[ EPF 2013 SHORTLIST ]
Christianity is on the edge of extinction in its birthplace, the Middle East.
Escaping sectarian violence, kidnappings, religious fatwas, economic hardship and severe persecution, the oldest Christian communities in the world are leaving the region.
Nowadays there are more Iraqi, Turkish and Palestinian Christians living in the Diaspora in Europe, the US or South America than in their native countries, while the current events in Egypt and Syria indicate a similar fate for its Christian population.
With the current speed of this Christian Exodus continuing, out of 12 million Christians in the middle East only 6 million will be left in the year 2020. It’s a real probability that within one generation Christianity, as a live religion and culture, will have vanished from the Middle East. I want to document this vanishing people and culture and record a historic process with severe political, economic and cultural consequences for the Middle East.
Scene in a church in Al Adra, a small, exclusively christian town near to Minia.
Scene in the the al-Qiddissin Church. At least 21 people were killed and 70 hurt in the suspected suicide attack, which happened during a New Year’s Eve service at the al-Qiddissin Church.
View of the seaside in Alexandria, which was once one of the most advanced christian towns in the middle East.
Fady Faiz, one of the survivors of the suspected suicide attack, which happened during a New Year’s Eve service at the al-Qiddissin Church in Alexandria in which at least 21 people were killed and 70 hurt
A funeral in Al Qosh.
A nun in St. Pauls school in Qaraqosh where Aramaeic, the ancient language of Jesus, is still being taught.
A image of Mary in the monastery of Mar Oraha, founded in 581 a.d. In recent years, a small settlement has formed around the monastery, reliving the ancient christian settlement of Mar Oraha. Around 30 houses have been built, in which christians from neighbouring villages are now living. Beside the Monastery and the houses, there is nothing in the sttlement and the road, which ends in Mar Oraha, has just been build for the purpose of resettling.
Christians have always been part of the intellectual and economic elite of Middle Eastern societies and their migration leads to a brain-drain, sided with the withdrew of financial assets and, equally important, cultural and intellectual force. This lack of resources will only accelerate the problems Middle East as a whole is facing and fuel the vicious circle of poverty, ill-education and extremist violence in the Region.
Working on the project since early 2011, I have repeatedly been to Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Israel, Gaza and Palestine. During this time I established a network of different NGOs, local churches and individuals that have helped me setting up contacts and logistics needed for this project.
To complete the project, thus to further depict the complexity of the phenomenon and to deepen its understanding, I will need to visit the Christian communities in the remaining countries of the Levant: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria.
Scene at the cemetery in Qaraqosh.
A baptism in the Altamira church of Qaraqosh.
Bishop Yohanna Petros Mouche(2nd. left) during a funeral prayer in the village of Bartulla in the Nineveh Plain north of Mosul. Bartulla used to be a christian town, but due to emigration and demographic factors, the balance between muslim and christian population is tipping towards a muslim majority.
A christian touches the centuries-old wall in the monastery of St. Bernam & Sarah in Qadisha in the Nineveh Plain north of Mosul. People often come here to pray for children.
Salaam Khikwa, a former student of Mosul’ technical university, was severly wounded in a bombattack against a chtistian Busconvoi he was travelling in in 2009. As a consequence of the attack, he lost nearly all of his left eyesight and a part of his pupil needed to be removed.
The local christian militia under the command of Father Luis Sako is protecting the church of St. Bernam & Sarah in Qaraqosh. Father Luis Sako, after the 2003 US Invasion of Iraq, invented and put into life the idea of a christian militiain Qaraqosh, protecting the city against muslim extremists. Since then, the armed and 1200 men strong militia is under his ultimate command, providing security for the city borders as they control the checkpoints around Qaraqosh as well as the churches.
Two assyrian priests are standing on a hilltop at the turkish south-eastern border, overlooking the syrian desert in the backround. The site is the location for the 1600 year old monastery of Mor Augin, one of the oldest still existing christian monasteries.
A christian refugee-family from Baghdad shows the key of their local church, which had to close due to the ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq. After the last mess, the priest handed out the keys to the remaining christian families as a memory to their church. Just as many others, the family now lives in Istanbul in Transit, waiting for the Visa-application to be granted to continue their journey to the United States, where other family members are already waiting.
Andy Spyra, born 1984 in Germany, is a freelance photographer currently based in Germany. He worked one year as a staff photographer for the local newspaper in his hometown before he became a freelance photographer. He’s working on assignments and personal longtermprojects in the Balkans and more recently in the middle East.
His Projects include a documentation of the ongoing conflict in Kashmir as well a four year long visual engagement with the aftermath of the genocide in Bosnia. Since 2011 he’s been working on a longtermproject about the christian exodus from the Middle East.