Demolished Assyrian village by ISIS becomes a refuge for IDPs

Destroyed church in Tal Nasri, after ISIS attack on the village - NPA

Tal Tamr – North-Press Agency
Reem Chamoun – Sargon Yousef

 

Tal Nasri is an Assyrian village, located in al-Khabour basin, south of the town of Tal Tamr, west of Hasakah governorate, where the Virgin Mary church one of the most famous churches in northern Syria was destroyed after the attack of the Islamic State (ISIS) militants on the village in 2015, has become a sheltering place for the internally displaced people who fled the latest Turkish military invasion in the region.

 

At the height of ISIS control, ISIS terrorist militants blew up the 80-year-old church of Virgin Mary in the village and kidnapped hundreds of local people, prompting the villagers to give its name to another church built after the terrorist group was expelled from the area.

In March last year, 138 IDP families from Afrin took refuge in the village of Tal Nasri, during the control of the Turkish military and its affiliated armed opposition groups over the region of Afrin, after the approval of the Assyrian Properties Commission, the Khabour Guards, the Assyrian People’s Guards (Nattoreh), and the Assyrian Church of the East, according to what the Assyrian Popular Council member, who resides in the village, Sargon Salyo told North-Press.

 

With the beginning of the Turkish military and its affiliated armed groups’ invasion in northeastern Syria, and later their control over the areas of Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tal-Abyad (Gire Spi), the village of Tal Nasri became a safe haven for the displaced people from those areas, as this time the village received 250 IDP families.

 

Sargon Salyo pointed out that the IDPs of Afrin region were displaced from the village of Tal Nasri after the start of the Turkish military invasion in northeastern Syria, while 25 families remain in the village.

Regarding news that the village's churches have become shelters for the IDPs, Salyou confirmed that all the families who fled into Tal Nasri did not reside in the two churches, the churches are empty of IDPs.

 

Shalimon Bershem al-Shammas (the servant) at Tal Nasri Church explained that the issue of converting the church into a shelter for the displaced is “a propaganda and not realistic.”

He added: "I participated in the Divine Liturgy held in the church with a large presence of the Christian component in general, and to this moment none of the displaced people have entered the church.”

 

Mohammad Mustafa Musallam, a displaced person from Sere-Kaniye, due to the Turkish military invasion, told North-Press: “The Assyrian people here welcomed us with great tenderness, they opened the village houses for us to reside in and gave us all the supplies that we need,” stressing that all the components in Tal Nasri preserve the churches in the village.