Ankawa

Ankawa originally called Beth Amka, which later morphed to Amku-Bad, Ankawa, and finally Ankawa. The name of the town is mentioned in Bar Hebraeus's book entitled "A Brief History of the Countries," where he states: "Mongolian troops attacked the area of Erbil on Sunday July 1285 and reached some villages.....including Ankawa." The shrine of Mary also known as Mariamana was built after the ancient Roman designs.[6]

Ankawa has many archaeological sites, including "The Hill," which was recorded as an archaeological site in Iraq in 1945. It is also home to St Joseph's Cathedral (Umra d'Mar Yosip), the seat of the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Erbil.[7] Ankawa used to be a small village that is located northwest of Erbil, but has grown into a city in its own right.[8] The city has recently become a principal settlement for Christians in Iraq. One of the main reasons for the town's rise is due to 2014 ISIS takeover of the Nineveh Plans, because a fair amount of those who fled came to Ankawa. The Assyrian Church of the East, which after several decades of being located in the United States, has decided to move their Patriarchal see to Ankawa.[7]

The Assyrian Policy Institute (API) has accused the ruling Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of business and tax discrimination on the Assyrian residents of Ankawa on numerous occasions. One 2018 API report claimed that the KRG required all business owners from the city to renew their business licenses with the Erbil Center District for a fee. The alleged regulation applied exclusively to Ankawa, despite the fact that nine other districts were under the Erbil Center District's jurisdiction. There were also allegations that the renewal process was deliberately lengthy and expensive, and that KRG officials expected bribes in exchange for processing the renewals.[5] Many Assyrians viewed this as an attempt by the KRG to hurt their businesses and secure a monopoly on industries in their areas of control.[9]

The KRG released an official statement in which they denied these allegations and referred to them as “baseless.”[10][11][12]

The API responded to the KRG's denial of these claims in a later report. The API claimed that this latest denial of human rights abuses by the KRG is consistent with previous denial of accusations of wrongdoing. Examples of this that the API provided was the KRG's denial of accusations made by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the US Department of State Human Rights Report.[13] The report goes on to say that the reason that the API had originally made the claim about the KRG tax policy was due to an Ankawa-based activist group called Hand in Hand approaching them and explaining the situation to them.[13] The report also provided documentation of the ordinance in question that proved that a new tax policy specifically in Ankawa had been created by the KRG.[14]

The report then says that Assyrian business-owners affected by the new tax policy as well as Assyrian parliamentarians in the Iraqi Parliament and the Kurdistan Region Parliament who corroborated these claims. Some business-owners attempted to legally appeal the policy, but the government upheld the its decision.[15]

Furthermore, the report claimed that the Assyrian parliamentarians who were interviewed about the new tax policy claimed that they had inquired to the KRG Shura Council about the policy, and received a response saying:

"Not collecting this tax in some towns as a result of negligence or incompetence of the relevant KRG departments is no reason to refrain from collecting such a tax in said towns [Ankawa]."[16]

The API claimed that this was essentially a public admission by the KRG that the tax collection policy was arbitrary.

The report concluded that the tax rate was imposed on the city of Ankawa as an act of business discrimination against one of the only Assyrian-majority areas in KRG jurisdiction. They encouraged the KRG to formally accept their role in this policy, and claimed that they, “[stand] ready to meet with KRG officials both in Iraq and in the United States to address the many long-standing grievances of Ankawa residents, including the improper confiscation of lands belonging to Assyrians and KRG policies advancing demographic change in the area, as well as interference in local, regional, and federal elections for Assyrian representatives.”[13]

Within the last 10 years Ankawa has developed rapidly educationally and technologically. Now, many tourists visit Ankawa from Baghdad, mostly from the southern cities. The suburb has been through a long construction period, and there are international schools as well as restaurants available today inside. After the fall of Mosul, many Christians who had been displaced came to Ankawa and have been provided with personal needs by the church and international organizations.[17]

• Radya Caldaya

• www.ankawa.com