Nineveh Plains

Short description: Region in Iraq

Nineveh Plains

سهل نينوى
ܦܩܥܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ
Deşta Neynewa ,ده‌شتا نه‌ینه‌وا

Region

File:Saint Matthew Monastery (Der Mar Matti), overlooking Bashiqa and Bartella, between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq 32.jpg

File:Views around alQosh at the edge of the Nineveh Plains 12.jpg

File:Chaldean Catholic monastery of Rabban Hormizd in alQosh 03.jpg

File:Monastery of Saint Matthew (Der Mar Mattai) overlooking the Nineveh Plains 03.jpg

File:Views around the Monastery of Saint Matthew, overlooking the Nineveh Plains 01.jpg

Map of the three districts which constitute Nineveh plains overlaid over the Nineveh Governorate map.

Country|  Iraq
Largest city| Bakhdida
Government

• Governor of Hamdaniya| Nisan Karromi
• Governor of Tel Keppe| Raad Naser
• Governor of Al-Shikhan| Hasu Narmu
Area

• Total| 4,197 km2 (1,620 sq mi)
Population

• Total| 500,000
• Density| 117/km2 (300/sq mi)
• Census

| 281,829

Nineveh Plains (Classical Syriac: ܦܩܥܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanized: Pqaʿtā ḏ-Nīnwē, Modern Syriac: ܕܫܬܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, romanized: Daštā d-Ninwe; Arabic: سهل نينوى, romanized: Sahl Naynawā; Kurdish: ده‌شتا نه‌ینه‌وا, romanized: Deşta Neynewa) is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq. Located to the north and east of the city Mosul, it is the only Christian-majority region in Iraq and have been a gathering point for Iraqi Christians since 2003. Control over the region is contested between Iraqi security forces, KRG security forces, Assyrian security forces, Babylon Brigade and the Shabak Militia.[1]

The plains have a heterogenous population of Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christians belonging to different churches: the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic, the Syriac Orthodox church, and the Syriac Catholic church. Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Shabaks and Turkmens,[2] and includes ruins of ancient Assyrian cities and religious sites, such as Nimrud, Dur-Sharrukin, Mar Mattai Monastery, Rabban Hormizd Monastery and the Tomb of Nahum.[3]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 1.1 Attacks on Christians
* 1.2 Creation of an autonomous province
* 2 Geography
* 3 Population
* 3.1 Churches
* 4 Economy
* 5 See also
* 6 Notes
* 7 References

## History

Singara in a detail from Peutinger's map, a medieval copy of a 4th-century Roman original. A map of the "Jazira"'s provinces in medieval times.

The Middle Bronze Age Kingdom of Andarig used to be located in the north. Peutinger's map of the inhabited world known to the Roman geographers depicts Singara as located west of the Trogoditi. Persi. (Latin: Troglodytae Persiae, "Persian troglodytes") who inhabited the territory around Mount Sinjar. By the medieval Arabs, most of the plain was reckoned as part of the province of Diyār Rabīʿa, the "abode of the Rabīʿa" tribe. The plain was the site of the determination of the degree by al-Khwārizmī and other astronomers during the reign of the caliph al-Mamun.[4] Sinjar also boasted a famous Church of the East cathedral in the 8th century.[5]

### Attacks on Christians

Following the concerted attacks on Assyrians in Iraq, especially highlighted by the Sunday, August 1, 2004 simultaneous bombing of six Churches (Baghdad and Mosul) and subsequent bombing of nearly thirty other churches throughout the country, Assyrian leadership, internally and externally, began to regard the Nineveh Plain as the location where security for Christians may be possible. Schools especially received much attention in this area and in Kurdish areas where Assyrian concentrated population lives. In addition, agriculture and medical clinics received financial help from the Assyrian diaspora.

As attacks on Christians increased in Basra, Baghdad, Ramadi and smaller towns. more families turned northward to the extended family holdings in the Nineveh Plain. This place of refuge remains underfunded and gravely lacking in infrastructure to aid the ever-increasing internally displaced people population.

In February 2010, the attacks against Assyrians in Mosul forced 4,300 Assyrians to flee to the Nineveh plains where there is an Assyrian-majority population.[6] From 2012, it also began receiving influxes of Assyrians from Syria owing to the civil war there.[7][8]

In August 2014 nearly all of the non-Sunni inhabitants of the southern regions of the Plains were driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive.[9]

### Creation of an autonomous province

The Assyrian inhabited towns and villages on the Nineveh Plain form a concentration of those belonging to Syriac Christian traditions, and since this area is the ancient home of the Assyrian empire through which the people trace their cultural heritage, the Nineveh Plain is the area on which an effort to form and has become concentrated. There have been calls by some politicians inside and outside Iraq to create an autonomous region for Assyrians in this area.[10][11]

In the Transitional Administrative Law adopted in March 2004 in Baghdad, not only were provisions made for the preservation of Assyrian culture through education and media, but a provision for an administrative unit also was accepted. Article 125 in Iraq's Constitution states that: "This Constitution shall guarantee the administrative, political, cultural, and educational rights of the various nationalities, such as Turkomen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and all other constituents, and this shall be regulated by law."[12][13] Since the towns and villages on the Nineveh Plain form a concentration of those belonging to Syriac Christian traditions, and since this area is the ancient home of the Assyrian empire through which these people trace their cultural heritage, the Nineveh Plain is the area on which the effort to form an autonomous Assyrian entity have become concentrated. The same article has been used to proclaim an autonomous province for the Yezidi people.[14]

On January 21, 2014, the Iraqi government had declared that Nineveh Plains would become a new province, which would serve as a safe haven for Assyrians.[15]

After the liberation of the Nineveh Plain from ISIL between 2016/17, all Assyrian political parties called on the European Union and UN Security Council for the creation of an Assyrian self-administered province in the Nineveh Plain.[16][17]

Between the 28th–30 June 2017, a conference was held in Brussels dubbed The Future for Christians in Iraq.[18] The conference was organised by the European People's Party and had participants extending from Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac organizations, including representatives from the Federal Iraqi Government and Kurdistan Region. The conference was boycotted by the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Sons of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Patriotic Party, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of the East. A position paper was signed by the remaining political organizations involved.[19]

A 2019 testimony from Assyrian activist Reine Hanna at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom claimed that the rate of Assyrian return in towns guarded by the Nineveh Plain Protection Units was significantly higher than those controlled by other forces following the end of the Islamic State's occupation of the Nineveh Plain. The NPU guarded Assyrian town of Bakhdida, for example, saw a 70% return of the town’s original Assyrian population (about 35,000 Assyrians). In Tesqopa, which is controlled by KRG Peshmerga, the rate of return is about 20% of the original Assyrian population. In Tel Keppe, which is controlled by PMF Brigade 50, the return rate of the original Assyrian population is about 7%.[20]

## Geography

Nineveh Plains lie to the east, northeast of the city of Mosul in the Iraqi Nineveh Governorate, plus between Semi-arid climate and Mediterranean climate. The ancient city of Nineveh stood where the eastern outskirts of Mosul are today, on the bank of the Tigris river. The Nineveh Plains is the only region in Iraq where a plurality of inhabitants follow Syriac Christianity. Before ISIL invaded Nineveh, Assyrians made up around 40% of the population within the plains.[21]

## Population

The Nineveh Plains are not only the historical homeland of the Assyrian people and a crucible of pre-Arab, pre-Kurdish, pre-Islam Mesopotamian civilisation, and it is a region where a majority of the population is currently drawn from the minorities.[22]

### Churches

In 2019 and 2020 the Christians of the Nineveh Plains belonged to the following Eastern churches:[23]

* Syriac Catholic Church (51.8%)
* Syriac Orthodox Church (31.9%)
* Chaldean Catholic Church (15.7%)
* Ancient Church of the East (0.3%)
* Assyrian Church of the East (0.1%)
* Melkite Greek Catholic Church (0.1%)

## Economy

Old farming methods in Alqosh. File:Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't going away.jpgAn oil refinery and a petrochemical complex in northern Iraq

The Nineveh Plain appears to hold under its rich agricultural lands an extension of the petroleum fields tapped in 2006 by the Kurdistan Region in direct contract with foreign oil exploration companies. It is believed that this added incentive for absorption by the KRG of the region may lead to economic conflict with Sunni Arab tribes in the Mosul region itself. Assyrians claim that without Nineveh Plain autonomous administration, the indigenous Assyrian presence in its ancient homeland could well disappear. There are some oil reserves in Nineveh Plains.[24] The amount of crude oil in the Nineveh Plains stretching from Shekhan to Alqosh is 25 billion barrels which is worth $10 trillion.[25]

Most of the inhabitants have practiced dry agriculture since ancient times and rely on the fertile plains to the south, growing agricultural products like grain, wheat, beans and in the summer goods such as cantaloupe and cucumber. Farmers followed old non-technological methods in their farming for several centuries, and their livelihood was always threatened due to nature's betrayal in situations of drought or plant epidemics such as grasshoppers. Besides farmlands, other agriculture also occurs in grape vineyards. Grapevines spread all over the village and produce various types of grapes, among which are the black grapes that are well known in northern Iraq.[26][27]

Modern agricultural machinery such as tractors, harvester-threshers (reapers), along with new methods of treating and curing plant epidemics now exist. However, irrigation is still a problem in the area, and farming still relies on rainfall. Currently, dozen of farms now belong to the government and are deputized to their owners to use them, as most were taken during Saddam Hussein's control. The Assyrian settlement of Alqosh enjoyed being an important trade center for the various Kurdish, Yazidi, and Arab villages in the region and it houses a large market that receiving agricultural and animal products from across the region.[28]

## See also

* Assyrians in Iraq
* Assyrian independence movement
* Assyrian homeland
* Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq
* Barwari
* Nahla plains
* Urmia Plain
* Disputed territories of Northern Iraq

## Notes

1. ↑ Hanna, Reine (June 1, 2020). "Contested Control: The Future of Security in Iraq's Nineveh Plain". pp. 31. https://50f3ad00-5b28-4016-898f-6130d301c97a.filesusr.com/ugd/6ae567_98f8f8912baa40949a18a3a0b717eaea.pdf.
2. ↑ "Shabaks, Yezidis, Assyrians protest settlement of Arab families in Nineveh". Rûdaw. 8 February 2018. http://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/02082018.
3. ↑ "Iraq Says It Intends to Make 3 New Provinces - ABC News". https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraq-hangs-26-convicted-terror-charges-21606806.
4. ↑ Abul Fazl-i-Ạllámí (1894), "Description of the Earth", The Áin I Akbarí, III, Translated by H.S. Jarrett, Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press for the Asiatic Society of Bengal, pp. 25–27, https://books.google.com/books?id=81AmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA26 .
5. ↑ Wright, William. A short history of Syriac literature. Adam and Charles Black. ISBN 9780837076799. https://books.google.com/books?id=8CYpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA126. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
6. ↑ UN report.[which?]
7. ↑ "Relief Projects | Assyrian Aid Society - Iraq". http://www.assyrianaidiraq.org/relief_projects.
8. ↑ "Assyrian Aid Society of America". http://www.assyrianaid.org/Refugees2012.html.
9. ↑ Chulov, Martin; Hawramy, Fazel (9 August 2014). "'Isis has shattered the ancient ties that bound Iraq's minorities'". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/isis-iraq-communities-christians-yezidis-kurds.
10. ↑ Iraqi Christians hold critical meeting , The Kurdish Globe
11. ↑ Dutch MP calls for autonomous Assyrian Christian region in north Iraq, AKI
12. ↑ "At the Tipping Point: A Nineveh Plain Province and Related Solutions to Iraq’s Indigenous Minority Crisis". http://www.assyrianamericancoalition.org/documents/policy/AtTheTippingPoint-NPProvinceSolutionFull.pdf.
13. ↑ "Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project". Iraqdemocracyproject.org. 2008-02-19. http://www.iraqdemocracyproject.org/policy_alert_2.html.
14. ↑ "Shengal Constituent Assembly Our People Demand To Govern Themselves". http://anfenglish.com/kurdistan/shengal-constituent-assembly-our-people-demand-to-govern-themselves.
15. ↑ BetBasoo, Peter; Nuri Kino (22 January 2014). "Will a Province for Assyrians Stop Their Exodus From Iraq?". Assyrian International News Agency. http://aina.org/releases/20140122133822.htm.
16. ↑ "Iraqi Christians ask EU to support the creation of a Nineveh Plain Province". http://europeanpost.co/iraqi-christians-ask-eu-to-support-the-creation-of-a-nineveh-plain-province/.
17. ↑ "سهل نينوى: حديقة العالم القديم... وشرارة العراق الحديث" (in ar). https://www-majalla-com.translate.goog/node/299521/سياسة/سهل-نينوى-حديقة-العالم-القديم-وشرارة-العراق-الحديث?_x_tr_sl=ar&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc.
18. ↑ "Christians-in-iraq". https://www.nineveh.eu/.
19. ↑ "The Future of the Nineveh Plain | PDF | Government | Social Institutions". https://www.scribd.com/document/352513487/The-Future-of-the-Nineveh-Plain.
20. ↑ Hanna, Reine (September 26, 2019). "Testimony for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Religious Minorities' Fight to Remain in Iraq". https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Reine Hanna- Assyrian Policy Institute.pdf.
21. ↑ "Nineveh for Christians? Let’s Wait and See". http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/24012014.
22. ↑ Mardean Isaac (2010-12-30). "The desperate plight of Iraq's Assyrians and other minorities". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/dec/24/iraq-minorities-assyrians.
23. ↑ "Life after ISIS: New challenges to Christianity in Iraq". p. 13. https://www.churchinneed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Report-on-Christianity-in-northern-Iraq.pdf.
24. ↑ "Christian Leaders Unhappy with Lack of Action on Nineveh Plain". http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/2011/02/21/christian-leaders-unhappy-with-lack-of-action-on-nineveh-plain/.
25. ↑ "Nineveh Plain — Słownik kolokacji angielskich". https://www.diki.pl/slownik-angielskiego?q=Nineveh+Plain&popupmode=etutor.
26. ↑ Team, Mosaic (2022-01-18). "Traditional Tahini Production Returns to the Nineveh Plain" (in en). https://mosaicmiddleeast.org/latest/traditional-tahini-production-returns-to-the-nineveh-plain.
27. ↑ (in en) ﻿Post-conflict Reconstruction in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq: Agriculture, Cultural Practices and Social Cohesion﻿ (Report). sipri.org. November 2022. https://www.sipri.org/publications/2022/policy-reports/post-conflict-reconstruction-nineveh-plains-iraq-agriculture-cultural-practices-and-social-cohesion.
28. ↑ "Kurdistan's Gushing Crude Spawns Conflict". https://iwpr.net/global-voices/kurdistans-gushing-crude-spawns-conflict.

## References

* Nineveh Plains Geographical Information
* Nineveh Plains Needs

[ ⚑ ]  36°37′N 43°7′E﻿ / ﻿36.617°N 43.117°E﻿ / 36.617; 43.117

* v
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Assyrian people

Ethno-linguistic group(s) indigenous to the Middle East with various additional/alternate self-identifications, such as Syriacs, Arameans, or Chaldeans

Identity|

* Assyrian continuity
* Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora
* Chaldean Catholics
* Terms for Syriac Christians

Assyrian flag

Aramean-Syriac flag

Chaldean flag

Syriac
Christianity|

| West Syriac Rite|

* Syriac Orthodox Church (518–)
* Syriac Catholic Church (1662–)
* Assyrian Evangelical Church (1870–)
* Assyrian Pentecostal Church (1940–)

|

East Syriac Rite|

* Chaldean Catholic Church (1552–)
* Assyrian Church of the East (1692–)
* Ancient Church of the East (1968–)

Aramaic/Syriac
languages|

* Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
* Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
* Turoyo
* Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
* Hertevin
* Senaya
* Mlaḥsô
* Syriac script

Culture|

* Assyrian folk/pop music
* Music of Mesopotamia
* Syriac sacral music
* Folk dance
* Cuisine
* Clothing

History
(including
related
contexts)|

| Ancient Assyria|

* Early Assyrian period (2600–2025 BCE)
* Old Assyrian period (2025–1364 BCE)
* Middle Assyrian Empire (1363–912 BCE)
* Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BCE)
* Post-imperial Assyria (609 BCE–240 CE)
* Ancient Mesopotamian religion
* Arameans
* Assyrian tribes

|

Classical
antiquity|

* Seleucid Empire (312–63 BCE)
* Parthian Empire (247 BCE–224 CE)
* Osroene (132 BCE–244 CE)
* Syrian Wars (66 BCE–217 CE)
* Roman Syria (64 BCE–637 CE)
* Adiabene (15–116)
* Roman Assyria (116–118)
* Christianization (1st to 3rd c.)
* Nestorian schism (5th c.)
* Church of the East (410-1552)
* Asoristan (226–651)
* Byzantine–Sasanian wars (502–628)

Middle ages|

* Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia (630s)
* Muslim conquest of Syria (630s)
* Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258)
* Emirs of Mosul (905–1383)
* Buyid amirate (945–1055)
* Principality of Antioch (1098–1268)
* Ilkhanate (1258–1335)
* Jalayirid Sultanate (1335–1432)
* Qara Qoyunlu (1375–1468)
* Aq Qoyunlu (1453–1501)

Modern era|

* Safavid Empire (1508–55)
* Ottoman Empire (1555–1917)
* Schism of 1552 (16th c.)
* Massacres of Badr Khan (1840s)
* Massacres of Diyarbekir (1895)
* Rise of nationalism (19th c.)
* Adana massacre (1909)
* Assyrian genocide (1914–20)
* Independence movement (1919–)
* Simele massacre (1933)
* Post-Saddam Iraq (2003–)
* Genocide of Christians by ISIL (2014–)

By country|

| Homeland
Settlements|

* Iraq
* Nineveh Plains
* Qaraqosh
* Alqosh
* Tel Keppe
* Bartella
* Ankawa
* Shaqlawa
* Zakho
* Iran
* Urmia
* Salmas
* Sanandaj
* Syria
* Al-Hasakah Governorate
* Al-Hasakah
* Tell Tamer
* Qamishli
* Khabur
* Maaloula
* Turkey
* Hakkari
* Mardin Province
* Mardin
* Mazıdağı
* Tur Abdin

|

Diaspora|

* Armenia
* Australia
* Belgium
* Canada
* Finland
* France
* Georgia
* Germany
* Greece
* Israel
* Arameans
* Jordan
* Lebanon
* Mexico
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Russia
* Sweden
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Detroit
* Uruguay

Politics|

* Assyrian Democratic Movement
* Assyrian Democratic Organisation
* Aramean Democratic Organization
* Assyrian Universal Alliance
* Dawronoye
* Syriac Union Party
* Syriac Military Council
* Sutoro

*   *

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