According to International Christian Concern: “The military activities of Turkey in Northern Iraq have been called into question by various human rights groups. Christians in Iraq have long pointed to years of targeted and escalating violence as why they are making every effort to leave the country. For some of those who are currently experiencing Turkish shelling, the memories of Turkey’s Assyrian genocide in the early 1900s remains an additional point of stress.”
“UPDATED: Christian village in Kurdistan Region closes school after Turkish shelling,” Kurdistan 24, December 4, 2018:
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A school in a Christian village near the Kurdistan Region’s northern border has temporarily halted all activities due to intermittent Turkish shelling near the area.
“The school has been in recess for the past ten days,” Nadir Gada, a teacher at the Shransha primary school told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday, saying that the reason was continued Turkish attacks in the area.
The village, also called Shransha, lies in Duhok’s Zakho district, northwest of the regional capital of Erbil.
Turkey has routinely shelled and bombarded with warplanes territory well past its border with the Kurdistan Region, claiming nearby detection of members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group fighting a decades-long insurgency with Ankara over Kurdish rights and self-rule.
Gada added, “The teachers, who are not from the village, are not ready to return and risk their lives” by working here.
The children expressed hope that they would soon be able to return to their studies.
The district’s Education General Directorate has been working to resume schooling so the children don’t lose an entire year of study.
“We will try to bring more teachers to the village and… if that does not work we will provide a vehicle for the pupils to drive them to the nearest school,” Nazir Yusuf, Director-General of the Education Department of Zakho, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday.
Fifteen days following the initial closure of the school, the local government was finally able to provide a sufficient number of teachers and resume the facility’s activities on Thursday….
