MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +3741. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +3741. .562543
Email: press@mfa.am:

09 December 2004

PRESS RELEASE

Attack on Armenian Church in Iraq

After an explosion occurring in two mosques in Iraq on the 5th of December,
two Christian religious buildings in Mosul (northern Iraq) were attacked
today – Armenian and Chaldean churches. The militants had stated before that
for every mosque blown up, one church would be destroyed. On 7th December in
the afternoon, unidentified gunmen stormed into the city’s newly constructed
Armenian church, gathered those present, and forced everybody out the
church, announcing their intentions to destroy it. The militants then parked
a transport loaded with explosives next to the church.

The subsequent explosion did a great deal of irreparable damage to the
Armenian church.A similar scenario played out with the attack on the
Chaldean church. The only difference was that the explosion was followed by
intense fire directed not only at the building, but at all the furnishings
inside as well. Neither attack resulted in casualties. On the 8th of
December, gunmen appeared at a nearby Armenian church in order to plunder
all that had remained inside.

According to head of the Central Armenian National Department of Iraq, these
attacks have been of an exclusively anti-Christian nature, and are not
specifically anti-Armenian.