Vast majority of Iraq’s remaining Christians live in Kurdistan Region: KRG Official

"The number of Christians in Iraq before 2003 was estimated to be 1.5 million"

Kurdistan 24 2021/09/21 15:03

Amir Othman, Manager of Religious Coexistence Department of Kurdistan Region Government Ministry of Endowment (Photo: K24)

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ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – There are only 250,000 to 300,000 Christians left in Iraq, the vast majority of whom live in the Kurdistan Region, Amir Othman, Manager of Religious Coexistence Department at the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Endowment, told Kurdistan 24 on Monday.

“The number of Christians in Iraq before 2003 was estimated to be 1.5 million; while after 2003, especially after ISIS invaded Christian towns in the Nineveh Plain, a large number of them left Iraq, with 90 percent of those remaining moving to the Kurdistan Region, seeking a safe haven,” Othman said.

Christians are continuing to leave Iraq because of ongoing instability and violence in the country, he said. That is not the case, however, in the Kurdistan Region. In that autonomous region, Assyrians, Armenians, Chaldeans, and Syriacs continue to live in peace and security.

Religious and minority rights in the Kurdistan Region are very well protected, a fact the KRG and the people of that region take pride in.

During his visit to Iraq last March, the first papal visit to the country, Pope Francis visited the Kurdistan Region and hailed it for being a “home to those who fled Islamic State militants in Iraq.”

-- Dler Sabar