Tag: Kurds

Iraq: today’s vote on Kurdish independence is troubling the Middle East

September 25, 2017 Iraq Elections, Iraq, Islamic State, Kirkuk, Kurds, Middle East, Nineveh Plains, Yazidis

Iraq’s Kurds went to the polls today (25 September) to vote on whether to become a new state, independent of Iraq. According to Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty (RFERL) the vast majority will have voted “yes” to the question on the ballot paper: “Do you want the Kurdistan region and . . . Read More

Historic Armenian Cathedral desecrated in southeast Turkey

September 15, 2017 Turkey Diyarbakir, Kurds, Middle East, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Turkey

Eighteen months after the Turkish government seized control of the largest Armenian cathedral in the Middle East, secretly taken photographs inside Diyarbakir’s Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church reveal considerable damage to the sanctuary and walls of the now desecrated church in southeast Turkey. Published by The Armenian Weekly, the exclusive . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians returning to Nineveh Plains after 3 years ‘need protection’

August 7, 2017 Iraq Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Kurds, Lebanon, Nineveh Plains, USA

Iraqi women and children are demonstrating in front of the UN office in Erbil where they present a declaration to the UN calling for protection of minority groups on 13 August 2015. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Three years after Iraq’s Christians fled the Nineveh Plains, driven away by the Islamic State group, human rights lawyer Ewelina Ochab has charted the movements of the Christians and evaluated the likelihood that they will now return. A report published earlier this year showed that 50% of Iraq’s Christians have . . . Read More

Iraqi Christians reject second mayor installed by pro-Kurd council

August 2, 2017 Iraq Alqosh, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds

Christians in a recently repopulated Iraqi town have protested against a second Kurdish-appointed mayor amid fears of a Kurdish drive to usurp control of northern Christian-majority towns. Lara Yousif, a Chaldean Catholic and a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), was appointed mayor of Alqosh by the pro-Kurdish Nineveh . . . Read More

Kurdish government opens church for refugees who fled IS

July 12, 2017 Iraq Ankawa, Bashar Warda, Chaldeans, Islamic State, Kurds, Peshmerga

Iraqis displaced by IS and Catholics in Kurdistan have welcomed the opening of a 1,300-seater church by the regional government there, although a US report has voiced concern at “religious abuses” and discrimination against non-Kurds there. The 30 June opening ceremony was attended by Chaldean Catholics from the Kurdish region, . . . Read More

In Kurdistan, signs of diminished freedoms for Christians

June 1, 2017 Iraq Kurds, Religious freedom, USA

Christians of different denominations, most of them refugees from Iraq's Nineveh Plain, celebrate the Return Festival in Erbil, Iraq, in November 2016.

As bad as the past two years have been for the Christians and other religious minorities of northern Iraq, their torment by the so-called Islamic State could have been much worse if they had not been able to obtain refuge in next-door Kurdistan, Iraq’s semi-autonomous region in the north. “Even . . . Read More

Turkish court halts expropriation of Armenian cathedral

April 11, 2017 Turkey Churches, Diyarbakir, Kurds, Middle East, PKK, Surp Giragos, Turkey

The Turkish government’s expropriation a year ago of the largest Armenian cathedral in the Middle East has been halted by a Council of State court decision, the Armenian weekly Agos reports. Located in the historic heart of Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeast Turkey, the Surp (Saint) Giragos Apostolic Armenian . . . Read More

New Erbil university offers fresh hope for young lives disrupted by IS

March 30, 2017 Iraq Bashar Warda, Catholics, Education, IDPs, Iraq, Kurds, Minorities

The new Catholic University of Erbil offers displaced young people an opportunity to continue their education.

Displaced young Iraqis whose education was halted by Islamic State’s violent seizure of territory are receiving a vital opportunity to catch up and train for professional life, thanks to the local Catholic archdiocese and charitable donations. The Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) opened in October 2016 and has around 250 . . . Read More

Opposition to Iraqi enclave for non-Muslims voiced by Erbil diocese

March 30, 2017 Iraq Erbil, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Peshmerga, Saddam Hussein

The Catholic Church in northern Iraq has voiced its opposition to suggestions that an enclave should be created to safeguard non-Muslims fearful of returning to live among their Muslim neighbours. However Stephen Rasche, aid co-ordinator for the Catholic diocese of Erbil in northern Iraq, also said that the likelihood of . . . Read More

Inside a migrant camp in northern France

March 15, 2017 Calais, France, Grande-Synthe, Iran, Iraq, Kurds, La Linière, Migrants, Refugees

Armed police amass outside as the day draws to a close at La Linière migrant camp in Grande-Synthe, northern France, which has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. There was an incident last night and there’s every chance another could follow tonight. This camp may boast a new, prettier face, but . . . Read More

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