Christians demand greater political role

Christians have no presence on ministers and administrative levels, a Christian MP complains.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - The Christian minority in Kurdistan have praised the role of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in providing humanitarian assistance to the Christians who fled Islamic State-held areas in Nineveh province. However, they have demanded a greater political role within the Kurdistan Region.

Srud Salim Mati, a MP for the Abna’a al-Nahrain bloc in the Kurdistan Region parliament complained against the negligence the Christian minority face.  “It’s not logical that Christians have no presence on ministers and administrative levels in both the KRG and the Iraqi government,” Mati told a K24 reporter.

Mati also said that, “Christians demand to have a more political and administrative role not only in the Kurdistan Region but also in the Iraqi federal government.”

Christians have five seats in the 111-seat parliament of the Kurdistan Region and hold the Ministry of Transport and Communication in the KRG’s current cabinet run by Jonhson Shawes. Shawes resigned on August 14, 2014 in solidarity with the displaced Christians and other minorities from Nineveh Plain.

According to the General Directorate of Christian Affairs in the KRG's Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, almost 320,000 Christians live in the Kurdistan Region.

Participation of Christians in the KRG cabinets is weak and according to the leader of Bet Nahrain Democratic Party, an Assyrian party in the Kurdistan Region, Romeo Nissan Hakkari, Christians themselves are responsible for the weak position in the political process.

“Christians faced a problem in the eight KRG cabinet, and the problem was made by minister of Trade and Communication who decided to resign without going back to the Christian parties,” Hakkari told K24.

The KRG has hosted thousands of Christian internally displaced people since Islamic State militants took control of Nineveh Plain in August 2014, and has been following a policy of tolerance and acceptance of religious minorities that includes Christians.

 

 (Aras Ahmed from Erbil contributed to this report).