Christian communities across Syria, Turkey and Iraq came together to celebrate Palm Sunday on 28 April. The festival commemorates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, traditionally depicted with crowds waving laurel and palm leaves in welcome. Christian denominations use varying calendars, with Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches following the Julian or Revised Julian calendars, and Western churches, Catholic and Protestant, using the Gregorian.
Armenian Christians in the city of Diyarbakır (Amed) in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey, commemorated what they call the ‘Red Egg Festival’, at Surp Giragos Church. Diyarbakır’s Armenian Christian population was almost completely wiped out in the 1915 Armenian Genocide and Surp Giragos, the largest Armenian church in the Middle East, itself was attacked with an artillery cannon. In 2016 the church was confiscated by the Turkish government, re-opening to the public in 2022. Despite challenges, Diyarbakır’s Christians have remained steadfast, with a priest making the long journey from Istanbul to hold services for Easter.
North Press Agency posted several pictures on social media platform X of Christians celebrating Palm Sunday in North and East Syria:
Christians of the town of Tel Tamr in northern countryside of Hasakah in #NE_Syria celebrate #Palm_Sunday. pic.twitter.com/MDA9tBp2e1
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY – ENGLISH (@NPA_English) April 28, 2024
Christians in the city of Qamishli, #NE_Syria celebrate #Palm_Sunday.#Qamishli – Nalin Ali – #North_Press pic.twitter.com/Dtn4NnJBI2
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY – ENGLISH (@NPA_English) April 28, 2024
The official German representation of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) posted on X that the celebrations represented “a living expression of pluralism and religious freedom”.
Christ*innen in Nord- und Ostsyrien haben gestern Palmsonntag gefeiert.
Ein lebendiger Ausdruck des Pluralismus und der Religionsfreiheit, der heutzutage in #Syrien viel zu selten zu finden ist. https://t.co/WPTofbj00N
— Nord-und Ostsyrien Vertretung (@sanesgermany) April 29, 2024
Christians made up eight to ten per cent of the population of Syria prior to the Arab Spring in 2011. However, a decade later that figure had reduced to three per cent, according to the Assyrian Democratic Organisation. Many were forced to leave because of the conflict with the Islamic State (ISIS). Nevertheless, North and East Syria has proved a comparative safe haven for Syria’s Christians. In fact, after the liberation of Kobani (Kobane) in 2015, the Christian community began to flourish.
On 16 April this year, the region’s Democratic Islamic Congress officially handed over church property in the city to the Syriac, Assyrian, Chaldean and Armenian Property Protection Department. Christianity was harshly repressed under ISIS rule in Rafah, but the community remains resilient here too.
A Palm Sunday procession was also held in the town of Bartella in Iraqi Kurdistan. Bartella is situated on the Nineveh plain, 21km east of Mosul.
Palm Sunday procession in Bartella#orthodox #syriac_church #palm_sunday
Bartella is located in the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq, about 21 kilometers east of Mosul. The town is populated by Christian Syriac/Chaldean/Assyrians. pic.twitter.com/kz4gIXzNiV— Athro ܐܬܪܐ (@athro14) April 28, 2024
