Tesqopa

Tesqopa (Tel Eskof or Tel Skuf or Tall Asqaf) (Syriac: ܬܠܐ ܙܩܝܦܐ‎ Tesqopa; Arabic: تللسقف‎ Tall Usquf 'Bishop's Hill') is an Assyrian town in northern Iraq located approximately 19 miles (about 28 kilometres) north of Mosul. In 2010, it had a population of 11,000 most of whom were ethnic Assyrians belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church.[2] The town was captured by ISIS briefly in August 2014 but then was liberated in August 2016 and after that many of the towns residents returned and with aid by the Hungarian government.[3]

Tel Esqopa

ܬܠܐ ܙܩܝܦܐ - Tesqopa
Tel Esqopa
Coordinates: 36°35′50.72″N 43°6′13.40″E
Country Iraq
GovernorateNineveh
DistrictTel Kaif
Population
 (2010)[1]
 • Total11,000
Time zoneGMT +3
A view of Tesqopa
A Catholic church in Tesqopa
Chaldean Catholic ceremony

History

Tesqopa is not mentioned in Thomas of Marga's Book of Governors (c. 840) or any of the other early monastic histories of the Church of the East, and may well have been founded as late as the Seljuq period, perhaps in the eleventh century. It is first mentioned as a Christian village in a thirteenth-century poem by the Assyrian writer Giwargis Warda. This poem describes its sack by a raiding band of Mongols in November 1235 and the destruction of its church of Mar Yaʿqob the Recluse.[4]

Tesqopa was subject to many attacks by the Mongols, the worst among them was the massacre of 1436 when they attacked the town, killing thousands of its Assyrian inhabitants and burning its crops and churches, ultimately forcing the rest of the inhabitants to flee to the mountains. In 1508 Tesqopa was attacked again by the Mongols, just as they attacked Tel Keppe, Alqosh and the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd. Tesqopa was also attacked by the army of Nader Shah in 1743 during his march on Mosul.

Modern Day Tesqopa

The town received many Assyrian refugees from Baghdad and Mosul in the wake of the sectarian violence in the 2000s. On 23 April 2007 a car bomb that targeted the village resulted in more than 25 deaths.[5]

In early August 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State(IS), entered Tesqopa. But on 17 August 2014 the Kurdish Peshmerga retook Tesqopa.[6] After this, the local Christian Assyrians were then able to restore the crosses atop their vandalized churches.[7]

ISIL militants overran the town during dawn on 3 May 2016 however they were driven out of the town by Peshmerga fighters later in the day.[8] By 2017, several hundred families had returned to the town and the parish church was functioning again. The Hungarian government assisted in rebuilding the destroyed homes of 991 Christian families.[9]

See also

References
  1. "The Struggle to Exist: An Introduction to the Assyrians and their Human Rights Situation in the New Iraq" (PDF). www.atour.com. Assyria Council of Europe.
  2. Wilmshurst, David : The ecclesiastical organisation of the Church of the East, 1318-1913. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol. 582, Subsidia 104. Leuven: Peeters, 2000. pages 234-236.
  3. "Teleskuf, the rebirth of an Iraqi village". Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East. 2018-07-13. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  4. Wilmshurst, EOCE, 202 and 234
  5. استشهاد أكثر من خمس وعشرين شخصا في انفجار تللسقف. Zahrira (in Arabic). 23 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  6. Asharq al-Awsat, Peshmerga retake Mosul Dam: spokesmen, 18 August 2014
  8. US Navy Seal killed in Iraq as IS breaches Peshmerga lines
  9. https://888.hu/article-mar-szamadatok-is-bizonyitjak-nyugat-europat-nem-erdeklik-az-uldozott-keresztenyek

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