Qaraqosh
ܩܪܩܘ݂ܫ | |
|---|---|
 A view of Bakhdida | |
  Qaraqosh | |
| Coordinates: 36°16′11″N 43°22′39″E / 36.26972°N 43.37750°E | |
| Country |  Iraq |
| Governorate | Nineveh |
| Municipality | Al-Hamdaniya District |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Isam Behnam Da'aboul |
| Population | |
• Total | 35,000 (current)[1][2] |
| 50,000 (prior to IS invasion)[3][2] | |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (Arabia Standard Time) |
Qaraqosh (Syriac: ܩܪܩܘ݂ܫ, romanized: Qaraqoš; Arabic: بغديدا, romanized: Baḡdīda (official name), or Arabic: بخديدا, romanized: Baḵdīda, also known as al-Ḥamdāniyya or Qara-Qūš; a Turkic placename meaning "Black Bird"), is an Assyrian[4] city in the Nineveh Governorate, of Iraq located about 32 kilometres (20 mi) southeast of the city of Mosul and 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Erbil amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Kalhu and Nineveh.
Qaraqosh is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the Assyrian towns of Bartella and Karamlesh, which connects to the city of Erbil as well. The second, which was gravel before being paved in the 1990s, is direct to Mosul. All of its Assyrian Christian citizens fled to the Kurdistan Region after the IS invasion on August 6, 2014. The town was under control of IS until October 19, 2016, when it was liberated as part of the Battle of Mosul after which residents have begun to return.[5]
Local Assyrians, who are ethnically distinct from Arabs and Kurds, speak the Qaraqosh dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic.
- ^ Hanna, Reine (September 26, 2019). "Testimony for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Religious Minorities' Fight to Remain in Iraq" (PDF). United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
In the town of Bakhdida, for example, approximately 35,000 Christian Assyrian inhabitants have returned—70% of the town's original population
- ^ a b Hanna, Reine (June 1, 2020). "Contested Control: The Future of Security in Iraq's Nineveh Plain" (PDF). Assyrian Policy Institute. p. 42. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
- ^ Taylor, Alan (April 27, 2017). "Iraqi Christians Slowly Return to War-Damaged Qaraqosh". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
- ^ Castillo, Mariano (August 9, 2014). "ISIS overtakes Iraq's largest Christian city". CNN International. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
- ^ Talat, Mahdi (October 30, 2016). "In charred church near Mosul, Iraqi Christians pray once more". Reuters. Retrieved October 31, 2016.