Dehi ( syr, ܕܗܐ, ,) is a village in

Dohuk Governorate ar, محافظة دهوك , image_skyline = Collage_of_Dohuk_Governorate.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_seal = ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. It is located in the

Sapna valley Sapna is a town and municipality located in Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. History People have lived in the Sapna region since the earliest days. In the Middle Ages, Sapna was an im ...

in the district of

Amadiya Amedi or Amadiya ( ku, ئامێدی, Amêdî, ; Syriac: , Amədya), is a town in the Duhok Governorate of Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is built on a mesa in the broader Great Zab river valley. Etymology According to Ali ibn al-Athir, the name ...

. In the village, there are churches of

Mar Mar, mar or MAR may refer to: Culture * Mar or Mor, an honorific in Syriac * Earl of Mar, an earldom in Scotland * MAA (singer) (born 1986), Japanese * Marathi language, by ISO 639-2 language code * March, as an abbreviation for the third mon ...

t Shmune, Mar Gewargis, and Mar Qayouma.

History

The church of Mart Shmune was constructed in the 5th century, and the church of Mar Qayouma was built in the 10th century. It is likely that the population of Dehi were adherents of the Church of the East long before the 14th century. In 1850, 10

Assyrian Assyrian may refer to: * Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia. * Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire. ** Early Assyrian Period ** Old Assyrian Period ** Middle Assyrian Empire ** Neo-Assyrian Empire * Assyrian ...

families inhabited Dehi, and had one functioning church as part of the diocese of

Barwari Barwari ( syr, ܒܪܘܪ, ku, به‌رواری, Berwarî) is a region in the Hakkari mountains in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The region is inhabited by Assyrians and Kurds, and was formerly also home to a number of Jews prior to the ...

. In the aftermath of the

Assyrian genocide The Sayfo or the Seyfo (; see below), also known as the Assyrian genocide, was the mass slaughter and deportation of Assyrian / Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish ...

, Assyrians from the Upper Tyari clan found refuge and settled at Dehi in 1920. The population decreased from 140 Assyrian people in 1933 to 29 people in 1938. The Iraqi census of 1957 recorded 292 inhabitants, and this grew to 615 people, with 100 families, by 1961. The eruption of the

Iraqi–Kurdish conflict The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars and rebellions by the Kurds against the central authority of Iraq during the 20th century, which began shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and lasting until the ...

in 1961 resulted in severe damage to the village in the following years, and eventually was destroyed during the Al-Anfal campaign in 1988, forcing the 50 remaining families to flee. 20 families returned after the establishment of the

Iraqi no-fly zones The Iraqi no-fly zones conflict was a low-level conflict in the two no-fly zones (NFZs) in Iraq that were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom, and France after the Gulf War of 1991. The United States stated that the NFZs were intend ...

in the aftermath of the

1991 uprisings in Iraq The 1991 Iraqi uprisings were ethnic and religious uprisings in Iraq led by Shi'ites and Kurds against Saddam Hussein. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 after a ceasefire following the end of the Gulf War. The mostly uncoord ...

. In 2003, it was reported they had suffered from illegal confiscation of land by Kurds. The Supreme Committee of Christian Affairs had constructed 56 houses and developed the village's infrastructure by 2012, in which year Dehi was inhabited by 250 adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East. On the night of 13 July 2016, the village was seriously damaged by a fire; it was noted by villagers that

firefighters arrived, but made no effort to quench the fire.

Gallery

File:Iraqdehivillage.JPG, A photo of the village File:Iraqdehivillage3.JPG, Church of Mart Shmune

References

Notes Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Coord, 37.134074, N, 43.178976, E, display=title Populated places in Dohuk Province Assyrian communities in Iraq