Nineveh or Ninawa Governorate is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an area of 37,323 km2 (14,410 sq mi) and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people as of 2003. Its largest city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and included the present-day Dohuk Governorate. The second largest city is Tal Afar, which has an almost exclusively Turkmen population.
The Assyrian Democratic Movement, popularly known as Zowaa, is an Assyrian political party situated in Iraq, and one of the main Assyrian parties within the Iraqi parliament. The Assyrian Democratic Movement states its aims are to establish equal citizenship rights with the rest of the Iraqi people without discrimination on the basis of nationality, belief, religious affiliation, culture, language and other characteristics of the native Assyrians of Iraq, to acknowledge the past massacres committed against them and to ensure they are never repeated again.
Ankawa is a suburb of Erbil in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) northwest of downtown Erbil. The suburb is predominantly populated by Christian Assyrians, most of whom adhere to the Chaldean Catholic Church.
Sarkis Aghajan Mamendo, is an Iraqi Assyrian politician who was appointed Minister for Finance and Economy in the cabinet of Iraqi Kurdistan on 7 May 2006.
Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous administrative division in the Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurdish-majority governorates of Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Duhok Governorate, and Halabja Governorate. It is located in northern Iraq, which shares borders with Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, and Syria to the west.
Minorities in Iraq have been incredibly influential to the history of the country, and consist of various ethnic and religious groups. The largest minority group in Iraq is the Kurds, with Turkmen following shortly after. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Assyrians constituted a sizeable population of 1.5 million, and belonged to various different churches such as the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, and the Syriac Orthodox/Catholic Churches. Other minority groups in Iraq include Armenians, Mandaeans, Baha'i, and Marsh Arabs, among others.
Basim Bello is an Assyrian politician from Iraq. Originally from Alqosh, he was formerly the mayor of the town of Tel Keppe and is also the longest serving mayor of the Tel Keppe District. An adherent of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Bello was a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, until he split from the party in 2013 to co-form Sons of Mesopotamia.
The Kurdistan Regional Parliament, also known as Kurdistan Parliament - Iraq, or simply Perleman, is the parliament of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. It is made up of representatives from the various parties, lists or slates that are elected every four years by the inhabitants of Kurdistan Region, which is currently governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. In 2009 an amendment was applied to the Kurdistan Election Law of the year 1992, changing the name of the body to Kurdish Parliament from its previous name: the Kurdish National Assembly.
Assyrian politics in Iraq have been taking many different turns since the US invasion of the country in 2003. Today, there are many different Assyrian political parties in Iraq. The main Assyrian party that came out from the 2005 elections was the Assyrian Democratic Movement. However, Sarkis Aghajan began to challenge its power beginning in 2006 with the opening of Ishtar TV and the KDP-affiliated Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council.
The Syriac Assembly Movement, formerly known as the Syriac Independent Gathering Movement, is an Assyrian political party from Iraq. The party's membership comprised mostly Assyrian Christians, particularly those who belonged to the Syriac Catholic community, and to a lesser extent those of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Since the early 20th century several proposals have been made for the establishment of an autonomous area or an independent state for the Syriac-speaking modern Assyrians in northern Iraq.
Human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan refer to the human rights issue in the autonomous area of Kurdistan Region.
An independence referendum for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was held on 25 September 2017 in Kurdistan Region, with preliminary results showing approximately 92.73 percent of votes cast in favour of independence. Despite reporting that the independence referendum would be non-binding, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) characterised it as binding, although they claimed that an affirmative result would trigger the start of state building and negotiations with Iraq rather than an immediate declaration of independence of Kurdistan. The referendum's legality was rejected by the federal government of Iraq and the Federal Supreme Court. KRG eventually conceded and accepted the Supreme Court’s ruling that no Iraqi governorate is allowed to secede.
Assyrian National Broadcasting, also known as ANB Sat, is a private television broadcasting company for the Assyrian community, available for viewing on the internet or through satellite. The channel was founded in 2011 by Ninos Ternian in order to preserve and extend the reach of Assyrian heritage, culture, and language. The channel was closed in 2021 before reopening two years later.
Parliamentary elections took place in Kurdistan Region on 30 September 2018 to elect Parliament. The election came a year after a failed bid for independence and left the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with 45 seats, that positioning it to lead the next regional government. Announcement of the results was delayed for three weeks. The KDP's historic rival and junior coalition partner in government, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was in second place with 21 seats. The results suggest that Masoud Barzani’s KDP will take a dominant position in Kurdish politics.
The Sons of Mesopotamia, also known as Abnaa Al-Nahrain and Bnay Nahrain, was an ethnic Assyrian political party based in northern Iraq. It was founded in 2013, and was headquartered in Erbil, Iraq. Established to further the political objectives of the Assyrian people in Iraq, the party won one seat in the 2013 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election.
Ano Jawhar Abdulmaseeh Abdoka, or Ano Abdoka is an Assyrian politician who serves as the Minister of Transportations and Communications of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq since July 2019. Abdoka leads the Shlama Trend for Christian Affairs in the Kurdish region, and he previously led the local committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Ankawa. He is currently the only Assyrian and Christian member of the Kurdish Government's cabinet.
The Assyrian Policy Institute (API) is a non-governmental and nonprofit organization based in the United States that primarily advocates for the rights of Assyrians and other minorities in the Middle East including Yazidis and Mandaeans.
The Athra Alliance is a political alliance of five political parties in Iraq that represent the Assyrian people. The alliance comprises these five parties:
The Iraqi governorate elections were held for the first time in almost 10 years on December 18, 2023, after many delays, mostly due to the demonstrations demanding the end of the existing political system in 2019. Governorates under the KRG did not participate. For the Assyrians, reserved seats were allocated in the following governorates: Basra, Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Ninewa. While the goal of these seats being reserved is to have Assyrian community representation in the respective governorate councils, Iraqi election law allows anyone, be it Assyrian or not, to vote for them. This had led to the Assyrian reserved seats be hijacked by pro-Iranian parties, with mobilization of mostly Shia Arabs voting for the Babylon Movement.
