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Christian exodus from Iraqi Kurdistan:
North no longer safe
22.3.2012
By Barvan Ahmad, Zakho - Niqash |
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A Christian church in Zakho city, Kurdistan region
of Iraq.
Yazidi Kurds, Kurdistan region of Iraq fear attacks. Photo: Flickr
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March 22, 2012
ZAKHO, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Last
year’s riots in the relatively tolerant and safe
northern Kurdish city of Zakho continue to have
repercussions. Rioters have not been arrested,
political blame continues to be cast and the
minorities targeted, are still fleeing.
“Do you think they will kill us too?” This was the
disturbing question posed by his ten-year-old son,
Karol and it was a query that made up Bader al-Din’s
mind. The Christian man, resident in the
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, decided that he
would have to leave his ancestral land soon and
never return.
Al-Din’s family’s anxieties really began late last
year when riots erupted spontaneously in the
northern city of Zakho, near the Turkish-Iraqi
Kurdistan border, after prayers one Friday
afternoon. The riots, which spread further afield
too, resulted in the
destruction of
stores selling
alcohol, a
massage parlour and tourist accommodation.
And at first, it appeared as though there were
religious motives at work: many of the businesses
attacked were owned by local Christians or
practitioners of the Kurdish Yazidi religion.
However it was also possible that this was due to
the nature of the businesses: both of these
religions do not prohibit alcohol consumption.
Historically Zakho is a city known for the potential
for peaceful coexistence between different
religions: Muslims, Christians, Yazidis and
Armenians live together here. Even Iraqi Jews used
to have their own neighbourhood in this city, up
until 1948 when a major campaign began against the
Jewish in Iraq. However the riots early last
December have caused some to re-evaluate Zakho’s
friendly image.
Straight after the riots, various political parties
began to blame one another for the disruption. The
state government blamed a cleric, part of the
Kurdistan Islamic Union, for inciting the violence
and destruction. But the Kurdistan Islamic Union
itself, which is a powerful opposition party in the
province, said it was part of political ploy by the
ruling parties to discredit it.
Several months have passed and as yet, there has
still been no conclusive evidence as to who was
behind the riots. It has remained hard to say
whether the attacks were politically or religiously
motivated.
Regardless of this though, one thing remains clear
when one visits Zakho now: businesses owned by
members of these two minority religions were
attacked and local security forces did not appear
interested in assisting them.
There have also been wider ramifications. Up until
those incidents in Zakho, the Christians of Iraq had
always seen the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi
Kurdistan, which has its own legal system, military
and government, as a safer option than other places
in the country where they may have become targets
for violent, religious extremists.
In fact, over the past few years many Iraqi
Christians had decided to relocate into the area,
which is far more secure than any other parts of the
country, and the region’s Minister of the Interior,
Karim Sinjari, has said that according to his
figures, around 1,600 Christian families had sought
refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan due to terrorist violence
targeting Christians elsewhere.
But now, following the attacks on the Christian and
Yazidi businesses late last year, many of those who
fled to what they thought was relative safety have
started to re-think their options. Although the
Iraqi Kurdish government has offered various forms
of social welfare and assistance to refugees, many
of the Christians immigrating here also have
concerns about unemployment and the economy.
A lot of the businesses in the northern Iraqi town
of Zakho, near the Iraqi-Turkish border, where the
attacks took place remain closed. But some have
decided to re-open.
“The repairs to my shop cost money and time,” Marcus
Yousef, one of the Christians who owns a bottle
store, told NIQASH. “But I have to repair the place
because I and my family – there are seven of us –
have not had an income for three months,” he
explained.
Yousef decided to re-open his store and was back at
work three days ago. “It’s really strange though,”
he added, while selling half a dozen beers to a
customer, “because most of my customers are actually
Muslim!”
Before the attacks on the stores and the rioting,
Yousef used to keep his business open until
midnight. But now he finishes at 9pm. “I’ve never
had any problems before,” he said. “But now it seems
things have changed and I need to be more careful.”
The head of the Christian Rafidain bloc in Iraq’s
Parliament agrees that previously many Christians
had left their homes in central and southern Iraq
because of violence there and moved to Iraqi
Kurdistan, instead of leaving the country
altogether.
“But the situation has now changed,” the politician
explained. “Christians no longer feel secure in the
Kurdish region. We are facing a high risk and we
believe that something should be done to stem the
exodus of Christians out of Iraq. There should be a
safe environment and good employment opportunities
provided for them as soon as possible,” concluded
the man, whose walls are decorated with pictures of
religious figures, including the Pope.
The Christian politician said he was very worried
that the Christian minority would go the same way
that Iraq’s Jewish minority had: today only a very
small number of Jews still live in Iraq – most
likely, not more than ten. Nobody really knows where
they’re living and they’re all very old.
Christianity is the second most popular religion in
Iraq after Islam and at the end of the 1980s, it was
estimated that there were around 2 million
Christians around the country. But due to Western
sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq,www.ekurd.net
many migrated. The outbreak of sectarian violence
after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and attacks
that deliberately targeted Christians, including the
deadly suicide attack on Our Lady of Salvation
Church in Baghdad in October 2010, caused even more
Christians to flee the country, or leave their homes
for what they saw as a relatively safe haven, Iraqi
Kurdistan.
As the New York Times reported earlier this month:
“Estimates by the United States and international
organizations say that Iraq’s pre-war Christian
population of 800,000 to 1.4 million now stands at
less than 500,000.”
Several points – Articles numbered between 33 and 38
– of the draft constitution (as yet ungratified due
to geo-political issues) of Iraqi Kurdistan define
various rights to religious freedom for minorities
in the province. However as one professor of law at
Erbil's Salahaddin University told Niqash, this
would not be enough, “unless there are laws that
ensure the Constitution is implemented and
respected”.
According to information obtained by Niqash,
investigations into the riots and shop burnings that
targeted Christians and Yazidis in Zakho and other
parts of Iraqi Kurdistan, have continued. While
officials of the biggest Islamic party in the
region, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, categorically
state that they have no problem with Christians at
all – they still maintain that the riots were a
political ploy against them – local security did
arrest some of their members.
However the security forces did not press any
charges related to the attacks on stores, arson or
rioting.
Additionally the locals who incurred losses because
of the riots were not offered any compensation by
the state.
“We have our Lord to protect us and guarantee our
rights,” two women coming out of a Zakho church
declared. “God is our only guarantor,” they said,
raising their hands to the skies.
Nearby is Wasim Hanna, a Christian man in his
twenties. In many ways, he feels as though he’s been
abandoned in Iraq. Three of his best friends
immigrated to Europe. “So now I am searching for a
way to emigrate too, to leave Iraq and to leave
Iraqi Kurdistan forever,” he told NIQASH.
“Sometimes,” he added quietly, after a moment of
silence, “I think that others want to see us
extinct.”
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