“They threatened us, saying that they would not let us live in the village … But we are not afraid. We will continue to stay here.” It’s the same story the world over, in so many different contexts, and yet international authorities resolutely fail to see the common thread. “Historic Church Service in Mardin, Turkey, […]
Persecution against Christians never ends in Turkey
How do Christian families, most of whom are descendants of the survivors of the 1913-23 Christian genocide, continue to survive in Turkey? How much respect and tolerance are shown towards them by the Muslim society and government of Turkey? A recent incident targeting the Assyrian Christian natives in a village in southeast Turkey gives us […]
Historic Church Used as a Stable in Southeast Turkey
Churches across Turkey, which are devoid of their congregants due to continued Christian persecution, are systematically desecrated by the government and many citizens of the country. One of the latest victims is the Assyrian/Syriac Mor Aday Church. It is being used as a stable by local villagers in a district in southeast Turkey, reported […]
June 15: 106th Anniversary of Turkey’s 1915 Assyrian Genocide
Tuesday, June 15 marked the 106th anniversary of the beginning of the Assyrian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey committed between 1915 and 1923. During this period, Assyrians — alongside Greeks and Armenians — were exposed to genocide, in which around 300,000 Assyrians perished. Assyrians call the crime “seyfo,” which means “sword” in their language, as […]
Turkey: Christian priest tried for ‘membership in a terrorist organization’
A Christian priest in Turkey has been on trial for trumped-up charges since January. The Assyrian priest, Sefer Aho Bileçen, is accused of “being a member of a terrorist organization.” According to the indictment, the so-called “evidence” is “sharing his food with some PKK members.” The third hearing of the priest was held on November […]
Turkey: Muslims fire shots at Christian journalist’s home, “scaring and intimidating for Assyrians”
Once again, the terror imperative. “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know, whom Allah knows.” (Qur’an 8:60) “Christian Journalist Targeted in Turkey,” International Christian […]
Iraq: Elderly Assyrian Christian women stabbed as jihadists terrorize their community
The whole world is obsessed about the Palestinians who are referenced as “indigenous people” when they are really peoples from Ottoman South Syria. The Jews are the indigenous inhabitants of their land, as are Christians throughout the Middle East–both groups tormented by jihadists who want them to either be dhimmis or vanish. The aim of […]
Only 900 Christians left in Syrian region where 10,000 lived before the Islamic State came in
The international “human rights community” is too busy tracking down claims of “Islamophobia” to take any notice of this. “‘There Are No Girls Left’: Syria’s Christian Villages Hollowed Out by ISIS,” by Ben Hubbard, New York Times, August 15, 2018: …The number of Christians across the Middle East has been declining for decades as persecution […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: Even the Kurds Now Impose a Disguised Jizyah
The recent news that the Kurdish government in northern Iraq has imposed a variety of special taxes and fees on those who live in the town of Ankawa should raise an eyebrow or two. Business owners in Ankawa — but nowhere else within the Kurdish-run area — will now have to pay a fee to […]
Northern Iraq: Kurdish government imposes jizya on Assyrian Christians
“One Assyrian politician interviewed by the API was told by a KRG official that this was a form of jizya tax, justified because Ankawa is a Christian town.” Jizya is a tax that the subjugated “People of the Book” must pay to the Muslims for the privilege of being allowed to practice their religions, albeit […]