A Christian State in Iraq? Between a Failed Iraq and a Stalled Kurdistan

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Iraq's Christians are an endangered population. Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, and other Christians have faced extraordinary brutality in their homeland since even before the 2003 US-lead war. The fourth largest community in Iraq after Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen—due to Islamic State terrorists attacks and threats—hundreds of thousands of Christians fled their villages and cities to the Kurdistan Region, neighboring countries, and others still have been able to seek some solace in Europe, the USA, or even Australia. It was widely reported that as of August 2014, mass has not been held in Mosul for the first time in 1600 years.Though nearly impossible to verify, some claim that 100,000 fled Mosul and its environs in one day. Some are calling this horror akin to genocide or ethnic cleansing. Regardless, the fate of one of the regions’ oldest Christian communities is arguably at its most vulnerable point in its history.

Converting to Christianity en masse in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, many of those who currently fall under the umbrella term “Iraqi Christians” originally followed ancient Ashurism, a Sumerian and Akkadian religion. These Syriac-speaking peoples are indigenous to Iraq and are — in part — descendants of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and maintaining their distinct cultures, traditions, and written scripts. Some speak a dialect of Aramaic, the lingua franca of the larger region two millennia ago, and the language of a very important man said to have been born in a Bethlehem manger.

Though there were a significant amount of Christians who threw their support behind the former Ba'ath Regime (either forcibly or voluntarily), at times Assyrians and Chaldeans were persecuted during Saddam Hussein's brutal rule, and in many cases were forced to register as Arabs or Kurds. During the infamous Anfal campaign that leveled 90 percent of Kurdish villages and killed over 180,000, many of these victims were also Christians who lived in the Kurdish-dominated regions. When Saddam first came to office, their numbers were close to two and a half million and decreasing ever since though much more subtly than today: in attempts to co-opt nationalism, Saddam encouraged some semblance of tolerance; his Vice President for many years was Tariq Aziz (Michael Youkhanna), a Chaldean. It is important to note that many others have historically supported the Kurdish national movement and many others have joined the Peshmerga since the advent of the so-called Islamic State.

Ever since US and Coalition Troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011, Christians have been facing a wholly unenvious position, caught between a Baghdad that has failed to protect them, and an Erbil that has steadily yet inconsistently warmed up to them. After all, Kurds and Christians both share a mutually checkered history that at times led to destruction and violence in previous centuries.

Like most vulnerable minorities in the Middle East, Iraq's Christians lack powerful diplomatic brokers and have thus been maneuvering the difficult regional political waters without a consensus. Some leaders advocate working with Baghdad while others believe Erbil to be their best bet. Others still desire to fend for themselves and seek to carve out a vaguely demarcated Christian autonomous zone in the north of the country.

It would not be until 2005, when, for the first time, Assyrian and other Christian political parties were able to run in the national elections. However, these same parties have been able to run in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) elections since 1992, the first Kurdish elections in general, and also have five pre-reserved seats. Out of a total (also) five pre-reserved seats claimed, in the 2014 Iraqi elections, two went to the main Assyrian Party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM). The Chaldean Syriac Assyrian United List earned two seats, while Sons of Mesopotamia List only kept its one. In the KRG elections earlier in 2014, some Assyrians vied for seats within Kurdish parties, though they did not receive enough votes within these parties to win a seat in parliament.

While most Christians support one of the several Christian-nationalist political parties in the country, they are becoming more polarized from one another. Some lean toward remaining part of Iraq while others are cozying up to an inevitable yet stalled Kurdistan while other still have been vying for some semblance of semi or completely autonomous Ninewa (Ninevah) Province within a federal Iraq.

The main Assyrian Party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), established in 1979 also maintains chapters in the diaspora, including the United States. They maintain a militia estimated at 2,000 men, and it reportedly this group does not seek cooperation with the Peshmerga. In fact, this relatively large group mainly seeks to secure the environs around the ancient town of Al-Qosh, thirty miles from Mosul.

However, the ADM has competition. In August 2014, another Assyrian party, the Assyrian Patriotic Party (APP) formed a small militia known as "Dwekh Nawsha," which often cooperates with Peshmerga forces to reclaim the Ninevah Plains from IS terrorists. The APP ultimately believes Kurds will remain in control after the eventual ouster of the brutal Islamic fundamentalists. Dwekh Nawsha are not per se APP members and additionally maintains close relations with the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Popular Council, and the Chaldean-Democratic Party. The latter is supported and funded in part by the KRG since at least 2003, and though the APP is smaller than ADM, they are on friendlier terms with the pro-KRG Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian Popular Council, the ADM's main opposition.

The ADM and their militia, the Nineveh Plains Protection Units, have been somewhat wary of the KRG, and has stressed perceived failures of the Peshmerga to protect Christian areas and supports Baghdad’s claim to control the Ninevah Plains. According to Newsweek and the Catholic Herald, this organization is largely funded by the American Mesopotamian Organization Despite these political rivalries, Dwekh Nawsha and the ADM both support the establishment of an autonomous region for the Christians and other minorities in the Ninevah Plains.

 

The future of Christianity in Iraq

The ethnic and political splintering of Iraq's Christians has left domestic and international actors believing that there is no true consensus on how these communities view their stake in a post-IS Iraq. Though Kurdish-Christians have been somewhat strained historically, Christians' political choices are somewhat limited at present.

They can assist in the nascent state-building project of the KRG of which some of them are already doing so; remain part of an increasingly sectarian 'Federal' Iraq; or work toward implementing plans for a separate autonomous region in Ninevah, which lacks support in Baghdad, Erbil, and much of the international community.

The KRG has hosted tens of thousands of Christian Internally Displaced Persons and has steadily been institutionalizing its policy of acceptance for minorities in the region, including its diverse Christian communities.