ASIA/IRAQ - Even Assyrian Patriarch Mar Gewargis supports the aggregation process of political and social Christian acronyms

Tuesday, 14 March 2017 oriental churches ecumenicalism politics middle east area crisis

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IRAQ

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Erbil (Agenzia Fides) - Even Mar Gewargis III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, supports the impetus promoted by political and social acronyms related to Christian communities in Iraq towards an aggregation process that gradually leads them to act as a united subject on the national political and social scene. On Saturday, March 11, a delegation of leaders of organizations and parties animated by political leaders and Chaldean, Syrian and Assyrian militants, met with the Primate of the Assyrian Church in the patriarchal headquarters in Erbil, to expound the guidelines of the aggregation process, and also requests that are to be submitted to both the central government in Baghdad and the government of the autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially regarding the future political and administrative reorganization of the Province of Nineveh. Mar Gewargis expressed his full support for the process of aggregation and the policy demands supported by the "Christian people" with the explicit intention of preserving the presence of Iraqi Christian communities in the areas of their traditional settlements, which from spring 2014 had fallen under the control of the jihadists of the Islamic State (Daesh).
The first to address appeals to Iraqi Christians was Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako. The Primate of the Chaldean Church has long suggested to use the expression "Christian member" to express the unified position of Iraqi Christians in relation to political and social events and national and local institutions. According to the Chaldean Patriarch, such option "does not come into conflict with the protection of millenary identity", and allows "not to waste time arguing" around this heritage identity.
Recently, (see Fides 07/03/2017), the creation of a "Council" of the Christian communities that proposes itself as a liaison between the different political organizations and social animated by Christian militants took shape in Kirkuk. The initiative was also supported by local political leaders, from Kurdish Rebwar Talabani, current president of the provincial council of Kirkuk: the new body - said Talabani - will be able to give a positive contribution not only with regard to the condition of the Christian communities, but also to put back together and favor the peaceful and cooperative co-existence between different ethnic and religious members of society. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 14/03/2017)