Nahla, Iraq

This article is about the region in Iraq. For the moshav in Israel, see Nahala, Israel.

Nahla Valley (Syriac: ܢܗܠܐ‎), is a region in the provinces of Nineveh and Dohuk to the north of Nineveh plains in northern Iraq. The region is mainly inhabited by Assyrians.

History

Most of the Assyrians living in Nahla, which number around 20,000, moved there from Hakkari after the Assyrian Genocide during the First World War. Some villages were emptied in the 1960s when fights between the Iraqi government and Kurdish separatists forced most of their inhabitants to flee to Baghdad and Mosul. Some scarcely populated villages were completely destroyed during the Anfal campaign in the 1980s.

On July 17, 1999 an armed group belonging to the Patriotic Revolutionary Organization of Bet Nahrain attacked a PDK Peshmerga position in the region in retaliation of the murder of an Assyrian girl. The attack resulted in 39 deaths and 20 injured on the Kurdish side.[1]

The population of the valley grew considerably following the Iraq War, as many Assyrians, targeted in Dora and Mosul, started settling back in this region.

Villages

See also

References

  1. ↑ Iraq Report 6 August 1999, Volume 2, Number 29, GlobalSecurity.org

Coordinates: 36°50′N 43°56′E / 36.833°N 43.933°E / 36.833; 43.933 (Nahla)

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