Dehi, Iraq

The church of Mart Shmune was constructed in the 5th century, and the church of Mar Qayouma was built in the 10th century.[5] It is likely that the population of Dehi were adherents of the Church of the East long before the 14th century.[6] In 1850, 10 Assyrian families inhabited Dehi, and had one functioning church as part of the diocese of Barwari.[7]

In the aftermath of the Assyrian genocide, Assyrians from the Upper Tyari clan found refuge and settled at Dehi in 1920.[5] The population decreased from 140 Assyrian people in 1933 to 29 people in 1938.[2] The Iraqi census of 1957 recorded 292 inhabitants, and this grew to 615 people, with 100 families, by 1961.[5] The eruption of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict in 1961 resulted in severe damage to the village in the following years,[3] and eventually was destroyed during the Al-Anfal campaign in 1988, forcing the 50 remaining families to flee.[5]

20 families returned after the establishment of the Iraqi no-fly zones in the aftermath of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq.[8][9] In 2003, it was reported they had suffered from illegal confiscation of land by Kurds.[10] The Supreme Committee of Christian Affairs had constructed 56 houses and developed the village's infrastructure by 2012,[3] in which year Dehi was inhabited by 250 adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East.[11] On the night of 13 July 2016, the village was seriously damaged by a fire; it was noted by villagers that Kurdistan Region firefighters arrived, but made no effort to quench the fire.[12]

• 
  A photo of the village
• 
  Church of Mart Shmune

• Assyrians in Iraq
• List of Assyrian settlements

Notes

Citations