On Thursday 5 September 2024, the activities of the First Athra Syriac Symposium began in the main hall of the Martyr Saad Abdullah Convention Centre in Erbil. It was organised by the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the Yonan Hozaya Centre for Research and Future Studies in Ankawa, Erbil, under the patronage of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Masrour Barzani, and under the slogan: “Syriac as a Living Culture, Despite Challenges to its Survival.”
The opening ceremony was attended by a high-level government delegation including the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Masrour Barzani, Endowments and Religious Affairs Minister Pishtiwan Sadiq, Transport and Communications Minister Anu Jawhar Abdoka, Regional Component Affairs Minister Aydin Maruf, Erbil Governor Omid Khoshnaw, Deputy Culture and Youth Minister Aryan Salahaddin, and a delegation from the Federal Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Ministry, as well as official and religious figures, most notably His Holiness Mar Awa III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East in Iraq and the World, Mar Severios Roger Akhrass, the Syriac Orthodox Church’s Patriarchal Vicar for Syriac Studies, Mar Bashar Warda, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, Mar Najib Mikhael, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul and its Dependencies, Mar Nathanael Nizar Ajam, Bishop of the Syriac Catholic Diocese of Adiabene in Erbil, Mar Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of the Diocese of Mosul, Kirkuk and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, in addition to a number of official delegations, a group of academics, researchers and those interested in Syriac cultural affairs in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the region.
The opening ceremony began with a minute of silence for the souls of the martyrs of our people and the world, after which the Syriac Barmaya Ensemble, from the city of Qamishli in Syria, performed a folkloric dance operetta.
The operetta was followed with a speech by the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, in which he stressed that, “this academic event, the first of its kind in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, comes with a distinctive flavour as it is held on the land of the ancestors, with the taste of the homeland that today embraces its children,” noting that, “it aims to bring together researchers in our Syriac culture, and is distinguished by its qualitative and quantitative presence, providing an opportunity to exchange ideas, experiences and innovations.”
Oghanna explained that, “our Directorate, through what it has provided to advance the Syriac cultural reality, despite the difficult financial conditions that the Region is enduring, came out of its belief in this people’s cause and their steadfastness, and this is what we inherited from our ancestors who gave their most precious possessions for the sake of our culture’s continuity and spread,” praising, at the same time, the role of the Region’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Masrour Barzani, in sponsoring this conference and supporting the Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s national components.
Oghanna concluded his speech by emphasising that the Symposium would be a scientific forum that sheds light on many aspects of Syriac studies, and works to develop mechanisms for studying the Syriac language, in addition to strategies for its steadfastness and survival in the future on its historical lands.
Then, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Masrour Barzani, delivered his speech, in which he stressed that, “Kurdistan has always been home to various nationalities and religions, and we are committed to protecting and strengthening this coexistence, which we are proud of,” pledging, “to continue to care for the Syriac language and culture and all the different components in Kurdistan, as always.”
After that, His Holiness Mar Awa III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East in Iraq and the world, delivered the inaugural address, in which he praised the role of the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts in activating the Syriac cultural reality in the homeland, followed by the reading of a message from Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Mar Louis Sako, then another message from Syriac Catholic Patriarch Mar Ignatius Joseph III Younan, and a speech by Prof. Sebastian Brock from Oxford University.
After Brock’s speech, a gift was presented to the Region’s Prime Minister, His Excellency Masrour Barzani, by Patriarch Mar Awa and our Churches’ venerable bishops. This was followed with a speech from the Yonan Hozaya Centre for Research and Future Studies’ administrative body, delivered by its member Adeeb Goga, then another speech from the Symposium’s organising committee, delivered by author and short-story-writer Peter Hermiz Nabati, who spoke at length about the idea of holding the symposium. At the same time, he offered his thanks and gratitude to the supporters and researchers participating with their papers, coming from Iraq and abroad, while also praising the scientific committee’s efforts for its role in preparing the Symposium’s program.
On the sidelines of the opening ceremony, an exhibition of Syriac books and a number of publications for learning the Syriac language was held, in addition to the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts’ publications relating to the Syriac language.
The Symposium’s first day included two panel discussions: the first (A) in the Newroz Theater Hall on early Syriac literature, with a keynote address by the moderator Professor Sebastian Brock from Oxford University, UK, followed by a speech by Dr. Alexander Johannes Edmonds from the University of Münster, Germany, “From Sinḥārīb to the Ḥambašāye: Assessing the Survival of Iron-age Mesopotamian Culture in Later Aramaic Literature and Folklore” (in English). Then Dr. Ramazan Turgut from Mardin Artuklu University, Türkiye presented Dr. Umut Var’s contribution: “Last Roman Emperor Topos in Syriac Apocalyptic Texts: Revisiting Genealogical and Characteristic Issues” (in English), followed by the paper of Dr. Bert Jacobs from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, “Reconstructing Lost Syriac Theological Works: The Case of Moses bar Kephā” (in English).
The second panel discussion (B), which was held in the Zardasht Flat Hall, dealt with Medieval Syriac literature, and was supervised by Dr. Etlal Salem Hanna Boutros Al Kass Hanna from al-Hamdaniyah University. This included papers from Prof. Khamis Gharbi Hussein, from Tikrit University, on “The Role of Syriac Translators in the Development of Arab Civilisation and Peaceful Coexistence between Religions” (in Arabic), as well as Prof. Baha Amer Abboud, from the University of Baghdad, and researcher Narsai Jibrael Hanna Mamoka, from the University of Mosul, regarding “A Study of the Syriac Grammar in Eliya of Tirhan’s Manuscript” (in Arabic).
It is worth noting that the First Athra Syriac symposium, which was held from 5 to 8 September, held its subsequent sessions at the Library of the Catholic University in Erbil and the Patriarch Mar Joseph VI Audo conference hall at the Martyr Gabriel Danbo Monastery in Ankawa, Erbil, where its activities included visits to the Cultural Centre for the Preservation of Syriac Manuscripts (‘Scriptorium Syriacum’), the Syriac Heritage Museum and the Digital Documentation Centre for Eastern Manuscripts (CNMO).
