Armenians in Iraqi-Kurdistan

[kerkuk_kurdista]

As a Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan, I want to contribute some information about the Armenians living in the Kurdish part of Iraq.

Avzrog (Avzarok in Kurdish) is a village in the Iraqi providence of Dohuk. The village is split into two areas: One populated by Armenians and the other of the Chaldo-Assyrians.

The village of Avzrog is located in the Sulaivany area in the West of Dohuk. Sulaivany area is situated between Sumail and the mountains in South of Zakho. Avzrog is 30 km from Zakho.

It was constructed for the first time in 1932 when the Armenians of Zakho and suburbs decided to establish the village and settle in in it.

The village was destructed on 1975 and the people were forced to flee. They were replaced by Arab tribes as a part of the arabization policy of Saddam Hussain’s regime. The arabisation policy was concentrated in the region of Slevany.

Following 1991, and North Iraq being out of control of the central regime as it became a secured heaven protected by UN and administrated by local government, the Arab tribes fled the region and went back to their original places, mainly south of Mosul.

The Armenian inhabitants of Avzrog don't speak Armenian. They use the Kurdish language. Despite this fact of speaking Kurdish Armenians in Avzrog maintain their Armenian social identity like folklore and names.

In Avzrog there are about 50 Armenian families (320 people).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avzrog"

The Kurdish government has built a church for the Armenians in Avzruk.
The Kurdish area is building up after the devastation of the Baath-regime


The Priest:



The city of Zakho, just behind the border with Turkey has a lot of Armenians. They all came during the period of 1915-1920 when they fledded the extermination hunting of the Ottomans.

[Joseph]

As a Kurd from Iraqi Kurdistan, I want to contribute some information about the Armenians living in the Kurdish part of Iraq.

Avzrog (Avzarok in Kurdish) is a village in the Iraqi providence of Dohuk. The village is split into two areas: One populated by Armenians and the other of the Chaldo-Assyrians.

The village of Avzrog is located in the Sulaivany area in the West of Dohuk. Sulaivany area is situated between Sumail and the mountains in South of Zakho. Avzrog is 30 km from Zakho.

It was constructed for the first time in 1932 when the Armenians of Zakho and suburbs decided to establish the village and settle in in it.

The village was destructed on 1975 and the people were forced to flee. They were replaced by Arab tribes as a part of the arabization policy of Saddam Hussain’s regime. The arabisation policy was concentrated in the region of Slevany.

Following 1991, and North Iraq being out of control of the central regime as it became a secured heaven protected by UN and administrated by local government, the Arab tribes fled the region and went back to their original places, mainly south of Mosul.

The Armenian inhabitants of Avzrog don't speak Armenian. They use the Kurdish language. Despite this fact of speaking Kurdish Armenians in Avzrog maintain their Armenian social identity like folklore and names.

In Avzrog there are about 50 Armenian families (320 people).

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avzrog"

The Kurdish government has built a church for the Armenians in Avzruk.
The Kurdish area is building up after the devastation of the Baath-regime


The Priest:



The city of Zakho, just behind the border with Turkey has a lot of Armenians. They all came during the period of 1915-1920 when they fledded the extermination hunting of the Ottomans.

Thanks for the info.

[imported_RUDO]

Thanks a lot for the information.

By the way I missed this forum a lot.

There is a very important exam tomorrow,then I will be with you,friends again.

HOME SWEET HOME

[Joseph]

Thanks a lot for the information.

By the way I missed this forum a lot.

There is a very important exam tomorrow,then I will be with you,friends again.

HOME SWEET HOME

Good luck Rudo!

[imported_RUDO]

The exam was very good.

I will possibly be a university student next year.

Thanks Joseph.

[Joseph]

The exam was very good.

I will possibly be a university student next year.

Thanks Joseph.

Good news! Enjoy your celebration

[bell-the-cat]

There is a very important exam tomorrow,

I thought you were older?

[Joseph]

Christians in Kurdistan

Iraq Christians flee Baghdad for peace and hardship in Kurdistan
6/27/2006 * AFP - By Abdel Hamid Zebari
"We don't have any choice," says a squatter gesturing to the new home he has made for his family in a Christian cemetery in Iraqi Kurdistan, after fleeing violence-plagued Baghdad.

"We are afraid of the snakes and scorpions, especially with the children, but it's better than sleeping without a roof," says Imad Matti who has just moved his wife and children into the Inkawa necropolis outside the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil.

Iraq and the rest of the world are rightly worried about Shiite and Sunni Muslims forced to flee their homes around the country because of raging communal violence.

But the exodus of Christians from the capital, which Kurdish officials say has seen 70 families arrive in Inkawa in recent weeks, has not received the same attention.

The families cite the same dire situation in Baghdad, where threats from armed groups and attacks on businesses from drinks shops to hairdressing salons are rife.

Now Matti lives in a room that used to be the cemetery watchman's hut, while nearby Haval Emmanuel's family has improvised their home in adobe among the tombs.

"Living in an adobe hut in oil-rich Iraq," says Emmanuel, observing the irony of his family's predicament. "But as difficult as the conditions are we accept them -- because we can't endanger the lives of our loved ones."

But Christian leaders are reluctant to speak out about the problems faced by their congregations. The head of the Chaldean Catholic church Emmanuel Dely refused to discuss the issue with AFP.

It was the Arab League's representative in the war-torn country, Mokhtar Lamani of Morocco, who drew attention to a problem which he said affected all of Iraq's religious minorities, not just Christians.

"During a recent visit to Kurdistan, I found out that all members of the Mandaean community in Baghdad... have asked for mass migration to the region," Lamani told AFP.

The Mandaeans, followers of a monotheistic religion which reveres John the Baptist but does not recognize Jesus, Mohammed or Moses, once lived mainly in southern Iraq and neighbouring Iran but many fled to Baghdad after Saddam Hussein suppressed a Shiite uprising in the marshlands in the early 1990s.

Lamani said that 3,500 Christian families who had received threats had also fled the capital for the relative safety of Kurdistan.

The sudden influx of Christians to Inkawa has made it increasingly difficult for families of modest means to rent accommodation. A two-room apartment now costs at least 500 dollars a month, with more spacious properties costing double.

Kurdish authorities give some families 100 dollars a month, but that is not enough for Imad Matti to rent a home.

Mazen Francis has an apartment, thanks to getting his son to work in the blacksmith's he has just opened rather than sending him to school.

Other families share a single apartment, while the demand for even meagre homes from Inkawa estate agents remains high in this town of 30,000, almost all Christians.

"Three to six heads of families come here every day looking for lodging, and it's more and more difficult to find something for them," says estate agent Kameran Matti.

Father Saliwa Hibi of the town's Saint Joseph church says his parish is trying to help those who arrive daily from Baghdad but also increasingly from the main northern city Mosul.

There are believed to be around 800,000 Christians still in Iraq. Chaldean Catholics form the largest community. Many of those who could afford to do so have already fled the country since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003.

[kerkuk_kurdista]

Iraq's minority Sabean-Mandeans seek Kurdistan safe haven 22.6.2006

Iraq's minority Sabean-Mandeans seek Kurdistan safe haven 22.6.2006

BAGHDAD, June 22, 2006 (AFP) , -- Baghdad's entire Sabean-Mandean population estimated at 25,000 has presented a petition to Kurdish authorities to move to the northern region's safe haven, an Arab League official said Thursday.

"During a recent visit to Kurdistan, I found out that all members of the Sabean-Mandean community in Baghdad... have asked for mass immigration to the region," the head of the league's mission to Iraq Mokhtar Lamani told AFP.

Representatives of the community were not immediately available for comment.

Lamani said that 3,500 Christian families have fled to Kurdistan from the violence-plagued capital after receiving threats, which has enjoyed a defacto autonomy from the centre since the Gulf War in 1991.

It is believed there are about 60,000 Sabean-Mandeans left in Iraq with many concentrated in the southern provinces around the marshlands. The community, which reveres Christian disciple John the Baptist, moved to Mesopotamia from Jerusalem in the second century AD to flee persecution by orthodox Jews.

The ancient religion combines Babylonian, pre-Islamic, Persian and Christian beliefs.

Among its holiest periods are the "five white days" in spring when hundreds of men and women draped in white cloth plunge themselves in the Tigris in elaborate baptism rituals.

It is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been displaced in Iraq as a result of the sectarian violence that has not only affected the Shiites and Sunnis -- the two majority communities -- but minorities like the Christians and others.

AFP

[imported_RUDO]

I thought you were older?

So you thought I am older.

I tricked you.

I am just a little child.

But don't despise my thoughts!!!