MENA Minorities

“The Assyrians of Syria: History and Prospects”   by Mardean Isaac, Syria Comment

Swedish Journalist Carl Drott provides a fascinating account of the Dawronoye , a Christian guerrilla force, operating in Turkey, Iraq and Syria. Read all about its roots in the Turkish far left of the 1980s, its relationship with the Kurdish PKK and how its caders helped to set up the Syriac Military Council. Noteworthy is how the fighters interviewed were annoyed by the ongoing argument in the diaspora, whether they should call themselves Syriacs, Assyrian or Aramean. The Revolutionaries of Bethnahrin  by Carl Drott, War Scapes

Map by @le_carabinie (see here for bigger version) IS takes over Assyrian village Tal al-Jazira by Asrar Chbaro   by Asrar Chbaro , Al Monitor/An Nahar This is the Islamic State (IS),” was the answer heard by Father Sirjun Zumaya, pastor of the congregation of the Assyrian Mar Girgus church in Lebanon, when he tried to call his wife’s uncle Wanis in Tal al-Jazira. The village had been attacked by the “birds of darkness” at 5 in the morning on Feb. 23. Since then, the line has been out of service. Zumaya told An-Nahar the details of the conversation that took place at 1 p.m. on the day of the attack. He said: “When one of the organization’s fighters responded on the phone, I answered, ‘I hope you’re well, I want to speak with the phone’s owner.’ The fighter said he wasn’t there, but I was sure that the number belonged to him, which made me call. I spoke to Wanis in Assyrian, and he responded to me in Arabic in a terri...

Ignatius Aphrem II Karim ,  the newly elected patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox church, leaves little doubt which side he supports in the ongoing civil war in Syria: Syria's Al-Assad receives Syriac Orthodox Church's new patriarch   by  Sherry El-Gergawi, Al -Ahram Karim expressed his hope that security and peace would soon prevail in Syria, whose people he said were a shining example of national unity. He further asserted that the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate supports the Syrian people’s struggle against terrorism and their right to self-determination away from the interference of any foreign side.

Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim , the Archbishop  for the Eastern United States, was elected as 123rd Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. Upon his installation his name will be Ignatius Aphrem II Karim. The new Patriarch is relatively young (just 48) and was born in Qamishli, in Syria's Hasaka province. Judging by his statements in US-media, he is potentially regime leading.

Assyrian militia in northeastern Syria A rare report on Syria's Assyrian Christians appeared in Le Monde diplomatiquie (English edition). In Qamishli, the capital of the Hasaka province, the Assyrian militia Sutoro was established by the Syriac Union Party and has an ambivalent relationship with the Asad regime. Hasaka province has a mainly Kurdish population and a significant Christian (Assyrian and also Armenian) minority as well as more tribal oriented Sunni Arab inhabitants.