Armash, Iraq


Armash is an Assyrian village in Shekhan District, Nineveh Governorate of Iraq that falls on the main road that connects the cities of Duhok and Erbil. Armash is an old village with a fellow Assyrian "sister" village adjacent to it called Azakh. The inhabitants are Assyrians who are mainly followers of the Chaldean Catholic Church, as is the case with other villages in the region such as Azakh, Tellan, and Bebozy.
As of 2012, the population of the village is around 160 inhabitants according to the population count by Wijnand D. Langeraar and Richard C. Michael.
The village is famous for its groves and fruits as well as its grains. Because it falls on the main road between Erbil and Duhok most of its produce is sold to the passengers on the road.

History

The village is first mentioned in a 9th century text by Toma Al-Merji, who writes that the village's Mar Afram monastery, which was standing along with another church until 1986, was extent in the 9th century.
In 1961, about 45 families lived in the village, but many eventually fled. Prior to 1961 there were no schools in the village. Students from Armash and Azakh would walk to the town of Atroush, where the nearest school was. The village was subject to destruction by the Ba'ath regime in 1987.
After the 1991 Kurdish uprising, the majority of the families returned to the village where a humanitarian organization built some 20 shelters; however, those shelters were not suitable for permanent living conditions
An irrigation channel was built in the village for the first time in 1999 by the Assyrian Aid Society.

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