December 2019
What Others are Saying About Chaldeans
Mike Pence defends federal aid funneling to Christian groups
By Christopher Vondracek
Vice President Mike Pence is not backing down from criticism that his office improperly funneled federal aid to several Christian groups, particularly those in the religiously diverse Nineveh Plains of Iraq, saying it’s part of the Trump administration’s “vision” for helping victims of Islamic State genocide.
“The vice president is proud of the work the Trump administration and members of his team have done to assist victims of genocide in Iraq,” a spokesperson for Mr. Pence said.
ProPublica reported Wednesday that Mr. Pence and his aides over the last two years have intervened in decisions by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to award aid funds to Christian groups in the largely Muslim nation.
ProPublica reported that USAID Administrator Mark Green removed a longtime civil servant from the Middle East bureau, acting on a request from an aide to Mr. Pence, who was angered that Christian groups weren’t included in the grant cycle.
A Pence aide called this “one-sided reporting,” adding in an email that “it should come as no surprise that this administration is committed to actually doing what the president has promised — to provide aid in the most direct and effective way possible to those suffering — and we have been appropriately focused on doing so.”
Chaldean patriarch calls for fasting, prayer amid Iraq protests
By Courtney Mares
Baghdad, Iraq, Nov 12, 2019 / 10:50 am (CNA).- The Chaldean patriarch has called for three days of fasting and prayer “for an end to the chaos and violence that are bloodying” Iraq.
For more than six weeks, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been protesting government corruption. More than 300 have been killed by security forces.
Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon, has asked that Chaldeans observe Nov. 11-13 as days of fasting and prayer.
The protests, which began Oct. 1, are largely in response to government corruption and a lack of economic growth and proper public services. Protesters are calling for electoral reform and for early elections.
At least 319 people have been killed in the protests. Government forces have used tear gas and bullets against protesters.
Nearly 15,000 people have been injured in the protests, according to the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq.
The murder of a priest raises fears for Syria’s Christians
By John Pontifex
Violence this month in Syria has raised the spectre of renewed Islamist persecution against Christians, especially in the north-east of the country. Armenian Catholic Fr Hovsep Bedoyan and his father Abraham were shot dead in an ambush in the province of Deir Ezzor. A deacon, Fati Sano, was also injured.
The group were travelling to the province to view progress on the restoration of the local Armenian Catholic church.
Amid reports that ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attacks, Armenian Catholic Archbishop Boutros Marayati of Aleppo told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: “Fr Hovsep was dressed in his priestly attire … Consequently [he was] recognisable as a priest, in addition to the fact that his car was clearly marked, in large letters, with the words ‘Armenian Catholic Church’.”
The incident coincided with an explosion near the Chaldean Catholic church and a market in nearby Qamishli, Fr Bedoyan’s home city. Local clergy reported that seven people were killed and at least 70 others injured in an attack involving three bombs in two cars and on a motorbike.
Bishop Georges Abou Khazen, the Latin Bishop of Aleppo, said in a report published by the Assyrian International News Agency: “The devices have exploded near the church and this, according to us, has a very precise meaning: they want to target Christians.”
In northeast Syria, last Assyrians fear Turkish advance
By AFP
TEL TAMR, Syria – Since fleeing her hometown in northeastern Syria, Suad Simon prays every day for the safety of her husband, who stayed behind with other fighters to defend their majority-Assyrian village.
Assyrian Christians like Simon, who escaped the town’s occupation by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in 2015 and did not choose to emigrate, now anxiously watch the advance of Turkish forces towards their villages in the south of Hasaka province.
Ankara is still trying to gain ground despite two ceasefire agreements reached last month to put an end to its offensive against the Kurdish-dominated region.
Simon, 56, fled her village of Tel Kefji that is not far from areas still hit by sporadic fighting and sought refuge with a relative in Tel Tamr to the south.
“We women left because we were afraid of the bombings,” said Simon, sitting in the corner of an earthen house where she had lit candles for her husband.
“We just want peace,” she said. “I left behind so many memories... my husband, my house, my family and neighbors.”
Her husband had joined the Khabur Guards, a small Christian militia that took up the defense of more than thirty Assyrian villages in 2015 with the help of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
Ankara launched a cross-border invasion of the Kurdish-controlled region on October 9 to push back the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, which it deems a “terrorist” group.
Climate change fueled the rise and demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, superpower of the ancient world
By Ashish Sinha and Gayatri Kathayat
Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to 609 BC in what is now modern Iraq and Syria. At its height, the Assyrian state stretched from the Mediterranean and Egypt in the west to the Persian Gulf and western Iran in the east.
Then, in an astonishing reversal of fortune, the Neo-Assyrian Empire plummeted from its zenith (circa 650 BC) to complete political collapse within the span of just a few decades. What happened?
Numerous theories attempt to explain the Assyrian collapse. Most researchers attribute it to imperial overexpansion, civil wars, political unrest and Assyrian military defeat by a coalition of Babylonian and Median forces in 612 BC. But exactly how these two small armies were able to annihilate what was then the most powerful military force in the world has mystified historians and archaeologists for more than a hundred years.
Our new research published in the journal Science Advances sheds light on these mysteries. We show that climate change was the proverbial double-edged sword that first contributed to the meteoric rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and then to its precipitous collapse.