Nineveh Plain

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The Nineveh Plain ( Classical Syriac ܦܩܥܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ Pqatā d'Ninwe , modern Aramaic ܕܫܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ Daštā d'Ninwe , Kurdish دەشتا نەینەوا Deşta Neynewa ) is a region in the Iraqi province of Ninawa . It borders the city of Mosul to the north and west . The plain generally consists of three districts: Tel Kaif , al-Hamdaniya and al-Shikhan . The area also includes the ancient Assyrian ruins of the cities of Nineveh , Nimrud and Dur Sharrukin .

Map of the Nineveh Plain in Ninawa Province

population

Most of the residents are - or were until the Iraq war from 2003 and the Daesh rule from 2014 to 2016 - Syrian - Aramaic speaking Christians ( Suryoye ) (also called Assyrians / Aramaeans / Chaldeans ). In 2019/2020 they belonged to the following Syrian churches :

The region of the Nineveh Plain is considered to be the home of the Syrian Christians. In addition to the Syrian Christians, Yazidis , Kurds & Shabak also live as a minority in the plain. At the beginning of 2014, before the occupation by Daesh (IS) , Christians made up around 40% of the population of the Nineveh Plain, according to the Kurdish news network Rudaw . According to the last recognized census of 1957, Christians made up around 60% of the population of the Nineveh Plain, while in all of Iraq it was around 3.1%. Only a minority of those displaced in 2014 returned after the Islamists were expelled in 2017. Nevertheless, the Chaldean Catholic priest Thabit Mekko liquidated in August 2019 compared to Vatican News the current percentage of Christians in the Nineveh plains to "more than 60 percent." However, the Church in Need only had a share of around 10% Christians in 2019, with the majority of Christians living in Alqosch , Baghdida and Tesqopa and more than a third in Bartella . In the small villages and in Bartella, however, Shabak formed the majority, in Schechan , Bahzani and Baschiqa, however, Yazidis. Tel Keppe is now dominated by Arab Sunnis , whose settlement can be traced back in part to the Arabization policy of Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and 1980s . While, according to the Church in Need, around 40% of Christians returned to their homes after 2016, the majority of Tel Keppes - Chaldeans - Christians emigrated to the USA.

According to the study published in 2020 by Church in Need, 54% of the Christians surveyed on the Nineveh Plain identify themselves as " Syriac " ( " Syriac " - Syrian Orthodox and Syrian Catholic, especially in Bartella and Baghdida ), 35% as "Chaldeans" (Chaldean Catholic, especially in Baqopa , Batnaya , Tel Keppe and Tesqopa ) and 2% as "Assyrians" (Assyrian Church of the East and Old Church of the East, mostly still in Tel Keppe and Karamless ). Only 9% of the Christians surveyed described themselves as “ Arabs ” (who also spoke Arabic : around half of the Christians in Karamless, Baschiqa and Bahzani, 5% in Baghdida, 3% in Tesqopa and 0% elsewhere). 90% of Christians gave Surith (" Syriac ", Eastern Aramaic ) as their first language (100% in Bartella, Batnaya and Tel Keppe, at least 90% in Karamless, Baqopa, Baghdida and Tesqopa, 16% in Bahzani, 11% in Baschiqa and 0% in Mosul). Due to the exodus of Christians, the survival of the Surith language is viewed as threatened.

Attacks by Islamists and other groups on Christians

Attacks by Islamists on Christians in the city of Mosul led to a wave of refugees in the villages of the Nineveh Plain from October 2008, which temporarily swelled the Christian population there. Within a month over 13,000 Christians fled the city to the Nineveh Plain.

In August 2014, the Islamist terrorist organization Daesh (IS) conquered a large part of the Nineveh Plain from the south, including Baghdida , which is considered the unofficial Christian “capital” , which is why practically all Christians and other non-Sunni residents had to flee. Most of the Christian refugees came to the predominantly Christian city of Ankawa on the northern edge of Erbil . Around 15,000 people were accommodated in the Mart Schmoni refugee camp 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. The willful destruction of houses and churches by the Islamist occupiers is seen as a major obstacle to the refugees' return home. According to the Catholic aid organization Kirche in Not, around 40% of the displaced Christians - 8,815 Christian families with around 40,000 people - had returned to their homeland by August 2018 . Of the 13,500 houses destroyed or damaged, around a third had been rebuilt, for which the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee had allocated around US $ 7,000 per family. The Christian minister of the regional government of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan , Ano Jawhar Abdoka , paints a much darker picture: According to his words, based on statements from local clergy, four to six families leave the Nineveh Plain every week for the Kurdistan region or Iraq Abroad, which is why hundreds of newly built houses are empty. The main cause for this is uncertainty and fear, since uncontrolled militias have greater power here than the Iraqi state power. The armed forces of the Shiite al-Hashd al-Sha'bī actively pursued a change in the population situation to the detriment of the Christians through the settlement of Shiites . The former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the former US special envoy Brett McGurk would have left the area to these militias. Abdoka calls for an international solution for the Christians in the Nineveh Plain. Similar reasons for the unwillingness of refugees from the Nineveh Plain to return were given in January 2019 by the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul and Kirkuk, Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf , and the coordinator for international aid of the government of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, Dindar Zebari . According to the latter, 85% of the refugees were not yet ready to return. The anti-Christian militias are particularly active in Telkaif and al-Hamdaniya (with the Baghdida center).

According to Church in Need , the population of the Nineveh Plain began to decline again in 2019 as residents increasingly migrate abroad. In 2019, 3,000 people emigrated from Baghdida alone within the three summer months. Political uncertainty and a general threat are cited as the most important reason, since most Christians in the Nineveh Plain are in the face of the Shiite militias operating here - in particular the al-Hashd asch- Schaʿbī ( Shabak militia or 30th Brigade in Bartella, Baschiqa and Chidr Ilyas and the Babylon Brigade in Tel Keppe and Batnaya) - feel insecure. Here Baghdida belongs (next Karamless) of the few places in the Nineveh plains, where the Christian units to protect the Nineveh plains ( Nineveh Protection Units , NPU) are in control, while it is the Shabak militia succeeded from the up In 2014 , Bartella, a practically purely Christian and Syrian-speaking , majority of whom belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church , became a Shiite majority in Shabak. In order to reverse this trend, the Church in Need is supporting both the reconstruction of homes and churches - but this does not eliminate the main reason for emigration, the threat to Christians from militias. The projects also include the reconstruction of the Great al-Tahira Church in Baghdida by 2020.

Aspirations for autonomy

Since the cities and villages of the Nineveh Plain form a majority of Syrian Christians and the area was part of the Assyrian Empire in antiquity, an attempt is being made to create an autonomous region for the Syriac living there in the Nineveh Plain. Some members of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region (which has no legal responsibility for the area) supported the proposal for a Syrian-Christian Autonomous Region in the plain. There have been plans to promote this region for several years, including the establishment of a university.

Cities in the Nineveh Plain

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.iraqdemocracyproject.org/pdf/Nineveh%20Plain%20Needs%20Assessment.pdf
  2. ↑ Andrzej Halemba , Xavier Bisits: Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq. Results from ACN's survey of Christians in the liberated Nineveh Plains. . Aid to the Church in Need , June 2020. p. 13.
  3. ↑ Judit Neurink: Nineveh for Christians? Let's wait and see. Rudaw , January 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ a b Ano Jawhar Abdoka : The existence of Christians in the Nineveh plain is being extinguished. Ojcos Foundation, January 31, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b Mario Galgano, Marco Guerra: Iraq: Christians want to take on a key role again. 5th August 2019.
  6. ↑ Andrzej Halemba , Xavier Bisits: Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq. Results from ACN's survey of Christians in the liberated Nineveh Plains. . Aid to the Church in Need , June 2020. pp. 22, 33, 36.
  7. ↑ Andrzej Halemba , Xavier Bisits: Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq. Results from ACN's survey of Christians in the liberated Nineveh Plains. . Aid to the Church in Need , June 2020. pp. 11f.
  8. ^ Thousands of Christians flee Iraq city . CNN , October 16, 2008.
  9. ^ Spokesman: Shooter in Iraqi uniform kills US troops. CNN , November 12, 2008.
  10. ↑ Iraq pledges $ 900K to help displaced Christians. CNN , November 2, 2008.
  11. ↑ Martin Chulov, Fazel Hawramy: Isis has shattered the ancient ties that bound Iraq's minorities. The Guardian , Aug. 9, 2014.
  12. ↑ Iraq - mass exodus from terror of the Islamic State. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 7, 2014.
  13. ↑ Zara Sarvarian: Iraq's Assyrian Christians: resurgence persecution and. World Watch Monitor, April 4, 2018.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ Robert Edwards (in an interview with Bashar Warda ): Archbishop of Erbil: Iraq's Christians need to thrive, not just survive. Rudaw , March 13, 2019.
  16. ↑ More and more Christians are returning to the Nineveh Plains. Katholisch.de , August 8, 2018.
  17. ↑ Return of the Christians to the Nineveh Plain is currently unlikely. Agenzia Fides , January 29, 2019.
  18. ↑ Andrzej Halemba , Xavier Bisits: Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq. Results from ACN's survey of Christians in the liberated Nineveh Plains. . Aid to the Church in Need , June 2020. pp. 33, 36, 38–45.
  19. ↑ Iraq: Church building for hope. Six years after the IS conquests, the reconstruction in the Nineveh Plains continues. Church in Need , August 5, 2020.
  20. ↑ http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc0121AE.html
  21. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.assyrianamericancoalition.org
  22. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zindamagazine.com

Coordinates: 36 ° 40 ′ 22.2 "  N , 43 ° 23 ′ 25.8"  E