Draft:Mar Yaqo

Mar Yaqo (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܝܥܩܘܒ, Arabic: مار ياقو), also called Qashafir or Fishfo in Kurdish Language is an ancient village in Dohuk Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Simele District.

History
Its history goes back to the 7th Century where a monk called Yawalaha founded a monastery in 647. After his death, the monastery was headed by another monk called Yaqo. The ruins of the monastery and the church lasted until 1988 when they were destroyed during Anfal Campaign. The village also had a monastery founded in 1750 by Italian Dominican Fathers. A century after, in 1850, the French Dominican Fathers came there and enlarged the Monastery and also founded a school in which students could learn Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Arabic and French Language in addition to arithmetic and science.

According to Joseph Tfinkdji, Mar Yaqo had a population of 150 people in 1913. The village had a chapel and a school but no Churches while the village of Shiyoz had a population of 210 people with a church and a school.

The village was first damaged in 1976 during the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns of Northern Iraq and was then completely destroyed in 1988 during Al Anfal campaign, at this time the village was home to 20 families, all of them being Assyrians.

After the destruction of Mar Yaqo, villagers were forced to live in Shiyoz. While some of them chose to flee abroad, others stayed in Shiyoz which had a population of 752 people in 2020.

Geography
Mar Yaqo has a hot-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen Climate Classification: Csa). The village is located at the top of a mountain called Bekher (Also spelled Bikher or BethKhira) which means "Place of Freedom" and at an altitude between 900 and 1000m. The village has an average annual temperature of 17.3°C and an annual precipitation of 767mm.

Famous people
- Gorgis Gabriel Homi, Assyrian colonel in the Assyrian Levies

- Jacques Rhétoré, French Dominican Father who lived in Mar Yaqo.