Members of the openly racist group have been involved in several hate crimes targeting Assyrians and other non-Kurds in the region.
Hawpa was a legally registered organization within the NGO Directorate in Erbil, enjoying legal cover that allowed it to operate publicly in both civil and digital spaces. However, this registration was later used as an administrative shield for activities fundamentally incompatible with civil society work, including incitement to violence, hate speech against Assyrians and others and involvement in hostile cyber activities.
The Assyria Post
Mona Yaqo, head of the Independent Human Rights Commission in Erbil, announced the initiation of legal proceedings against the organization in January of this year due to its incitement activities. On 9 February, she announced the revoking of the groups legal status after it was proven to have deviated from the civil framework and transformed into an extremist ideological platform, reports ANB-Sat, an Assyrian news outlet.
The Hawpa organization, which uses nazi symbols and espouses nazi ideology, has been widely known for sparking controversy due to its extremist rhetoric, and has faced broad criticism for its hostile and inciteful positions toward Assyrians, Arabs, and Turkmen in northern Iraq.
The Assyria Post
Assyrians in the Kurdish-led region continue to face multiple forms of oppression. While the KRG puts a lot of effort in touting the region as a beacon of peaceful co-existence, Assyrians continue to face land grabs, discrimination and physical attacks.
David Barsom
A series of hate crimes
Assyrian National Broadcasting (ANB-Sat), has compiled the following list of the Hawpa groups activities targeting Assyrians in different ways.
1 April 2025 – Axe attack in Nohadra (Duhok)
During the Assyrian New Year procession, an axe attack was carried out by an individual of Syrian Kurdish origin, leaving at least two people seriously injured. Following the incident, the Hawpa organization published a statement openly welcoming the attack, including the phrase “May your hands be blessed,” a clear endorsement of violence.
9 June 2025 – Cyberattack
The organization carried out a coordinated cyberattack targeting the ANB SAT page. The page was hacked and its image changed to the organization’s logo. Content glorifying Simko Shikak, responsible for the assassination of Patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimun, was published. Iraq’s National Security Information and Communications Department intervened, restored the page, and removed the malware.
13 June 2025 – Public incitement
Serhoze Ali Taher, head of the organization, appeared in a video describing Assyrians as “occupying Nestorians” and stated that “the era of Nohadra and Arbela is over,” language carrying direct threats and symbolic erasure of the historical Assyrian identity of northern Iraq.
20 September 2025 – Telegram
In its closed Telegram group, the organization published explicit calls to bomb Assyrian churches in the region, justifying this with ideological claims that church followers do not recognize the KRG—constituting direct incitement to religious terrorism.
24 January 2026 – Media disinformation
The organization reshared an old video documenting celebrations by Assyrians in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime, falsely promoting it as celebrations of the “genocide of Kurds” after clashes between the SDF and the Syrian Arab Army. This was a deliberate act of disinformation aimed at inciting ethnic tensions.
