Imperial Russian Prisoners of War Commemorated in Slovenia

A delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church led by Bishop Kirill of Stavropol' has participated in ceremonies marking the 95th anniversary of the death of Russian prisoners of war during World War I at a prison camp established by Austria-Hungary in what today is Slovenia. It is estimated that some 10,000 Russian soldiers died as prisoners.

A chapel has been built in Slovenia to commemorate the soldiers, many of whom were killed in a landslide while being used as forced labor to build roads. In addition to participating in commemorative events in the Slovene capital Bishop Kirill also visited the prisoners' chapel, where a memorial was served for their repose. More (in Russian) here.

Assyrian Genocide Memorial Planned for Yerevan

With the support of the government of Yerevan the Assyrian community in Armenia hopes to erect an Assyrian Genocide memorial in the city in the near future. The Armenian and Assyrian Genocides were undertaken by the Turks and Kurds simultaneously during World War I and devastated both nations, wiping them out in most of their historic homelands and scattered most of the survivors across the globe. More here.

Iraqi Christians to Petition for Autonomous Assyrian Province

Leaders of sixteen Iraqi Christian parties have met in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan to prepare a petition to the Iraqi government for the creation of an autonomous Assyrian province on the territory of two largely Assyrian districts on the plains of Nineveh in the heart of ancient Assyria in northern Iraq.

Long after their empire ceased to exist Assyrians continued to live in their heartlands on the plains and in the mountains of what today are northern Iraq, western Iran, southeastern Turkey, and northeastern Syria. Along with the Armenians the Assyrians suffered the first modern genocide at the hands of the Turks and the Kurds in the early 1900s during World War I as payback for their support for invading Russian armies, which they had hoped would liberate their homeland from Arab Muslim rule for the first time in over a millennium. Between 500,000 and 750,000 Assyrians were murdered in the Genocide, which eventually forced most into the Diaspora, among them the patriarch of the Church of the East (who now resides in the Chicago area). More information on the national tragedy of the Seyfo, the Assyrian Genocide, can be found here.

More on the petition and the prospects for an Assyrian province can be found here.

Pictured is the memorial to the Assyrian Genocide in Kiev, Ukraine.