The population of Beth Tanura has declined and even by the 1900s it was still smaller than in the centuries before because of massacres led by Kurds against the village 's population . However , The village population grew after the Assyrian genocide , when many Tyari-Assyrians from the Hakkari mountains to the north in Turkey settled in the village . The Assyrian population was almost equal in numbers to the Jewish one , however the Jewish population remained a majority and the farmlands remained under Jewish ownership up until 1951 , when the 17 Jewish families that remained , left '' en masse '' to Israel . After the exodus of the Iraqi Jews , Beth Tanura became a Christian village until Saddam 's campaign against the Kurds , which led to the exodus of many Assyrians from the area . The Iraqi army destroyed the village in 1971 , and destroyed the ancient houses that were mostly built by the original Jewish population
Assyrian genocide
Assyrian genocide
Betanure