The Iraqi census of 1957 recorded 519 inhabitants, and at the onset of the First Iraqi–Kurdish War in 1961, 400 families in 200 households resided at Jelek.[6] The war spurred the villagers to flee and seek refuge elsewhere, but most returned upon the war's end in 1970, at which time the village mukhtar (headman) Hermiz Oshana was assassinated.[4] Jelek was completely destroyed by the Iraqi army in 1978, including the church of Mar Mushe and village school, due to its proximity to the Iraq–Turkey border, and its population of c.