ASIA/IRAQ - Three Syriac Bishops ask for international protection for Christians in the Nineveh Plain. But the Chaldean Patriarchate dissociates itself

Monday, 15 May 2017 oriental churches un geopolitics middle east

SaintAdday

IRAQ

2024-03-25
Chaldean Patriarch Sako: Holy Week is "the time we need"

2024-03-14
Abolition of the quota of seats reserved for minorities in the Autonomous region of Kurdistan. Christian parties appeal to President Abdul Latif Rashid

2024-02-20
Patriarch Sako, message to the Chaldeans: Iraqi Christians are also infected by sectarianism

2024-02-08
Patriarch Sako, message for Lent: in the time of fasting, may the Holy Spirit heal and protect our hearts from the darkness of the world

2024-01-18
Patriarch Sako calls for withdrawal of sectarian militias from the Nineveh Plain

2023-07-05
Heads of Churches and Christian communities in Iraq: the burning of the Koran in Stockholm is an "atrocious and despicable" act

Mosul (Agenzia Fides) - The widespread statement released on Friday 12 May by three Syriac Bishops (a Syirac-Catholic and two Syriac-Orthodox) in northern Iraq, asking for the creation of a protected area reserved for Christians in the Nineveh Plain to be placed under international protection, to take away Iraqi baptized from sectarian persecution and violence, is causing embarrassment.
The Nineveh Province, scattered by Christian-majority towns and villages, was conquered by the jihadists of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (Daesh) between spring and summer 2014. In those months, tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled from their villages in front of the advancing jihadist militia, finding shelter in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The statement issued last Friday to regional and national authorities and to international organizations was signed by two Archbishops of Mosul - Syriac Catholic Boutros Moshe and Syriac Orthodox Mar Nicodemus Daud Matti Sharaf - and by Mar Timotheos Musa al Shamany, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Bartellah. The three Archbishops ask to transform the Nineveh Plain into an autonomous area under UN international protection to take it away from conflicts and safeguard the rights of Christian communities that have their traditional roots in those lands. The statement also claimed the right of administrative autonomy for Christian communities in the Nineveh Plain.
On Saturday, May 13, the Chaldean Patriarchate issued an official statement to underline that the statement released the previous day does not reflect the position of the Chaldean Church, and does not represent it. The Patriarchate's statement refers to a recent statement by Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako. In that text, as reported by Agenzia Fides (see Fides 6/5/2017), the Primate of the Chaldean Church underlined that in this critical stage the priority for so many displaced Iraqi Christian is to try to return to their home towns. This implies the urgent need to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure, also taking advantage of international aid. But only after the return of stability in the Country, processes to require the creation of new autonomous administrative units can be initiated, such as instruments to protect the rights and continuity of minority ethnic-religious groups". (GV) (Agenzia Fides 15/5/2017)