The Patriarch’s return is deeply personal; he was born in Qamishli, a city that has long served as a heartland for the Assyrian community in northeast Syria, or Gozarto. While born in the Gozarto, His Holiness’s lineage traces back to the Tur-Abdin region (in modern-day Turkey), the ancestral home of the Assyrians.
The reception was a sea of church flags and traditional church hymns as thousands of Assyrians gathered to welcome their spiritual leader. For many, the visit is seen as a symbol of resilience for a community that has faced immense pressure over the last decade, especially by the PKK-linked YPG Kurdish militants that had sought to Kurdify Assyrian schools and conducted killings and assaults against Assyrian leaders.
The visit marks the Patriarch’s first pastoral tour of the region since the political landscape of Syria shifted under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa. Following the fall of the previous regime in late 2024, the central government has moved to consolidate control over territories previously held by various factions.
The visit is a stark contrast to his previous travels to the region. During one of his last visits, when Qamishli was under the control of the PKK, a Kurdish terror group, the Patriarch was the target of a harrowing assassination attempt. A suicide bomber, disguised as a priest, attempted to attack a commemoration of the Sayfo (the 1915 genocide) which the Patriarch was leading. While security personnel heroically thwarted the attacker, tragically losing their lives in the process, His Holiness emerged physically unharmed.
For the Assyrians of Gozarto, the return of the Patriarch is also an opportunity to reflect on years of struggle. Many community members expressed that during the era of the so-called Kurdish Self-Administration, the Assyrian population suffered under policies they viewed as discriminatory. Reports from the region during that time frequently highlighted property expropriation, including the seizure of Assyrian-owned businesses and land by the Kurdish entity. The YPG was also guilty of educational interference through the persistent pressure and forced closures of Assyrian private schools over attempts to enforce a pro-kuridh curriculum. Assyrians also felt demographic pressure through Kurdish policies that many locals felt were designed to marginalize the indigenous Assyrian presence in favor of a Kurdish political project.
