Barwari

The mountainous region was part of the diocese of Beth Nuhadra (current day Dohuk) since antiquity and has seen a mass migration of Assyrians after the fall of Baghdad in 1258 and Timurlane's invasion from central Iraq.[3]

Its Christian inhabitants were little affected by the Ottoman conquests; however starting from the 19th century Kurdish Emirs sought to expand their territories at their expense. In the 1830s Muhammad Rawanduzi, the Emir of Soran, tried to forcibly add the region to his dominion pillaging many Assyrian villages. Bedr Khan Beg of Bohtan renewed attacks on the region in the 1840s, killing tens of thousands of Assyrians in Barwari and Hakkari before being ultimately defeated by the Ottomans.[4]

Many Assyrians who survived later suffered in the Assyrian Genocide by the Ottoman Army during the First World War; others took refuge in Urmia led by their patriarch, Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin.[5] Later attempts for their resettlement in Barwar were largely successful however, and Assyrians still live in the region.[6]

In addition to the Assyrian population, an Aramaic-speaking Jewish population existed in the region for thousands of years, living mainly in Barwari. However, they all left for Israel shortly after its creation in 1947. The region was heavily affected by the Kurdish uprisings during the 1950s and 60s and was largely depopulated during the Al-Anfal campaign in the 1980s, although some of its population later returned and their homes were subsequently rebuilt.[7]

• Berwari (East Syrian Diocese)
• Assyrian homeland
• Nahla plains
• Tur Abdin
• Alqosh, Tel Keppe and Batnaya – Assyrian tribes also in Northern Iraq
• Tyari, Jilu, Gawar, Nochiya – Assyrian tribes to the north, in Hakkari province, Turkey
• Çığlı, Çukurca, formerly known as Ashita