Category: News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA
Contact: Linda Yepoyan
[email protected]

July 30, 2004
BIRTHRIGHT ARMENIA CELEBRATES ITS INAUGURAL YEAR
Yerevan, Armenia – Armenian youth from a cross section of our diasporan
institutions came together, joined by the newly repatriated diasporan youth
and their Homeland peers, to celebrate the launch of a new and truly
forward thinking organization, Birthright Armenia/Depi Hayk. The inaugural
festivities, under the name ” Gateway 2004″, symbolizing the organizations’
promotion of an ever-widening bridge between the Diaspora and the Homeland,
was held on July 16th in Yerevan with lively dancing, food and drink.
“Gateway 2004” marks this non-profit’s first year of operations in Armenia.
It also served as a means to highlight the diversity of the first group of
young participants which Birthright Armenia/Depi Hayk sponsored from seven
different summer volunteer, cultural, and study programs serving our
diasporan youth. It was an unprecedented evening of unification and
networking in one, under the main “Journey of Self-Discovery” theme. The 40
Depi Hayk participants of 2004 and other diasporan attendees represented the
following organizations: Armenian Volunteer Corps, Armenian Students’
Association-NY, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian Youth Federation,
Land and Culture Organization, Armenian Medical Association and the Armenian
Church Youth Organization of America, the University of Michigan Summer
Language Institute and the Christian Youth Mission to Armenia .
Welcoming the 160 plus attendees, Birthright Armenia founder Edele Hovnanian
commented that “It is refreshing to see a truly integrated group of youth
gathered together under one roof, all of whom understand the importance of
our presence here in the Homeland at this particular time in the history of
our building a nation-state”. She then introduced Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian to continue the welcome and opening remarks. Addressing the group,
Minister Oskanian stated:
“The first time I heard about the Depi Hayk program, I immediately jumped on
the idea, committing the Foreign Ministry to help this new organization in
any way necessary. This is the first step in really increasing the number
of diasporan youth who can experience the Homeland, and I am confident that
it will continue to grow and expand beyond North America to include young
people and groups from all over the world. This will enable young adults to
see Armenia, in all its beauty, to see its progress, to understand the good
and the bad, to take in everything that Armenia is at this moment.
The message I want to leave you with today is the following: please don’t
take what you see in Armenia today for granted. It took us a great deal to
build this and to keep this. We’ve come a long way since the early days of
independence. A long, long way. Our main source of pride should be this
Armenia. Believe in Armenia. Be committed to it. When you get back home,
stay involved, join efforts with others, influence your governments, and
become more engaged. Yes, there are many differences between the Diaspora
and the Homeland, as a result of many things like history and geography. The
result is different upbringing and different thought processes. We can
certainly bridge these gaps, and one of the best ways to do so is through
the younger generations. One of the most effective ways to do so is through
interaction among youth here on Armenian soil, so we can reach our goal and
say we are one nation, comprised of two entities, the Diaspora and the
Homeland. The two together through joint efforts will make Armenia the
place we will all be proud of.”
The Gateway 2004 celebration took place at the spacious art showroom of the
Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art – graciously offered to
Birthright Armenia by co-Founder Edward Balassanian. Live international
music was provided by Arsen Nercessian, a local musician with a
Latino/Calypso touch.
It is foreseen that “Gateway” celebrations will be an annual affair, to
capture the energy and spirit of Birthright Armenia/Depi Hayk efforts at the
peak of the summer programs, and to continually serve as a networking and
relationship building event for Armenian youth worldwide.
Birthright Armenia’s mission is to strengthen ties between the Homeland and
diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of Armenia’s
daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through work, study
and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense of Armenian
identity. This is accomplished by supporting and complementing the
initiatives of existing diasporan organizations that offer youth programs in
Armenia, and encouraging them to expand their offerings in depth and breath.
Birthright Armenia assists with travel fellowships, language instruction,
in-country seminars, orientation and excursions in exchange for community
service in Armenia. Please visit our Web site at
for more information.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Student is honored for genocide studies
Philadelphia Inquirer
Sunday, Aug. 01, 2004
By Wendy Walker, Inquirer Suburban Staff
WEST CHESTER, PA – For Jonathan Coull, winning the award from the
Pennsylvania Association of Graduate Students for best graduate thesis was
an honor, sure.
But getting to the awards ceremony at Bloomsburg University in June was a
real challenge.
Coull, who will receive his master’s degree in Holocaust and Genocide
Studies from West Chester University later this summer, had sold his Honda
to pay his expenses. He ended up having to beg a ride from a friend who
delivers pizzas.
“The stereotype of a starving graduate student, that’s pretty much him,”
said one of his professors, William Hewitt.
Coull’s master’s thesis, “Imperial Gods: The Second Reich’s Stolen History
and its Evolution to Nazism,” explores the complicity of the German
government in the Armenian genocide during World War I.
“The [awards] committee liked the idea that I questioned the operating
procedure for the Western world,” Coull said. “The slogan ‘Never forget?’
It’s a failure. It’s not something that we live by. We need to change the
way we see the world.”
Coull wrote most of the award-winning thesis in the Sender Fredjowicz Study
Room at the university’s library. Named after a Holocaust survivor, the room
houses books, documents, videotapes, microfilm and artwork – and a small
Oriental rug on which Coull confessed to napping during his long hours of
work.
Coull, 33, attended Upper Merion High School then graduated from East
Stroudsburg University in 1994 with a degree in criminal justice and
sociology. He spent two years in the Army, then did social work for Delaware
County Children and Youth Services, Northwestern Human Services, and other
agencies.
Tired out from social work, he took a trip to Eastern Europe and visited the
concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, where a question lodged deep
in his soul: “Where do people get these sick ideas? It’s just wrong.”
When he returned home, the question continued to haunt him, and in 2000, he
decided to enroll at West Chester to pursue a graduate degree.
“I sold my Honda. I left a really nice King of Prussia apartment. I took out
student loans,” he said. “I wondered about my sanity.”
In the Armenian genocide, the political group ruling the Ottoman Empire,
known as the Young Turks, systematically deported, tortured and killed most
of the Armenians living in the empire during World War I. According to the
Armenian National Institute, 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915
and 1923.
Hewitt said that after Coull started studying the Armenian genocide, “he
really took off with it… . I guess you could say that I cast little grains
of sand, and he grabbed hold of it and really ran with it and made it into a
pearl.”
While earning his graduate degree and working on his thesis, Coull also
learned German, served as a teaching assistant, and helped to organize the
university’s Holocaust collection. “He did yeoman’s work on that,” Hewitt
said.
It was an intense period, Coull said: “I was in the zone. The outside world
would just wash away.”
He said the horrific nature of much of what he read took an emotional toll.
“I would get depressed,” he said. “There were times I wept, for sure.”
Hewitt said that Coull’s thesis is a good basis for a Ph.D. thesis and “he
could get a really nice little monograph out of it.” Coull said he wants to
apply to doctoral programs to pursue his research, particularly at the
University of Toronto’s Zoryan Institute, but can’t afford it right now.
“I love the scholarly life. I love being an academic,” he said, “but the
transitions are brutal. You gotta pay the rent. What I need now is to get a
job.”
Send education news to suburban staff writer Wendy Walker, The Inquirer, 120
N. High St., West Chester, Pa. 19380; e-mail it to [email protected];
or fax to 610-701-7630. Contact Wendy Walker at 610-701-7651 or
[email protected].

The New York Times
Series of Blasts Hit Churches in Baghdad and Northern City
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 1, 2004
Filed at 1:26 p.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A series of coordinated explosions rocked five
churches across Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul on Sunday,
killing at least two people and injuring about 60 others in the first
attacks targeting the country’s Christian minority in a violent
15-month insurgency.
Two explosions just minutes apart shook separate Baghdad churches in a
largely Christian neighborhood during Sunday evening services,
followed shortly by two more explosions at churches in other areas of
the capital. A car bomb and grenade attack hit a church in Mosul at
roughly the same time, Iraqi officials said.
Many of the country’s Christians had become increasingly concerned
about the rising Islamic fundamentalism here and some had fled to
neighboring country’s to wait until the security and political
situation became more calm.
“What are the Muslims doing? Does this mean that they want us out?”
asked Brother Louis, a deacon at the Our Lady of Salvation, as he
cried outside the Assyrian Catholic church. “Those people who commit
these awful criminal acts have nothing to do with God. They will go
to hell.”
U.S. military officials in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood, where the
first two churches were bombed, said they found a third bomb in front
another church that had not exploded. Karada is home to many of the
city’s Christians and many of its churches.
“We were in the Mass and suddenly we heard a big boom, and I couldn’t
feel my body anymore, I didn’t feel anything,” said Marwan Saqiq, who
was covered in blood. “I saw people taking me out with the wood and
glass shattered everywhere.”
U.S. military officials said at least one and possibly both of the
blasts appeared to have come from booby trapped cars.
The explosions in Baghdad killed one person and injured between 50 and
55 people, medical officials said. The blasts in Mosul killed one
person and injured 11 others, said police Maj. Fawaz Fanaan.
In Mosul, about 220 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb blew up next to
a Catholic church while worshippers were coming out of Mass, police
Maj. Raed Abdel Basit said. Several rocket-propelled grenades were
also launched at the church, Bowman said.
The bomb, inside a white Toyota, blew up about 7 p.m. just yards from
the church, said Ghaleb Wadeea, 50-year-old engineer who lives next
door. Debris from the exploded car were scattered about the site, with
some hanging off a nearby electricity pylon.
A bridge in Mosul was also hit, Bowman said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said a total of four churches
were hit in Baghdad, two in Karada, one in the Dora neighborhood and
one in New Baghdad.
At the site of the two blasts in Karada, Iraqi police and National
Guard cordoned off the area. Firefighters and emergency workers were
battling fires and helping the wounded.
The first blast in Baghdad hit outside an Armenian church just 15
minutes into the evening service, witnesses said. The second blast hit
the Assyrian Catholic church about 500 yards away.
Stunned Iraqis ran away from the scene, holding their bleeding heads
in their hands.
“I saw injured women and children and men, the church’s glass
shattered everywhere. There’s glass all over the floor,” said
Juliette Agob, who was inside the Armenian church during the first
explosion.
The back wall of the Catholic church, where a bomb had been placed,
was badly damaged, with bricks scattered about, revealing the graves
from a cemetery behind the building. The bomb left a hole nine feet
wide in the ground.
Three cars were in flames in front of the Armenian Church, colored
glass was scattered across the ground. Four unexploded artillery
shells were still visible inside the booby-trapped car.
Massive plumes of black smoke poured into the evening sky over the
city and U.S. helicopter gunships circled above. Fire fighters and
residents struggled with water hoses to put out the flames, which
leapt from the front of a tan colored church.
Relatives raced to search for loved ones.
One, Roni George, was sitting on the ground weeping after failing to
find his father, mother and two brothers who were at Mass inside one
of the churches during the blast.
Numbering some 750,000, the minority Christians were already concerned
about the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long repressed
under Saddam Hussein. The majority of the Christians are Chaldean
Roman Catholic, the rest Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox and
Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its outskirts and some dwell
further to the north.
Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut
down their businesses, and have turned their sights on fashion stores
and beauty salons. The increasing attention on this minority community
has many within looking for a way out. Many are in neighboring Jordan
and Syria waiting for the security situation to settle, while others
have applied to leave the country.

Reuters
Aug 1 2004
Cars Explode Outside Baghdad Churches; 2 Dead
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Car bombs exploded outside two Christian churches
in central Baghdad Sunday, killing at least two people, wounding
several more and damaging cars and buildings.
A security source in Baghdad said they were suicide attacks.
The first blast occurred outside an Armenian church in the Karrada
district of Baghdad, which is heavily populated with Christians, and
sent thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky over the
city.
The second blast happened about 15 minutes later outside an Assyrian
church in the same area, rattling windows and sending a loud boom
reverberating across the neighborhood.
An ambulance driver told Reuters at least two people were killed in
the second explosion and several more were wounded.
The first blast blew out the stained glass windows of the church,
scattered pieces of hot metal across a wide area and left the burning
wreckage of at least three cars in its wake. “There was a
booby-trapped car, it exploded,” said policeman Geilan Wahoudi at the
scene of the first explosion.
The U.S. military said it had found the shell of a mortar near that
blast, which caused several injuries but is not believed to have
killed anyone.
The bomb appeared to detonate near a generator, which may have caused
more of a conflagration, the police said.
There are an estimated 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them
living in Baghdad.
In recent weeks there has been a string of attacks on alcohol sellers
throughout Iraq, the vast majority of whom are Christians of either
the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.

Sky News, UK
Aug 1 2004
BLASTS ROCK CHURCHES

At least four car bombs have exploded in quick succession outside
churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killing at least
12 people.
The attacks appear to be a targeted assault on Iraq’s influential
Christian minority, police said.
The first car was detonated by a suicide bomber near an Armenian
church in Baghdad’s upmarket district of Karada, said policeman
Haidar Abdul Hussein.
Minutes later, a second car bomb exploded near a Catholic church.
Officials at the Ibn al-Nafeez hospital said 15 people had been
admitted with injuries following the attacks.
Another police officer at the scene said there were casualties, but
was unable to specify how many.
Ambulances ferried the wounded away and firemen battled the flames
and smoke.
In Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, two car
bombs exploded outside a church in the early evening outside the Mar
Polis church in the central Mohandessin neighbourhood, said Major
Mohammed Omar Taha.
“There are casualties, but we don’t know if anyone was killed,” he
said.

Agence France Presse
Aug 1 2004
Four Near Simultaneous Car Bombs Target Iraq Churches: Police
BAGHDAD, Aug 1 (AFP) – At least four car bombs exploded in quick
succession outside churches in Baghdad and the northern city of
Mosul, in an apparently targeted assault on Iraq`s influential
Christian minority, police said.
The first car was detonated by a suicide bomber near an Armenian
church in Baghdad`s upmarket district of Karada, said policeman
Haidar Abdul Hussein. Minutes later, a second car bomb exploded near
a Catholic Syriac church.
Thick black smoke billowed in the sky above Karada, clearly visible
for miles, as ambulances screamed through the streets and firemen
battled to contain the blaze.
Officials at the Ibn al-Nafeez hospital said 15 people had been
admitted with injuries following the attacks. One of the 15 later
died, said Anas Edward, a doctor.
Another police officer at the scene said there were casualties, but
was unable to specify how many.
Nervous police officers fired into the air and an AFP correspondent
saw the gutted shells of the two cars lying in the streets.
A US military spokesman said “at least four explosions” went off in
the central Baghdad area early Sunday evening.
In Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, two car
bombs exploded outside a church in the early evening outside the Mar
Polis church in the central Mohandessin neighbourhood, said Major
Mohammed Omar Taha.
“There are casualties, but we don`t know if anyone was killed,” he
said.

Independent Online, South Africa
Aug 1 2004
Six churches bombed in Iraq’s Bloody Sunday

By Edmund Blair
Baghdad – Car bombs exploded outside at least six Christian churches
in Iraq on Sunday, killing at least three people and wounding many
more in an apparently coordinated attack timed to coincide with
evening prayers.
“We are expecting a huge number of casualties,” an Interior Ministry
source said. He said there had been four blasts at churches in
Baghdad and two in Mosul. At least two of the Baghdad blasts were
suicide car bomb attacks, he said.
The attacks were the first to target Christian churches during the
15-month insurgency.
‘We are expecting a huge number of casualties’
Iraqis said the blasts, which scattered chunks of hot metal and
shattered stained glass windows, said they feared the attacks were
designed to stir tensions among Iraq’s diverse religious communities.
“These operations are aimed at creating strife between Christians,
Shi’as, Sunnis and others, nothing more, nothing less,” said Omar
Hussein, 25, a metalworker near the scene of a blast at the Armenian
church in central Baghdad.
Another blast happened about 15 minutes later outside an Assyrian
church in the same area, mangling cars and sending a loud boom
reverberating across the neighbourhood. Medics dragged a wounded man
from a car, his arm almost torn off by the blast.
An ambulance driver told Reuters that two people were killed in the
explosion at the Assyrian church and several wounded.
Police said at least one person was killed in one of the Mosul
blasts.
There are about 800,000 Christians in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad.
There have been a string of attacks in recent weeks on alcohol
sellers throughout Iraq, the majority of whom are Christians of
either the Assyrian, Chaldean or Armenian denominations.
Earlier on Sunday, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle outside a
police station in Mosul, killing at least five people and wounding
53.
Witnesses said the Toyota Landcruiser raced towards a police
checkpoint as guards screamed at the driver to stop. When he didn’t,
they opened fire, killing him. But the car ploughed on and detonated
about 20 metres from the police station.
“I was waiting for a taxi when the car approached at high speed,”
said witness Younis al-Hadidi, 32. “It blew up in the middle of
everyone.”
Police said four of the five killed were police officers and the
wounded were both civilians and police. Doctors said many of the
wounded were badly hurt and the death toll could rise.
Another suicide car bomb blast outside a U.S. base in Mosul last week
killed four civilians and wounded a dozen.
Sunday’s bombings came four days after an attack outside a police
recruiting centre in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed 70 people.
Police are frequently targeted by militants who regarded them as
collaborators with US forces.
The attacks followed another night of clashes between US forces and
guerrillas in the rebellious city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, in
which at least 10 Iraqis died and 35 were wounded, a doctor at the
main hospital said.
There were conflicting reports over the fate of three Indians, three
Kenyans and an Egyptian taken hostage in Iraq this month.
In Nairobi, Kenyan Foreign Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere had told a
news conference that guerrillas had released the seven hostages. But
the Kuwaiti firm employing the men and an Iraqi mediator who has been
negotiating their release said they were still in captivity.
Scores of hostages from two dozen countries have been seized by
kidnappers in the last four months. Most have been freed but several
have been executed N at least four by beheading.
On Saturday, militants led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
said they had kidnapped two Turkish truck drivers and would behead
them in 48 hours unless their Turkish employer quit the country.
Iraqi commandos freed a Lebanese hostage on Sunday, a Lebanese
Foreign Ministry source said, but there was no word on a fellow
countryman snatched along with a Syrian driver on Friday.

Associated Press
Aug 1 2004
2 dead, 38 injured in Iraqi church explosions
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

A series of coordinated explosions rocked five churches across
Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, killing 2 people
and wounding about 38 people in the first attacks targeting the
country’s Christian minority since the 15-month violent insurgency
here began.
Two explosions just minutes apart shook separate Baghdad churches in
a largely Christian neighborhood during Sunday evening services, and
two other blasts struck outside a church in Mosul at roughly the same
time, Iraqi officials said. Two churches in other areas of Baghdad
were hit as well Sunday evening, officials said.
US military officials in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood, where the
first two churches were bombed, said they found a third bomb in front
another church that had not exploded. Karada is home to many of the
city’s Christians and many of its churches.
“We were in the Mass and suddenly we heard a big boom, and I couldn’t
feel my body anymore, I didn’t feel anything,” said Marwan Saqiq, who
was covered in blood. “I saw people taking me out with the wood and
glass shattered everywhere.”
US military officials said at least one and possibly both of the
blasts appeared to have come from booby trapped cars.
In Mosul, about 350 kilometers (220 miles), a car bomb blew up next
to a Catholic church while worshippers were coming out of Mass,
police Maj. Raed Abdel Basit said. Several rocket-propelled grenades
were also launched at the church, Bowman said.
The bomb, inside a white Toyota, blew up about 7 p.m. just meters
from the church, said Ghaleb Wadeea, 50-year-old engineer who lives
next door. Debris from the exploded car were scattered about the
site, with some hanging off a nearby electricity post.
A bridge in Mosul was also hit, Bowman said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said a total of four
churches were hit in Baghdad, two in Karada, one in the Dora
neighborhood and one in New Baghdad.
At the site of the two blasts in Karada, Iraqi police and National
Guard cordoned off the area. Fire engines and ambulances raced to the
scene.
The first blast in Baghdad hit outside an Armenian church just 15
minutes into the evening service, witnesses said. The second blast
hit a Catholic church about 500 meters (yards) away.
Stunned Iraqis ran away from the scene, holding their bleeding heads
in their hands.
“I saw wounded women and children and men, the church’s glass
shattered everywhere. There’s glass all over the floor,” said
Juliette Agob, who was inside the Armenian church during the first
explosion.
The back wall of the Catholic church, where a bomb had been placed,
was badly damaged, with bricks scattered about, revealing the graves
from a cemetery behind the building. The bomb left a hole 2.5 meters
wide in the ground.
US soldiers and Iraqi police patrolled the area as emergency workers
raced to evacuate the wounded.
Three cars were in flames in front of the Armenian Church, colored
glass was scattered across the ground. Four unexploded artillery
shells were still visible inside the booby-trapped car.
Massive plumes of black smoke poured into the evening sky over the
city and US helicopter gunships circled above. Fire fighters and
residents struggled with water hoses to put out the flames, which
leapt from the front of a tan colored church.
Relatives raced to search for loved ones.
One, Roni George, was sitting on the ground weeping after failing to
find his father, mother and two brothers who were at Mass inside one
of the churches during the blast.
Numbering some 750,000, the minority Christians were already
concerned about the growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism, so long
repressed under Saddam Hussein. The majority of the Christians are
Chaldean Roman Catholic, the rest Syrian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox
and Assyrian. Most live in Baghdad and its outskirts and some dwell
further to the north.
Islamic radicals have warned Christians running liquor stores to shut
down their businesses, and have turned their sights on fashion stores
and beauty salons. The increasing attention on this minority
community has many within looking for a way out. Many are in
neighboring Jordan and Syria waiting for the security situation to
settle, while others have applied to leave the country.

BBC News, UK
Aug 1 2004
Iraqi Christians’ long history

Iraq’s Christians comprise many rites
Christians have inhabited what is modern day Iraq for some two
thousand years, tracing their ancestry to ancient Mesopotamia and
surrounding lands.
Theirs is a long and complex history.
Before the Gulf War in 1991, they numbered about one million, but
that figures is now put at 650,000 and falling.
Under Saddam Hussein, in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq, some Christians
rose to the top, notably the Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and
the Baathist regime kept a lid on anti-Christian violence.
Biblical city
In the wake of the 1991 Gulf War and the imposition of sanctions,
many Iraqi Christians, who had lived in relative harmony with their
Muslim neighbours for decades, left to join family in the West.
The secular government of Saddam Hussein largely suppressed
anti-Christian attacks, but it also subjected some communities to its
“relocation programmes”.
For Christians this was particularly marked in the oil-rich areas,
where the authorities tried to create Arab majorities near the
strategic oilfields.
Christians live in the capital, Baghdad, and are also concentrated in
the northern cities of Kirkuk, Irbil and Mosul – once a major
Mesopotamian trading hub known as Nineveh in the Bible.
Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are
autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope’s authority.
Chaldeans are an ancient people, many of whom still speak Aramaic,
the language of Jesus.
Monasteries
The other significant community are Assyrians, the descendants of the
ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.
After their empires collapsed in the 6th and 7th Centuries BC, the
Assyrians scattered across the Middle East.
They embraced Christianity in the 1st Century AD, with their Ancient
Church of the East believed to be the oldest in Iraq.
Assyrians also belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Chaldean
Church, and various Protestant denominations.
When Iraq became independent in 1932, the Iraqi military carried out
large-scale massacres of the Assyrians in retaliation for their
collaboration with Britain, the former colonial power.
Their villages were destroyed, and churches and monasteries torn
down.
In recent years, however, some places of worship were rebuilt.
Other ancient Churches include Syrian Catholics, Armenian Orthodox
and Armenian Catholic Christians, who fled from massacres in Turkey
in the early 20th Century.
There are also small Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities,
as well as Anglicans and Evangelicals.

Tehran Times, Iran
Aug 1 2004
U.S. Military Officers To Be Stationed Near Azerbaijan-Iran Border
Tehran Times Political Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) — Azeri military forces are stationed near the borders
with Iran will come under the command of U.S. military officers, a
news website reported on Sunday.
According to an agreement between the Azeri army and the NATO
military alliance, U.S. officers will be stationed in one out of four
prominent border posts near the Azerbaijan-Iran border, the Baztab
said in a report posted on its website.
Most of the Azeri army officers being stationed on the
Azerbaijan-Iran borders have been given special training by NATO.
In every selected border post four U.S. officers will be stationed;
each of the officers are trained in border, intelligence, security,
and military affairs. Some of the officers are members of the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The stationing of officers near Iranian borders is taking place as
the Republic of Azerbaijan imports modern warfare equipments aiming
to regain Karabakh from Armenia.
The military equipment will be delivered to Baku following
negotiations between Azeri diplomatic delegation with Turkish, and
U.S. officials.