Austrian top diplomat meets with Cardinal Louis Sako in Erbil
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg met with Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako in Erbil as part of the European official’s visit to the Kurdistan Region.
Schallenberg met with Sako in Erbil, where the minister had previously met with the Region’s top officials.
“Important to reaffirm Austria’s support to protecting Christian life in Iraq & the Middle East,” the minister wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The cardinal has left Baghdad for Erbil after what he described as pressure being exerted on him by a Shiite militia leader named Rayan al-Kildani.
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid revoked a presidential decree in July that had ceremonially recognized the religious leader as the patriarch of Chaldean Christians in Iraq and the world.
The decision has drawn widespread condemnation from members of the Christian community, fearing the move is part of the systematic efforts against Christians in Iraq whose population have shrunk considerably since 2003.
Concluding my trip to Iraq by meeting the Patriarch of the Chaldean church, Cardinal Sako.
— Alexander Schallenberg (@a_schallenberg) September 13, 2023
Important to reaffirm Austria’s support to protecting Christian life in Iraq & the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/IJlloFjmhA
Thousands of members of the Christian faith have left Iraq since 2003 due to sectarian strife, terrorism, and most recently the ISIS takeover of their lands in Nineveh Plain. The Kurdistan Region has hosted a significant number of the displaced community, which have increased the Christian population in the Region to roughly 60,000 residents.
Arriving in Kurdistan Region in late July, Cardinal Sako expressed his gratitude to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for the support and warm greetings he had received. The top religious leader also hailed the peaceful coexistence in the Kurdistan Region.
Al-Kildani and Sako have recently engaged in a war of words, accusing each other of exploiting the minority group, whose population has dramatically dwindled in Iraq.
The militia leader heads the 50th Brigade of the Shiite militias, known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The U.S. Treasury designated al-Kildani for “serious human rights abuses” on July 18, 2019.
His party owns four out of five parliamentary seats allocated for minority groups in the 329-seat Iraqi parliament.
Read more: Patriarch of Iraqi Chaldean Church transfers from Baghdad to Erbil