Badarash

For the villages in Iran, see Badarash, Iran.

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Summer time in Badarash

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Mar Gewargis (St. George) Chaldean Catholic Church

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A regular house in Badarash

Badarash is an Assyrian village in the Iraqi province of Dohuk. The village of Badarash is located 1.5 kilometres from the centre of Sarsink. The town name comes from Kurdish words meaning “the Black Air.” Badarash is named for its heavy cold winds and snowy winters.

Most of the village’s houses are built from stone and mud and few from stone and cement and concrete ceilings. This village was never evacuated. Some residents moved to Duhok and Baghdad, but the majority stayed in Badarash. Many houses and fields were burned and destroyed, but owners rebuilt them.

1900 - 2000

The village was built in 1922 by around 25 Assyrian families, many of which were fleeing the Assyrian Genocide from Hakkari, Turkey to avoid Turkish Ottoman and Kurdish attacks on Assyrians and Armenians. During this period, over 300,000 Assyrians died at the hands of their attackers or from hunger, cold and disease.

The first church, called Mar Gewargis (St. George), was built in 1925 in the center of the village. Another church was built in 1975. The two churches are Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of the East.

Before the 1961 Kurdish rebellion, 55 families lived in the village. Due to the outbreak of civil war, the village was burned along with the apple groves, which were the main source of income to the village. Farming and growing up domesticated animals formed a second source of income. As destruction and war pushed younger residents to immigrate, the population shrank to 35 families. The village however was relatively large compared to other Christian villages.

See also

• List of Assyrian settlements

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