Home

  Welcome Message   

Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
 Archdiocese of the Western United States

 


Organizations
 

 

 

Life of Jesus

 

 

Bible

 

 


Home

200,000 Christians fled in the Nineveh region

August,7 2014

Last night, two Syriac children and a mother were killed as a result of a shameless attack by ISIS terrorists against Baghdeda (Qaraqosh) in North Iraq. At the same time, in the middle of the night, more than 40,000 Aramean families – comprising at least 200.000 human beings – fearfully fled their ancestral homes, towns and villages in the Nineveh region. Another unprecedented humanitarian disaster is now unfolding in Iraq.

Most recently, thousands of Christian families had already escaped the Mosul region to the Nineveh province, after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists rampaged the area. The Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of St. Matthew, including its fourth-century Monastery of Mor Matay, and other local dioceses have been closed.

The Nineveh plains are now emptied from its native Christians, who belong to the Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Chaldean and Assyrian churches in the region. This is the second region that has been emptied from its Christian population for the first time in its millennia-old history. Thus, an ancient civilization, cultural heritage and population have been destroyed and erased from Iraq’s future.

The majority, if not all, of the local Muslim population apparently did not fear their lives to abandon their homes, while the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters suddenly retreated. The withdrawal of the Kurds is striking, particularly in light of a similar situation that took place a few days ago where thousands of Yezidi men, women and children were abandoned and sacrificed to ISIS by the Peshmerga.

All the developments that have been taking place in Syria and Iraq, once again reveal that there is a clear agenda to divide Iraq into three portions: a Shiite, Sunni (ISIS-controlled) and Kurdish part, whereas defenseless and vulnerable minorities like the Christians and Yezidis are forced out of their ancient homeland.

This is nothing short of genocide and ethnic cleansing. A new humanitarian disaster is unfolding and the international community simply does not seem to care.

In all these cases, the foreign policies of Western countries have turned out to be utterly destructive to the many hundreds of thousands of native Aramean Christians who experienced persecutions, beheadings, crucifixion, kidnappings, expulsions and more. Simultaneously, Western governments and mainstream media have remained utterly silent and ignored the cries for help by the Iraqi and Syrian Christianity.

For more info see the source website www.wca-ngo.org,

 

Latest Burbank, California, weather


The Western Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, providing spiritual guidance and leadership to the Syriac Orthodox community, is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization comprised of 18 churches and parishes in 17 western states. It was established in 1952 as the Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church encompassing the entire United States and Canada. In November 1995 by the Holy Synod, the Western Archdiocese was formed to exclusively serve the 17 states of the western half United States.


417 E. Fairmount Rd., Burbank, CA 91501
Tel: (818) 845-5089 Fax: (818) 953-7203
E-mail: bishopric@soc-wus.org

 

� Copyright 2010 Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch -  Archdiocese of the Western United States