News

ADO – Iraq:  On Tuesday October 5, 2010, Adnan Aziz Marqus Batti from the town of Batnaya was kidnapped by an unknown group, while working in the city of Mosul.  The kidnappers contacted his family on the same day demanding a ransom amount of $50,000 (Fifty Thousand US Dollars) for …

ADO – Iraq:  At 7:00 PM, on Tuesday October 5, 2010, Matty Anwar Youkhanna Albazi was released after three days of being kidnapped by an unknown terrorist group.  His family paid a ransom amount of $80,000 (Eighty Thousand US Dollars) for his release.  Mr. Matty Anwar Youkhanna Albazi was kidnapped …

ADO – Iraq:  On Saturday, October 2, 2010, an unknown group abducted Matty Anwar Youkhanna Albazi who resides in the Assyrian neighborhood of Dora in Baghdad. The abductors contacted his family on Sunday October 3, 2010 and demanded a ransom amount of $100,000 (One Hundred Thousand US Dollars) for his …

Up to 25 hostages were killed during a shoot-out between US and Iraqi forces and al-Qaeda-linked gunmen in a Catholic church in Baghdad on Sunday.   By Our Foreign Staff Published: 11:57PM GMT 31 Oct 2010   American soldiers and Iraqi security forces had entered the church in the centre …

ADO Tuesday 28 September 2010 Giulio Paletta’s exhibition of photographs of Tur Abdin in Turkey has been opened at Southwark Cathedral by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Photojournalist Giulio Paletta, who specialises in small Christian groups, has been to Tur Abdin in south-east Turkey to record the life of the Syrian …

İskender Debasso is a member of Turkey’s Syriac community that fled its native land in 1974. He fled the hostilities of the local villages and settled in Sweden. Many more followed suit especially in the 1980s due to the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan People’s Party that ravaged the region. …

ADO – The Federal Government says it is hoping to resolve a dispute that is threatening a planned survey of Gallilopi battlefields in Turkey. Turkey’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand is refusing to issue visas to archaeologists from the two countries. He has told Radio New Zealand he is …

ADO Statement Syrian Government’s Political Security Forces Arrest Two Assyrians in the City of Qamishly   On the morning of Monday, September 20, 2010, the Syrian Government’s Political Security Forces in the city of Qamishly, Syria, arrested Mr. Gabriel Issa Iskandar (electrician) who belongs to an Assyrian family that has …

July 19, 2010 ADO – Sydney — Preparations are under way for the upcoming official unveiling of the Assyrian genocide monument, which was approved by Fairfield City Council on December 15, 2009. According to Mr. Hermiz Shahen, the Regional Secretary of the Assyrian Universal Alliance in Australia and New Zealand, …

By Annette Atkins, Marge Barrett and Lois Rogers Saturday, July 10, 2010   ADO: DARA, Turkey — We made our way down the 100+ steps to the granary/cistern that Roman soldiers built here in southeast Turkey in the 580s — amazed, of course, as our guide intends us to be, …