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Concept
Nineveh Plains
Summary
Nineveh Plains (Pqaʿtā ḏ-Nīnwē, Modern Daštā d-Ninwe; Sahl Naynawā; دهشتا نهینهوا) is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, to the north and east of the city Mosul. Control over the region is contested between Iraqi security forces, KRG security forces, Assyrian security forces, Babylon Brigade and the Shabak Militia.
The plains have a heterogenous population of Assyrian Syriac-Aramaic speaking Christians belonging to different Syriac Churches (Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic), Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Shabaks and Turkmens, and includes ruins of ancient Assyrian cities and religious sites, such as Nimrud, Dur-Sharrukin, Mar Mattai Monastery, Rabban Hormizd Monastery and the Tomb of Nahum.
Nineveh Plains lie to the east, northeast of the city of Mosul in the Iraqi Nineveh Governorate, plus between Semi-arid climate and Mediterranean climate. The ancient city of Nineveh stood where the eastern outskirts of Mosul are today, on the bank of the Tigris river. The Nineveh Plains is the only region in Iraq where a plurality of inhabitants follow Syriac Christianity. Before ISIL invaded Nineveh, Assyrians made up around 40% of the population within the plains.
The Nineveh Plains are not only the historical homeland of the Assyrian people and a crucible of pre-Arab, pre-Kurdish, pre-Islam Mesopotamian civilisation, and it is a region where a majority of the population is currently drawn from the minorities.
A 2019 testimony from Assyrian activist Reine Hanna at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom claimed that the rate of Assyrian return in towns guarded by the Nineveh Plain Protection Units was significantly higher than those controlled by other forces following the end of the Islamic State's occupation of the Nineveh Plain. The NPU guarded Assyrian town of Bakhdida, for example, saw a 70% return of the town’s original Assyrian population (about 35,000 Assyrians). In Tesqopa, which is controlled by KRG Peshmerga, the rate of return is about 20% of the original Assyrian population.
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