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IRAQ : Assyrian Christians: Persecution and Resurgence April 4, 2018 by Zara Sarvarian Tion) Before the Invasion of IS

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IRAQ : Assyrian Christians: Persecution and Resurgence April 4, 2018 by Zara Sarvarian Tion) Before the Invasion of IS IRAQ : Assyrian Christians: Persecution and Resurgence April 4, 2018 by Zara Sarvarian tion) before the invasion of IS. Amidst razed churches and ransacked dwell- Samir Gedhya never wanted to leave ings, these people seek to resurrect his home in Qaraqosh for the unknown, their normal lives. Their principal con- even when the Islamic State group cern has continuously been security. was almost at his doorstep, sweeping When IS attacked their towns, this through the towns of Iraq. As the men- ancient Christian minority in Iraq felt ace to Qaraqosh loomed, his eldest betrayed by everyone, from the Iraqi son Faraj, then 16, decided to flee to army to the Kurdish Peshmerga, who France, entering by a hazardous and abandoned the Nineveh Plains to their illegal boat journey with the aim of later Muslim neighbors, many of whom col- seeking to move his family there. Samir laborated with IS, Samir believes. and his wife, Shaymaa, decided they “In the Bible Jesus said: ‘You will be would take the longer, safer and legal hated because of me’ and they showed route to France together with their two that we were hated because we are younger sons. Christians,” says Samir, “Our Muslim Just before IS penetrated Qaraqosh neighbors, who participated in the loot- in August 2014, the Assyrian Christian ing of our houses and who cooperated family fled to Erbil Governorate, finding with IS, now seem to feel guilty. They themselves on the streets of the city of Samir Gedhys’s family (World Watch Monitor) reassure us that they are not part of it Ankawa without a roof over their heads. anymore.” After a week, they arrived at Mart Caught between IS and its supporters, Shmoni refugee camp, which hosted Assyrians realized that the only support 15,000 people, then moved onto Anka- they would receive was from their own wa shopping mall, which had opened people. In the autumn of 2014, the its doors to 4,000 refugees. Years later, Nineveh Plains Protection Units (NPU), the memory of scabies, a contagious a Christian Assyrian security force, was skin infection that had spread through- created to resist IS. out the mall, makes Samir’s body crawl, even though he did not contract it. The 500 men In February 2016, upon being grant- The security of Qaraqosh, the largest ed official permission, the family trav- Christian city in Iraq, as well as of neigh- elled to France and stayed there almost boring Bartella and Karamles, is now two years. Then, after Qaraqosh was managed by the NPU’s 500 soldiers. liberated from IS and it was deemed All of them are residents of the Nineveh Of 9,000 families to leave Qaraqosh, 5,000 have to be safe to return, they packed their Plains and members of the Chaldean returned. (World Watch Monitor) bags and made their way home. Faraj and Syriac Churches. The NPU fought chose to remain in France. alongside the US-led coalition and Iraqi “In December 2017 we returned to forces in the liberation of the Nineveh ‘our Holy Land’, Qaraqosh,” says Samir. Plains. “We were expecting to witness a di- “There are thousands who want to saster created and left by IS. However, volunteer to serve in the army but the when we entered our city, I was re-born Iraqi government does not give permis- and I still have that feeling. I could not sion,” Athra Kado, the Media Director sleep properly even a single night in of the NPU, told World Watch Monitor. France. I don’t regret that we returned “If the security of a town or a village is at all.” not controlled by our people, we cannot Of the around 9,000 families to leave trust them; we don’t trust the govern- Qaraqosh, over 5,000 have returned, ment.” according to the Christian charity Open Samir says that his middle son, Yousif, Doors International. The city, also called 18, is on his way to join the NPU. The Baghdeda in the Syriac language, used only Christian army unit in Iraq embod- Amidst razed churches and ransacked homes, Assyrians to be home to 50,000 Assyrian Chris- ies the hope of Assyrians for a safer and seek to resurrect their normal lives. (World Watch Monitor) tians (97 per cent of the city’s popula- more secure future. The streets of Qaraqosh are still full of rubble. (World Watch Monitor) A damaged church in Qaraqosh (World Watch Monitor) Passive persecution es are indirectly imposed on Assyrian women Background Lack of trust in the Iraqi government and Kurd- as well, Yakoub explains. The Assyrian population in Iraq is mainly istan Regional Government (KRG) has always concentrated in the Nineveh Plains region, been an issue for the Assyrian community. “If A dream that unites Northern Iraq, which is considered the original the level of trust towards the authorities was Approximately half a million Assyrians, out Assyrian homeland. This distinct, indigenous very low even before the IS invasion, now of a global population of 1.5 million, live in ethnic group are descendants of the ancient there is no trust whatsoever,” Afram Yakoub, Europe today. The Assyrian Confederation of Assyrian Empire, which collapsed between a board member of the Assyrian Confedera- Europe not only co-ordinates donations and 612 BC and 605 BC, and speak an ancient tion in Europe, told World Watch Monitor. other support from the Assyrian diaspora to language termed ‘Assyrian’, ‘Syriac’, ‘Aramaic’ He pointed to the various sectors in which Assyrians in Iraq and Syria, but it also pursues or ‘Neo-Aramaic’. he says Iraqi Assyrians face neglect and dis- a political agenda. This involves attempts to Christianity spread in the Assyrian nation crimination on a daily basis, from education influence powerful countries to put pressure shortly after its rise. They have established and employment to the judicial system. “The on the Iraqi government to grant the Nineveh five Eastern Churches at different points in general trend is that there is no basic democ- Plains the status of an autonomous Assyrian their history: the Ancient Church of the East, racy: Assyrians and other minorities are left administrative province. Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catho- outside of decision-making processes in the Assyrians believe that only autonomy with lic Church, Syriac Catholic Church, and Syriac Nineveh Plains, even though they are the ma- an Assyrian governor would guarantee the Orthodox Church. The majority of Assyrians jority,” said Afram Yakoub. “Assyrians don’t get continued existence of the indigenous Assyr- who live in Iraq today adhere to the Chaldean government jobs; Assyrian schools never re- ian community in the Nineveh Plains, so that and Syriac Churches. ceive the full funding they are entitled to or the the decisions concerning various aspects of An estimated 300,000 Assyrians lived in textbooks they need; the water and electricity their lives are made by “their people”. Iraq before IS’s invasion. They have a signifi- supply is weaker for the Assyrian community; “Our ethnicity and our Christian identity are cant presence in north-eastern Syria, around foreign aid that is pouring into Northern Iraq interconnected,” says Athra Kado of the NPU. 400,000 before the recent civil war started is not handled by Christians and is somehow “We can’t practice Christianity if we don’t have in 2011, mainly concentrated in the Hasaka directed to non-Assyrians.” our language and our land. We don’t want Governorate. The areas governed by the KRG see the Kurds or Arabs to get involved in deciding our Under the Arab nationalist Ba’ath Party authorities passively resisting judicial verdicts destiny, nor do we want them to fight with regime of Saddam Hussein, this Christian made in favor of Christians by neglecting to each other to get the Nineveh Plain. Historical- minority was intermittently subjected to per- implement them, he says. Alongside its poli- ly, it belongs to Assyrians and Yazidis.” secution of varying degrees. This included cy of ‘Kurdification’ of Northern Iraq, the KRG This campaign, however, has stalled. “We the targeting of Assyrian towns and villages also imposes a curriculum upon Assyrian have had zero results so far,” says Afram Yak- during the al-Anfal military campaign against schools, says Yakoub. He describes this as oub of the Confederation. “Influential coun- Kurdistan in Northern Iraq between 1986 ‘humiliating’: “For example, in history books tries are not interested in us.” For now, this and 1989, and after the US invasion of Iraq there is a chapter where the Kurd Simko Christian community clears the rubble from in 2003. Agha, who assassinated the Patriarch of the the streets left behind by IS, re-build their The Assyrian Democratic Movement, an Assyrian Church of the East during the Assyri- houses and outline their plans for the Nineveh ethnic Assyrian political party established in an genocide immediately after the First World Plains. “My life is now here,” says Samir, a fa- 1979 in Iraq, holds two seats in the KRG par- War, is presented as a hero.” ther of three sons. “I wanted to come back so liament and two seats in the Iraq parliament. Discrimination against Christian women much. I wanted to live my traditions, with my A number of forces are involved in the security is not brazen but it does exist: the concept of people. There is so much beauty around me, arrangement of the Nineveh Plains: the Kurd- ‘honor and shame’ and other Islamic practic- despite the ruins.” ish Peshmerga, the Iraqi army and the NPU..
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