On 20 August 1918 , for fear of persecution from the Ottoman Turks during their campaign of genocide against Armenians , Assyrians , and other Christians of the Ottoman Empire , the newly elected Catholicos-Patriarch fled with about 60,000 of his people from Urmia in Iran seeking the protection of the British in Iraq . 15,000 of his followers died on the way . The survivors were in a camp in Baquba , about 50 kilometers north of Baghdad . Becoming very sick , Shimun XX spent his short patriarchal days at Mor Mottai monastery belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch . He died on 27 April 1920 and buried on 9 May 1920 in the Armenian cemetery in Baghdad
Armenians
Armenian Genocide
Shimun XX Paulos