed Iraqi asylum seekers to areas of the country it does not consider safe. "UNHCR strongly reiterates its call on countries to refrain from deporting Iraqis who originate from the most perilous parts of the country," Melissa Fleming, the agency's chief spokesperson, said.

Church attack

Nearly 70 people died as security forces stormed a Catholic church in Baghdad to free dozens of hostages on 31 October. A number of gunmen entered Our Lady of Salvation in the city's Karrada district during Mass, sparking an hours-long stand-off.

UNHCR offices in Iraq are recording a significant increase in Christians fleeing Baghdad and Mosul for the the Kurdistan Regional Government Region and Nineva region, the UNHCR said. "We have heard many accounts of people fleeing their homes after receiving direct threats. Some were able to take only a few belongings with them," Ms Fleming said.

UNHCR offices in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon are reporting a growing number of Iraqi Christians arriving and contacting UNHCR for registration and help.

Churches and non-governmental organisations are warning the refugee agency to expect more people fleeing in the coming weeks. While overall civilian casualties are lower this year than last, it appears that minority groups are increasingly susceptible to threats and attacks.

Related articles:

Europe 'concerned' about Iraq's Christians

14 December 2010 - STRASBOURG, France, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The European community is "very concerned" about the plight of members of the Christian minority in Iraq, the president of the European Parliament said.

The last remaining members of the Christian community in Iraq, one of the oldest in the world, are leaving the country following an October attack on a church in Baghdad.

President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said it was time for the Iraqi government to make sure Christians in Iraq enjoy the same protection and status as Shiites and Sunnis.

"The European Parliament is very concerned about these developments and is a strong defender of human rights, including freedom of religion" he said in his statement. "We monitor the situation closely and have adopted a number of resolutions to try to draw international attention to the plight of Christian minorities."

The al-Qaida affiliated Islamic State of Iraq took responsibility for the October assault on the Christian church that left 58 people dead and 75 others wounded.

A spate of attacks rocked the Christian community in the north of Iraq in 2008, displacing nearly half of the population.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in March thousands of Christians were displaced from Mosul in northern Iraq because of lingering violence.

USCIRF Urges Upgrading Security in Iraq for Christians and Other Imperiled Religious Communities

14 December 2010 - WASHINGTON, DC - In advance of the December 15 UN Security Council meeting on Iraq, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today urged the U.S. government to redouble its efforts, and use the international forum as an opportunity, to address the grave situation facing that country’s Christians and other imperiled religious minorities.

The Security Council meeting is slated to address the progress in Iraq to date. The recent upsurge in attacks against Christians makes clear, however, that the country’s most vulnerable religious minorities remain in peril. The smallest Iraqi religious groups—including ChaldoAssyrian, Syriac, and other Christians; Sabean Mandaeans; and Yazidis—face targeted violence, including murders and attacks on their places of worship and religious leaders, intimidation, and forced displacement; they also experience discrimination, marginalization, and neglect. As a result, these ancient communities’ very existence in the country is now threatened. The loss of the diversity and human capital these groups represent would be a terrible blow to Iraq’s future as a secure, stable, and pluralistic democracy.

This is a particularly important period in Iraq, with a new government being formed and the U.S. military presence drawing down. USCIRF recommends that the U.S. government take the following steps to protect these vulnerable communities:

•   Provide Protection: In consultation with the Christian and other minority religious communities’ political and civic representatives, identify the places throughout Iraq where these targeted minorities worship, congregate, and live, and work with the Iraqi government to assess security needs and develop and implement a comprehensive and effective plan for dedicated Iraqi military protection of these sites and areas; as this process moves forward, periodically inform Congress on progress.

•   Promote Representative Community Policing: Work with the Iraqi government and the Christians’ and other smallest minorities’ political and civic representatives to establish, fund, train, and deploy representative local police units to provide additional protection in areas where these communities are concentrated.

•   Prioritize Development Assistance for Minority Areas: Ensure that U.S. development assistance prioritizes areas where these vulnerable communities are concentrated, including the Nineveh Plains area, and that the use of such funding is determined in consultation with the political and civic leaders of the communities themselves.

On December 4, in the wake of the recent spate of attacks, 16 Iraqi Christian parties and organizations issued a compelling joint call for greater protection. USCIRF urges both the U.S. and Iraqi governments to heed this call and work with these leaders, as well as the leaders of the other small endangered groups in Iraq, on implementing these and other measures to protect and assist these communities before it is too late.

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. USCIRF’s principal responsibilities are to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.

More Christians Flee Iraq After New Violence

12 December 2010 - QOSH, Iraq — A new wave of Iraqi Christians has fled to northern Iraq or abroad amid a campaign of violence against them and growing fear that the country’s security forces are unable or, more ominously, unwilling to protect them.

The flight — involving thousands of residents from Baghdad and Mosul, in particular — followed an Oct. 31 siege at a church in Baghdad that killed 51 worshipers and 2 priests and a subsequent series of bombings and assassinations singling out Christians. This new exodus, which is not the first, highlights the continuing displacement of Iraqis despite improved security over all and the near-resolution of the political impasse that gripped the country after elections in March.

It threatens to reduce further what Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East called “a community whose roots were in Iraq even before Christ.”

Those who fled the latest violence — many of them in a panicked rush, with only the possessions they could pack in cars — warned that the new violence presages the demise of the faith in Iraq. ...

Une délégation d'évêques irakiens attendue au Parlement européen à Strasbourg

08 Décembre 2010 - Une délégation d'évêques irakiens sera reçue les 14 et 15 décembre au Parlement européen à Strasbourg pour évoquer le drame des chrétiens. « Nous serons au Parlement européen où nous exposerons notre situation réelle et où nous ferons entendre notre voix à l'Europe en racontant notre peur mais aussi notre intention de ne pas quitter le pays », a déclaré le vicaire patriarcal chaldéen de Bagdad, Mgr Shlemon Warduni, à l'agence de la conférence épiscopale italienne SIR.

La délégation sera composée de Mgr Warduni, des archevêques syro-catholiques de Bagdad, Matti Shaba Matoka, et de Mossoul, Mgr Georges Casmoussa. Cette initiative s'insère dans une série d'actions pour sensibiliser l'opinion publique et les institutions internationales à propos des violences anti-chrétiennes.

Une journée de jeûne pour les martyrs de la cathédrale syro-catholique de Badgad massacrés le 31 octobre dernier, est organisée jeudi 9 décembre, par le Conseil des chefs religieux des chrétiens d'Irak. Mgr Warduni précise à ce sujet l'invitation faite aux chrétiens d'Irak de s'abstenir de mondanités et de fêtes à l'occasion de Noël, mais de manifester leur proximité aux familles des victimes, et à participer à la messe de Noël à cette intention.

Mgr Warduni salue en outre comme un « pas en avant » l'institution par le gouvernement irakien d'une commission parlementaire et d'une « task-force » de la police pour la protection des minorités chrétiennes : « Nous ne voulons pas de privilèges, précise-t-il, mais seulement le respect de nos droits ».

Pour sa part, l'évêque de Kirkouk, Mgr Louis Sako, souhaite en Irak la présence d'une force internationale. Radio Vatican déplore « la dernière en date d'une longue série d'attaques sanglantes contre la communauté chrétienne ». Dimanche dernier encore, dénonce Radio Vatican, des hommes armés ont fait irruption dans une maison tuant un couple à l'arme blanche, mari et femme tous deux chrétiens. Ils avaient vendu leurs propriétés pour aller s'installer dans le Nord, une région plus tranquille. Ils étaient revenus dans la capitale il y a deux jours pour compléter les questions administratives.

Mgr Sako souligne que les chrétiens étant minoritaires en Irak, quand l'un d'entre eux est enlevé ou assassiné « c'est toute la communauté qui a peur ». Les chrétiens « se sentent seuls », « ils ont besoin d'être soutenus ». Mais il souhaite, en plus de la solidarité, une « force internationale », car la police irakienne semble impuissante à assurer la sécurité.

En attendant, souligne Radio Vatican, l'exode des chrétiens d'Irak se poursuit vers l'Europe, l'Amérique, l'Océanie. Des centaines de familles chaldéennes ont cherché refuge ces derniers jours en Turquie. D'autres, très nombreuses également, ont opté pour le Kurdistan irakien, dans le nord du pays. Cette région risque à terme d'être confrontée à une urgence humanitaire. Plusieurs experts tirent cette sonnette d'alarme : ce flot doit être accompagné et contrôlé. Une aide financière aux autorités régionales du Kurdistan est souhaitée.

Ctb/zenit/bl

Related English article: http://cbcpnews.com/?q=node/14044 Lien vers l'article

Wooing Christians - Some, but not all, want to improve the lot of Christians in Turkey

Dec 2nd 2010 | DIYARBAKIR AND MARDIN - IT IS well known that Kurdish tribes took part in the mass slaughter by the Ottomans of around 1m Armenians in 1915. “Collaborating Kurdish clerics pledged that anyone who killed an infidel would be rewarded in heaven with 700 mansions containing 700 rooms, and that in each of these rooms there would be 700 houris to give them pleasure,” says Mala Hadi, an Islamic sheikh in Diyarbakir.

The sheikh is among a handful of local leaders seeking reconciliation with the Kurdish region’s once thriving Christians. “We are ready to face the past, to make amends,” promises Abdullah Demirbas, mayor of Diyarbakir’s ancient Sur district. To atone, Mr Demirbas has been providing money and materials to restore Christian monuments in Sur. These include the sprawling Surp Giragos Armenian Orthodox church where, until recently, drug dealers plied their trade amid piles of rubbish. It is now squeaky clean and even boasts a new roof.

Yet in the neighbouring province of Mardin, Kurdish tribes continue to harass the handful of Christians who remain. Their main target is the Mor Gabriel Syrian Orthodox monastery. Perched on a remote hilltop, this 1,600-year-old monastery faces five separate lawsuits contesting its right to retain land that church leaders say they have owned for centuries but have been unable to register because of bureaucratic stonewalling. Two cases were brought by Kurdish villages dominated by the Celebi tribe, which some accuse of participating in the bloodletting of 1915 and now provides men for a state-run Kurdish militia fighting separatist PKK rebels. (One tribal leader, Suleyman Celebi, is a member of parliament for the ruling Justice and Development, or AK, party.) The others were begun by the government and rest partly on a law providing that farmland which lies fallow for more than 20 years can be reclaimed by the state as “forest”.

Otmar Oehring from Missio, a German Catholic charity, calls the cases “baseless” and says “the state’s actions suggest it wishes that the monastery no longer existed.” He points to systematic persecution of some 2,000 Syrian Orthodox Christians living in and around Midyat. “The Syrian Orthodox community beyond the monastery has suffered repeated attacks, with land around villages often set on fire. The perpetrators are unknown, but are thought locally to be either local Kurds or the Turkish army, or both, he notes in a report published last month.

The plight of the Syrian Orthodox in Midyat flies in the face of AK’s efforts to improve the treatment of Christians. Greater freedom for non-Muslim minorities is among the European Union’s main demands on Turkey, which is hoping to join. The AK government has made a string of gestures: restoring an Armenian church in Van and opening it to worship (if only once); giving free Armenian-language textbooks out in schools; and sending out orders from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, that Christians must not be ill-treated. None of this impresses Samuel Aktas, the bishop in charge of Mor Gabriel. He has vowed to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights. “I have remained silent in the face of these injustices; but no longer so,” he declares.

Read the full resolution on EP site

Irak: espérant un visa, des chrétiens se ruent sur un consulat français

ERBIL (Irak), 28 nov 2010 (AFP) - Plusieurs centaines de chrétiens irakiens souhaitant échapper aux menaces d'Al-Qaïda se sont rués dimanche au consulat français d'Erbil, dans la région autonome du Kurdistan, sur la foi d'une rumeur affirmant que cette mission délivrait à tous des visas pour la France.

Face à l'afflux de ces réfugiés --des hommes, femmes, enfants et personnes âgées-- munis de leurs papiers d'identité, le consulat a été contraint de fermer ses portes, selon un journaliste de l'AFP.

La plupart de ces chrétiens sont originaires de Bagdad, théâtre ces dernières semaines d'attaques sanglantes contre leur communauté, et de Mossoul, la deuxième ville du pays, où leur situation est également difficile.

"Nous sommes venus quand nous avons appris que le consulat français prenait les noms des déplacés pour leur donner un visa car, franchement, nous ne voulons plus rester dans ce pays", a déclaré dans la foule Girgis, 54 ans, originaire de Mossoul.

"J'avais une usine à Mossoul mais je l'ai quittée parce que j'ai peur des terroristes. Mais notre vie ici est très difficile et nous ignorons combien de temps nous allons devoir vivre de la générosité des proches qui nous accueillent".

Contactée par l'AFP, l'ambassade de France à Bagdad a simplement affirmé que "des dizaines de chrétiens" s'étaient rendus dimanche au consulat d'Erbil, sans dire si celui-ci avait dû fermer ses portes.

La branche irakienne d'Al-Qaïda, qui a revendiqué l'attaque sanglante de la cathédrale syriaque catholique de Bagdad le 31 octobre, dans laquelle 44 fidèles et deux prêtres avait péri, a annoncé le 3 novembre que les chrétiens étaient désormais des "cibles légitimes" pour les combattants islamistes.

Des menaces qui se sont concrétisées une semaine plus tard par une série d'attaques contre des maisons appartenant à des chrétiens à Bagdad, et qui ont fait au moins six morts.

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European Parliament resolution of 25 November 2010 on Iraq: the death penalty
(notably the case of Tariq Aziz) and attacks against Christian communities

Thursday, 25 November 2010 - Strasbourg: The European Parliament ,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Iraq,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on the abolition of the death penalty, in particular its resolution of 26 April 2007 on the initiative for a universal moratorium on the death penalty,

– having regard to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/149 of 18 December 2007, calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 63/168 of 18 December 2008, calling for implementation of the 2007 General Assembly resolution 62/149,

– having regard to the speech of the Vice-President of the Commission/ High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, on human rights policy, delivered in the plenary of 16 June 2010 and pointing out that the abolition of the death penalty worldwide is a priority for the European Union,

– having regard to the final declaration adopted by the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, held in Geneva from 24 to 26 February 2010, which calls for universal abolition of the death penalty,

– having regard to Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,

– having regard to the Council conclusions adopted on 16 November 2009 on freedom of religion or belief, underlining the strategic importance of this freedom and of countering religious intolerance,

– having regard to the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief,

– having regard to the statements by the Vice-President of the Commission/ High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, on Iraq, in particular that of 1 November 2010 following the attack against worshippers at Our Lady of Salvation Cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq,

– having regard to its annual reports on the situation of human rights in the world and its previous resolutions on religious minorities in the world,

– having regard to Rule 122(5) of its Rules of Procedure, ...

Attacks against Christian communities

G. whereas, on 22 November 2010, two Iraqi Christians were killed in Mosul; whereas, on 10 November, a series of bomb and mortar attacks targeting Christian areas killed at least five people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad; and whereas these attacks came after Islamist militants had seized a Syriac Catholic cathedral in Baghdad on 31 October 2010, leaving more than 50 worshippers dead,

H. whereas the militant group Islamic State of Iraq, considered part of the international Al-Qaida movement, has claimed responsibility for the killings and has vowed to launch further attacks against Christians,

I. whereas Article 10 of the Iraqi Constitution establishes the Government's commitment to assuring and maintaining the sanctity of holy shrines and religious sites; whereas Article 43 states that followers of all religious groups shall be free to practise their religious rites and manage their religious institutions,

J. whereas hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled from the country in the face of repeated attacks against their communities and churches; whereas many of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians (Chaldeans, Syriacs and other Christian minorities) are now internally displaced persons, having had to flee extremist violence aimed at them,

K. whereas the Assyrians (Chaldeans, Syriacs and other Christian minorities) constitute an ancient and indigenous people who are very vulnerable to persecution and forced emigration, and whereas there is a danger of their culture becoming extinct in Iraq,

L. whereas human rights violations in Iraq, notably against ethnic and religious minorities, continue at a disturbingly high level; whereas the safety and rights of all minorities, including religious groups, must be respected and protected in all societies,

M. whereas the EU has repeatedly expressed its commitment to freedom of thought, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion and has stressed that governments have a duty to guarantee these freedoms, ...

Iraqi Christians Flee as al-Qaida Steps Up Attacks

23 Novmeber 2010 (PBS) - An assault on a church in Baghdad and other targeted attacks on Christian families are driving fear into the hearts of the remaining members of this religious minority in Iraq, and causing many to seek sanctuary in other places.

"None of the Iraqi Christians want to leave their homeland, because that's their home and they want to stay there. They're leaving because they have to," said Susan Dakak, a board member with Iraqi Christians in Need, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based organization that seeks to help the Christian community in Iraq.

The main focus of the organization has become helping Christians resettle, whether it is in the United States -- Knoxville is hosting a growing Iraqi Christian community -- or other countries, such as Turkey and Syria, she said. Families also are seeking refuge in northern Iraq, where Kurdish security forces are in control.

Violence against Christians is on the rise, Dakak said. On Oct. 31, gunmen stormed Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad, killing at least 58 people. Al-Qaida took responsibility for the attack.

About 350 people in the Syriac Catholic community regularly attended Sunday mass at the church, but many have left the area or are too scared to go to mass, the Washington Post reported. The Syriac Catholic Church is one of the Eastern Catholic Churches affiliated with Rome.

Dakak recalled that day. "We suddenly started getting e-mails from people about what was happening," she said. Office workers located next to the church could hear the explosions and communicated to her organization throughout the four-hour ordeal.

After the siege, two men were killed in Christian homes in Mosul. And Christian families mourning the deaths of relatives in the Oct. 31 attack became victims of car bombs themselves, CNN reported: ...

Read the full article on PBS

Deadly attacks on Iraqi Christians continue

22 Novmeber 2010 - Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Three people were killed Monday in Iraq in the latest attack targeting Christians, police in the city of Mosul said.

In one attack, two Christian brothers were killed in Mosul when gunmen broke into their workplace in an industrial part of the city and shot them. The brothers were welders who owned the shop.

On Monday evening, police found an elderly Christian woman strangled in her home in central Mosul.

The attacks on Christians started October 31 in Baghdad have extended to the northern parts of the country, such as Mosul.

Last week, a bomb attached to the vehicle of a Christian man detonated in eastern Mosul, killing him and his 6-year-old daughter, local police told CNN.

The November 16 attack came one day after two Christian men in adjacent homes were killed after gunmen stormed their houses.

Also on November 15, a bomb detonated outside a Christian home. It caused damages but no injuries.

Iraq's Christian community, which numbered 1.4 million in 2003, is estimated to have dwindled to 500,000 as many have left the country, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has said.

The commission, a U.S. government agency that listed the numbers in its 2010 report, said Christian leaders are warning that this decline could signal "the end of Christianity in Iraq."

Link to the article on CNN

PV Vivekanand: Christians face extinction in Iraq

20 November 2010 - Is creating a new Christian-dominated province in northern Iraq a solution to the plight of Christians in the country? Well, that is the question being raised after Iraqi Christians proposed the idea and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani expressed support for the call, which came after a bloodbath in a Syrian-Catholic church in Baghdad in October.

Representatives of Assyrian, Chaldean and Aramaean Christians in Iraq are proposing the creation of an autonomously administered region for their people in the Ninewa province in the northern part of the country. “In the Ninewa plains, Christians, Shabak, Yazidi and Muslim Kurds make up the majority of the population. Thus the Assyrian/Chaldean/Aramaean demand is completely justified,” says the president of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), Tilman Zülch.

“Most importantly, autonomy for the region could help protect the smaller ethnic and religious communities if this area is connected to the peaceful Iraqi-Kurdish region,” Zulch said this month. “The situation there has been safe for years, and the policies of the regional government concerning nationalities is exemplary for the entire Middle East region.” The Christian communities in Iraq seem to be suggesting a smaller version of Iraqi Kurdistan — a largely autonomous region with less oversight by the national government.

“The constitution of Iraq permits the formation of autonomous regions and provides for a referendum on affiliation, including for parts of the Ninewa,” according to Zülch. “The referendum must be held soon, as it is in the best interests of the security of all minorities.” Talabani, in a French television interview last week, supported the creation of a new province where Christians are the majority.

“There are regions with Christian majority in Iraq and we do not have an objection regarding forming a special province for Christians in Iraq,” he told France 24 television. “Protecting Christians is a holy duty for Iraqi government and all political blocs,” he said, adding that the dominant Shiites have expressed their readiness to form armed teams to help and protect Christians.

Read the full article here ...

The ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Christians

19 November 2010 - Iraqi Christians are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia. Their history goes back to ancient Babylon and Ur of the Chaldeans. They are the original builders of the Cradle of Civilization. They managed to survive in their indigenous land, Iraq, century after century, generation after generation, war after war, for thousands of years.

Today, Iraqi Christians, the majority of whom are Chaldeans, are the most peaceful segment of Iraqi society. They have a great love for their country and are the most loyal, honest, sincere citizens of Iraq. They do not have any political agenda, but they live and die, care and labor for their country. They never carried weapons nor did they ever assemble any type of militia for the past 2,000 years.

The Christians of Iraq, though a small percentage, 1.2 million out of a total population of 25 million, represent the civilized, liberal, democratized and cultured core of Iraqi society. They accept others, tolerate differences, respect human rights, and separate the affairs of religion and state. They are the most educated and the most successful business people in all Iraq.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, along with the rise of terrorism within Iraq, more than 60 Christian churches and monasteries have been bombed and destroyed. Thousands of Christians have been killed, kidnapped and injured. This wave of displacement reached a peak during the years 2006–2008, in which the number of displaced Christians in Mosul, in the north, was more than 10,000 people.

According to the reports of United Nations High Commission for Refugees and other refugee organizations, over 600,000 Iraqi Christians, 50 percent of the original Christian population in Iraq before 2003, have fled Iraq. Today, more than half of these refugees are living in dire conditions in the surrounding countries of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. They exist in destitution and poverty. Often times, many of the Christian women are forced into prostitution in order to provide daily bread for the rest of their family members. These refugees see no hope in returning to Iraq because they see the other remaining Iraqi Christians living under the mercy of the terrorist attacks in the “new and democratic” Iraq.

The most recent attack on the Christian population, which took place at Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Baghdad on Oct. 31, during Sunday evening mass, proved yet again that Iraqi Christians are vulnerable targets because of their Christian faith and that the Iraqi government can practically do nothing to protect them. At least 58 people were killed, including two priests and over 75 people were injured. Most of these victims were members of the same family; parents and children, as it is tradition for the entire family to attend the Sunday mass together. According to witnesses, the attackers were systematically murdering the worshippers, and the Iraqi security forces stood outside listening, while relatives of the victims gathered outside begging them to intervene.

These kinds of attacks show that Iraqi Christians will continue to be an easy target for terrorists. If the United States and the international community do not act to enforce a political solution to protect the Christians of Iraq, more and more Christians will be targeted, attacked and killed under the guise that they are infidels or pro-Westerners. Soon, we will be seeing that Iraqi Christians who have lived and survived thousands of years in their native land will disappear from Iraq. If Christians disappear, Iraq will lose its social buffer component, its balance and stabilizing segment. Iraq will lose its builders and its best assets.

Since the American invasion in 2003, the Christians of Iraq have faced a real ethnic cleansing campaign. Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity under the statutes of the International Criminal Court. The U.S. has both a legal and moral obligation to protect the Iraqi Christians along with all the other vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities of Iraq who can never defend themselves. The U.S. must put pressure on the Arab and Kurdish majorities to secure a regional administrative region for the Christians of Iraq and the other minorities, to offer them equal constitutional rights, to preserve their identity, religion and culture, and even to have a small share of Iraq’s oil revenues, as the Iraqi Arabs and Kurds do.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, along with the rise of terrorism within Iraq, more than 60 Christian Churches and monasteries have been bombed and destroyed.

Link to the article here

For Iraqi Christians, fear is knocking

16 Novmeber 2010 (CNN) - She lives in a paralyzing state of "constant and fear" and it's forcing her to keep her children indoors and out of school.

That's how one Baghdad woman describes the dire predicament faced by her and other Iraqi Christians, a dwindling community that is enduring another string of anti-Christian sectarian assaults in Baghdad and in Mosul.

The woman, who didn't want to be identified because of fear for her life, said security hasn't been beefed up since the assaults began on October 31, when the Sayidat al-Nejat Cathedral, or Our Lady of Salvation Church, was attacked.

"We only have God," said the woman, who lost a family member in the church attack. "God is the only one watching over us."

Her words reflect the fears across the world of the ancient Iraqi Christian community, a people that numbered 1.4 million people in 2003, before the war in Iraq, and is estimated to now be only 500,000, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

USCIRF, a U.S. government agency that listed the numbers in its 2010 report, said Christian leaders are warning that the result of this decline could signal "the end of Christianity in Iraq."

In a country of more than 29 million people, Christians and other minorities are relative specks in a population where 97 percent are Muslim -- 60 to 65 percent Shiite and 32 to 37 percent Sunni, the CIA World Factbook said.

As sectarian violence raged during the war, Iraqis of all religions have fled for other countries. But a disproportionate number of Christians have landed in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, the three main countries of refuge.

Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the overall Christian population in Iraq is 1 1/2 to 2 percent. But, she said, the number of Christians registered in those three countries are 11 to 15 percent of the overall population of Iraqi refugees.

The UNHCR says on its website that the total number of Iraqi refugees in the world stood at nearly 1.78 million in January.

David Nona, chairman of the Chaldean Federation of America, says the news is "getting worse" and he is hearing and reading about a siege mentality among his fellow Christians in Iraq -- not going outside and not opening the door for people, for example.

"People are truly terrified," said Nona, whose Chaldean community in the Detroit area -- about 140,000 or so people -- has hosted an influx of about 25,000 Chaldo-Assyrians over the past three years.

Photos of the demonstration in Paris

Thousands marched across Europe to strongly condemn systematic attacks against Iraqi Christians

14 November 2010 - Stockholm (Sweden) about 10.000 people demonstrated to condemn the systematic attacks against Christian Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people. Another demonstration started the same day at 2:00PM in Paris (France) where 5.000 people gathered and marched to condemn the attacks against Iraqi Christians.

13 November 2010 - Brussels: About 8.000 people coming from all Europe demonstrated in pouring rain to condemn systematic attacks against Christian Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people.

Speech made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Employment and Equal Opportunities Minister, in charge of Migration and Asylum Policies, Joëlle Milquet, on behalf of the Belgian Government: Read the speech

Photos of the demonstration in Brussels

Belgian Television coverage of the demonstration (in french):

RTL-TVI RTBF

Couverture dans la presse en Belgique:

http://www.rtlinfo.be/videos/19h/236463
http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/2010-11-13/manifestants-a-bruxelles-en-soutien-aux-chretiens-d-irak-803294.php
http://www.lavenir.net/article/detail.aspx?articleid=241143251
http://actualite.fr.be.msn.com/actualitebelge/article.aspx?cp-documentid=155240452 http://vivreensemble.blogs.lalibre.be/archive/2010/11/13/plusieurs-milliers-de-manifestants-a-bruxelles-en-soutien-au.html

Thousands in Brussels Protest Attacks Against Iraqi Christians

13 Novmeber 2010 Associated Press - BRUSSELS - Several thousand people from across Europe gathered in Brussels Saturday to protest a recent escalation of violence against Christians in Iraq.

"We want our voice to be heard by the European community," said Suleyman Gultekin of the European Syriac Union, which organized the march. "We are attacked systematically" in Iraq.
Syriac Christians have lived in the Middle East for centuries and now make up a small minority in countries like Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Turkey.

The demonstration follows a string of violent attacks against the Christian community in Iraq, which has already dwindled from 1.5 million to about 400,000 over the past decade.

Gunmen stormed a Sunday Mass service in Baghdad on Oct. 31, killing 68 people -- including two priests -- and injuring many others. On Wednesday, five people were killed and 20 wounded in more than a dozen bombings and mortar attacks targeting Christian families in the Iraqi capital.

"Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Iraqi government was not able to protect us," Gultekin told The Associated Press. "So, our conclusion is that we need an autonomy in the north of Iraq to protect our people and to be in a safe and secure place."

Photos of the demonstration in Brussels

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j9vG-XKyszFe-0h-2c9N8Cog1hYg?docId=5121914
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/11/13/126007.html
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article189764.ece

Mass Demonstration to support the Christians of Iraq
BRUSSELS

Grande Manifestation de soutien aux chrétiens d'Iraq
PARIS

Mass Demonstration to support the Christians of Iraq
STOCKHOLM

Demonstration in Stockholm 14 November 2010

UN condemns Iraq religious attacks

11 November 2010 (ABC News) The UN Security Council has condemned militant attacks against religious targets in Iraq as France said there is a deliberate campaign to "destroy the Christian community".

The council asked the UN to provide information on the number of religious minorities driven out of Iraq because of sectarian violence.

The UN Security Council was "appalled by and condemned in the strongest terms the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq, including today's," British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said in a council press statement.

The council condemned all attacks in Iraq, "particularly those motivated by religious hatred".

French ambassador Gerard Araud said recent attacks against a Christian cathedral and other targets in Baghdad was part of "a deliberate will to destroy the Christian community".

He said Al Qaeda's bomb and gun assaults were "an attack on the diversity of Iraqi society".

Iraq's Christians are "on the frontline of the fight for democracy," he told reporters.

Mr Lyall Grant said the militant campaign "potentially poses a threat to diversity in the Middle East, which was one of the fundamental bedrocks of stability in the Middle East".

He said the Security Council had asked a UN envoy to supply information on the number of religious minorities who have been driven out of Iraq because of the strife in the country.

International concerns have been raised by the attack on Baghdad's Catholic Cathedral in which 44 worshippers, two priests and seven security personnel died. Al Qaeda claimed the assault and has called for attacks on Christians in the country.

The Security Council gave backing to the Iraqi government's efforts to end the violence.

- AFP

http://www.franceonu.org/spip.php?article5240

Blasts target Iraq Christians; 3 dead, dozens hurt

11 Novmeber 2010 - * New attacks spark fears among Christians in Baghdad

* 52 killed in Catholic church assault on Oct. 31 (Updates with White House condemnation, paragraphs 6-7)

By Aseel Kami and Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Bombings and mortar attacks targeting Christians killed at least three people and wounded dozens in Baghdad, Iraqi security sources said on Wednesday, 10 days after a bloody siege at a Catholic church that killed 52.

The attacks renewed fears among minority Christians that Sunni Islamist insurgents were trying to drive them out of their homeland and reignite sectarian warfare, while Iraq's political leaders squabble over the formation of a new government.

Attackers detonated bombs or fired mortar rounds in more than a dozen attacks on Christian targets in the Iraqi capital late on Tuesday and early on Wednesday, the security sources said.

An Iraqi police source put the toll at three dead and 37 wounded, while an Interior Ministry source said four people were killed and 33 wounded. Both sources asked not to be named.

"What can we do? They are chasing Christians in every neighborhood in Baghdad," Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, told Reuters in a telephone interview, his voice shaking. "We can't do anything to stop them, but to pray to God they stop these crimes."

The United States condemned the attacks and said it stood with the Iraqi people as they resist efforts by al Qaeda in Iraq to spark sectarian tension.

"We pledge our support to the government of Iraq as it takes all necessary steps to combat terrorism and intensify its efforts to protect all Iraqi citizens, including vulnerable religious minorities," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.

Tensions have been running high in predominantly Muslim Iraq since a March election that produced no clear winner, leaving Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions jockeying for position in a new government and raising fears of renewed violence.

Insurgents linked to al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks that appeared aimed at reigniting the sectarian bloodshed that ravaged Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and which began to abate three years ago. ...

Read the full article here

Iraq: New attacks against Christians in Baghdad condemned. Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group

10 Novmeber 2010 - The Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament has strongly condemned the new series of deadly attacks that have targeted the Christian community since yesterday in Baghdad, causing panic among the faithful, most of whom are thinking of leaving the country.

"Only ten days after the most recent massive attack, this new outbreak of violence calls for a response from the international community," said Joseph Daul.

For further information:
Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group, Tel: +32-2-2847525
Antoine Ripoll, Chairman's Spokesman, Tel: +32-475-856290

Notes to Editors:
The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 265 Members.

Link to EPP Press Release

Lien au Communiqué de Presse

Support for Eastern Christians. Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Groupspan>

8 Novmeber 2010 - Following the fatal siege in the Syriac Cathedral in Baghdad, where 58 people were killed and 67 wounded, 36 of whom are being repatriated to Europe, the Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament reiterated the concerns of his Group for Eastern Christians.

"The attack on 31 October is the most tragic which has ever been committed against Iraqi Christians, present in Mesopotamia for two thousand years. In total, it is estimated that the number of the Christian community has gone down by more than half over the last seven years, only representing between 250,000 and 400,000 people or less than 3% of the Iraqi population", Joseph Daul said.

"Since 2003, Christians in Iraq are in despair of being no longer able to live there", said the Chairman of the EPP Group (Christian-Democrats) in the European Parliament.

"Many Christians have left the country for Turkey, Syria and Jordan. At this rate, in ten or fifteen years, we risk having no Christians left in Iraq, whereas they have a role to play in the reconstruction of the Iraqi identity", concluded Joseph Daul.

(Translation from the original French)

For further information:
Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group, Tel: +32-2-2847525
Antoine Ripoll, Chairman's Spokesman, Tel: +32-475-856290

Notes to Editors:
The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 265 Members.

Link to EPP Press Release

Lien au Communiqué de Presse

Iraq: Christians demanding autonomy after the devastating Terror Attack in a Catholic church in Baghdad

5 Novmeber 2010 - After the devastating Terror Attack in a Syrian-Catholic Church in Baghdad, representatives of the christian Assyrians-Chaldaeas-Aramaens in Iraq are demanding an autonomously administered region for their people in the Niniveh-Province in the north of the country. „The Christians, Shabak, Yezidi and muslim Kurds represent the majority of the population in the Niniveh-Region. Therefore this demand of the assyrian-chaldaea-aramaen’s council is highly justified“, explained the President of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), Tilman Zülch, on Monday in Göttingen. „The granting of autonomy could help to improve the public-safety if this area is connected to the peaceful Iraqi-Kurdish region. The situation there has been secure for years and the policy of the local government concerning different nationalities is exemplary for the entire Middle East.“ Many Christians were allowed to move to Iraqi Kurdistan because they have relatives living there.

„The Iraqi constitution permits the formation of autonomous districts and provides for a referendum on affiliation, including the Niniveh province“, reported Zülch. „The referendum should be carried out soon. It is in the interests of the security of all minorities.“

The STP, which has an independent section in the Northern Iraq, has maintained a „Chronicle of Violence“ for many years regarding the Christians and minorities in Iraq. The Bloodbath in the church wiped out entire families like the christian family Thamer Kamel Osi: husband, wife and their two children were killed during the attack. At least 39 Christians are said to have been killed, including the two priests Wassim Sabih and Thaer Saad Abdal, and at least 120 people injured.

According to STP research, since 2003 more than three quarters of the 400.000 Christians have fled the metropolis of Baghdad with its five million residents. Due to the steady terror-menace many Christians are afraid to go to mass or send their children to Christian schools.

The continuously updated chronicle can be requested. Send e-mail to nahost@gfbv.de. Tilman Zülch is available under Tel. 0049 151 153 09 888.

Translated by Martin Weimann

Steven Vanackere condamne les attentats récents contre des civils en Irak

4 November 2010 - Le Vice-Premier ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Steven Vanackere exprime sa profonde préoccupation face à la recrudescence des violences en Irak, qui ont frappé ces dernières semaines de nombreux Irakiens de toutes confessions et origines ethniques.

Steven Vanackere condamne avec fermeté tout recours à la violence contre des civils, y compris l’attaque terroriste de cette semaine contre les fidèles de la cathédrale syriaque catholique de Notre Dame du Perpétuel secours à Bagdad, qui fait suite à une série d’attaques ciblées contre les communautés chrétiennes en Irak.

Le Ministre rappelle l’attachement de la Belgique et de l’Union européenne au respect des libertés fondamentales, dont fait partie la liberté religieuse, qui est garantie par la constitution irakienne. Dans le cadre de l’Examen Périodique Universel de l’Irak par le Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies, en février 2010, la Belgique avait par ailleurs déjà fait part de son inquiétude sur le sort des minorités en Irak.

Le Ministre Vanackere adresse ses condoléances aux proches des victimes. Il se joint aussi à la Haute Représentante de l'Union européenne pour les affaires étrangères et la politique de sécurité, Catherine Ashton, pour exprimer son soutien aux responsables politiques irakiens et les encourager à intensifier leurs efforts pour la stabilisation politique de l’Irak et le renforcement de l’Etat de droit, pour le bénéfice des Irakiens de toutes confessions.

Lien vers le site du Ministre

USCIRF Condemns Terrorist Attack on Baghdad Church

3 November 2010 - WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today condemned Sunday’s terrorist attack on Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation Catholic church and expressed its sincere condolences to the victims and their families. Reports indicate that at least 40 worshippers, two priests, and 10 members of the Iraqi security forces were killed, and more than 60 people were wounded.

“This horrific attack is a sobering reminder of what all should already know–that Iraqi Christians clearly continue to face a grave terrorist threat,” said USCIRF chair Leonard Leo. “We recognize the promptness with which the Iraqi government responded to the hostage situation at the church, and it is most unfortunate that all of the hostages could not be safely rescued and that security forces were killed. In the wake of this brazen and senseless attack, we urge the Iraqi government to proactively heighten security at Christian and other minority religious sites and the United States government to increase its support of such efforts.”

“It also is time for the Obama administration to acknowledge the sectarian aspects of the conflict in Iraq, which are evident in this attack, and ensure that U.S.-Iraq policy prioritizes the plight of the country’s vulnerable religious minority communities,” continued Mr. Leo. “Congress already has taken this step, as reflected in House and Senate resolutions that call on the U.S. government to, among other measures, work with the Iraqi government to enhance security at places of worship and ensure that members of ethnic and religious minority communities do not suffer discrimination and can effectively convey their concerns to government. The administration should act accordingly as quickly as possible.”

Lien vers l'Oeuvre d'Orient

La sécurité est un droit pour les chrétiens d'Irak

L'Œuvre d'Orient, avec des millions de français, exprime son indignation devant l'attentat meurtrier contre la communauté chrétienne de Bagdad. Un acte particulièrement insoutenable au moment où les fidèles étaient réunis pour célébrer la messe dans la cathédrale syriaque catholique Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours.

Elle rappelle que ce n'est pas le premier geste anti-chrétien : depuis 2003, des dizaines d'églises ont été attaquées, des prêtres et de nombreux fidèles ont été assassinés, des chrétiens sont enlevés et/ou violentés quotidiennement… « Si vous ne connaissez pas l'enfer, venez chez nous ! » disait tout récemment Mgr Sako, archevêque chaldéen de Kirkuk. Mais qui en parle ?

L'Œuvre d'Orient demande que la sécurité, la pleine citoyenneté, la liberté religieuse des chrétiens en Irak soient l'objet d'un débat au Conseil de Sécurité de l'ONU.

L'Œuvre d'Orient demande que les puissances influentes dans la région, en particulier la France, soutiennent les autorités irakiennes afin d'assurer à la communauté chrétienne les conditions d'un avenir durable.

L'Œuvre d'Orient demande qu'une enquête permette d'établir les conditions de l'assaut donné à la cathédrale Notre Dame du Perpétuel Secours.

L'Œuvre d'Orient, rappelle que les chrétiens du Moyen-Orient sont parmi les plus anciens habitants de la région, qu'ils sont artisans de paix et participent loyalement au développement de leur pays.

L'Œuvre d'Orient appelle à la mobilisation des médias et de toutes les bonnes volontés à faire entendre la vérité, force de la paix. Il est de notre devoir d'aider les chrétiens irakiens – et plus largement tous les chrétiens d'Orient - à vivre, chez eux, en sécurité et dans le respect des droits de l'homme. Cette action bénéficiera à l'ensemble de la population, par delà les différences de religions.

L'Œuvre d'Orient remercie les responsables musulmans de leur condamnation unanime de l'attentat.

« Nous continuons d'affirmer notre désir de vivre avec nos compatriotes musulmans » affirmait Mgr Casmoussa, archevêque syrien catholique de Mossoul, au lendemain du massacre. Par nos actes et nos prières, soutenons cette espérance !

Père Pascal Gollnisch
Paris, le 3 novembre 2010

Killing of civilian hostages in Iraq church ‘a war crime’

2 Novmeber 2010 - Amnesty International today condemned as a war crime Sunday’s attack on a Catholic church in Baghdad by an armed group, in which about 100 worshippers were taken hostage and more than 40 then killed as Iraqi security forces tried to free them.

...

“We utterly condemn this shameless targeting of civilians by an armed group in a place of worship,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The attack seems to have been intended to cause maximum loss of life and to further inflame the sectarian divide that continues to wrack Iraq.”

“It is nothing less than a war crime to deliberately attack civilians in their place of worship, hold them hostage and kill them.”

Read the full article - Updated article

The End of Christianity in the Middle East?

2 Novmeber 2010 - The brutal bombing of a church in Baghdad may be the final straw for this 2,000 year old minority community. ...

But the massacre in Baghdad is only the most spectacular example of mounting discrimination and persecution of the native Christian communities of Iraq and Iran, which are now in the middle of a massive exodus unprecedented in modern times as they confront a rising tide of Islamic militancy and religious chauvinism sweeping the region.

Christians are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in both Iraq and Iran, with roots in the Middle East that date back to the earliest days of the faith. Some follow the Apostolic Orthodox Armenian Church. Others subscribe to the 2,000-year-old Syriac tradition represented mainly by the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq and by Aramaic speakers widely known as Assyrians in both Iraq and Iran.

...
The numbers speak for themselves: The population of non-Muslims in Iran has dropped by two-thirds or more since 1979. From Iran, these groups flee to Turkey and India -- often at risk to life and limb through the violence-ridden border regions of Iraq and Pakistan. The number of Assyrian Christians in Iran has dwindled from about 100,000 in the mid-1970s to approximately 15,000 today, even as the overall population of the country has swelled from 38 million to 72 million people over the same period. In Iraq, Christians are fleeing in droves. U.N. statistics indicate that 15 percent of all Iraqi refugees in Syria are of Christian background, although they represented only 3 percent of the population when U.S. troops entered in 2003. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that between 300,000 to 400,000 Christians have been forced out of Iraq since 2003. And Christians have left because the message from Sunni militants and Shiite ayatollahs is crystal clear: You have no future here.
...

MRG strongly condemns attack on Christians in Baghdad church

1 Novmeber 2010 - Minority Rights Group International (MRG) vigorously condemns the attack on Christians attending mass in a Catholic church in Baghdad on Sunday, and calls on the Iraqi government to fulfil its obligation under international law to provide effective protection for minorities.

‘The security situation for Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq has become critical,’ says Mark Lattimer, MRG’s Executive Director. ‘The safety of minorities must now become an urgent priority for the Iraqi Government, with security measures planned in full cooperation with community leaders.’

...

‘Half of Iraq’s Christians have already fled the country since 2003,’ added Lattimer. ‘Unless their safety is assured, the remainder may be forced to follow.’ ...

Lien vers France Diplomatie

Irak : prise d’otages à Bagdad - Déclaration de Bernard Kouchner

31 Octobre 2010 - "C’est avec une vive émotion que nous avons appris la prise d’otages qui s’est déroulée aujourd’hui dans une église syriaque catholique de Badgad et dont l’issue tragique aurait fait des dizaines de morts et blessés.

Nous adressons nos sincères condoléances aux familles des victimes, à leurs proches, et assurons les autorités irakiennes de notre entière solidarité.

La France condamne fermement cette action terroriste qui fait suite à une campagne de meurtres et de violences ciblées et qui a déjà fait plus 40 morts parmi les chrétiens en Irak.

La France rappelle son attachement au respect des libertés fondamentales dont la liberté religieuse et soutien les autorités irakiennes dans leur lutte contre le terrorisme."

Breaking News :
Baghdad church siege leaves about 50 dead and about 70 others wounded

On Sunday 31st October 2010, a group of extremists attacked the Syriac Catholic church “Our Lady of Salvation” in the Center of Baghdad. The extremists led their attack on Sunday evening were about 100 Catholic Syriacs were attending the mass. They entered the church with their weapons, wearing military uniforms. They came into the prayer hall, and immediately killed the priest.

When the authorities have been informed, they decided to rescue the hostages. Unfortunately the Iraqi forces-led bid to rescue dozens of hostages held in a Baghdad church has left over about 50 people killed and about 70 others wounded including security forces.

Three militants detonated suicide vests as the Iraqi forces entered the building – five others were shot dead. Several security officers also died. The standoff was ended on Monday at 3 am at dawn.

One of the hostages who survived mentioned that about 100 worshippers were herded to the centre of the church by the gunmen who repeatedly taunted them. Another 60 or so were ushered to a small room at the back of the church by a priest. "They were saying to us, 'you are infidels,'" said the survivor. "Things like: 'we're going to heaven, you're going to hell." etc.

It is not the first time that churches are attacked or bombed in Iraq since 2003. Indeed it started on 1st August 2004, where 5 churches in Baghdad and Mosul were bombed during the Sunday evening mass and killing at least 11 people and wounding many others. Since then the attacks against the Christian civilians, clergy and churches continue and never stopped.

This horrible event reminds us that the Christians (Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian-Arameans) and other minorities are still persecuted and are under fire. The exodus of Iraqi Christians continues as reminded frequently by many NGOs and UNHCR.

International community and governments should react quickly to stop the exodus and help by any means the indigenous Iraqi Christians and other minorities to remain and live safely in Iraq and other Middle East countries.

Press Release in PDF format here

European Syriac Union

ESU delegation meeting the European Commission about the situation of the Syriacs in Turkey

European Commission On Tuesday 19th October 2010, an ESU delegation had a meeting at the European Commission with Mr. Makridis regarding the situation of the Syriacs in Turkey.

The European Syriac Union delegation was composed by Mr. Lahdo Hobil (ESU VP), Mrs. Rima Tuzun (ESU Secretary) and Mr. Suleyman Gultekin (ESU Representative for Belgium).

The ESU representatives explained the general issues faced by the Syriacs in Turkey. They also put the focus on the problems and issues happened during 2010.

Finally the ESU delegation transmitted a detailled report to Mr. Makridis about all issues and problems the Syriacs are facing in Turkey.

European Syriac Union

Syriac Orthodox Mor Gabriel Monastery boundary cases in favour of the monastery declared null by the Supreme Court of Ankara, Turkey

Please find below the information we received from Mr. Ergun (chairman of the Mor Gabriel Foundation) regarding the Ankara Court decision of 13 August 2010. The Supreme Court of Ankara declared that the Midyat Court never had jurisdiction to hear the case (19 November 2008) in the first instance:

Dear,

A decision has been made regarding our court case in the 4th department of the Supreme Court.

We had two files regarding this court case. One related to the problem of the border with the village of Yayvantepe (Kartmin), the other to the problem of the border with the village of Eglence (Zinavle). The court in Midyat considering the strong evidences in favour of the monastery had decided in the favour of the monastery regarding the both files. However, the Supreme Court unfortunately has abrogated the verdict given in our favour at the court in Midyat.

The punishment case which continues in Midyat has been postponed to the 3rd of November 2010.

With my best regards,

Kuryakos Ergun

European Syriac Union

USA: Expressing the sense of the Senate on religious minorities in Iraq

5 August 2010 - RESOLUTION :

Expressing the sense of the Senate on religious minorities in Iraq.

Whereas the territory of Iraq, the land of Mesopotamia, has millennia of rich cultural and religious history;

Whereas the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians thrived within what are now the borders of Iraq;

Whereas the biblical patriarch Abraham was born in Ur, King Hammurabi ruled from Babylon, and Imam Ali, the founder of Shiite Islam, died in Kufa;

Whereas during the 35-year rule of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein, and despite the Provisional Constitution of 1968 that provided for individual religious freedom in Iraq, the Government of Iraq severely limited freedom of religion, especially for religious minorities, and sought to exploit religious differences for political purposes, leading the United States Government to designate Iraq as a ‘country of particular concern’ under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-292) because of systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom;

Whereas members of religious minority communities of Iraq, both those who have been forced to flee the homeland in which their ancestors have lived for thousands of years and those who remain in Iraq, are committed to maintaining their presence in Iraq and keeping alive their communities’ cultures, heritage, and religions, but threats against them jeopardize the future of Iraq as a diverse, pluralistic, and free society;

Whereas despite the reduction in violence in Iraq in recent years, serious threats to religious freedom remain, including religiously motivated violence directed at vulnerable religious minorities, their leaders, and their holy sites, including Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, Armenians and other Christians, Sabean Mandeans, Yeazidis, Baha’is, Kaka’is, Jews, and Shi’a Shabak; ...

Whereas the number of Christians in Iraq was approximately 1,400,000 according to the 1987 Iraqi census but, according to the 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom issued by the Department of State, may now number only 500,000 to 600,000;

Whereas the United States is gravely concerned about the viability of the indigenous Christian communities of Iraq and other religious minority communities, and the possible disappearance of their ancient languages, culture, and heritage; ...

Read the Full Resolution

Syriac Orthodox church defaced with Islamist graffiti

As it has also been announced by various news agencies and SuroyoTV news of 14.07.2010, Mor Yakup Church which dates back to 1700 years had been the subject of hostile, insolent and threatening attack.

Following this shameful attack a letter from ESU Chairman Fikri Aygur had been sent to Besir Atalay, Interior Minister of Turkey.

According to the letter, on 13th of July 2010 Mor Yakup Church which is located at Nsibin, Mardin had been attacked by the unknown people . Assailants wrote insolent and threatening messages on the wall of church with green color.

The letter highlighted the danger of these similar acts on the Syriacs and continue, "such attacks on the cultural and social values of the Syriacs becoming the main source of non-confidence among the folks". This event also demonstrate that this planned provocation worries Syriacs all over the world.

Moreover, the letter makes a historical flashback about the situation between 1980 and 1990's. It's pointing out that during these years Syriacs of the region had been subject to religious attacks and consequently more than 50 Syriacs had been killed, reverends were threatened and tens of thousands of Syriacs had been forced to flee.

The letter also explain that during last years the religious attacks are increasing. As a response to the Mahomet caricature's on 2006, Syriacs of Midyat - Mardin - had been attacked by fanatic group of 2 to 3 thousand people.
Finally, the letter finishes by a request to Turkish's Ministry of Interior to find the authors of this shameful attack and bring them before justice in order to not give opportunity to similar attacks; and the Syriacs shall be able to continue to live in their homeland.

European Syriac Union

ESU Newsletter 21 is released ... Issue 21

Go here to see all the previous ones.

Turkish (Syriac Orthodox) church defaced with Islamist graffiti

14 July 2010 - MARDIN: Police have started an investigation after a suspected group of people defaced the façade of the 1,700-year-old Mor Jacob Syriac Orthodox Church in Nusaybin, in the southeastern province of Mardin, with pro-Islamic slogans.

The offenders allegedly defaced the stone walls of the church on Monday with various slogans, such as “Clear off, bastards,” “Clear off, Zionist dogs,” “Heretics, lay off,” and “Zionist powers, clear off,” in Turkish and, “Allah u Muhammed,” and “Prophet Muhammad, fight the infidels and hypocrites,” in Arabic.

The police will fingerprint the lid of a paint tin found on the ground at the site of the graffiti and will also fingerprint the wire fence surrounding the church, which is currently undergoing restoration.

Nusaybin Mayor Ayşe Gökkan and members of the town council also went to the church upon hearing of the vandalism, denouncing the act.

Gökkan said the graffiti was an insult to all members of the Nusaybin community, whether Syriac Orthodox, Kurdish, Arabic, or Yezidi.

According to Gökkan, the offense was not committed by one person but by a group of people. Noting that renovators had placed a wired fence around the church for construction purposes, Gökkan said it would have been impossible for one person to climb and tear down the fence, enter the church grounds and deface the walls.

“If the police respect all cultures, they should quickly solve this case and prosecute the offenders. The case is going to be followed closely by the municipality. [The municipality] is not going to regard this as an ordinary crime. Mor Jacob Church is an asset to people of all religions who belong to this community, and the community is going to protect this asset,” he said.

The church reportedly dates from 313 A.D. and is currently being restored by the Mardin Directorate of Museums.

Mehmet Deniz, the directorate’s resident art historian, Ural Züngör, a museum restorer and member of Istanbul University’s Department of Restoration faculty and Süleyman Bayar, an archaeologist, went to the church to investigate the incident.

The three collected paint samples and said the graffiti could be removed without damaging the church’s historical texture.

The church is expected to re-open its doors once the restoration project is complete.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=syrian-orthodox-church-in-mardin-gets-spray-painted-with-offensive-statements-2010-07-14

29.08.1961
18.05.2010

European Syriac Union is very sad to inform you that we lost Mr. Iskender Alptekin.
Mr. Alptekin passed away following a heart attack on Tuesday 18th May 2010.
Mr. Alptekin was married and had two daughters.

We would like to present our most sincere condolences to his family and relatives.
Furthermore our condolences go also to all his friends within E.S.U. and the others.

We would never thank enough Mr. Alptekin for his commitment and hard work
for his community during the last 6 year as E.S.U. chairman.

We pray for Mr. Iskender Alptekin and his family.

May God bless him.

European Syriac Union

ESU Newsletter 20 is released ... Issue 20

Go here to see all the previous ones.

Our utmost thanks to SWEDEN

The Swedish parliament recognizes the 1915 genocide

11 March 2010 The Swedish parliament recognizes the 1915 genocide.

Sweden is the first country in the world recognizing the genocide of 1915 as also being perpetrated against other ethnics groups: the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian and the Greek Pontus peoples.

We'll be eternally grateful to Sweden for this act of bravery in order to make justice after 95 years of ignorance of the atrocities perpetrated during 1915 in Ottoman Empire

We hope other countries will follow the example of Sweden.

European Syriac Union

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Turkey_recalls_envoy_to_Sweden_over_Armenia_vote.html?cid=8466202

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/12/worldupdates/2010-03-12T014703Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-468498-1&sec=Worldupdates

http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/suede/suede-le-parlement-reconnait-le-genocide-armenien-de-1915-le-turquie-sinsurge

http://www.lalibre.be/actu/international/article/568520/suede-le-parlement-reconnait-le-genocide-armenien-de-1915-le-turquie-s-insurge.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2010/03/11/le-parlement-suedois-reconnait-le-genocide-armenien_1317948_3214.html

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Archives 2009

Mor Gabriel Monastery lost the Forestry case

24 June 2009 Mor Gabriel Monastery lost one of the cases over the land disputes with the Turkish state. The court made the decision on favour of the Ministry of the Forest.

On the other hand the Saint (Mor) Gabriel representatives stressed that they will prepare an objection against this decision and they declared that they will bring this decision to Ankara. Last month the Monastery had won one of the cases (land boundary case). The dispute with the Treasury has been also won by the Mor Gabriel Monastery.

Similarly to the other trials the interest was very high. Personalities from different places were present to the court in Midyat. Among the attendees, Tuma Celik from ESU, Yilmaz Kerimo member of the Swedish Parliament, deputy Anne Ludvingson, Evin Cetin from Social Democrats of Sweden and Sema Kilicer representative of the European Union were present at the court.

Mor Gabriel Monastery stated that they will prepare an objection to this decision and they will bring this to Ankara, and one of the lawyers of the Monastery said if there will be a need they will bring this battle also to the European Court.

ESU grants too much importance to these cases against the Monastery, which it follows very closely.

Hopefully national and international media have also pursued these trials from the first days.

European Syriac Union

Mor Gabriel Monastery won the land case

22 May 2009 Mor Gabriel Monastery, one of the most important Syriac Monastery in the world, won one of the land dispute cases last Friday. The local Turkish court ruled his decision on favour of the Mor Gabriel Monastery.

According to the news agencies, the dispute over the boundaries of Mor Gabriel, a fifth-century Syriac Orthodox monastery in eastern Turkey, had raised concerns over freedom of religion and human rights for non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country and European Union aspirant.

During the case processes of the monastery, Syriacs all over the world point out their support to the monastery with the statements and visits to the monastery and with the great street demonstrations. On the other hand, the European Union and United States representatives also follow up the land cases closely.

Mr. Fikri Aygur, Vice-President of the European Syriac Union (ESU) said that, this is very important result for us and for the Syriacs in the world. From now on the Monastery finished the problems with the villagers because the frontiers are known. Aygur also declared that, other land dispute cases are ongoing in the local court and they pursuit all developments very closely. The decision of court is more political than legal dixit ESU. Lastly, Aygur noted that court decision will be a test for the Turkish state by respecting and giving the total rights to the non-Muslim communities in the Turkey.

On the other hand, other land dispute cases are postponed. The case of Treasury is on 17th June and the Forest Ministry case is on 24th June.

European Syriac Union

Qui en veut aux chrétiens de Turquie ?

22 Mai 2009 (Le Figaro) Le gouvernement islamiste turc multiplie les tracasseries contre la minorité chrétienne du Tur Abdin. Au cœur de cette lutte, les terres millénaires du monastère Mor Gabriel.

Les chrétiens syriaques de Turquie font l'objet de tracasseries à répétition. Sans doute pour les pousser à l'exil. Symbole de ces difficultés incessantes : le monastère Mor Gabriel, surnommé aussi la deuxième Jérusalem, installé à 140 kilomètres de Diyarbakir, à 10 kilomètres de Midyat et 30 kilomètres de la frontière syrienne, est de plus en plus menacé malgré ses 1 600 ans.

... L'an passé, en effet, sous le prétexte d'une remise à jour du cadastre, l'Etat a tenté de récupérer 250 hectares appartenant au monastère après les avoir requalifiés en forêt. Vaine tentative, il est vrai, mais se profile une série de procès. Un malheur n'arrivant jamais seul, deux villages voisins, Eglence et Yanvantep, se réveillent soudain. Ils réclament des terres du monastère censées leur appartenir, pour faire paître leurs troupeaux.

L'Etat turc tient un double langage... Lire la suite ... Photos

An exodus of Christians

20 May 2009 (Associated Press) BAGHDAD — Iraq has lost more than half the Christians who once called it home, mostly since the war began, and few who fled have plans to return, The Associated Press has learned.

Pope Benedict XVI called attention to their plight during a Mideast visit this week, urging the international community to ensure the survival of “the ancient Christian community of that noble land.”

The number of Arab Christians has plummeted across the Mideast in recent years as increasing numbers seek to move to the West, saying they feel increasingly unwelcome in the Middle East and want a better life abroad.

But the exodus has been particularly stark in Iraq — where sectarian violence since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion has often targeted Christians.

The AP found that hundreds of thousands of Christians have fled. Read More ...

Pope Benedict XVI issues plea for Middle East Christians

10 May 2009 (Telegraph.co.uk) Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass with tens of thousands of worshippers from the dwindling Christian churches of the Middle East today, urging them to maintain their presence in region.

During the mass in a sports stadium in the Jordanian capital Amman, the Pope made a special point of meeting representatives of the Iraqi Christian community, much of which has fled into exile since the 2003 invasion.

He also spoke of the challenges faced by the Christian church in the region. Read More ...

Le long calvaire des chrétiens d'Orient

9 May 2009 (Le Point) «N ous sommes tous des chrétiens d’Orient », s’exclamait Régis Debray lors d’un colloque à Paris. Assassinats de chrétiens en Irak, incendies d’églises à Gaza, vexations contre les coptes en Egypte, liberté de culte encadrée en Turquie, restriction de mouvements en Israël... Les communautés chrétiennes, filles du Moyen-Orient depuis deux mille ans, se sentent de plus en plus mal sur leurs terres natales, hier fief du pluralisme religieux.
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« Nous voulons que les chrétiens restent dans le monde arabe », écrivait en 2002 le prince Talal, membre de la famille saoudienne, dans une tribune publiée par le quotidien An Nahar de Beyrouth. Un point de vue éclairé très minoritaire : en Arabie, seule la religion musulmane est autorisée... Lire plus ...

Pope Urges World to Protect Iraqi Christians

9 May 2009 Pope Benedict has urged the world to make efforts to protect Iraq's Christian minority.

In a speech Saturday to Muslim leaders in Jordan, the pontiff called on the international community and local political and religious leaders to try to ensure Iraqi Christians a "right to peaceful coexistence" with other Iraqis. Read More ...

Don’t flee Kirkuk, Iraqi Christians are urged

8 May 2009 CHRISTIAN families living in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have been urged to remain there, despite the murder of three members of the minority community last week.

Security sources said that gunmen broke into a home in a southern district of the city and shot dead two Christian women. In a separate attack in the same area, one man was killed and two were wounded in a shooting in their home.

Last autumn, in a spate of attacks on Christians living in the northern city of Mosul, 15 Christians were killed. Their deaths prompted dozens of families to leave the city. Only when police and army reinforcements were deployed did the exodus gradually stop. Read More ...

IRAQ and the Destruction of the Mandaean Religion

8 May 2009 The American led invasion of Iraq was meant to usher in democracy, liberty, freedom, and a revitalized Iraq. Sadly, from the outset other forces would be unleashed and this applies to radical Islam, terrorism, Sunni-Shia clashes, the persecution of Christians, and other negative forces. At the same time, an ancient religion was about to face a new wave of hatred and ethnic cleansing. This community, the Mandaeans, now faces virtual annihilation and now only a few thousand remain in modern day Iraq. So will this small community be forced to go into complete exile?

It is clearly apparent that all minorities, be they Assyrian Christians, Mandaeans, Shabaks, Yazidis, or others, face enormous persecution and the central government is either too weak or complacent. Also, the leaders of America must be blamed for entering Iraq and then leaving the minorities to face persecution, torture, death, and ethnic cleansing. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians Too Scared to Reveal Whole Truth on Violence

6 May 2009 WASHINGTON – Fear keeps Iraqi Christians quiet about the extent of persecution the tiny minority group endures, said an Iraqi Catholic archbishop Tuesday at a private meeting with religious freedom experts and journalists.

These Christians do not fear only for their own safety, but they are afraid of retribution against fellow believers in Iraq if they speak out, explained the Most Rev. Jean Benjamin Sleiman, the head of the Latin mass church in Iraq, at a Hudson Institute hosted luncheon. This mindset has kept even Iraqi Christians in the United States and other western nations relatively quiet about the severe Christian persecution in their homeland.

It is as if Iraqi Christians speak two different languages, the archbishop told the small group of Americans gathered for the invitation-only event. To the pope they say they are being persecuted, he said, but to the public they say they are living well with occasional problems. Read More ...

Irak - Nouveaux assassinats de chrétiens
Lettre de Mgr Stenger à Mgr Sako, évêque de Kirkuk

5 May 2009 Depuis la visite faite en févier 2008 aux communautés chrétiennes du nord de l'Irak par la délégation pilotée par Pax Christi France, dans le cadre de l'opération « Pâques avec les chrétiens d'Irak », le destin de ces communautés nous est, vous le savez, particulièrement cher. Ayant rappelé il y a peu de temps la mémoire de Monseigneur Farraj Rahho, archevêque de Mossoul, à l'occasion du premier anniversaire de sa mort, nous nous réjouissons de relever tous les signes manifestant la renaissance de votre pays et l'accroissement de ses raisons d'espérer en un avenir meilleur.

Nous avons appris avec une douleur d'autant plus grande les récents assassinats de chrétiens à Mossoul. Ils démontrent que la sécurité demeure précaire et que l'harmonie sociale est loin d'être assurée.

Une fois encore les chrétiens sont des cibles privilégiées de ceux qui entretiennent l'instabilité et la crainte dans la population. Lire la lettre ...

Christianity’s Lost History

1 May 2009 While Christianity was born in the Levant, today its history is largely thought of in terms the two great centers, both in Europe, around which the ecclesiastical politics within the Roman Empire coalesced—Rome and Constantinople. What gets forgotten is that there were other great centers beyond the frontiers of the oikoumene and that much of what is now referred to as “the Islamic world” was once Christian.

To illustrate his point, Jenkins focuses on the figure of Timothy I (727-823) who, in 780, was enthroned as patriarch, or catholicos, of the Church of the East, then based in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Seleucia, less than two dozen miles southeast of modern Baghdad. According to Jenkins, “in terms of his prestige, and the geographical extent of his authority, Timothy was arguably the most significant Christian spiritual leader of his day, much more influential than the Western pope, in Rome, and on par with the Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople,” since “perhaps a quarter of the world’s Christians looked to Timothy as both spiritual and political head.” Read More ...

Three Iraqi Christians murdered

30 April 2009 Three Iraqi Christians were murdered last Sunday and two others were injured in two separate incidents in the city of Kirkuk. These attacks take place in a context of intense hostility to Christians from militant Islamists.

The following has been posted on various websites: “The General Secretariat of the Adherent of Islam Brigade has decided to address the final warning to ... the infidel Christian Crusaders ... and order you to leave immediately, in masses and permanently from the Muslim countries. There is no place for you infidel Christians among the Muslim believers in Iraq from now on. Otherwise, our swords will be legalized over your neck.”

"The main objective of these crimes is to create chaos and promote strife and divisions among the people of Kirkuk. I call on Christians not to be jarred by these crimes and to stay in Kirkuk. We are sons of this city," he said. According to U.S. military officials, gunmen entered a home in southern Kirkuk, killing two women. Gunmen attacked three men in a home in the same area the same night. One was killed.
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The manner of the killings suggests premeditated execution, intended to send a warning to Iraqi Christians and foster a climate of fear. They recall the violence of last October in Mosul, when thousands of Christians fled from their homes in the northern city of Mosul. Fearing a similar exodus from Kirkuk, church and government leaders have called on the Christian community to stand firm and not be intimidated. The vice-president of Iraq has called upon Christians not to leave the country and has requested the international community to give help and protection against the militants. Read More ...

Parliamentary question: Mor Gabriel monastery
recognition of the Aramaeans as a religious minority in Turkey

27 April 2009 The Mor Gabriel monastery in Midyat, Mardin province, which was built in AD 397, is the spiritual centre for Syriac Orthodox Christians, the Aramaeans, in Turkey. Around 70 monks and nuns live in the monastery. It is visited by thousands of Aramaeans every year.

Since 2008, this over 1 600‑year‑old monastery has been the subject of a flood of court cases, in which the monastery stands accused of, among other things, ‘unlawful settlement’. Certain of these proceedings have been brought by neighbouring villages represented by leading AKP politicians. If these proceedings are successful, there is a danger that the Aramaean monks and nuns will be forced out of the Mor Gabriel monastery, bringing to an end a 1 600‑year‑old non‑Muslim tradition in south‑eastern Turkey.

The Aramaean faith community is not recognised as a religious minority in Turkey. Communities not recognised as religious minorities in Turkey do not enjoy minority rights and are not allowed to train young people or to teach, and thereby pass on to the next generation, their faith or their language. Since 6 October 1997, the teaching of Aramaic, the language of Jesus used in the Syriac Orthodox Church, has been officially prohibited in the Republic of Turkey.

Read the full Parliamentary question here ...

Iraqi Christians urged not to flee after killings

27 April 2009 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Christians in Kirkuk were urged to stand firm by the city's Chaldean archbishop Monday after three members of the religious minority were gunned down in their homes.

Louis Sako told mourners at a cathedral in the ethnically mixed city that the attacks Sunday killing three Christians and wounding two others were outrageous.

ESU Newsletter 16 is released ... Issue 16
Go here to see all the previous ones.

Dispute over Syriac monastery turns into international row

19 April 2009 (Today's Zaman) A long-standing land dispute between the Syriacs of Midyat, a district in the southeastern province of Mardin, and the local village heads has finally turned into a legal battle attracting international attention.

The disagreement has been closely monitored by the European Union for some time, and US President Barack Obama also got involved in the dispute after he received a letter from the German Syriac diaspora on the matter and assigned one of his aides to follow the developments, effectively making the small district's land dispute a matter of international concern. Read More ...

Iraq VP Urges Christians to Stay; Pledges Protection

17 April 2009 (The Christian Post) The vice president of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, urged the country’s Christian population to resist fleeing Iraq and called on the international community to help protect the dwindling minority group from extremists.

The vice president of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, urged the country’s Christian population to resist fleeing Iraq and called on the international community to help protect the dwindling minority group from extremists.

"The position of Iraqi Christians is vulnerable and Iraq must not be left alone to face this. It's a collective task," said Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, at a conference hosted by the French Institute of International Relations in Paris on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse.

"Christians are an integral part of Iraq,” he said. “We need to help Iraq and help Christians remain in Iraq.”

Iraq’s Christian population has mostly fled to neighboring countries such as Syria and Jordan, but has also been granted refuge in Western countries including France, Germany, and the United States.

Members of the tiny Christian population are forced to leave their homeland because of daily physical threats to their life. More than 200 Christians have been killed, dozens of churches bombed, and countless believers have been kidnapped for ransom money since 2003. Read More ...

Will Islam Return Obama's 'Respect'?

9 April 2009 (Wall Street Journal) Today is Holy Thursday for Christians and the start of Passover for Jews. This week was an opportune time for President Barack Obama to visit Istanbul's Hagia Sophia, which has been both a Byzantine church and Islamic mosque. In Turkey he spoke of seeking engagement with Islam based on "mutual respect."
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"I know that the trust that binds the United States and Turkey has been strained, and I know that strain is shared in many places where the Muslim faith is practiced. So let me say this as clearly as I can: The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam. . . .
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Coptic Christians in Egypt have been singled out for discrimination and persecution. Muslim rioters often burn or vandalize their churches and shops.

In Turkey, the Syriac Orthodox Church (its 3,000 members speak Aramaic, the language of Christ) is battling with Turkish authorities over the lands around the Mor Gabriel monastery, built in 397.

Full speech of Mr. Olli Rehn EU Commissionner for Enlargement (PDF format)

Turkey's path towards the EU-progress through reforms
Mor Gabriel Monastery case

31 March 2009 (EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee) - We would also welcome developments in other areas of the political criteria, such as religious freedoms. For instance, the re-opening of the Halki seminar would be widely perceived as an important step towards greater tolerance vis-à-vis other religious communities. The Commission also follows closely the ongoing case as to the Mor Gabriel monastry.

Tolerance in general cannot be instructed from above, but authorities can lead by example. A development towards more tolerance in the society would be helpful also to other minorities, whatever their nature. Read More ...

Iraq: The most dangerous place in the world for Christians

27 March 2009 (Telegraph.co.uk) - The Christians of Iraq are some of the oldest and long standing Christians in the world. Here among these wonderful people is still spoken the language of our Lord. Ninety-eight per cent of my people at St George's, Baghdad originate from "Niniwah" (Nineveh) and are the result of the most miserable evangelist ever, who arrived by submarine transportation 2,700 years ago - Jonah. Another miserable person turned up 700 years later called doubting Thomas. He was on his way to India. He told the people that their Messiah had come. They believed him and, to this day, the Christians in Iraq revere Jonah and Mar Thoma.

... we are still in the most dangerous place for Christians in the world. Security has slightly improved and some people have returned to places like Dora, but Christians in Iraq are still surrounded by great danger. Read More ...

Christians being 'squeezed out' in Iraq

27 March 2009 - Christians in Iraq are being assisted by a ministry that raises awareness of the persecuted church worldwide. Open Doors USA has set up pharmacies and other medical projects throughout Iraq. The pharmacies not only help Iraqi Christians find affordable medicine, but they also provide jobs for refugees in northern Iraq.

... "It is the call of Open Doors to all Christians around the world to remember the plight of those who have been squeezed almost out of existence by ... Read More ...

Trial for “Insulting Turkishness”?

26 March 2009 -Christian Web News - Two Christians in Turkey will face trial in the coming months for “insulting Turkishness.” Although this sounds absurd, the allegations are serious. Nevertheless, the defense remains hopeful.

A Turkish court received permission Feb. 24 from the Ministry of Justice to try Christians Turan Topal and Hakan Tastan under the revised Article 301 law that has sparked outrage among free speech proponents. The court had sent the case to the Ministry of Justice after the government put into effect a series of changes to the law back in May of 2008. Read More ...

Video: Iraqi Christians in peril

25 March 2009 - Produced by the Chaldean Church in Beirut, Lebanon. USA distribution by: Religious Freedom Coalition www.rfcnet.org The following interview with canon andrew white concerns the same topic.

If you are a Christian, and your son or daughter was killed because of your faith, what would you do? If your Muslim neighbor came to you and said, "Your daughters must convert to Islam and marry our sons, or we will kill your entire family," how would you respond? "Convert or die" is the message of choice for Islamic jihadists in Baghdad and Iraq who are working overtime to rid Iraq of "infidel" Christians. See the Video here

Les chrétiens d'Orient sacrifiés

19 Mars 2009 (Le Point) - Maronites, coptes, melkites, syriaques, arméniens, assyriens, chaldéens, grecs-orthodoxes, éthiopiens-catholiques, outre des catholiques et des protestants... Comment peut-on être un chrétien d'Orient ! se dit l'Occidental déchristianisé, assis sur sa Sécurité sociale et persuadé que le monde se limite à la béatitude démocratique. ...

En vain attend-on l'indignation des pleureuses d'Europe ou des Etats-Unis.Toute paix, même la pseudo-paix des braves, suppose un vaincu, lequel ne saurait être les juifs, ni les musulmans, ni même les Kurdes, qui ont retrouvé leur territoire. Est-il illégitime de penser, hors toute théorie du complot mais selon le mécanisme de la victime émissaire cher à René Girard, que ce seront les chrétiens, dans leur ensemble, qui seront sacrifiés sur l'autel de la paix au Proche-Orient ? Lire la suite ...

Iraqi Christians still face persecution

17 March 2009 - Nearly six years since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Iraqi’s are increasingly saying that their country is becoming a safe place to live, according to a recent survey. For Christians, however, the daily threat of violent attacks means these are still uncertain times.

... Christians are still the victims of violence. Canon Andrew White of St George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad told CBN news that 83 congregants of his church were killed last year, and another five this year. Read More ...

European Parliament resolution of 12 March 2009 on Turkey's progress report 2008

12 March 2009 European Parliament Strasbourg - European Parliament in its resolution of 12th March 2009, section "Human rights and respect for, and protection of, minorities" stress Turkey about full respect for freedom of religion and regret the planned expropriation of the Syriac Orthodox Monastery of St Gabriel in Tur Abdin and the court procedures against representatives of the monastery

Read the Full Resolution - Lire la Résolution complète

Conférence au Sénat français sur les Chaldéen-Syriaque-Assyriens

Nous ne pouvons plus passer sous silence le drame que vivent les Chrétiens d’Orient et plus particulièrement ceux de l’Irak.
La situation des chrétiens Chaldéen-Syriaque-Assyriens ne cesse de se dégrader ...
Les attaques du 11 septembre 2001 et ce qui en a découlé n’ont fait qu’empirer leur situation.
Si rien n’est fait pour les aider, le monde assistera à un nettoyage ethnico-religieux en Irak avec des conséquences pour tout le Proche et Moyen-Orient. ...

Conférence - Débat : Les Assyro-Chaldéen-Syriaques dans le Fédéralisme Irakien

Jeudi 2 avril 2009 - de 14h à 18h
Sénat - Palais du Luxembourg
15 rue Vaugirard - Paris 6ème

Communiqué de Presse

Programme de la Conférence

Defending the Faith
Battle Over a Christian Monastery Tests Turkey's Tolerance of Minorities

7 March 2009 KARTMIN, TURKEY (Wall Street Journal) - Christians have lived in these parts since the dawn of their faith. But they have had a rough couple of millennia, preyed on by Persian, Arab, Mongol, Kurdish and Turkish armies. Each group tramped through the rocky highlands that now comprise Turkey's southeastern border with Iraq and Syria.

The current menace is less bellicose but is deemed a threat nonetheless. A group of state land surveyors and Muslim villagers are intent on shrinking the boundaries of an ancient monastery by more than half. The monastery, called Mor Gabriel, is revered by the Syriac Orthodox Church. Read More ...

Les moines de Mor Gabriel résistent à l'État turc

5 Mars 2009 MIDYAT, Turquie (Le Figaro) - Depuis plus de 1 600 ans, les chants en araméen, la langue du Christ, montent du monastère syriaque Mor Gabriel et enveloppent les collines couleur de miel, en bordure de la frontière turco-syrienne. Au fil des siècles, les cantiques ont perdu en intensité : la communauté ne compte plus que trois moines, treize nonnes et un métropolite.

Ces descendants des premiers chrétiens restent accrochés à la région du Tur Abdin, «la montagne des serviteurs de Dieu». Mais, depuis l'an dernier, le monastère est engagé dans une bataille judiciaire avec l'État turc et trois villages environnants. Pour les petites minorités chrétiennes de Turquie, le procès, qui doit s'ouvrir mercredi, constitue une nouvelle remise en cause de leur présence. Lire plus ...

Colloque sur l'Avenir des minorités chrétiennes au Proche et Moyen-Orient

Colloque organisé par les Députés Fédéraux Clotilde Nyssens, Georges Dallemagne et Christian Brotcorne en collaboration avec Solidarité-Orient/Werk voor het Oosten

La presse se fait l’écho discret depuis plusieurs mois des violences subies par les communautés chrétiennes établies dans les pays du Proche et du Moyen-Orient. En Inde mais aussi en Turquie, en Egypte ou encore en Irak, les communautés chrétiennes sont l’objet de discriminations sociales et de persécutions meurtrières. La culture chrétienne existe pourtant dans ces pays depuis des siècles. Outre la dénonciation de ces injustices nous voudrions mettre en évidence à l’instar de Régis Debray que le pluralisme de fait est une chance énorme pour la promotion des valeurs universelles de dignité et de liberté humaines et, partant, pour le maintien de la paix dans les pays du Proche et du Moyen Orient. Ce colloque sera l’occasion de donner la parole à des témoins et à des spécialistes de la question afin de rendre visible la problématique en Belgique où vivent aussi de nombreuses communautés arabo-chrétiennes.

Vendredi 20 mars 2009
de 9h30 à 13h
Maison des Parlementaires - Salle des Congrès
Rue de Louvain 21 - 1000 Bruxelles

Programme du colloque (PDF)

Expropriation of the lands of the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Tur Abdin, Turkey

13 February 2009 Written question no 563 to the Committee of Ministers presented by Mr Omtzigt and others to the Council of Europe. Read More ...

Turkey: Respect Property Rights of Religious Minorities

11 February 2009 - USCIRF WASHINGTON, DC -- The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan Federal commission, today urged the U.S. government to raise the importance of respecting property rights of members of diverse religious minorities with the Turkish government, particularly with reference to the Mor Gabriel Monastery.

For decades, Turkey's government has attempted to confiscate lands belonging to Greek Orthodox churches. In a current instance, on February 11 a case involving the attempted seizure by Turkish authorities of land on which sits the 1,600 year-old Mor Gabriel Syriac Orthodox monastery will be heard by a local Turkish court. At this hearing, the court will determine if the 270 hectares of land belong to the government or the monastery. Read More ...

Mor Gabriel Monastery Under Siege in Turkey
Arameans are preparing for a huge demonstration to take place in Berlin on Sunday, Jan. 25

24 January 2009 Aramaens are concerned about the future of their spiritual center
Berlin, Germany (DW World) - "Save the monastery of Mor Gabriel, save Christendom in Turkey"-- that is the slogan of a huge demonstration planned for Sunday in Berlin. Its aim is to help safeguard the existence of Mor Gabriel -- also known as the Monastery of St. Gabriel -- which is the spiritual center of Syriac-Orthodox Christians in Turkey. Founded in 397, it is the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world. It is located on the Tur Abdin plateau in Southeastern Turkey, the motherland of the Syriac people. Read More ...

Christian monastery in Turkey fights to keep land

21 January 2009 MIDYAT, Turkey (Reuters) - In a remote village near the Turkish-Syrian border, a land dispute with neighboring villages is threatening the future of one of the world's oldest functioning Christian monasteries.

Critics say the dispute, which has become a rallying cry for Christian church groups across Europe, is a new chapter in the long history of religious persecution of the small Christian community by the Turkish state. Read More ...

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Archives 2008

Le Conseil des évêques catholiques d’Orient appelle les chrétiens libanais à l’unité et à la charité

29 Novembre 2008 Réuni à Bkerké sous la présidence du patriarche maronite, le cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, le Conseil des évêques catholiques d’Orient a achevé hier ses travaux. Dans son communiqué, il a notamment appelé les Libanais à l’unité et les chrétiens d’Irak à ne pas perdre espoir.
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Concernant l’Irak, il a souligné que chrétiens et musulmans dans ce pays vivent la même tragédie et sont victimes du chaos au plan de la sécurité. « Nous nous sommes cependant arrêtés sur le drame que les chrétiens sont en train de vivre parce qu’ils sont massacrés et poussés à l’exode par des groupes fondamentalistes, au milieu d’un mutisme absolu », a affirmé le patriarche ... Lire la suite ...

Liban: Un flot ininterrompu de réfugiés chrétiens d’Irak

29 Novembre 2008 Les ONG au Liban réclament une aide urgente pour subvenir aux besoins immédiats de centaines de familles chrétiennes ayant fui les violences en Irak.

«Depuis le mois de juin, cinq familles par semaine environ arrivent ici , indique Isabelle Saadé Féghali, de l’ organisation Caritas. Le problème est très grave et il n’y a jamais assez d’ aides.» Le nombre de réfugiés irakiens au Liban est monté en flèche depuis le mois d’ octobre, lorsque plus de 2.000 familles chrétiennes ont fui la ville de Mossoul dans le nord de l’ Irak, après une vague d’ assassinats visant leur communauté. Entre 40.000 et 50.000 réfugiés irakiens chrétiens et musulmans, selon les ONG, sont actuellement présents au Liban, considéré comme un pays de transit pour la plupart en attendant de s’ installer ailleurs, notamment aux Etats-Unis. Télégramme.com

En Turquie, les Chrétiens irakiens sont oubliés

27 Novembre 2008 « Si les gouvernements occidentaux ne réagissent pas à cette crise, les conséquences seront catastrophiques ». François Yakan, vicaire patriarcal de l'Eglise chaldéenne (*) de Turquie ne mâche pas ses mots. Sans relâche, il tire la sonnette d'alarme auprès de la communauté internationale. Il se rend régulièrement à l'étranger, rencontrant hommes politiques et responsables d'églises avec ce même message : « Les gens ne sont pas au courant de la détresse des chrétiens irakiens. Ils n'ont ni gouvernement, ni armée, ni pouvoir. Nous assistons à la fin du christianisme en Irak, pourquoi ne s'en rendent-ils pas compte? »
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« Nous avons trouvé une famille qui vivait dans la rue, un père, une mère et deux enfants » déplore François Yakan « cela faisait six mois qu'ils étaient à Istanbul et ils ne pouvaient même pas se permettre de payer un loyer. » Lire la suite ...

Terror Reigns over Mosul's Christians

24 November 2008 BAGHDAD, Iraq and WASHINGTON, Nov 24, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- CSI Appeals to Obama and al-Maliki to Save Iraq's Unarmed Minorities

Today, Dr. John Eibner, Executive Director of Christian Solidarity International -- USA, urged US President-elect Barack Obama and the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki to prevent the extinction of Iraq's persecuted Christian community and other powerless minorities, such as the Yezidis, Shabaks and Mandeans. Read More ...

In Mosul, a battle for Christians

23 November 2008 MOSUL, Iraq — A month after thousands of Christians fled this northern Iraqi city in terror, many of the refugees have returned home, but some fear a new wave of sectarian violence, church leaders say.
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A small but ancient community, Iraq's Christians appear powerless against greater forces, and the community in Mosul is divided between those who believe they still have a place in Iraq and those who fear their days here may be numbered. Read More ...

Churches tell French EU presidency of concerns about persecution of Christians in Iraq

22 November 2008 Representatives of two European church groupings, in a meeting with a senior representative of the French presidency of the European Union, expressed concern about the rights of minorities around the world, especially where Christian minorities are persecuted, and discussed “the dramatic situation of Iraqi Christians whose extinction would signify a major injustice”.
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“Extinction” of Christians in Iraq would mean a major injustice, the church groupings’ statement said. “It would mean that the dialogue between cultures is not anymore possible and that ethnic and religious communitarism prevails over the universality of human rights.” Read More ...

German States Back Iraqi Refugee Plan

21 November 2008 (DW-World.de) - Germany's state interior ministers have given their backing to German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's plans to accept up to 2,500 Iraqi Christian refugees in the framework of a European Union agreement.

This comes on the same day as the UN's Special Commissioner for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, expressed his concern about the situation of Iraqi Christians in Iraq in talks with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. De Mistura said a further exodus had to be stopped and called upon Germany and other EU countries to urge Baghdad to give more protection to the minority grouping. Read More ...

Italian FM urges Iraq protection for Christians

20 November 2008 BAGHDAD (AFP) — Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urged the Iraqi government to protect minorities, namely Christians who have suffered a wave of killings, during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Thursday.
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More than 2,000 Christian families fled Mosul in October after a wave of killings in Iraq's third largest city ... Read More ...

ESU and Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Council delegation meet European representatives

11 November 2008
A delegation composed by ESU members (Mr. Fikri Aygur & Mr. Suleyman Gultekin) and the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Council of Iraq members (Mr. Gabriel Marko, Mr. Kamel Zozo & Mr. Isa Yousif) had meetings at the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The aim of the meeting was to inform the different European representatives about the situation of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians in Iraq which is worsening and to draw their attention about the needs of these indigenous Christians people.

The delegation explained, among other topics, that attacks are rising against all minorities and especially against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians people; that the indigenous Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians and other minorities continue to flee Iraq and taking into account that no actions are being undertaken to overcome this tragedy, the only viable solution is to settle an autonomous area for the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians in Iraq.
The delegation clearly stated and insisted that this request for autonomy is not against the Iraqi people neitheir against the Iraqi constitution but is only aimed to stop the flee of these indigenous Christians people with millenia-old history and culture.

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Iraqi Christians Search for New Homeland

09 November 2008 (CBNNews.com) - NINEVEH PLAINS, Iraq - Christians and non-Muslims in Iraq are being targeted in a brutal campaign by Islamic militants.

Since October, some 13,000 Christians and other minorities have been driven from their homes in the northern city of Mosul. More than a dozen Christians were assassinated.

Now some Iraqi Christians want to create a separate, autonomous region for their community. Read More ...

Iraqi president hints he might veto minorities bill

07 November 2008 - BAGHDAD, (Reuters) - Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, whose three-member Presidency Council vets all legislation, has hinted he might veto a bill guaranteeing council seats to minorities, which they complain gives them too few seats.

A statement from Talabani's office posted on his website late on Thursday said he had met with minority Christians.

"They expressed worries about the negative impact of the law passed in parliament, which they said gives them a small number of seats and does not protect their rights," the statement said. Read More ...

Christians On the Run in Iraq

30 October 2008 - In Iraq, the persecution of Christians continues, as murders and a mass exodus contradict Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's promise of security for everyone. Churches are trying to help the refugees, and some may come to Germany -- if the government settles on a plan.

The long trip from Mosul to Baghdad traverses a bombed highway along the Tigris River, through a wasteland in central Iraq left behind by five years of war. For Rami Kamil, 43, his wife and their children, the journey was an escape from the growing prospect of being murdered in Mosul. Read More ...

Mass commemorates Christians murdered in Iraq

25 October 2008 - Iraqi Christians exiled in the UK held a mass on Saturday to commemorate relatives and friends murdered because of their faith in their homeland.
Around 90 Iraqi exiles living across Britain attended the service to say prayers for lost loved ones and those still in Iraq.

Led by Archbishop Athanasius Toma Dawod, the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the UK, the mass included prayers for Christians killed in recent attacks in Mosul, northern Iraq. Read More ...

Who Is Driving Christians Out of Iraq?

24 October 2008 - The current plight of Christians in the northern city of Mosul is a reminder of how precarious conditions in Iraq as whole are. At least 2,500 families have been forced to leave the city, a dozen killed and many of their houses destroyed.

Christians are not the only minority under persecution but their fleeing is being highlighted because it comes at a crucial moment for Iraq and particularly its northern region. Read More ...

More violence in Mosul: father and son killed because they were Christian

23 October 2008 - Despite the hopes of the government and part of the population, the massacre of Christians continues in Iraq. The killing could be another signal for the Christians to leave the country. Prime minister al Maliki promises to "punish the guilty and their supporters.

Mosul (AsiaNews) - The Iraqi government is asking Christians to remain in Iraq, but is doing nothing to stop them from being slaughtered. Yesterday in Mosul, in the Sanaa neighborhood, a father and son were killed: no further details are available at this time on the method of the attack or the identity of the two victims, but their death must be seen in connection with the violence in recent weeks against Christians in the city. Read More ...

L'évêque de Mossoul demande au gouvernement de tenir ses engagements

23 Octobre 2008 - Si la violence qui sévit en Irak à l'encontre des chrétiens n'est pas "systématisée", elle a pris ces derniers temps une tournure plus "agressive", si l'on en croit l'évêque syriaque (catholique) de Mossoul, Mgr Georges Casmoussa.

... le religieux dénonce "l'atmosphère de peur et de panique ainsi que les menaces directes" qui, ces dernières semaines, ont poussé entre 1 000 et 1 500 familles chrétiennes de la ville à fuir leurs maisons. Lire la suite ...

UN assisting Iraqi Christians seeking refuge in Syria

23 October 2008 - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is helping hundreds of Iraqi Christians who fled the northern city of Mosul to neighbouring Syria, which is already hosting at least 1.2 million refugees from the strife-torn nation.

“Many Christians from Mosul have been systematically targeted recently and are no longer safe there...“ Read More ...

Chrétiens d'Irak: Le Vatican inquiet

21 Octobre 2008 - Le Vatican s'est dit "extrêmement préoccupé" mercredi de la situation "dramatique" des chrétiens à Mossoul et a réclamé une meilleure protection de cette minorité qui subit violences, menaces et intimidations. Selon le Haut Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR), près de 10 000 chrétiens, soit la moitié de la communauté locale, a fui la grande ville du nord de l'Irak depuis dix jours à la suite d'une série d'assassinats.

"La situation à Mossoul est dramatique. Les victimes sont des chrétiens et des milliers de gens fuient précisément parce qu'ils font régulièrement l'objet d'attaques mais en plus d'une campagne systématique de menaces", a déclaré le révérend père Federico Lombardi, porte-parole de Benoît XVI. Lien vers l'article ...

UN voices concern at displacement of over 9,000 Iraqi Christians from Mosul

17 October 2008 - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed its concern at reports that some 9,360 Christians have been displaced from the Iraqi city of Mosul in the past week owing to threats, intimidation and attacks.

“We have received information from the Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM) in Mosul that approximately 1,560 families (some 9,360 people) have been displaced so far, although UNHCR cannot confirm this number,” the agency’s spokesperson, Ron Redmond, told reporters in Geneva.

“The displaced population would represent about half of the Christians in the Mosul area,” he added. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians Flee Mosul Violence

16 October 2008 - About 1,700 Iraqi Christian families have now fled their homes after a campaign to displace them in the city of Mosul started about two weeks ago.

Authorities said 11 Christians have been killed and at least five homes have been blown up since the terror began.
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Text massages, leaflets and e-mails were sent to Christian families, ordering them to leave their homes under penalty of death. Read More ...

Irak-Les chrétiens sont abattus sur place

16 Octobre 2008 - De terribles événements se déroulent actuellement à Mossoul, dans le nord de l’Irak. Des terroristes islamistes armés parcourent les rues et demandent à chaque passant sa carte d’identité. S’il est écrit « religion chrétienne », son détenteur est abattu sur place, d’une balle dans la tête.

Nos contacts sur le terrain rapportent que ce genre d’exactions arrive de plus en plus souvent. Il y a 5 ans, on comptait à Mossoul près de 300 000 chrétiens, il n’y en a plus aujourd’hui que 30 000. Lire la suite ...

Chrétiens d’Irak : le sauve qui peut à Mossoul-Ninive

15 Octobre 2008 - Depuis le début du mois d’octobre 2008, une nouvelle vague de violences frappe les chrétiens de Mossoul-Ninive (Nord de l’Irak). Près d’une quinzaine de ces derniers ont été assassinés entre le 29 septembre et le 12 octobre, ce qui provoque une panique générale et un exode massif des membres de cette communauté, vers les villes et villages assyro-chaldéo-syriaques de la plaine de Ninive.

On évalue à 1119 le nombre des familles ayant trouvé refuge dans ces dits villages; toutes ont échappé à la mort, aux violences et aux exactions innombrables d’individus et/ou de groupes armés. Lire la suite ...

Le Liban et la Syrie ouvrent des relations diplomatiques

15 Octobre 2008 - La Syrie et le Liban ont établi des relations diplomatiques mercredi, pour la première fois depuis la proclamation de leur indépendance, il y a plus de soixante ans, a rapporté, mercredi 15 octobre, l'agence officielle syrienne Sana. Le président syrien, Bachar Al-Assad, a reçu le ministre des affaires étrangères libanais, Fawzi Salloukh, arrivé peu auparavant à Damas. Lire la suite ...

Iraqi Christians Flee Mosul in the Wake of Attacks

14 October 2008 - BAGHDAD — A church in the northern city of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians continued to leave the city to escape recent violence that has been directed at them.

Several church leaders accused the Iraqi government of trying to cover up the extent of the problems facing Christians there and of overstating its success in improving security in Mosul, one of the country’s most volatile cities. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians say forced to flee Mosul

13 October 2008 - MOSUL, Iraq, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Iraqi Christians fleeing attacks in the northern city of Mosul on Monday pleaded for protection from what they described as a systematic plan to drive them out of the area. Kana'an Bahnam, a 58-year-old Christian, fled ethnically mixed Mosul with his family in the middle of the night, in disguise and with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
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Nineveh province Governor Duraid Kashmula told Reuters at least 930 families had in recent days fled Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, for towns and villages nearby. Read More ...

La présidence de l’UE condamne les violences à l’encontre des chrétiens d’Irak

13 Octobre 2008 - Déclaration de la présidence du conseil de l’Union européenne

La présidence du conseil de l’Union européenne est vivement préoccupée par la situation d’insécurité que vivent les chrétiens d’Irak. Elle condamne fermement les violences qui ont eu lieu ces derniers jours à Mossoul, où des personnes ont été assassinées en raison de leur confession.

Elle a noté les mesures prises par le gouvernement irakien en vue de garantir la sécurité de cette communauté, dont le déploiement rapide d’unités de police à Mossoul qui est un signe positif. Elle espère que ces mesures permettront de mettre fin aux violences.

La présidence de l’UE condamne les violences à l’encontre des chrétiens d’Irak

ESU Newsletter 14 is released ... Issue 14

Go here to see all the previous ones.

Iraqi Christians, Muslims Unite in Seeking Peace

26 September 2008 - ROME, SEPT. 26, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Interreligious peace-seeking in Iraq can take on many forms, ranging from meetings with high-ranking leaders of both religions to parish dinners that gather ordinary people regardless of creed.

On Monday, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and archbishop of Baghdad, met with Abdul Aziz Hakim, leader of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), the Shiite party with the largest number of representatives in Parliament. Read More ...

Iraq Passes Provincial Elections Law - Christians loose their rights

24 September 2008 - BAGHDAD — After months of negotiation, Iraq’s Parliament passed a crucial election law on Wednesday, but only by setting aside for future debate the most divisive political issues. -...-

The question of how to settle a fierce dispute over control of the ethnically mixed and oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, however, was given to a committee for further study. And an article in an earlier version of the law that provided a limited number of provincial council seats for Iraq’s Christians and other minorities was eliminated from the new bill, stirring outrage among the groups. Read More ...

ESU Delegation received at the European Commission

24 September 2008 - An ESU delegation composed by Mr. Fikri Aygur (ESU Vice-Chairman) and Mr. Suleyman Gultekin (Belgian ESU Representative) was received at the European Commission regarding the situation of the Syriacs in Turkey.
The ESU delegation discussed the issues and problems still faced by the Syriac community in Turkey and more specifically in Turabdin (South-East of Turkey).

ESU also submitted a report on this subject to the European commission." Read More ...

Assyrians call for unity in Iraq

19 September 2008 - BRUSSELS, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The head of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East said in a prayer service in Belgium that Assyrians based in Iraq should seek solidarity.

Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV addressed a Syriac Orthodox church in the Belgian capital, saying Iraqi Christians based in the Iraqi province of Ninawa should establish an Assyrian-administered unit in accordance with the Iraqi Constitution and provisions of the United Nations ... Read More ...

Iraqi Christians continue to face persecution

9 September 2008 (Christian Post) - A group representing persecuted Christians believes followers of Christ have good reason not to feel safe in Iraq.

Recently, two Iraqi Christians were kidnapped and executed, although one family had paid ransom. Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern is not surprised. "Following the invasion of the country in 2003, Christians faced unprecedented persecution," Racho explains. "Many Christians have been killed; many have been kidnapped." Read More ...

Two Christians Kidnapped, Then Killed in Iraq

4 September 2008 (Christian Post) - Two Iraqi Christians were kidnapped then later killed by Islamic fundamentalists in Mosul within the span of a few days, a news agency with connections to Iraq reported.

Tariq Qattan, a 65-year-old doctor, was recently kidnapped by a terrorist group. Then on Wednesday, news emerged that he had been killed, according to Assyrian International News Agency. His family had reportedly paid $20,000 in ransom money, but it was not enough to free the Christian man.

On the same day, news also was released about the kidnapping and murder of another Christian ... Read More ...
Lire Plus...

La christianophobie dans tous ses Etats

2 September 2008 (Novopress) - Au moment où les persécutions antichrétiennes s’amplifient dans le monde, particulièrement en Inde et en Irak, le secrétaire du Saint-Siège pour les rapports avec les Etats, Mgr Dominique Mamberti, a appelé vendredi à lutter contre la christianophobie lors du meeting de Rimini organisé traditionnellement en Italie par Comunion et Libération.

Il a du reste livré sa définition de la « chriatianophobie » : « C’est l’éducation erronée, voire la désinformation sur les chrétiens et leur religion, propagées en particulier par les médias. C’est aussi l’intolérance et la discrimination subies par des chrétiens en raison de législations ou de mesures administratives qui les pénalisent par rapport à d’autres confessions. C’est enfin la violence et la persécution. » Lire Plus ...

Occupation attempt of St. Gabriel Monastery in Turabdin (South-East Turkey)

1 September 2008 - St. Gabriel Monastery, which is among the most ancient Christian monasteries, was founded in 397 A.D and is situated in TurAbdin region (South East of Turkey). This monastery is considered as a very important religious site by the Syriacs.

St. Gabriel Monastery, as a tradition, has been helping the poor and the needy people throughout its history and in order to sustain this tradition it has owned a large estate of lands and woods in its vicinity. ..."

Whilst the cadastral land registration works are going on, the lands of the historical Mor Gabriel Monastery are being threatened with occupation by the neighbouring Arab villages and the attempting occupiers are being supported by the local village guards as well as the Kurdish Aghas (tribe leaders)... Read More ...

The Pope Has A Christian Responsibility To Protect Iraq

1 September 2008 (Middle East Online) - The Pope has a responsibility to speak out on behalf of Iraqi Christians who are suffering violence and intimidation. But it is important to remember that all Iraqis are victims of the chaos that has been visited upon their homeland, says Khalid Issa Taha.

Iraqi Christians have given so much to their mother country, often acting as a bridge between Europe and Islamic civilisation. The Christian community has always valued education and has produced some of Iraq’s most distinguished lawyers, doctors and professors. Read More ...

Saving the Christians of Iraq

26 August 2008 - WASHINGTON, DC (Inside Catholic) - Last month, I reported on the persecution of Christians in Iraq and the continued vulnerability of their remaining communities.
Extortion and violence by Muslim extremists have driven 500,000 Christians out of Iraq -- about one quarter of the 2,000,000 Iraqis who have left the country since the beginning of the Iraq War. And another 2,000,000 Iraqis are displaced within their own country. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians face discrimination

26 August 2008 (Middle East Times) - ERBIL, Iraq, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Islamic militants have targeted the Christian minority population in northern Iraq, forcing more than 500,000 to flee their homes.

John Klink with the International Catholic Migration Commission said the international community, and the United States in particular, could do more to offer aid to the displaced Christian minorities, InsideCatholic.com said Tuesday. Read More ...

Selon l'ONG Portes Ouvertes, les réfugiés chrétiens d'Irak sont discriminés par des employés du HCR et des ambassades occidentales...

13 août 2008 - En Syrie, les équipiers de l'ONG Portes Ouvertes ont recueilli des témoignages bouleversants de réfugiés chrétiens irakiens. Ils se disent victimes d'injustices de la part d'employés du HCR et des ambassades occidentales.

« Ces chrétiens qui fuient la persécution en Irak nous racontent qu'ils sont discriminés par les institutions sensées leur venir en aide ..." Lire plus ...

Iraq Christians consider joining Kurdistan

August 7th 2008 - MOSUL, Iraq, (UPI) -- Joining the region of Kurdistan may offer better security and general prosperity for the Iraqi Christian community in Mosul, church leaders said Thursday.

Josef Yohannes, a priest in a Christian village in northern Ninawa province, said many in his community feel Baghdad looks upon them as unwanted refugees and fails to preserve their rights in Iraq. Read More ...

Iraq's Christians form new militias to combat Islamic extremists?

July 27th 2008 Iraq's Christians have taken up arms and formed new militias in a desperate effort to defend their beleaguered communities from an onslaught by Islamic extremists.
In the five years since the Anglo-American invasion of 2003, murders and abductions have driven about half of the 800,000 Christians who once lived in Iraq to flee the country.
Checkpoints manned by civilians armed with heavy machine guns and assault rifles have received official backing in Christian villages on the Ninevah plain in northern Iraq, where their presence dates back to the missions of St Thomas the apostle. Read More ...

Expert Urges More Help for Christian Minority in Iraq

July 26th 2008 DW-WORLD.DE spoke with Middle East expert Kamal Sido about the fate of the Christian minority in Iraq after EU ministers this week dropped calls to take in more Iraqi refugees.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates 2 million Iraqi refugees are living abroad, mostly in neighboring Jordan and Syria. More than 2.5 million are internally displaced. The UNHCR has long lobbied the EU to take in more Iraqi refugees.

In April this year, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged European countries to do more to provide shelter to Christian Iraqis who have fled the country to avoid ethnic strife after the 2003 war. But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, on a visit to Berlin earlier this week, urged Germany to abandon this initiative. He said security in the country had improved and refugees were needed to rebuild the nation.

DW-WORLD.DE spoke with Kamal Sido of the Society for Threatened Peoples in Goettingen about the troubles faced by the Christian minority in Iraq and their future in the country. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians urged to return

July 25th 2008 (BBC News) Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged Christians who fled the country after the US-led invasion to return home to help rebuild the country.
Speaking after meeting Pope Benedict XVI in Italy, Mr Maliki said he asked the pontiff to encourage Christians to rejoin Iraq's social structure. Read More ...

Will the Iraqi Constitution Protect Christians?

July 23rd 2008 Most of the stories of Christians -- even children -- being crucified or cooked alive are acts of Al-Qaeda, not of indigenous Iraqis.
"WASHINGTON, DC (Inside Catholic) - Two weeks ago I spoke with Bishops Mar Sarhad Jammo and Mar Bawai Soro about their plan to protect Iraqi Christians from violence and ensure religious liberty.
The bishops expressed hope that one day the provisions of the Iraq Constitution protecting all religious minorities from discrimination and persecution could be implemented. Read More ...

Iraqi president rejects provincial elections law

July 23rd 2008 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Jalal Talabani on Wednesday rejected a provincial election law as unconstitutional after Iraq's Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the parliament session that ratified it.
The controversial law must now be subject to another parliamentary vote and pass by even greater majority, raising the prospect that elections scheduled to be held on October 1 may have to be delayed until 2009. Read More ...

Maliki appeals to Germany to increase investment in Iraq

July 22nd 2008 - IHT: While Maliki made a sales pitch, saying Iraq was "a rich country" endowed with lucrative energy sources, he also asked that Germany reconsider its policy on refugees.

The German government, particularly Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservative interior minister, has said priority should be given to Christian refugees. Iraq's small Christian community suffers heavy persecution and intimidation, according to the Interior Ministry and churches here.

Schäuble's position has been welcomed by Christian churches, which have expressed alarm at sectarian violence, the bombing of churches and killings of clergymen. Read More ...

The New Lebanese Equation: The Christians’ Central Role

July 15th 2008 After decades during which they saw their influence consistently decline, Lebanon’s Christians are in a position to once again play a decisive political role. The May 2008 Doha agreement, coming in the wake of Hizbollah’s takeover of West Beirut, provides the Christian community with the opportunity to regain an important place on the political map and to advance demands that have long been ignored. Already, Christians have obtained key positions in the new government, which was formed on 12 July. But the Doha agreement goes well beyond. Read More ... - Lire plus ...

Iraqi Christians Under Attack says Pew Report

July 11th 2008 Iraqi Christians have been in Iraq since the time of Christ.The majority of them are Chaldean Catholics.They are our brethren.
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (Chaldean.org) - Senior research fellow, Brian J. Grim, paints a harrowing picture of the ongoing persecution of Iraqi Christians.

The research expert on religion and world affairs with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C. reports that the situation for Christians in Iraq is worsening. Read More ...

Y a-t-il encore un avenir pour les coptes en Egypte ?

8 Juillet 2008 Les Coptes sont des vrais Egyptiens et sont identifiés à l’Egypte puisqu’ils la portent dans leur nom. « Copte » provient du mot grec « Aiguptoi ». Les Coptes s’honorent d’être les authentiques descendants de la nation pharaonique et les dépositaires de sa culture . En effet, entre la culture copte et celle de l’ancienne Egypte, il y a des liens qui dépassent le seul lien ethnique.
Après des millénaires de présence sur la terre de leurs ancêtres, les coptes sont aujourd’hui dans une situation nouvelle, plus cruelle que les massacres et humiliations endurés au fil des temps : celle d’une extinction programmée.
C’est une certitude. Les coptes, qui constituent encore la plus importante minorité chrétienne au Proche-Orient sont, de fragiles, devenus extrêmement vulnérables. Leur destin bascule sans que nul ne paraisse en mesure ou n’ait le désir d’empêcher l’accomplissement d’une tragédie. Lire plus ...

The disaster for Christians in Iraq

July 4th 2008 (Timesonline) They used to live peaceably with other faiths but now they have been driven out and become refugees

When American and British-led forces invaded Iraq in 2003, neither George Bush nor Tony Blair, devout Christians both, can have imagined that one consequence of their action would be the extinction of Christianity in a land where it had survived for nearly 2,000 years. Read More ...

ESU Newsletter 13 is released ... Issue 13

Go here to see all the previous ones.

"Les chrétiens d'Irak ne veulent pas de la protection américaine"

30 Juin 2008 - Monseigneur Georges Casmoussa, l'archevêque catholique syriaque de Mossoul, en Irak, était ces jours-ci de passage à Paris, ambassadeur involontaire et malheureux de ses frères chrétiens, aujourd'hui persécutés dans leur propre pays. Depuis le début de l'invasion américaine, environ 400 000 chrétiens irakiens ont dû fuir leur pays. Assassinats de prêtres et attentats contre les églises se succèdent. Le 13 mars dernier, notamment, l'archevêque chaldéen de Mossoul était retrouvé mort, deux semaines après son enlèvement.. Lire le témoignage ...

For Iraqi Christians, Money Bought Survival

June 26th 2008 - MOSUL, Iraq — As priests do everywhere, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, the leader of the Chaldean Catholics in this ancient city, gathered alms at Sunday Mass. But for years the money, a crumpled pile of multicolored Iraqi dinars, went into an envelope and then into the hand of a man who had threatened to kill him and his entire congregation. Read More ...

Cardinal Cormac to celebrate Mass for people of Iraq

June 4th 2008, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is to celebrate Mass in Westminster Cathedral (Monday 16 June, 5.30pm) in support of Iraqi Christians and all those still suffering violence in the country.

At a time when many of Iraq's Christians have been forced to flee the volatile and dangerous situation in their homeland, the Mass will offer an opportunity for bishops and worshippers to come together to stand in solidarity with Iraq's Christians. Read More ...

Germany may act alone to rescue Iraqi Christians, Merkel aide says

June 3rd 2008, Berlin - Germany may act alone to rescue Iraqi Christians if fellow European Union nations continue to refuse a joint welcome to the refugees, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel's top adviser on immigration Tuesday.

Maria Boehmer said in Berlin that members of the ancient Christian minority were regularly being threatened by Islamist gangs, who were giving households a choice of converting to Islam or leaving the country within 24 hours. Read More ...

SITUATION DES CHRETIENS D'IRAK REPONSE DU MINISTRE DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES ET EUROPEENNES, M. BERNARD KOUCHNER, A UNE REPONSE D'ACTUALITE AU SENAT

29 Mai 2008, Paris - Monsieur le Sénateur, Vous avez raison d'attirer l'attention sur le sort cruel qui est réservé aux chaldéens et à l'ensemble des chrétiens d'Irak. Toutes les communautés du pays sont visées, mais plus particulièrement celle-ci, puisque les chrétiens d'Irak, qui étaient environ 1,3 million en 1980, ne sont plus que 400.000 aujourd'hui !
Lire plus ...

Iraq Compact Annual Review Conference

Welcome to the first annual review conference of the International Compact with Iraq (ICI), Stockholm, 29 May 2008.

Press Release

ICI Final Report - Report published after the conference in Stockholm (Sweden)

European Syriac Union is organising a demonstration in Sweden regarding the Christians in Iraq

On May 25th 2008, ESU took again the initiative to organise, with the help of other oganizations and associations, a demonstration in Stockholm, Sweden.
This time the aim was to warn and draw the attention of all participatns to the International Compact with Iraq (see event and links above) on the tragedy and ethnic cleansing going on against the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Among the guests, Mrs. Mona Sahlin (SAP leader), Anders Lago (Major of Södertälje, and different church representatives were present and made a speech. Read More ...

European Parliament resolution of 21 May 2008 on Turkey's 2007 progress report

21 May 2008, The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the own initiative report by Ria OOMEN-RUIJTEN (EPP-ED, NL) on the 2007 report on Turkey's progress towards accession, welcoming the commitment of Prime Minister Erdogan that 2008 is going to be a year of reforms. MEPs now urge the Turkish government to fulfil its promises and to transform Turkey into a modern and prosperous democracy based on a secular state and a pluralistic society.
...

11. Encourages the Turkish government, following the positive step taken with the adoption of the Law on Foundations, to fulfil its commitments regarding freedom of religion by establishing, in line with the ECHR and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, a legal framework enabling all religious communities to function without undue constraints, in particular as regards their legal status, the training of clergy, the election of the hierarchy, religious education and the construction of places of worship; calls for protection of the religious and cultural heritage; reiterates its call for the immediate re-opening of the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary and the public use of the ecclesiastical title of the Ecumenical Patriarch; shares the concern expressed by the Council on 24 July 2007 over the ruling of the Turkish Court of Cassation on the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and expects that this decision will not further impede the exercise by the Patriarchate and other non-Muslim religious communities of their rights guaranteed under the ECHR;

15. Reiterates its earlier calls upon the Turkish government to come up with a comprehensive master plan to boost the socio-economic and cultural development of the south-east of Turkey, where over half the population still lives below the poverty line; is of the view that this master plan should also address the social, ecological, cultural and geopolitical problems stemming from the Southeastern Anatolia Project; asks the Commission to link the regional component of assistance given under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) to the speedy drawing-up of such a strategy;

17. Takes note of the process under way to prepare a new, civilian constitution; regards it as the key opportunity to place the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the core of the constitution; reiterates that a system of checks and balances needs to be established, guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, social cohesion and the separation between religion and state; stresses also that the new constitution should ensure gender equality, avoid the use of vague criteria such as general morality, refrain from perceiving women primarily as family or community members and reaffirm women's human rights, including their sexual and reproductive rights, as their individual rights;

21. Is concerned about the hostility, strongly present in certain parts of society, shown to minorities and about politically and religiously motivated violence; calls on the Turkish government to take action against organisations and groups which stir up such hostility, to protect all those who are threatened and fear for their lives, and to make sustained efforts to create an environment conducive to full respect of fundamental human rights and freedoms;

25. Takes note of Prime Minister Erdogan´s assessment of assimilation, as expressed during his recent official visit to Germany; is therefore of the opinion that the Turkish government should take steps to enable all citizens to develop their cultural identity within the democratic Turkish state; points out in this regard the commitments set out in the Negotiating Framework concerning respect for and protection of minorities, and effective access to the learning and broadcasting of, and to public services in, languages other than Turkish;

Read the full Resolution ... EN - FR

Cardinal says keep religion out of Iraqi visa decisions

19th May 2008, PARIS (Reuters) - Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in the West should not receive special treatment based on religion, a Roman Catholic cardinal said on Monday, contradicting French and German calls for priority to be given to Christians.
These meetings were related to the Christians in Iraq and the demonstration organized in Brussels on 19th April 2008 to support the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians in Iraq. Read More ...

E.S.U. delegation received by the European Parliament and European Commission regarding the Christians in Iraq

On May 6th and 7th 2008, an ESU delegation composed by Mr. Fikri Aygur (ESU Vice-chairman) and Mr. Suleyman Gultekin (ESU Belgian Representative) had different meetings at the European parliament with most of the Political Groups, followed by a meeting at the European Commission.
These meetings were related to the Christians in Iraq and the demonstration organized in Brussels on 19th April 2008 to support the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians in Iraq. Read More ...

USCIRF Names 11 Countries of Particular Concern

May 2, 2008, WASHINGTON-The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today announced its 2008 recommendations to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on "countries of particular concern," or CPCs.
The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) requires that the United States designate as CPCs those countries whose governments have engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious violations of the universal right to freedom of religion or belief.
...

Serious, Targeted Violence in Iraq

The Commission has been concerned about the particularly dire conditions affecting non-Muslims in Iraq, including ChaldoAssyrian Christians, other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, Yazidis, and other minority religious communities, who face widespread violence from Sunni insurgents and foreign extremists, as well as pervasive violence, discrimination, and marginalization at the hands of the national government, regional governments, and para-state militias, including those in Kurdish areas. The Commission also concluded that Iraq's government was failing to curb the growing scope and severity of other religious freedom violations. In 2007, the Commission placed Iraq on its Watch List, citing escalating unchecked sectarian violence, mounting evidence of collusion between Shi'a militias and Iraqi government ministries, and the severe plight of the country's smallest religious minorities. Read More ...

E.S.U. delegation received by U.S.A. Embassy in Brussels

23 April 2008 - Following the demonstration of 19th April in Brussels, an E.S.U. delegation has been received at the U.S.A. Embassy in Brussels.
The E.S.U. delegation explained the reason of the demonstration and the urgent need to help the Christians (Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians) of Iraq who are facing systematic attacks and are forced to flee their country. During this meeting it has also been stressed that an autonomous region under international protection is needed for the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians.

The E.S.U. delegation also provided the U.S.A. Embassy representative with a folder containing detailed information about the situation of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians in Iraq and their needs in order to continue to live in their homeland. The U.S.A. Embassy assured the E.S.U. delegation that all information will be communicated to the ad hoc government people in Washington DC and as well as in Iraq.

European Syriac Union

Iraqi Christians Struggle With Fear After Slayings

22 April 2008 - Washington Post - BAGHDAD, At the Rev. Thair Abdal's church, where on Sunday mornings sweet songs of prayer stream from the doorway, the congregation's fear of death leaves the sanctuary half-filled.
...

In March, Paulos Faraj Rahho, archbishop of Mosul's Chaldean community, was found dead after being abducted. This month, Youssef Adel, an Assyrian Orthodox priest, was fatally shot in a drive-by attack in Karrada, one of Baghdad's safest neighborhoods and home to Abdal's Holy Catholic Assyrian Church. Read More ...

Thousands march in Brussels to protest attacks on Christians in Iraq

19 April 2008 - More than 5000 Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrians from many European countries organized a march and a meeting in Brussels. The aim of the meeting was to draw the attention of the USA, the European Union and the UN to the ongoing Demonstration for the Christians of Iraq terror, violence and especially the killings of the clerics of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Christians in Iraq. Read More ...

Mr. Ali Yurttagul (EFA adviser) attended the meeting and made a speech. ESU also got a statement from the MEP Dr. Charles Tannock who apologized to not be able to attend as he was not in Belgium during the demonstration.

Photo Gallery of the Demonstration ...

Iraq: Christians Say Targeting By Extremists Amounts To Genoide

17 April 2008 - UNHCR: At least 10 churches have been bombed this year, two leading clergymen have been killed, and scores of worshippers targeted for practicing their religion. Though they make up only 3 percent of the population, Christians comprise nearly half the refugees fleeing Iraq, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
...
Unlike other groups in Iraq, Christians do not have militias or tribes to protect them. In their absence, they have relied on coalition and Iraqi forces for protection, and say they have been let down. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to increase protection for the Christian community following the March killing of Mosul Archbishop Bulus Faraj Rahhu, but it does not appear that he has followed through on his pledge. Read More ...

Germany to press EU over Iraqi Christian refugees

16 April 2008 - BERLIN: Germany will appeal to other European Union countries this week to take in more Christians from Iraq and attempt to reach a common policy toward Iraqi refugees, officials said Wednesday.

The government here is already considering granting Christians preferential treatment over other religions and groups. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble stated his intention to open Germany's doors to Iraqi Christians during interviews last weekend and expects full agreement Thursday when interior ministers from the 16 states meet near Berlin. Read More ...

A nouveau, un prêtre chrétien abattu dans le centre de Bagdad

5 avril 2008 - Un prêtre chrétien irakien a été abattu par des hommes armés dans le centre de Bagdad, annonce la police. Adel Youssif a été tué près de son domicile dans le quartier résidentiel de Karrada.

Le cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarche chaldéen de Bagdad, a précisé à Reuters que Youssif appartenait à l'Eglise orthodoxe syrienne. Delly a ajouté que les chrétiens irakiens étaient sous le choc de cet assassinat, qui survient trois semaines après la mort de Mgr Paulos Faraj Rahho, archevêque chaldéen de Mossoul. Lire la suite ...

Syriac Orthodox Priest killed at Bagdad home. Read More ..

"Religious Cleansing" In Northern Iraq; "Christians in Life Danger"

5 April 2008 - MOSUL/AMSTERDAM (BosNewsLife)-- A Dutch parliamentarian investigating reports of persecution says about 100,000 Christian refugees in northern Iraq are in life danger as Islamic militants have launched a "religious cleansing campaign" in the region, an influential Dutch Christian news site reported Saturday, April 5.

Read More ...

L'Orient a besoin de ses chrétiens

4 avril 2008 - A n’en pas douter, un Orient sans chrétiens n’aurait pas d’avenir. L’islam seul s’ennuie et se déchire. Souvent, lorsque les communautés ne se parlent plus, les chrétiens jouent un rôle d’intermédiaire, parfois de stabilisateur. Cette place a été chèrement acquise. L’histoire nous montre que d’une situation majoritaire – antérieure de plusieurs siècles à la conquête islamique – les chrétiens d’Orient sont devenus les minoritaires d’un monde oublié. Qui sait encore la place prépondérante des chrétiens dans l’édification des empires musulmans ? Ils se sont adaptés à la nouvelle donne politique. Lire la suite ...

ESU Newsletter 12 is released ... Issue 12

Go here to see all the previous ones.

LE LOUVRE - Expositions thématiques: BABYLONE du 14 mars au 2 juin 2008

Sont évoqués le rayonnement et les étapes fondatrices de la ville antique et la manière dont le concept ultérieur d’une Babylone imaginaire prend son origine dans cette réalité historique. Cette nouvelle approche est rendue possible grâce à des études permettant de retracer une histoire qui ne dépende plus fondamentalement des sources bibliques ou classiques tardives.

http://mini-site.louvre.fr/babylone/FR/index.html

Cette exposition est organisée par le musée du Louvre et la Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris, les Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, et le British Museum, Londres.
Avec le concours exceptionnel de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.

En partenariat média avec RTL et Paris Première.

Informations pratiques

Lieu: Hall Napoléon

Horaires: Ouvert tous les jours, de 9 h à 18 h, sauf le mardi.
Nocturne jusqu’à 22 h les mercredi et vendredi.

Tarifs: Billet spécifique à l'exposition : 9.50 euros.
Billet jumelé (collections permanentes et exposition Babylone) : 13 euros avant 18 h, 11 euros après 18 h.

La tragédie des chrétiens d'Irak

24 mars 2008 - Mais que se passe-t-il ? Que nous arrive-t-il ? Pourquoi sommes-nous si sourds, si aveugles, si indifférents au sort des chrétiens irakiens ? Notre société si prompte à commémorer les crimes d'hier n'a-t-elle rien à dire pour les crimes du jour ? Ou bien notre silence serait-il le reflet de notre perplexité pour cet Orient compliqué où il n'y aurait que des Arabes et des Persans qui s'entre-tuent depuis la nuit des temps ? Lire la suite ...

Les larmes des chrétiens d'Orient

24 mars 2008 - Dimanche, les chrétiens célébraient la résurrection du Christ ; les enfants ont fait la chasse aux œufs en chocolat dans les jardins ; tout le monde a savouré un week-end prolongé : c'est ainsi, en France ...

À quelques milliers de kilomètres de là, en Irak, le pays d'Abraham, des chrétiens payent dans leur chair le prix de l'intolérance. Leur calvaire ne suscite guère d'émoi. Le 13 mars, Mgr Rahho, évêque de Mossoul, était retrouvé mort. L'information a été publiée. Et après ? Il est la figure symbolique du martyre enduré par les chaldéens depuis cinq ans. Lire la suite ...

L'évêque qui veut sauver les chrétiens d'Irak

22 mars 2008 - La communauté chrétienne de la région autonome kurde s'apprête à célébrer Pâques dans le deuil et l'incertitude. Mgr Rabban se bat pour endiguer les départs massifs.

Kouchner : "La France va accueillir 500 chrétiens d'Irak"

19 mars 2008 - La France tend la main aux chrétiens d'Irak. "Nous allons, j'espère, en accueillir près de 500 dans les semaines qui viennent, et on verra après", a déclaré Bernard Kouchner sur RMC et BFM-TV. "Nous ne refuserons pas d'accueillir des musulmans", mais "le problème, c'est que personne n'accueillait les chrétiens", a-t-il pris soin de préciser.

"Plus menacés que les autres"

Le ministre des Affaires étrangères a "confirmé" que cette opération s'effectuerait en faisant valoir que les membres de la communauté chrétienne chaldéenne d'Irak "sont plus menacés que les autres".

ESU Sweden - Read More ...

President Bush Saddened by Death of Archbishop Rahho

13th March 2008 - I send my condolences to the Chaldean community and the people of Iraq on the death of Archbishop Rahho. I deplore the despicable act of violence committed against the Archbishop of Mosul. The terrorists will continue to lose in Iraq because they are savage and cruel. Their utter disregard for human life, demonstrated by this murder and by recent suicide attacks against innocent Iraqis in Baghdad and innocent pilgrims celebrating a religious holiday, is turning the Iraqi people against them. We will continue to work with the Iraqi government to protect and support civilians, irrespective of religious affiliation.

The White House ...

The Archbishop of Mosul (Iraq) Paulus Faraj Raho's body has been found

We are very sad to inform you that the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul Paulus Faraj Raho's body has been found on Thursday morning in Mosul.

The Archbischop Rahho, 65, was kidnapped on February 29 after a shootout in which three of his companions were killed. Read more ...

ESU will hold the second Book Exhibition in Sweden on March 16th 2008

On 16th March 2008 EESU will organize in Sweden the second Book Exhibition in order to introduce the existing and new released books and publications about the Syriacs, as well as their authors.

Like for the first exhibition there will be authors, scholars and publishers from different countries of Europe to present their books and publications.

New compaign to collect money for helping TMS (Taw Mim Semkath) in Beirut - Lebanon

European Syriac Union (E.S.U.) and Syriac Union of Lebanon (S.U.L.) started a new compaign to collect money for helping TMS (Taw Mim Semkath) students. This compaing aim to help all Syriac students by collecting money for buying a bus. Like this the students from different locations will be able to come to the TMS centre in Beirut and driven back to their home after the courses. Read More ...

European Syriac Union

The Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul (Iraq) Paulus Faraj Raho has been kidnapped

On 29th February 2008 the Chaldean Archbishop of Mosul Paulus Faraj Raho was kidnapped by unknown persons in Mosul - Iraq.

At around 17:00 pm local time, after performing the evening service, while the Archbishop Paulus Faraj Raho was leaving the Church of the Holy Spirit in Al-Nour district of Mosul, his vehicle in which he was accompanied by his driver and two guards was ambushed by some unknown persons.

Read more ...

Pâques avec les chrétiens d'Irak 2008

Opération : Pâques avec les Chrétiens d'Irak 2008 - Proposée par Pax Christi France, l'opération oecuménique d'information, de sensibilisation et de soutien aux Chrétiens d'Irak, appelée "Pâques avec les Chrétiens d'Irak", est animée en partenariat avec Justice et Paix, la Fédération Protestante de France, l'Oeuvre d'Orient et Chrétiens de la Méditerranée. Lire la suite ...

Bishop Marc Stenger with Pax Christi in solidarity with Iraqi Christians (15/02/2008) - The Italian religious news service SIR reported on 12 February 2008 that Bishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, met with a delegation from Pax Christi France that came to Iraq on 11 February 2008 for a solidarity visit to the Christian community. Read more ...

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN TURKEY: SITUATION OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

February 2008 In contemporary Turkey, the status of religious minorities has been stipulated in the Treaty of Lausanne signed on 24 July 1923. The Government interpreted the Lausanne Treaty as granting special legal minority status exclusively to these three groups, although the treaty text refers broadly to "non-Muslim minorities" without listing specific groups. The Treaty of Lausanne is a founding text of the Republic of Turkey since it is defining the fundamental rights of all linked to the state by the link of citizenship and puts forward the obligation for the Turkish State to protect the Non- Muslim communities.
...
According to the Government sources, 99 % of the population is Muslim, the majority of which is Sunni. The Christian and Jewish minorities are less than 1% of the population. In addition to the country's Sunni Muslim majority, academics estimated
there are 15 to 20 million Alevis. The religious groups include approximately 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 23,000 Jews, and up to 4,000 Greek Orthodox Christians.
...
Despite laicism, the Turkish state has not been able to overcome the segregation of non-Muslim minorities and to integrate them into the nation as citizens with equal rights. While the Muslim Turks have been the “we”, the non-Muslim minorities have
been categorized as “the other”.
...
There are also some other non-Muslim minorities such as Syriacs who are not included to the criteria defined by the Treaty of Lausanne. First of all, because of the nationality criteria the Syriacs faces difficulties to work for certain churches. But, similar to the problems of other non-muslim minorities, the Syriacs are not permitted to establish schools and the election of the heads their churches is subject to strict conditions. Their clergy continue to have difficulties ... Read more ...

De Gilgamesh à Zénobie

Arts anciens du Proche-Orient et de l'Iran au Musée du Cinquantenaire

"Les Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire peuvent se vanter de posséder une collection renommée d'art ancien du Proche-Orient et de l'Iran. Outre la célèbre plaquette de Gilgamesh qui prête son nom à cette exposition, rappelons une collection de bronzes du Louristan (Iran) unique au monde, de somptueux sceaux-cylindres et de nombreux témoignages de l'écriture de l'époque pré-islamique. Tant de trésors dont le public ne pouvait admirer qu'une sélection jusqu'à la fermeture des salles en 2002. Comme les travaux de rénovation n'ont pas encore pu être entamés depuis, nos richesses archéologiques ne quittent nos réserves qu'à l'occasion d'expositions temporaires, le plus souvent à l'étranger et cela au compte-gouttes. Voici une occasion unique pour venir admirer ce patrimoine, ainsi qu'une douzaine de chefs-d'œuvre que le Musée du Louvre a bien voulu nous prêter afin de donner encore plus d'éclat à cet événement."

Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire

INFORMATIONS PRATIQUES

Musée du Cinquantenaire
1000 Bruxelles

Heures d'ouverture
Du mardi au dimanche de 10:00 à 17:00
(la caisse ferme à 16:00)
Fermé le lundi, le 25/12 et le 01/01
Chaque dernier jeudi du mois, sauf en décembre, l'exposition est ouverte jusque 22h, soit les 31/01, 28/02, 27/03 et 24/04.

Attentat meurtrier dans un quartier chrétien de Beyrouth

25 Janvier 2008 - Au moins quatre personnes ont été tuées, dont un officier de la sécurité libanaise, dans un attentat qui a visé, vendredi 25 janvier, peu après 10 heures, heure locale (9 heures, heure de Paris) un convoi de la sécurité dans un quartier chrétien de la banlieue de Beyrouth, ont indiqué des sources de sécurité et militaire libanaises.

L'APPEL DE JEAN D'ORMESSON

18 Janvier 2008 - Le Figaro - En Irak, dans un pays déchiré par les conflits ethniques et par le terrorisme, les chrétiens sont isolés. L'écrivain appelle les Français à leur manifester leur solidarité.

"n'abandonnons pas les chrétiens d'Irak " - par Jean d'Ormesson, de l'Académie française -

LA FOI SOUS HAUTE SÉCURITÉ

18 Janvier 2008 - Le Figaro - Assassinats de prêtres, attentats contre des églises, pressions islamistes : ceux des chrétiens d'Irak qui n'ont pas choisi l'exil vivent dans le danger permanent. - par Sébastien De Courtois

Colère de l'Egypte après l'adoption au Parlement européen d'un texte sur les droits de l'homme

Jeudi 17 Janvier 2008 - A quelques jours d'une rencontre bilatérale qui s'annonce désormais houleuse, les députés européens ont adopté, jeudi 17 janvier, un texte critiquant la situation des droits de l'homme en Egypte, malgré les menaces émanant du Caire - Egypte.

Iraq: USCIRF Alarmed by Series of Bomb Attacks Against Churches, Monasteries

14th January 2008 - WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is alarmed by the coordinated bomb attacks against churches and monasteries in Iraq last week. At least six people were reportedly wounded in seven separate attacks in Baghdad and Mosul as Christians were celebrating Christmas and the Epiphany on Jan. 6; three days later, bombs targeted three churches in Kirkuk.The attacks were the latest to target Iraq’s shrinking non-Muslim population, many of whose members have fled the country in the wake of violence directed against their communities. - ... -

Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Sabean Mandaeans, and Yazidis make up a disproportionately large number of refugees from Iraq; nearly half of these communities’ members fled abroad between 2003 and 2006, according to Iraqi government estimates. Read More ...

L'appel de Jean D'Ormesson pour sauver les chrétiens d'Irak

Dimanche 13 Janvier 2008 - L'écrivain et académicien Jean d'Ormesson est l'invité exceptionnel de "C'est aussi de l'info" dans l'Emission "Le jour du Seigneur" sur France 2.
Voir la Vidéo (Real Player)

Page consacrée aux chrétiens d'Irak sur le site de "Le Jour du Seigneur"

Churches and Monasteries bombed in Iraq

Sunday 6th January 2008 - On the Epifany day, 7 churches and monasteries were bombed in Bagdad and Mossul - Iraq. Read More ...

[-] Close

Archives 2007

Turkish Police foil plot to kill priest

Monday, December 31, 2007 - ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police have foiled a plot to murder a priest, in a case that recalls other attacks this year against Christians in Muslim but secular Turkey, newspapers reported on Monday. Read More ...

ESU Newsletter 11 is released ... Issue 11

Go here to see all the previous ones.

Egyptian prosecutor releases 7 Muslims arrested in attacks on Coptic Christian property

18 December 2007 - CAIRO, Egypt: Seven Muslims were ordered released Tuesday, two days after their arrest in attacks on shops owned by Coptic Christians in a southern Egyptian town that has recently witnessed increasing sectarian tensions, an official with the prosecutors office said.

The attackers had hurled stones and set fire to several shops, smashed windows of a Coptic church and damaged two cars in the early morning hours Sunday in Isna, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) south of Cairo. Read More ...

New report on minorities' quest for equality in Turkey

10 December 2007 - Millions of ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities remain unrecognized by the Turkish state, face discrimination and are now increasingly under threat as a result of a growing wave of violent nationalism, Minority Rights Group says in a new report.

The report says that whilst the accession process to become a EU member state has forced Turkey to make significant strides in minority rights, much more remains to be done. Read More ...

Vicar: Dire Times For Iraq's Christians Tells 60 Minutes Most Of Iraq's Christians Have Fled Or Been Killed

(CBS) From the time of Jesus, there have been Christians in what is now Iraq. The Christian community took root there after the Apostle Thomas headed east.

But now, after nearly 2,000 years, Iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered and forced to flee -- persecuted on a biblical scale in Iraq's religious civil war. You'd have to be mad to hold a Christian service in Iraq today, but if you must, then the vicar of Baghdad is your man. He's the Reverend Canon Andrew White, an Anglican chaplain who suffers from multiple sclerosis and from a fanatical determination to save the last Iraqi Christians from the purge. Read More ... -

Watch the Video

Syriac monk - Father Daniel Savci - kidnapped in South-Eeast Turkey has been released

The monk kidnapped in Tourabdin - South-East Turkey - on Wednesday was released unharmed on Friday.

Father Daniel Savci, 55, was taken hostage Wednesday afternoon by unidentified people who stopped his car as he was travelling to the Mor Yakup Monastery in a village near the town of Midyat in South-East Turkey's Mardin province.

A representative from the Mardin Governor's Office said the priest had made his way to a workplace in the town of Batman from where he had telephoned his friends.

Father Daniel (Edip) Savci, a monk of the Syriac Orthodox Church, has been kidnapped in Tur Abdin - South-East Turkey

Wednesday 28th November 2007 - at around 14:00 pm, Father Daniel (Edip) Savci, a monk of the Syriac Orthodox Church, was kidnapped in Tur Abdin region which is in the South East of Turkey.

The monk Rev. Father Edip (Daniel) Savci is the abbot and residing at the Monastery of Mor Jacob in the Village of Saleh (Bar tepe in Turkish), which is situated only about 15 minutes driving distance from Midyat.

Read More ...

European Parliament resolution of 15 November 2007 on serious events which compromise Christian communities' existence and those of other religious communities

More info ...

Conférence "L’Avenir des Chrétiens au Liban et en Orient" le 21 novembre 2007 à l'Université Catholique de Louvain en Belgique

Organisée par Le Mouvement Chrétien Libanais et présidée par Mgr Béchara El Rai (Archevêque de Jbeil / Byblos - Liban)

BUT: Promouvoir toutes activités et/ou projets sociaux, économiques, pédagogiques ou humanitaires en vue de sauvegarder l’héritage Chrétien au Liban et au Proche-orient.

Entrée libre le 21 nomvembre à 19h30 Auditoire central C - Faculté de médecine, UCL Avenue Mounier 51- 1200 Bruxelles
Renseignements: Père Ghassan Nasr (+32-475.54.58.54) Plus d'info ...

Colloque "Quel avenir pour les chrétiens d’Orient ? " les 16 et 17 novembre 2007 à l’Alliance Française et à l’Institut du Monde Arabe à Paris

Organisé par l’Institut Européen en Sciences des Religions (IESR) et l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes - Sorbonne (EPHE), sous le parrainage du ministère des Affaires étrangères

Comité d’organisation : Régis Debray, président d’honneur de l’IESR et Bernard Heyberger, EPHE-IUF, conseiller scientifique

Entrée libre - inscription obligatoire sur le site www.iesr.fr
Renseignements à l’IESR - tel. 01 40 52 10 00 - Plus d'info ...

Iraqis who fled homes in fear face new terror as Turkey targets PKK rebels

When Youssef Toma and his family fled their home in Baghdad's perilous Dora neighbourhood and found refuge in the peaks and valleys of Kurdistan, they assumed their fear had been left behind with their furniture. ...

Last weekend, however, Mr Toma's rural idyll was brutally disrupted. The dread he felt in Baghdad returned. For about 45 terrifying minutes, a barrage of Turkish artillery shells rained down from the clear night sky upon Anishky. Read More ...

Iraqi Christians forced to flee homes or risk death

BAGHDAD, IRAQ — Nabil Comanny and his family endured the dead bodies left to decompose along the road in their southern Dora neighborhood. ...

At least a dozen churches in Baghdad have closed. For those still open, like the Church of the Virgin Mary shown here, attendance at Masses is down by more than half, officials said. - JAMES PALMER Read More ... (same article from the Washington Times)

Barack Obama’s Letter to Protect Iraqi Christians

Barack Obama September 17th - Barack Obama wants answers. He wants to know what the State Department is doing in coordination with the Iraqi Government to protect Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq. The Brody File has a copy of the letter Senator Obama sent to Secretary State Condoleezza Rice.

ESU meets French politicians in Paris - France

On Monday 17th September ESU and the Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Insitute of Gonesse (Paris) meet Mr. Karim Pakzad and Mr. Alain Chenal from Socialist party in Paris regarding the issues faced by the Syriac-Chaldean-Assyrian people in Iraq and in Turkey.

The same delegation later meet also Mr. Philippe Marini (Senator) & Mr. Marc Le Dorh (Political Studies Institute in Paris). A very useful and informative discussion occured about the situation of the Syriac-Chaldean-Assyrian people in the Middle-East and more specifically in Iraq.

Both of the meetings were very positive and the relations will continue in the future.

Les Nations unies reconnaissent les droits des peuples indigènes

Au terme de plus de vingt ans de négociations, l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies a adopté, jeudi 13 septembre, une déclaration symbolique reconnaissant de larges droits aux quelque 370 millions de personnes appartenant aux peuples autochtones, souvent marginalisés à travers le monde.

Le texte proclame "le droit à l'autodétermination" des peuples premiers et réclame pour eux, le cas échéant, "des réparations". Il vise notamment à protéger la spécificité de leur culture, l'intégrité de leurs terres, et à les prémunir contre toute discrimination. Lire la suite ...

ESU meets Mr. Siniora and Mr. Geagea in Lebanon

On 28th August 2007, the President of the European Syriac Union Mr. İskender Alptekin and the Vice-President Fikri Aygur had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Lebanon Fouad Siniora and the Leader of the Lebanese Forces Mr. Samir Geagea.

ESU and the Project for an Autonomous Region in Iraq

The project for an Autonomous Region for our Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in its historical areas in a Federal Iraq, which started officially as a demand of our people in the Ankawa Congress, held on 12. And 13 March 2007 has a large importance in the agenda of the ESU.