Erbil Christians honor Surya massacre victims
Shafaq News – Erbil
On Tuesday, Christians in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, commemorated Chaldean Martyrs’ Day and the massacre in the village of Surya.
Members of the Christian community gathered outside St. Joseph’s Church in the predominantly Christian district of Ankawa to mark the occasion with a solidarity vigil attended by clergy and residents, according to Shafaq News correspondent.
The commemoration comes as the community recalls a series of historic tragedies. August 7 marked both the 92nd anniversary of the Simele massacre and the 11th anniversary of the genocide and forced displacement of Chaldean, Syriac, and Assyrian Christians in the Nineveh Plains and Mosul, as well as Yazidis in Sinjar and other areas, at the hands of ISIS.
On September 16, 1969, Iraq’s former regime carried out the Surya massacre, its second major atrocity after the Dukan Cave killings. Thirty-nine villagers, including women, children, and the elderly, were killed — 25 of them Christians and 14 Muslims.
Surya is a village in Duhok province, within Simele district, located in the Silvani Plain of Batel subdistrict. It lies about five kilometers from the Iraq–Turkiye–Syria border triangle and ten kilometers from the Khabur border crossing.
