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Giessen - European Syriac Union, ESU Branch organized a demonstration with the participation of Syriac people, religious figures, personalities and Madam Ayfer Gabriel, ESU Co-chair among others in the German city of Giessen. Following the decision of Bethnahrin National Council, MUB to carry out activities and inform international public opinion and Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian about the fate of Said Malke, Vice President of Syriac Union Party, GHS arrested on August 18, 2013 in Qamishli Airport by Syrian regime and abducted bishops of Syria as Syriac Orthodox Church Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji. Moreover, following g his arrest, Said Malke has been transferred to Damascus and whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

On 28-30 June 2017 ESU co-partnered the conference "A Future for Christians in Iraq". The conference was hosted by the EPP, ECH and ALDE European Parliament political groups and took place in the European Parliament in Brussels. Representatives from different political Chaldean/Assyrian/Syriac parties and churches, NGO’s and representatives from the Iraqi government and KRG attended the conference. The main goal of the conference was to give the Chaldeans/Syriacs/Assyrians a platform on an international diplomatic level to support the demand for and Autonomous Region in the Nineveh Plain in Iraq for our Chaldean/Syriac/Assyrian people.

Geschätzte Demokratinnen und Demokraten, vor 6 Jahren wurden die beiden Bischöfe von Aleppo Yohanna Ibrahim und Boulos Jaziji von Unbekannten gekidnappt. Bis Heute fehlt jedes Lebenszeichen der Geistlichen. Einige Monate später namen syrische Behörden den Vizepräsidenten der Syrischen Union Said Malke am hellichsten Tage gefangen und verschleppten ihn. Es werden keine Gründe seiner Inhaftierung genannt und jeglicher Kontakt unterbunden. Das einzige Verbrechen des christlichen Politikers Said Malke war es sich friedlich für die Rechte der Assyrer-Aramäer-Chaldäer und die Demokratisierung Syriens einzusetzen.

On Sunday 25 August in the presence of the clergy, Tur Abdin locals and guests from all over Europe and with the service led by Mor Timotheus Samuel Aktaş (bishop of the Tur Abdin region residing in the Mor Gabriel monastery) the church of Mor Yacoub and Mor Barsawmo was opened and consecrated in the village of Kafro of Tur Abdin. Kafro village is in the Tur Izlo region and is one of the Syriac villages in the region which was emptied during the 90s because of security reasons compelling the local population to emigrate to Europe.

On 19 August, Turkey’s Interior Ministry removed from office the democratically elected metropolitan mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van without just reason. This unilateral, undemocratic decision by the Interior Ministry is again clear evidence of the AKPs lack of respect for election results. The three metropolitan mayors from the Democratic Peoples Party (HDP) were elected by the people to serve all citizens of their respective cities and offer services to all segments of society. Less than 6 months after the elections, the removal by state authorities of the mayors and the detention of hundreds of HDP members is another setback on the path to an inclusive political system in Turkey and a blow to all Turkish citizens craving for freedom, equality and democracy.

Every year on August 7 our Syriac (Chaldean-Aramean-Assyrian) people commemorate the Assyrian martyrs of Simele (Duhok province, Iraq). This day reminds us of yet another bloody massacre on the indigenous Christian population of Mesopotamia. In the preceding weeks up to and including August 7, 1933, Iraqi troops and local allies attacked Assyrian Christians – most of them members of the Church of the East - in Simele and dozens of neighboring villages. They killed more than three thousand men, women and children in those weeks, six hundred of them in Simele on August 7 alone. Thus, less than 2 decades after the Christian Genocide of 1915, Assyrians once again became victims of brutal mass killings.

Following the taking of the city of Mosul by ISIS in August 2014, the Nineveh Plain and the Shingal region sadly underwent the same fate again when, with ISIS in eyesight, Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces unexpectedly retreated. This led to the massive exodus of our Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people from the Nineveh Plain and the Yazidi people from Shingal. Christians fled Mosul by the ten-thousands. The Nineveh Plain Christian towns and villages followed shortly after.

On August 2014, following the capture of Mosul city by ISIS, Nineveh Plains and Shingal region faced similar threat and they had been controlled by ISIS following the retreat of Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces which lead to the massive exodus of Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people from Nineveh Plains and the Yazidis from Shingal and later faced genocide, killings, and abductions.

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A Future for Christians in Iraq

The Conference 'A Future for Christians in Iraq' co-partnered by the European Syriac Union, 28-30 June 2017, European Parliament, Brussels.

Signed position paper

In Memory of the Martyrs of the 1915 Genocide ESU calls for the Establishment of Sayfo Monuments in all our Syriac Public Places

PRESS RELEASE: ESU CALLS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SAYFO MONUMENTS