President Barzani praises coexistence in Christmas message

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - The President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Masoud Barzani, extended his Christmas wishes Thursday to the diverse Christian communities throughout the Kurdistan Region and Iraq in general.

In an online message on the Kurdistan Region's Presidency website, Barzani said Iraq and the Kurdistan Region were under "the threat of terror and extremism” thus the continued coexistence of different religious and ethnic components should not be lost. "On the occasion of the birth of His holiness, Jesus, I hope our Christian brothers and sisters have a happiest Christmas," he said.

Addressing the 300,000-strong Christian community in the Kurdistan Region, Barzani assured them that "Kurdistan is your country, and the people of Kurdistan stand with you [and] we should all be able to live together in freedom."

Hundreds of thousands of Christians, a majority of whom are ethnic Assyrians, fled the Nineveh Plains in August 2014 when a sweeping Islamic State group (IS) assault overran their ancestral lands, mainly northeast of the city of Mosul, the second largest in Iraq. Christians who did not make it to the safety of the Kurdistan Region were given the choice to either convert to Islam or pay jizya, a special, yearly tax imposed on non-Muslim adherents of Abrahamic faiths. The refusal of both could result in forced displacement or death.

Acknowledging Mentioning the threats the Christian communities have had to endure at the hands of IS militants, President Barzani stated that "the terrorists' ultimate defeat" was near. "I hope you honorably return to your lands," he added.

Barzani stressed the need for strengthening the security of the places retaken from IS and stated that necessary precautions should be taken, "so that no atrocities are repeated in the future."

Barzani further remarked that "the crimes and savagery committed by the terrorists should motivate us to cherish the humane values we, as all constituents, have in Kurdistan."

Concentrated mostly in Duhok, Erbil, Nineveh, and Kirkuk Provinces, Christians in Kurdistan are mostly ethnic Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, and Armenians. There are also ethnic Kurdish Christians, mostly recent Protestant converts in the cities of Erbil and Suleimani.

Since the 2003 allied invasion of Iraq, the Christian population, which once numbered 1.5 million people, dwindled drastically to less than half a million amid harsh persecution and attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliates. Although tens of thousands still live in various refugee camps throughout Kurdistan, many others have chosen to emigrate abroad.