Simele


Simele is a town located in the Dohuk province of Kurdistan Region in Iraq. The town is on the main road that connects Kurdistan Region to its neighbour Turkey. It is west of the city of Dohuk.

Demographics

The town is populated by Assyrians and Kurds. Most Assyrians and the small Armenian population arrived after the Assyrian genocide and Armenian Genocide in 1915.

Simele massacre

The Assyrian people, who resided in Simele and its neighboring area, were subjected to a massacre on August 7th, 1933, implemented by the Iraqi government. The massacre was the first state-sponsored massacre in Iraq's young history after the establishment of Iraq in 1921. An estimated 3,000 Assyrians died during the 1933 massacre.

Footnotes