Dooreh, Iraq

Dooreh is a village in Dohuk Governorate in Kurdistan Region, Iraq.^[a] It is located near the Iraq–Turkey border in the Amadiya District and the historical region of Barwari. In the village, there is a church of Mar Gewargis,^[3] and the ruins of the monastery of Mar Qayyoma.^[1] There was previously two shrines dedicated to Mart Maryam and Mar Apius and four cemeteries.^[1]

Dooreh
Dooreh Location in Iraq Show map of Iraq Dooreh Dooreh (Iraqi Kurdistan) Show map of Iraqi Kurdistan
Coordinates: 37°13′24″N 43°28′7″E
Country	Iraq
Region	Kurdistan Region
Governorate	Dohuk Governorate
District	Amadiya District

Etymology

It is suggested that the name of the village is derived from "dūru(m)" ("fortress, wall" in Akkadian).^[1]

History

The remains of a fortress nearby Dooreh have been dated to the early period of Assyria in the late third millennium BC, and likely inspired the village's name.^[6] The monastery of Mar Qayyoma was founded in the 4th-century AD, and the church of Mar Gewargis was first constructed in 909.^[1] The monastery of Mar Qayyoma is first mentioned in the mentioned in the 10th-century Life of Rabban Joseph Busnaya, and had become the seat of the Church of the East diocese of Barwari by 1610.^[7] Dooreh itself is mentioned in a manuscript of 1683.^[7] In 1850, 20-40 Church of the East families inhabited Dooreh, and were served by two functioning churches and four priests.^[1]

Prior to the First World War, Dooreh was populated by 200 Assyrians,^[1] who were forced to flee under the leadership of Agha Petros to the vicinity of Urmia in Iran, amidst the Assyrian genocide.^[2] Whilst in Iran, 90 villagers died, and 30 women and children were either killed or abducted,^[1] and the survivors were settled at the refugee camp at Baqubah in 1918.^[8] After residing there for two years, 90 people eventually returned to Dooreh.^[8] Dooreh was temporarily deserted again in the early 1930s due to the conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdish Emir of Barwari.^[2] 35 families inhabited the village in 1938, and the population of Dooreh was recorded as 296 people in 1957.^[1]

At the onset of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in 1961, 75 families in 40 houses resided at Dooreh,^[2] and the village was damaged by a napalm attack during the war in 1968.^[1] Despite this damage, the population increased to 100 families in 75 houses by 1978, in which year on 8 August the village was destroyed by the Iraqi government, and much of its population was forcibly resettled at Batifa.^[1] The village's destruction was total, as all houses, churches, farms, and orchards were obliterated.^[1] In the aftermath of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, 30 families returned to Dooreh,^[2] and the church of Mar Gewargis was rebuilt in 1995 with support from the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg.^[3]

By 2011, the Supreme Committee of Christian Affairs had constructed 37 houses and a hall,^[4] and the village was inhabited by 250 adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East in the following year.^[9] Dooreh was struck by Turkish airstrikes on 1 September 2018 as part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.^[10]

Notable people

• Margaret George Shello (1942–1969), Assyrian militant.^[11]