On Wednesday 24 April 2024, the Director General of Syriac Culture and Arts in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Kaldo Ramzi Oghanna, visited the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch’s Department of Syriac Studies at the Patriarchal headquarters in Atchaneh, near the Lebanese capital Beirut.
During the visit, Oghanna met with the Department’s Director, Bishop Mor Severios Roger Akhrass. In their conversation, the two parties touched on the Syriac cultural scene in Iraq, the Kurdistan Region and the broader area, as well as discussing preparations for the First Athra Syriac Symposium, at which Bishop Akhrass will be a guest of honor, and which the directorate intends to hold at the beginning of next September, in Erbil governorate’s Ankawa district.
It is worth noting that the General Directorate of Syriac Culture and Arts, in cooperation with the Yonan Hozaya Center for Research and Future Studies, is preparing to hold the First Athra Syriac Symposium for the period 5 to 8 next September in the Erbil Governorate’s Ankawa district, under the slogan: “Syriac as a Living Culture… Despite Threats to its Existence.”