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Tel Keppe

Coordinates: 36°29′22″N 43°7′9″E / 36.48944°N 43.11917°E / 36.48944; 43.11917
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Tel Keppe
ܬܸܠ ܟܹܐܦܹܐ
Chaldean Catholics from Tel Keppe
Chaldean Catholics from Tel Keppe
Tel Keppe is located in Iraq
Tel Keppe
Tel Keppe
Coordinates: 36°29′22″N 43°7′9″E / 36.48944°N 43.11917°E / 36.48944; 43.11917
Country Iraq
GovernorateNineveh
DistrictTel Kaif District
Government
 • MayorBasim Bello
Population
 (2010)[1]
 • Total
40,000
 Prior to ISIS, August 2014
DemonymAssyrian:Tel-Kepniyah (m)/Tel-Kepnetha (f) Arabic:Tel-Kayfi (m)/Tel-Kayfiya (f)

Tel Keppe (also spelled Tel Kaif) (Template:Lang-syr Tel Kepe, Template:Lang-ar Tall Kayf) is a town in Iraq. It is located in the Nineveh Governorate, less than 8 mi (13 km) northeast of Mosul.[2] The town was majority Assyrian with a Yazidi minority until ISIS took it over, and is today mostly Sunni Arab, followed by Assyrians and Yazidis.[3]

History

File:Assyrian Mart Shmony in Tel Keppe.jpg
Assyrian Church of Mart Shmony in Tel Keppe

The first reliable reference to the town is written in the book ”The History of Mosul” by Abu Zakaria Azidi. The book was released in 945 AD. He wrote about the history of Mosul and referenced the town of Tel Keppe. Zakaria also mentioned a different author from the year 749 AD .The other author mentions the village Tel Keppe as one of the Mosul’s many suburbs.

In 1508, Tel Keppe was sacked by Mongols. In 1743, Tel Keppe was looted and burned by the armies of the Persian leader Nader Shah. This event took place within the context of the Siege of Mosul, in which the Persian army suffered heavy casualties and resorted to looting the surrounding towns to have some semblance of victory. In 1833, the town was once again sacked, this time by the Kurdish Governor of Rawandiz. He also sacked the nearby town of Alqosh.[2]

Occupation by ISIL

On 6 August 2014, the town was taken over by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), along with nearby Assyrian towns Bakhdida, Bartella and Karamlish.[4] Upon entering the town, ISIS looted the homes, and removed the crosses and other religious objects from the churches. The Christian cemetery in the town was also later destroyed.[5]

Soon after the beginning of the Battle of Mosul, Iraqi troops advanced on Tel Keppe, but the fighting continued into 2017.[6][7] Iraqi forces recaptured the town from ISIL on the 19th of January 2017.[8]

In 2017, Salman Esso Habba of the "Christian Mobilization" militia - a part of the Popular Mobilization Forces - warned the Arabs to leave, claiming that Tel Keppe’s homes belonged only to Christians in the town, MEMO reported Wednesday. He also said that Christians’ homes and rights could not be taken away.[9]

As of 2021, 4 years after the liberation of Tel Keppe, most of the native Assyrian of the town either fled to the large cities, or fled Iraq as a whole. Very few Assyrians returned or had any plans to return.

Arabization

Tel Keppe has faced Arabization since the late 70’s under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Arabs began moving to Tel Keppe, while Assyrians began moving to the big cities of Iraq, mainly Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.[10] The Northern Iraq Offensive by ISIS made things even worse for the Assyrians. After Tel Keppe was liberated, most Assyrians fled to Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region or fled Iraq entirely, causing more Arabs to settle in the town. The presence of Arab-dominated militias in the Nineveh Plains has prevented the return of thousands of Tel Keppe residents.[11] Tel Keppe has a majority Arab Muslim population as of 2021.[12]

Climate

Tel Keppe has a semi-arid climate (BSh) with extremely hot summers and cool, damp winters, typical to the Nineveh Plains.

Climate data for Tel Keppe
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 12
(54) 		14
(57) 		20
(68) 		26
(79) 		34
(93) 		38
(100) 		43
(109) 		40
(104) 		38
(100) 		30
(86) 		20
(68) 		14
(57) 		27
(81)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 2
(36) 		4
(39) 		8
(46) 		11
(52) 		16
(61) 		21
(70) 		25
(77) 		24
(75) 		20
(68) 		14
(57) 		6
(43) 		4
(39) 		13
(55)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 39
(1.5) 		69
(2.7) 		51
(2.0) 		9
(0.4) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		0
(0) 		6
(0.2) 		36
(1.4) 		60
(2.4) 		270
(10.6)
Average precipitation days 10 10 11 9 0 0 0 0 0 5 8 12 65
Source: World Weather Online (2000–2012)[13]

Demographics

File:Chaldean Catholics in Tel Keppe3.jpg
Chaldean Catholic ceremony in Tel Keppe.

In 1768, the town had a recorded population of 2,500. Due to plague and other disasters, the population was around 1,500 in 1882, rising to 2,500 again by 1891. In 1923, the population was recorded as 14,000. In 1933, the population numbered around 10,000. As a result of emigration from the town to Baghdad and the United States, the population shrunk to 7,108 by 1968.

The district of Tel Keppe was approximately 50% Christian in the mid 1900s, the town of Tel Keppe remaining almost exclusively Christian with a population of 6,600 inhabitants.[14] Throughout the late 20th century, the town experienced non-native population growth from the arrival of Arabs, who established residence throughout the town and became the majority after ISIS. By the turn of the century, the population had swelled to close to 30,000.[15]

Some families who settled in Tel Keppe are:

Tel Kepnayeh today

Starting in the 1980s and especially after the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 US Invasion of Iraq, many Chaldean Catholics from Tel Keppe fled to other countries, primarily the United States. They set up their lives there with new churches and business for their families.[2] By 2001, many from Tel Keppe had moved to major cities in Iraq such as Baghdad or Mosul.[17]

Chaldean diaspora in US

Many of the Chaldean Catholic‘s in the Metro Detroit area trace their origins to Tel Keppe. According to the estimates of a priest of Tel Keppe's Sacred Heart Chaldean Rite Catholic Church, there were 10,000 worshippers in the late 1950s and this decreased to 2,000 around 2004. He said that "Many people don’t want to go from here; they cry that they have to go… But you almost have to leave these days because your family probably already is in Detroit."[18]

Culture

Chaldean Catholic ceremony in Tel Keppe

Tel Keppe historically was the center of the Chaldean Catholic community of Iraq. Each family residing in Tel Keppe had one or more plots of farming land located outside Tel Keppe. The land produced barley and wheat, and animals raised there included goats and sheep. Natalie Jill Smith, author of "Ethnicity, Reciprocity, Reputation and Punishment: An Ethnoexperimental Study of Cooperation among the Chaldeans and Hmong of Detroit (Michigan)", wrote that in the reports of the village "everyone was related" and that marriage tended to occur between two people from the same village.[15]

Notable Tel-Kepniyeh

Deceased

  • Maria Theresa Asmar, author and explorer, born in 1806. Published her memoir "Babylonian Princess" in English in 1844.
  • Tariq Aziz, born Mikhail Yuhanna (1936–2015 ) Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and a close advisor of President Saddam Hussein. He studied English at Baghdad University and later worked as a journalist, before joining the Ba'ath Party in 1957.
  • Emmanuel III Delly: Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans. (1927–2014)
  • Yusuf Malek, one of the leaders of the Assyrian movement in Iraq during the 1930s. Author of "The British Betrayal of the Assyrians".[19]
  • Chaldean Patriarch Joseph II Marouf (1667–1713).

Living

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tel Keppe.

References

  1. ^ هل كانت تلكيف بلدة آشورية قديمة؟ Archived 2012-03-17 at the Wayback Machine, فؤاد يوسف قزانجي
  2. ^ a b c Welcome to Tel Keppe at ChaldeansOnline http://www.chaldeansonline.org/telkeppe/ Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Sonawane, Vishakha (February 10, 2017). "Christian War On Muslims? Iraqi Christian Militia Leader Threatens Sunni Arabs, Asks Them To Leave Assyrian Town". International Business Times. Retrieved August 4, 2020. A leader of a Christian militia in the Shiite-majority nation of Iraq threatened to "dispose of" Sunni Arab tribes in the northern Assyrian town of Tel Keppe if they did not vacate the area by Friday, according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
  4. ^ Barack Obama Approves Airstrikes on Iraq, Airdrops Aid
  5. ^ "Aiding the Assyrians Fight Against ISIS". The Huffington Post. 2015-04-15. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  6. ^ Alkhshali, Hamdi; Smith-Spark, Laura; Lister, Tim (22 October 2016). "ISIS kills hundreds in Mosul area, source says". CNN. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  7. ^ "Iraqi residents flee Islamic State-held town of Tel Keyf". YouTube. Reuters. 10 January 2017. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 12 January 2017.
  8. ^ Griffis, Margaret (19 January 2017). "Militants Execute Civilians in Mosul; 101 Killed Across Iraq". Antiwar.com. Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  9. ^ https://www.ibtimes.com/christian-war-muslims-iraqi-christian-militia-leader-threatens-sunni-arabs-asks-them-2489589
  10. ^ "Tel Keppe in the Past and Today". 22 May 2017.
  11. ^ "Mayor of Tel Keppe Reinstated After Unlawful Dismissal by KDP". 9 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Death by Emigration: Two Years After ISIS, Catholics Are Still Fleeing Iraq".
  13. ^ "Tel Kaif, Ninawa Monthly Climate Average, Iraq". World Weather Online. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  14. ^ Khadduri, Majid (1956). Area Handbook on Iraq – Volume 58 of Human Relations Area Files. Johns Hopkins University. p. 76. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  15. ^ a b Smith, Natalie Jill. "Ethnicity, Reciprocity, Reputation and Punishment: An Ethnoexperimental Study of Cooperation among the Chaldeans and Hmong of Detroit (Michigan)" (PhD dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. p. 61. UMI Number: 3024065.
  16. ^ Aprim, Fred (19 August 2004). "The Town of Tel-Kepe". Atour.
  17. ^ Smith, Natalie Jill. "Ethnicity, Reciprocity, Reputation and Punishment: An Ethnoexperimental Study of Cooperation among the Chaldeans and Hmong of Detroit (Michigan)" (PhD dissertation). University of California, Los Angeles, 2001. p. 62. UMI Number: 3024065.
  18. ^ "Arab, Chaldean, and Middle Eastern Children and Families in the Tri-County Area." (Archive) From a Child's Perspective: Detroit Metropolitan Census 2000 Fact Sheets Series. Wayne State University. Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2004. p. 2/32. Retrieved on November 8, 2013. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 26, 2010. Retrieved 2013-11-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. ^ http://www.aina.org/books/bbota.pdf [bare URL PDF]
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