From Nightmare to Revival - The story of Tel Esqof!

Tel Esqof or Tesqopa – a Ghost-town returns to life!

Fanatic islamaistic djihadists or the peaceful “people of the cross” - what do you think who will persist? No, I don´t give you an answer. I will not even give you a suggestion for an answer. I just ask this question to you, before I will tell you the story of Tel Esqof…

Tesqopa or Tel Esqof, a village that had about 11.000 (some say its been 15.000) Christian inhabitants, is located in the Ninive-plains about 30 km north of Mosul. In the beginning of August 2014 Tel Esqof was taken and held for some days by ISIS terrorists when they conquered the Ninive-plains. 

From the day before ISIS came onwards, Tel Esqof had no more inhabitants, as (thanks to God) all the inhabitants had been able to flee to Iraqi Kurdistan before ISIS arrived. The Islamists of ISIS held Tel Esqof for about two weeks – it was a relative short time, so they did not cause immense destructions, also they destroyed the crosses of the churches and religious items. 

 On August 17^th 2014 Tel Esqof was taken by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Some sources say, the Islamists just left without any fighting and withdrew to a line about 2 kilometers from Tel Esqof, other sources say, the Peshmerga have been fighting them out. I don´t know. Anyway, Tel Esqof suffered almost no damage during August 2014.

From that time on, the Peshmerga stationed their troops in some of the houses while most of the village turned into being a ghost town. Sometimes some people had the occasion to visit the village and look for their houses or bury their dead on the cemetery. The frontline was too close, so it was too dangerous to return.

On May 3^rd 2016, ISIS returned to Tel Esqof for some hours after they Islamist terrorists attacked Tel Esqof in the early morning with a surprise attack performed with the help of 8 explosive-filled bombing cars. After an intensive battle the Peshmerga retook control in the evening of that day. The battle left more than 100 killed ISIS-Islamists, about 20 dead Peshmerga behind. There also was one US Navy-Seal shot by the Islamists. A lot of Houses were destroyed that day by the exploding bombing cars and airstrikes by the US-led coalition forces.

During the operations to liberate Mosul and the Ninive-plains, the Peshmerga and other militia, among them fighters of the Ninive Plain Protection Units (NPU), batteled ISIS back towards Mosul, liberating first the neighbour village of Batnaya and later also Tel Kef. Immediately after ISIS was fought back, the preparations for the resettling of displaced inhabitants of Tel Esqof started.

At the end of January 2017, the first 12 families were able to return to their houses in Tel Esqof. These houses had been prepared by the chaldean-catholic diocese of Alqosh with help from different organisations.

Now, in mid-February, its 30 families that live in Tel Esqof – and it will be more with each week passing. 

The flags of ISIS, the graffiti and inscriptions they left – all this is gone. But the people of Tel Esqof (the returned ones as well as those still waiting for return) erected a large cross on the ancient hill besides the village. It is more than 10 meters high and it is enlighted in the night, such giving an answer to the question I asked in the beginning!

On February 18^th, 2017, His Beatitude Louis Raphaël I Sako, patriarch of the chaldean-catholic church and H.E. Mikha Pola Maqdassi, chaldean-catholic bishop of Alqosh come to Tel Esqof and celebrated the first Holy Mass in the towns Mar Georgis church after more than two and a half years, in concelebration with H.E. bishop Manfred Scheuer of Linz, Austria, who joined that event with a delegation from Austria. The church was filled with hundreds of believers. After the blessing, they all went to the hill, where the large cross was blessed and inaugurated.

Over the centuries, the Christians of the Orient suffered a lot of persecution, they were enslaved or killed, their women raped and sold and more than one time they have been close to extinction. But out of the blood of the martyrs Christianity was revived again and again.

You, who reads that article: Please pray for the people of Tel Esqof and all the suffering and persecuted Christians in the Middle East and worldwide! God will bless you for that!

God called him through the blood of the martyrs - the story of a 3rd millennium vocation in Iraq

God called him through the blood of the martyrs

Abuna Martin banni after his ordination, Sept. 9, 2016

 Some years ago a young man from Qaramles, a small town in the Nineva-plains, nearby to Mosul, decided to follow God´s call and become a priest.

It´s been an unusual step for a young man of 18 who lives in Iraq, a country, where Christins have been diminuished towards being a small minority oft he population. At the time the young man made his decision, in end of 2009, beginning 2010, hundreds of thousands of Christians had already left Iraq and emigrated to Europe, the US or Canada, searching for a better life there.

Far too many oft hem had been violated, abducted, threatened and murdered – and the number of martyred Christians that were killed only because of their faith had been rapidly increasing since Al-Kaida had started operating in Iraq in 2003.

A´buna Martin in the square of Qaramles IDP camp

At the time Martin, that young man, decided to follow God´s call to priesthood, i knew nothing about Christians in Iraq. I was knowing nothing about Iraq at all… Well, of course, i had heard of Ninive in the holy Bible. But for me that was very far away past. Euphrates, Tigris, Mesopotamia… so far, far away back in ancient times. And Iraq: well, i knew there were Saddam Hussein, Baath party – and war. A lot of war and destruction. Just far away, so far away, that it was absolutely out of my interest.

I think Martin lived like all the boys of his age, when he was growing up in Qaramles, an assyrian christian village quite near to Mosul, near the Tigris river. Visiting catechetic lessons, learning Syriac, the old language oft he church and how to sing the liturgical chants. And sure he joind the liturgic service. And  somewhen it happened that a special relation with Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul started.

Martin tells me that the day after he was ordained priest, when i visited him at „Qaramles IDP-Camp“ in Ankawa, as were standing in the large square oft he camp, near the large banner depicting Archbishop Paulus Faraj Rahho. „My bishop“, he says, „was again and again asking me, when i will be entering the seminary, when i was in an age of 15, 16.“ It looks like the archbishop had realized something. Had realized, that there was a boy with a special vocation within the youth of his diocese.

The poster depicting Fr. Ragheed Ganni and Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho

At that time Martin used to hear that repeated question, but he could not imagine to really become a priest. Then, on 3rd of June 2007, the chaldean priest Fr. Ragheed Ganni and three deacons were shot by Al-Kaidas terrorists in Mosul. It was a shocking incident, that was surely more frightening, than encouraging for Martin, when he was considering about what was the right way for him to go.

Some month later, in the last days of February 2008, archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped by Al-Kaida. His three guards were shot. The corpse oft he archbishop was found weeks later in the trunk of a car. He had been warned and threatened, but he stood up for his faith. And he became a martyr for Jesus Christ. The martyrium of archbishop Rahho was the turning point for Martin. He remembered his questions, asking him „Martin, when will you entert he seminary?“ And now he knew: YES, God called him – it was loud and clear – he had to become priest. So he entered the seminary.

When the terrorists oft he Islamic State stormed the Ninive-plains in August 2014 and came towards Qaramles, Martin was there, as he visited his family. It was holidays, the time oft he great summer heat, when temperatures us to rise up to 50° Celsius or more. The inhabitants of Qaramles fled in a hurry, had no time to take anything with them, just the clothes they wore, to get into security. Nobody was thinking about the church and Jesus being thzere in the tabernacle.

It was Martin, the young seminarist, who went tot he church, bringing himself into great danger, opened the tabernacle, took the most Holy Sacrament out and brought it to Ankawa to prevent it from desecration by the islamists…

Martin on the way to spend out Holy Communion during the ordiantion mass

That deed pointed out the determination, still (or even more) visible today in Martins speech and actions. You feel it, you realize it, when he stands there in the large square oft he IDP-camp, surrounded by children, saying: Please, pray, that Mosul and the Ninive-Plains will soon be liberated, as we want to go back to Mosul and the Ninive-plains. They are our home and destination!“

Martin Banni, chaldean Christian, lives in an IDP-camp in Ankawa, Iraq. September 9th 2016 he was ordained pries in Ankawa by Patriarc Louis Raphael Sako. He is a living testimony showing the fruits the suffering and persecuted martyrs-church of Iraq is bearing.

Yesterday, September 22nd 2016, Martin Banni celebrated his 25th birthday. May God bless him!

Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako ordaining Martin Banni and Awakem Isleiwa

New ordained priests Martin banni and Awakem Isleiwa

The author with Abuna Martin Banni

Abuna Martin: Under the cross, surrounded by children...

Teresa from Tel Esqof - will she ever return home?

It depends on the sun, where Teresa is sitting. Every day she sits outside of the refuge, she and her family found in Alqosh after they had to flee from ISIS in 2014.

While she sits there she is sewing traditional clothes of Tel Esqof, her hometown. Tel Esqof is now a ghost-town. Only Peshmerga and a command of NPU is living there. Many of the intact houses have been destroyed during the massive attack ISIS performed the 3rd of May 2016.

Teresa Daoud Ishak is 80 years old. Will she ever be able to return home?

Do you see the desire in my eyes?

Do you see the desire in her eyes?

This girl is dressed in the colourful traditional clothes of the Nineva-plains. She had to flee from ISIS, when she was a little child, when the islamic terrorists came in summer 2014 and conquered the Nineva-plains. Since more than two years her family spend their life in Ashti2 IDP-camp near Ankawa - and there is no hope for them that things are changing.

In her eyes you can see this one question you can see this ONE question that everyone in the IDP-camps of North-Iraq is asking: When will we be able to return to our villages, to our houses to live a normal life? Will this day ever come?

My home is in the Nineva-Plains. ISIS conquered my parents home and village. How long will i have to stay in Ashti2 IDP-Camp in Anakwa until me and my familiy will be allowed to return to our home?

This gilr is wearing the typical traditional clothing of the Nineva-plains.

Abuna Bashar Khtea: A role model of faith

 Abuna Bashar Khtea: A role model of faith

Bashar Khtea, a chaldean-catholic priest from the Nineva-Plains is one of those iraqi priests that can be role-models of faith for us.

As hundreds of thousands of other assyro-aramean Christians he hat to flee from his village in the Ninive-Palins in August 2014 and found shelter in Ankawa, the mostly Christian-inhabited city in the periphery of Erbil, the north-iraqian capital.

Families from his village and surrounding villages gathered around him. Together they moved to "Shebab Merkez"-Camp outside of Ankawa. A camp of container homes around a hall that was used as church. Before going there, the displaced people had had to live in tents for some months.

In "Schebab Merkez" about 150 families were living under very umcomfortable circumstances, quite different to e.g. Ashti2-Camp, where there are real roads between the container-homes, "Shebab Merkez" was built at a narrow plave, allowing only small pathways between the containers.

I met Abuna Abuna Bashar Khtea on Palm Sunday of 2016 - my friend from nearby camp "Amal Hope Center" had invited me (and August) to take part in the Holy Mass and the Celebrations of Palm Sunday at "Shebab Merkez".

It was a morning with cold, strong wind. When Holy Mass was finished, the wind blew rain through the camp. And there was w moment of consideration. But then Abuna Bashar announced: No, we despite the bad weather conditions we will walk the procession.

So the parish walked singing through the rain, around the whole camp - maybe a little bit fast than they had done with good weather. But that was not what counted.

It was just the other way round: For me, as a western European, where Palm Sunday usually consists of a very short "procession", which will never lead through rainy weather, this was a strong testimony of faith! First some children, then the Abuna with the cross, then the parish people. And it was feelable, how deep his love to the crucified Lord is. A love, that is a source of power for him.

The deep inner joy in his voice and his eyes, when he intonated the worship songs after the procession - oh, how much would i appreciate to have some priests like him here in Europe!

The priests of Iraq, they have a very deep face. They are challenged with managing worldly things even more as our European priests are, as the quite often have to manage the circumstances of daily life for their flock. But they always have an open ear for the questions and needs of their people. They give advice, they encourage - and from their heart they spread love and joy in Jesus.

Yes, i was very thankful that we, the strangers, were welcome in love and allowed to join the celebrations.

In June i wanted to visit Abuna Bashar again. But Camp "Schebab Merkez" was not existing any more. I was told, that the displaced persons of the camp were able to move to small new built houses the church has built for them.´The camp was closed and dismantled. I was sad i did not find the time to search for Abuna Bashar Khtea. But as soon a s possible i will - if God alows - visit hom and some of his faithful to see and hear, how they are.