Dora (Baghdad)

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Power plant in Dora, Baghdad, 2007

Dora , with article ad-Dora ( Arabic الدورة ad-Dawra , DMG ad-Dūra ), is a district within the ar-Raschid district on the westernbanks of the Tigris in the Iraqi capital Baghdad . From its creation in the 1950s to the purges by Islamist insurgents in the 2000s and 2010s, it wasthe most important place of residence of Christians in Baghdad , especially the Assyrian and Chaldean churches,alongside Karrada on the other bank. After that it was the stronghold of al-Qaeda . In 2014, around a hundredth of the 150,000 Assyrian and Chaldean Christianslived here before the Iraq war.

Geographical location

Dora is located south of the great loop of the Tigris on its west bank opposite the university campus on the other side of the river, to the east of Babel (بابل) and further east Karrada (الكرادة) and includes the Assyrian Quarter (حي الآثوريين, DMG Ḥayy al-Āthūriyyīn ) and further south the mechanics quarter (حي الميكانيك, DMG Ḥayy al-Mīkānīk ).

Attractions

There are several Assyrian and Chaldean churches in Dora, including the Assyrian Church of Mar Gewargis , the Chaldean Church of St. John and the Church of the Old Church of the East, Mart Schmoni in the Assyrian Quarter, and the Assyrian Church of Mar Zaya in the Mechanics Quarter . which was built as a replacement after the demolition of the old Assyrian Mar-Zaya Cathedral in Karrādat Maryam in 1985 by the government under Saddam Hussein . There are also the Pontifical founded in 1991, Babel College for Philosophy and Theology, which the due al-Qaida -Terrors 2007 after Ankawa in Erbil - just before the inauguration of the local Assyrian new Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist - was moved, officially only temporarily. Other churches in the mechanics quarter are the Syrian Orthodox Church Mar Behnam and the Chaldean Catholic Church Peter and Paul.

history

There were few Assyrians in Baghdad until 1920 , and Dora wasn't the first neighborhood they settled in either. In 1920 the Assyrians from the Baquba refugee camp , who had fled because of the genocide of the Christians in what is now Turkey and Urmia occupied by Ottoman troops, were taken to northern Iraq by train via Baghdad. However, some of them moved away from the rest of the rest when changing trains in Baghdad, settling in improvised tented camps that later evolved into residential neighborhoods - Gailani Camp, Nuairiah, and Gayara. The Dora area, on the other hand, was hardly populated until the 1950s, when Assyrians - themselves refugees and their descendants - resettled in large numbers from al-Habbaniyya to Baghdad. Most homes were built in the 1960s and 1970s as the growing city attracted middle class families. Before the Iraq war from 2003, the quarter had the highest concentration of Assyrians and Mandaeans in Baghdad, but was also home to Sunni and Shiite families. During this time around 150,000 Christians lived here , the majority of whom were members of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church .

Iraq war

US soldiers fighting al-Qaida rebels in Dora, March 2007
US and Iraqi forces in Dora, July 2007

On the morning of March 19, 2003, the US armed forces attacked the Dora district, where they suspected the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein , and his two sons Uday and Qusay and wanted to destroy them in the course of a decapitation . However, none of the three was hit, rather a civilian died and four were injured, including a child. In April 2004, the 1st Battalion of the 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division was commissioned as motorized infantry with the operations in Dora. Al-Qaeda fighters were pushed back from the area in fierce fighting , and four US soldiers were killed. In March 2005, the unit was withdrawn from Dora, and Battalion 1-184 IN (AASLT) of the California National Guard took over the fight against the enemy, including in particularly dangerous places such as Arab Jabour and Hora Jeb. 18 men in the battalion died within 12 months. In January 2006 soldiers of the 2/506 IN, 101st Airborne came to relieve, who were supported by the Bravo Company 1-35th Armor from the 2nd BCT, 1st Armored Division in Baumholder from April to November 2006. The 506th IN could not cover the entire area, suffered heavy losses including dead officers, and lost control to al-Qaeda. From the end of 2006 this enabled the Islamist opposition forces, supported by numerous fighters who had arrived from abroad, to free the area from its Christian, Shiite and Mandaean population. Armed al-Qaeda fighters raised jizyahs , demanded conversion to Islam, attacked or confiscated residential buildings and thus forced Christians to leave the area. Within a few years, the mixed, strongly Christian district became an almost purely Sunni quarter and a stronghold of al-Qaeda. United States Army soldiers called the area "the most dangerous place in Iraq". In 2010 the attacks against the Christians and the flight of the few who remained continued. In 2014, 1,500 of the 150,000 Christians lived in the Dora district.

Web links

Commons : Dora (Baghdad)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Baghdad. Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition, Baghdad. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  2. ↑ Pascal Meguesyan: The patriarcal cathedral of the Virgin Mary in Baghdad. Mesopotamia Heritage, April 2017.
  3. ↑ On Google Maps كنيسة القديسة مارت شموني الاثوريين = "Mart Schmoni, Church of the Assyrians" or "Mart Hmona Alathurran", accessed on August 16, 2020.
  4. ↑ Picture on الاب أبريم الخوري يقيم قداس تذكار الطوباوي مار زيا في الميكانيك ، الدورة . Assyrian Church, January 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ The Syrian Orthodox Church of Mar Behnam and the Church of Sheikh Matti, Baghdad , كنيسة السريان الأرثوذكس, كنيسة مار بهنام والشيخ متي - بغداد. المواقع التابعة للديانات في العراق (Religious Sites in Iraq) June 4, 2018.
  6. ↑ Jane Arraf: In Iraq, an Easter resurrection for Christian communities. Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 2009.
  7. ↑ Solomon (Sawa) Solomon: The Genesis of the Modern Assyrian Community of Baghdad ( Memento August 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Assyrian Information Medium Exchange, June 10, 1997.
  8. ^ A b Richard Spencer: The Telegraph: Iraq crisis: The Last Christians of Dora. Telegraph , December 22, 2014 ( in the web archive without paywall).
  9. ↑ War stories of the Tankers, American Armored Combat 1918 to Today , Michael Green, 2008, Zenith Press, p. 319.
  10. ↑ Amped: A Soldier's Race for Gold in the Shadow of War , Kortney Clemons, Wiley Publishing, 2008.
  11. ↑ Liz Sly: Iraqi Christians Flee Baghdad. Chicago Tribune, May 8, 2007. Reprinted by Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).
  12. ↑ Iraq's Christians Attacked Again, This Time in Their Own Homes% 5D, Associated Press access / 1267629861.html? Dids = 1267629861: 1267629861 & FMT = ABS & FMTS = ABS: FT & type = current & date = May + 9% 2C + 2007 & author = Liz + Sly & pub = Chicago + Tribune & edition = & startpage = 1 & desc = Baghdad + Christian + district + besieged + Liz Sly, Baghdad Christian district besieged, Many flee Dora as militants insist on Islam or death. Chicago Tribune , May 9, 2007.
  13. ↑ Chris Mitchell: Iraq Most Dangerous Place for Christians? Christian World News, January 2008.
  14. ↑ Iraq's Christians Attacked Again, This Time in Their Own Homes ( Memento of November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Associated Press, Nov. 24, 2010.

Coordinates: 33 ° 18 '  N , 44 ° 27'  E