Faysh Khabur

Faysh Khabur
ܦܝܫܚܵܒܘ̣ܪ
فيشخابور
Faysh Khabur
Coordinates: 37°4′5″N 42°22′39″E / 37.06806°N 42.37750°E / 37.06806; 42.37750Coordinates: 37°4′5″N 42°22′39″E / 37.06806°N 42.37750°E / 37.06806; 42.37750
Country  Iraq
Autonomous region  Kurdistan
Governorate Dohuk
District Zakho

Faysh Khabur (Syriac: ܦܝܫܚܵܒܘ̣ܪ, Arabic: فيشخابور) ("pre Khabur" in Kurdish) is an Assyrian town on the northwestern edge of Iraqi Kurdistan in the Zakho District of Dohuk Governorate. It is named after the Khabur River on which the town is built, and lies on the confluence of the Tigris and Khabur river. The town is in a very strategic location, as it lies just 4 km from the three way border crossing with Turkey and Syria, known as the Semalka border crossing. Faysh Khabur is inhabited by Chaldean CatholicAssyrians, in addition to some Kurds. The town has a large monastery overlooking the Khabur river which was recently restored.[1]

History

The town has been connected with the Sassanian city "Peroz-Shapur", and the modern name is thought to be influenced by the Persian one. The first mention of the settlement is attested as far as the 4th Century A.D when it was recognized as an Chaldean Christian village . Later on Its population joined the Chaldean Catholic Church in the 1830s.[2] During the Assyrian Genocide, The town was attacked by Kurdish irregulars allied with the Ottomans which left hundreds dead and forced the rest to flee to Mosul and Alqosh. However, Most of its inhabitants returned to their village during the British Mandate for Mesopotamia.[2]

The village after that point was attacked three different times. The first time during the Simele Massacre in August 1933, when hundreds of its Chaldean inhabitants were attacked by the Iraqi Army. The second time the village was targeted was during the first Kurdish rebellion in 1961 by the Sindi Kurdish tribe, which forced the inhabitants to seek refuge in Khanik, the sister village of Faysh Khabur across the border in Syria, until 1975 when they returned. Only a year after returning Faysh Khabur was attacked the third time when its population was forcibly evicted when the Baathist government of Iraq settled Arabs in the village as part of their Arabization campaigns.[3] It was not until the 1991 uprising that the Arabs left, and then Faysh Khabur was occupied by Kurds, who didn't leave until 2005 when it was finally resettled by its original Assyrian inhabitants in 2005.[3] Fhaysh Khabur is today a part of the Kurdish autonomous region.

See also

References

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