Ankawa

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Map: Iraq
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Ankawa​
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Iraq

Ankawa ( Aramaic ܥܢܟܒܐ; Arabic عنكاوا, DMG ʿAnkāwā ) is a suburb of Erbil in Iraq , which is estimated to have around 40,000 people. Ankawa is mostly inhabited by Assyrians / Arameans and Chaldeans , also known as Chaldo Assyrians as a whole . It is one of the oldest Christian settlements in Iraq .

Attractions

Chaldean Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph , 2009

Ankawa has more than ten churches, including three cathedrals . The five most important churches are the Cathedral of St. Joseph (Mar Joseph) of the Erbil Archeparchy of the Chaldean Catholic Church , the two Chaldean Catholic churches of St. Elias (Mar Elia) and the Church of St. Georg (Mar Giorgis, built in 816 ) also Mar Kurkis) as well as the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist of the Assyrian Church of the East , which opened in 2008, and the Cathedral of the Queen of Peace of the Eparchy Adiabene of the Syrian Catholic Church , consecrated in 2019 . A number of churches have emerged from the influx of refugees since 2003, including the Armenian Apostolic Holy Cross Church (Surb Chatsch) , which opened on April 6, 2019 . In addition, the suburb is located at the newly built Erbil International Airport .

history

Assyrian Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist , 2018

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 , the situation for Christians in Iraq has become increasingly threatening and life-threatening in large parts of the country. Numerous internally displaced persons came to Ankawa from cities such as Baghdad and Basra , but many of them only used it as a stopover to flee abroad. After the conquest of the city of Mosul and large parts of the predominantly Christian Nineveh Plain, including its largest town, Baghdida, in 2014 by the terrorist organization Daesch (Islamic State, IS) , numerous other refugees came to the Erbil area, with the Christians mainly in the Christian Suburban Ankawa came. Around 15,000 people were housed in the Mart Shmoni refugee camp, where the new Syrian Catholic Church Mart Shmoni was consecrated in 2014 , and around 4,000 in the Ankawa shopping center. After the Islamists were expelled between October 2016 and July 2017, around 5,000 of the previously 9,000 Christian families had returned to Baghdida by April 2018. The Chaldean Cathedral of St. Joseph also took in refugees. According to the words of Ankawa Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda in March 2019, 6,000 refugees from the Nineveh Plain were still in the care of the city's Chaldean Church, while 6,000 families had fled abroad, mostly to the USA , Canada or Australia , around However, 8,000 families had returned to their homeland in the Nineveh Plain.

References

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First Armenian Apostolic Church Opens in Kurdistan Region Capital Erbil. Masis Post, April 7, 2020.
  2. ↑ Pascal Meguesyan: Mart Shmoni Church in Ankawa. Mesopotamia Heritage, July 2017.
  3. ↑ Zara Sarvarian: Iraq's Assyrian Christians: resurgence persecution and. World Watch Monitor, April 4, 2018.
  4. ↑ Press Release: Iraq - Additional Emergency Help of $ 146,000 Granted by Aid to the Church in Need. Aid to the Church in Need Canada, August 8, 2014.
  5. ↑ Robert Edwards (in an interview with Bashar Warda ): Archbishop of Erbil: Iraq's Christians need to thrive, not just survive. Rudaw , March 13, 2019.