Dooreh
Dooreh Location in Iraq Show map of Iraq Dooreh Dooreh (Iraqi Kurdistan) Show map of Iraqi Kurdistan
Coordinates: 37°13′24″N 43°28′7″E / 37.22333°N 43.46861°E / 37.22333; 43.46861
Country	Iraq
Region	Kurdistan Region
Governorate	Dohuk Governorate
District	Amadiya District

Dooreh (Kurdish: دورێ,^[1] Syriac: ܕܘܪܐ)^{[2][nb 1]} is a village in Dohuk Governorate in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is located near the Iraq–Turkey border in the Amadiya District and the historical region of Barwari.

In the village, there is a church of Mar Gewargis,^[5] and the ruins of the monastery of Mar Qayyoma.^[3] There was previously two shrines dedicated to Mart Maryam and Mar Apius and four cemeteries.^[3]

Etymology

It is suggested that the name of the village is derived from "dūru(m)" ("fortress, wall" in Akkadian).^[3] The Akkadian word is loaned into Syriac as ܕܘܼܪܵܐ dūrā (ridge, enclosure) with the plural ܕܘܼܪܹ̈ܐ dūrē, same as the name of the village.^[6][7]

History

The remains of a fortress nearby Dooreh have been dated to the early period of Assyria in the late third millennium BC, and likely inspired the village's name.^[8] The monastery of Mar Qayyoma was founded in the 4th-century AD, and the church of Mar Gewargis was first constructed in 909.^[3] The monastery of Mar Qayyoma is first mentioned in the mentioned in the 10th-century Life of Rabban Joseph Busnaya, and had become the seat of the Church of the East diocese of Barwari by 1610.^[9] Dooreh itself is mentioned in a manuscript of 1683.^[9] In 1850, 20-40 Church of the East families inhabited Dooreh, and were served by two functioning churches and four priests.^[3]

Prior to the First World War, Dooreh was populated by 200 Assyrians,^[3] who were forced to flee under the leadership of Agha Petros to the vicinity of Urmia in Iran, amidst the Assyrian genocide.^[4] Whilst in Iran, 90 villagers died, and 30 women and children were either killed or abducted,^[3] and the survivors were settled at the refugee camp at Baqubah in 1918.^[10] After residing there for two years, 90 people eventually returned to Dooreh.^[10] Dooreh was temporarily deserted again in the early 1930s due to the conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdish Emir of Barwari.^[4] 35 families inhabited the village in 1938, and the population of Dooreh was recorded as 296 people in 1957.^[3]

At the onset of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in 1961, 75 families in 40 houses resided at Dooreh,^[4] and the village was damaged by a napalm attack during the war in 1968.^[3] Despite this damage, the population increased to 100 families in 75 houses by 1978, in which year on 8 August the village was destroyed by the Iraqi government, and much of its population was forcibly resettled at Batifa.^[3] The village's destruction was total, as all houses, churches, farms, and orchards were obliterated.^[3] In the aftermath of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq, 30 families returned to Dooreh,^[4] and the church of Mar Gewargis was rebuilt in 1995 with support from the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg.^[5]

By 2011, the Supreme Committee of Christian Affairs had constructed 37 houses and a hall,^[2] and the village was inhabited by 250 adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East in the following year.^[11] Dooreh was struck by Turkish airstrikes on 1 September 2018 as part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.^[12]

Notable people

• Margaret George Shello (1942–1969), Assyrian militant.^[13]