Armenians of Mosul - Southern Kurdistan

(Armenian flag in Mosul)

Most of the Armenians originally came from Iran and first settled in the southern part of Iraq. While they have been moving into Iraq for several centuries, the largest movement of Armenian people came during the early twentieth century as they fled the persecution of the Armenian Genocide.

It is estimated that there are about 20,000 Armenians living in the entire country with communities in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra, Kirkuk and Dohuk.

Around 15.000 Assyrians have left Mosul the last month because of attacks from fundementalists and terrorists (the city is in the middle of iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq).

This was published in Panorama last week about the Armenians in Mosul during this attacks:

The situation in Mosul city, Iraq is calmed down and 40 Armenian families living in the city and the Armenian Church are not under threat, said Tigran Balayan, the head of public relations department of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia. “We are in contact with the church and we know that the Government sent military forces to defend local people,” said T. Balayan.

Remind that on Sunday Armenian businessman Farkes Batul was murdered in the aftermath of extremists’ attack.

On Dec. 7, 2004, an armed group of commandos stormed an Armenian Catholic church in Mosul, ushered everyone out of the building, then detonated two bombs, reducing the church to rubble. Some two hours later, a group of armed men attacked the Chaldean bishop's residence in another part of the city.

During the Persian Gulf War, of the 1,500 Armenians living with the predominant Kurd population in the northern town of Zakho, three soldiers serving in Saddam Hussein's military were killed in coalition air strikes in Kuwait, Basra, and Mosul, respectively.

Many Armenian fled to southern Kurdistan, Mosul during the Armenian genocide in 1915. Here is one story from a surviver that fled to Mosul:

An Armenian woman Mariam Sepan Sarkismeherian said that her family was originally from Dehe in Armenia, and had fled to Mosul after the 1915 genocide.Only her father survived from his whole family. They all said that they were too afraid to go back to Mosul. Even if things improve, the terrorists will always come back, because they want the “Christian infidels” to leave. Many of the people said that they would be willing to go to Europe if they were accepted.