News

by Fulya Özerkan ANKARA, Turkije – Hurriyet — A Swedish parliament deputy of Assyrian origin will attend a hearing Friday for a land dispute between a 1,600-year-old monastery and locals in the southeastern Anatolian town of Midyat, populated by about 3,000 Assyrians. “I hope a fair verdict will be delivered …

WASHINGTON – worldmag — The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Tuesday that the State Department declare Iraq a “country of particular concern,” a label reserved for nations with “ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” So far only eight countries out of 12 recommended by the USCIRF have received …

     ANKARA – Hurriyet — A 1,600-year-old monastery is at the center of a land dispute between a religious group of Assyrians and three nearby villages in Midyat in southeastern Anatolia. The case is one of many being followed closely by the European Union as it monitors the situation for …

     SANTA ANA, California – christiannewswire — On Tuesday the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will hold a press conference to update the status of religious freedom in Iraq. A press release issued last week from the USCIRF states: “Although there has been some reduction in violence …

     Södertälje, Sweden – AINA — Nearly four thousand Assyrians gathered in the town of Södertälje on Sunday to protest the attempts by Muslim village leaders in south-eastern Turkey to confiscate lands belonging to the ancient Saint Gabriel monastery (AINA 12-2-2008, 9-16-2008). Representatives of major Swedish political parties, Assyrian organizations …

     Stockholm – AINA — Muslim village leaders in south eastern Turkey have initiated a legal process to confiscate lands belonging to the Assyrian monastery of Saint Gabriel in the south eastern part of the country (AINA 12-2-2008, 9-16-2008). The monastery was established in 397 AD, before the birth of …

By Geoffrey Johnston Baghdad – christianweek — The terrible human toll that the Iraq war has taken on the country’s Sunni and Shia Muslim populations has been well documented by mainstream news organizations. But the intense suffering of Iraq’s indigenous Christians and their desperate struggle for survival in an increasingly …

Gregg Krupa SOUTHFIELD – The Detroit News — The highest-ranking Chaldean cleric in Iraq called on the world to focus on the plight of Christian minorities amid the turmoil in his country, and he said that Muslims also have shared the pain of the violence that still shatters normal society …

Tur-Abdin – AINA — ( The Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, has sent a letter to the Turkish government regarding the harassment and persecution of St. Gabriel Monastery by Turkish and Kurdish villagers (AINA 12-2-2008, 9-16-2008). The monastery, founded in 397 AD, belongs to the …

     Stockholm – AINA — Two Swedish MPs from the Christian Democratic Party, Mr. Lennart Sacradeus and Ms. Annelie Enochson, expressed in a joint statement concern for the Saint Gabriel monastery in south eastern Turkey, which is being harassed by Muslim Kurds and Turks from the surrounding villages. The villagers …