Welcome to Restore Nineveh Now

Welcome to Restore Nineveh Now, the website for the Restore Nineveh Now initiative. The purpose of the Restore Nineveh Now initiative is to transform what currently exist on paper into a geographical, physical and cultural reality. Let us explain.

The region in north-western Iraq, the Nineveh Plains, has for thousands of years been the home of the Assyrians, the original Iraqis. The Assyrians (who are Christian), as well as other peoples like the Yezidis (who are polytheistic), have for generations endured persecution at the hands of Muslim like the Kurdish Badr Khan in the 19th century, Saddam Hussein in the 20th century, and presently, the so-called Islamic State or ISIS.

In all of these instances, little help or protection has come from external powers, and the Assyrians, Yezidis and others of the Nineveh Plain have had to fend for themselves. In fact, when ISIS extremists invaded Northern Iraq in the summer of 2014,  the Iraqi military and the Kurdish Peshmerga fled, leaving the Assyrians and Yezidis with no choice but to flee for their lives, a mass exodus of tens of thousands of people.

However, even before the ISIS invasion of June, 2014, the Iraqi government recognized the ongoing abuse that Assyrians and Yezidis have endured at the hands of intolerant Islamists. In response, the Iraqi government asserted that Assyrians and other non-Muslims have a right to exist and govern their own future in Iraq and, on January 21, 2014, declared that on the Nineveh Plain in northern Iraq there would be a new province, the Nineveh Plain Province, which should serve as a safe haven for Assyrians and other ethnic and religious minorities.

Unfortunately, ISIS is currently occupying the lands of the Nineveh Plain Province, spreading a reign of terror, complete with beheading, torture and sexual slavery, unlike  anything the world has ever seen anywhere.

Enough is enough. Terrorized by ISIS and left to defend themselves by the Arab Iraqis and the Kurds, Assyrians and Yezidis are now organizing and arming themselve, determined to protect what homes they still have and take back those that ISIS has stolen. Helping them stand their ground is at the heart of Restore Nineveh Now.

The Nineveh Plain Province exist on paper. It is now time to turn it into a reality. Restore Nineveh Now’s principle goal is to mobilize the necessary human, political and financial capital needed to establish the Nineveh Plain Province. The Nineveh Plain Province is more than a geopolitical issue, it is the building of a future for millions of people determined to fight back. It is also the right thing to do. Welcome to Restore Nineveh Now.