Nahla Valley ( ar, سهل نهلا, syr, ܢܚܠܐ, ku, نه‌هلێ, translit=Nehlê) is a geographic region located in the province of

Dohuk Duhok ( ku, دهۆک, translit=Dihok; ar, دهوك, Dahūk; syr, ܒܝܬ ܢܘܗܕܪܐ, Beth Nohadra) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It's the capital city of Duhok Governorate. History The city's origin dates back to the Sto ...

in the Akre District,

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 Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. 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 ...

lies to the northwest and is separated by a mountain range, and the city of Akre is to the south, separated by another mountain range. It is bound by the Greater Zab River to the north and east, and the

Khazir River The Khazir River ( ar, الخازر) is a river of northern Iraq, a tributary of the Great Zab river, joining its right bank. Geomorphology The area around the Khazir River is geologically active and crosses three anticlines from the north to th ...

to the west.

History

Most of the Assyrians living in Nahla, which number around 20,000, moved there from Hakkari after 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 ...

that occurred during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. However, 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 Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...

. Some scarcely populated villages were completely destroyed later on during the

Anfal campaign The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rur ...

in the 1980s as well. The population of the valley grew considerably following the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

, as many Assyrians living in Dora and

started settling back in the region. There is significant friction between the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

and Assyrians in the valley, with a history of violence, land

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

, and voter suppression since the establishment of

. On July 17, 1999, an armed group belonging to the Assyrian Bethnahrin National Council attacked a PDK

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

position in the region in retaliation for the murder of an Assyrian woman. The attack resulted in 39 deaths and 20 injured on the Kurdish side.Iraq Report 6 August 1999, Volume 2, Number 29
GlobalSecurity.org

References

Dahuk Governorage
Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce

AINA.org {{coord, 36, 50, N, 43, 56, E, dim:30km_region:IQ-DA_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title, name=Nahla Plains of Iraq Assyrian geography Dohuk Governorate Nineveh Governorate Geography of Iraqi Kurdistan

History

See also

References