Iraqis Squeezed Out By Kurdish Expansion, Muslim-Centric Con

[Rumtaya]

AINA) -- The postponement of the deadline for a new Iraqi Constitution was received as a reprieve of sorts by Assyrian Christians. The two most important points of contention in the Constitution deliberations are also the two most critical for Assyrian Christians including the growing role of Islam and the ever expanding territory and autonomy in the Kurdish occupied region. Whereas for some communities the issues represent an opportunity for political and demographic muscle flexing, for Assyrian Christians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) and to some extent other minorities, the debates have transformed to matters of survival in an increasingly hostile Iraq.


On August 9th in the Dora district of Baghdad 22 year old Sargon Isho was caught in the crossfire of two militant groups near the Mar Zaya church.
On August 9th in Kirkuk 29 year-old, Saad Fawzi Abdiljabar was stabbed to death by his kidnappers in front of his home as he was leaving to work as an engineer in the Northern Iraq Oil company.
On August 8th in Mosul 20 year-old arts college student Anita Tiadoros Harjo, was kidnapped in the Zuhur district of Mosul where she and her family reside. She was on her way to a nearby internet café.
on August 6th in Bartilla, north Iraq the body of 42 year-old No'el Petrus, a pharmacist and a Bartilla native, was found on august 7th in nearby Mosul. Noe'l was kidnapped along with his brother, Amar, from his pharmacy in the city of Mosul and was later murdered. His brother was released after a $50K ransom was paid by the family.

Two weeks earlier, Assyrian Christian residents of the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad awoke to find a new fundamentalist letter posted on their doors warning of the consequences if the family did not convert to Islam. Responding to the threats of violence, the families appealed to the police for help, but were ironically advised to seek help at the local mosque. As one Assyrian explained "in the streets as well as the constitution committee, Iraqis are abdicating to fundamentalists."

For Assyrian Christians, the prospects of an ever increasingly Islamized Iraq appear real. "This is not merely an exercise in semantics," argued an Assyrian activist. These deliberations impact our daily lives from being forced to wear the veil to being assaulted as an infidel while shopping for food. When the State endorses a greater role for Islam, it automatically diminishes the status of non-Muslim minorities such as Christians, Yezidis, and Mandeans."

In the north, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has capitalized on the impasse in the Constitution committee to establish more and more "facts on the ground" in order to de facto expand the Kurdish occupied area. Although the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL, English, Arabic) only allowed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to occupy the areas they held prior to the war, Kurdish demands have recently increased to include Assyrian villages in the Nineveh plain. The landgrab envisioned by the KDP includes the villages and towns of the Nineveh Plain-- the proposed Assyrian Administered Area.

Recently, the KDP established several checkpoints surounding Assyrian towns in the Nineveh plain, which lies outside the Kurdish region specified by the TAL. Assyrian Christians were routinely interrogated and sometimes abused by KDP paramilitary personnel. When an elderly woman objected to the harassment and the greater than life sized portrait of KDP warlord Masoud Barzani propped up on the road leading to her village, she was detained and threatened. She was only released after her local village elders intervened and reassured the local KDP paramilitary commander that the woman was frail and elderly and posed no real threat to the KDP tribal chief.

Assyrian Christians have not been alone as KDP hegemony has targeted other minorities in the north including Turkoman, Shabak, and Yezidis. On August 16, 2005, KDP gunmen shot at Shabak demonstrators protesting KDP policies in the area (AINA, 8-16-2005) According to one Assyrian leader, For Assyrian Christians as well as other minorities, the issue has become existential." The possibility now really exists that Iraqi communities other than the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites may not survive the new Iraq.

The real challenge facing the future Iraqi Constitution, however, remains the upcoming referendum in October. If a majority of any three provinces vote against the Constitution, it will fail. Noted one Assyrian leader, "If there is too great an emphasis on Islam or if the Kurdish occupied region and its autonomy are expanded then Assyrians will feel compelled to vote against the new Constitution." Another added "we may only be 5-7 % of the population inside Iraq (with several hundred thousand more outside), but with over one million in Baghdad, Mosul, and Karkuk, we could easily swing the referendum." Moreover, "How can anyone expect us to willfully acquiesce to our formal subjugation as second class citizens or worse still, to surrender our legitimate national aspirations to an abusive KDP occupation?"

To most Assyrians, the only reasonable answer to ongoing Islamist attacks and ever expanding KDP abuse remains the security of an Assyrian Administered Area in the Nineveh Plain. Such an area would serve as a Safe Haven, a sanctuary for Assyrian Christians reeling from growing hostility and pressures.

"To lay the basis for a strong constitution that can last, it must meet the basic needs of all Iraqis, including Assyrians." says Michael Youash, Project Director of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project. These basic needs include "giving them territorial representation by forming a state out of the Nineveh Plain area, ensuring they are represented fairly in parliament by their legitimate leadership, establishing systems of revenue sharing ensuring access to Iraqi resources equitably and without Kurdish Authority political demands, and providing for basic freedoms such as the freedom of religion, conscience, and assembly."

[Diri]

AINA is anti Kurd...

[Rumtaya]

so all what is thre are lies?


no man they aint anti kurd they say just the truth.

aina is assyrian international news agency

[Vladimir]

Most propaganda against Kurds you can find on this site. For instance they say the Assyrian votes got blocked by the Kurds.. just like the Turkmen said.

You will be more safe with KDP peshmerga's then with Arabs.. What is the problem with a portrait tell me? Put a Assyrian portrait next to it.

Don't you know that the Mosul province the British gave to Iraq also included Nivanehveh.. That's why they want to include it, because it used to be a Kurdisch province according to the British.

Why you don't see some positive news about Kurds protecting Assyrians?

[Rumtaya]

Becuase the KDP have taken alot of assyrian villages.


hey i am not talking about kurds just about the goverment of south kurdistian especially this KDP.

by the way british are the biggest assholes never trust a brit they talk to much shit.

they could say of luck assyrians have benn stupid to help them in the first and seconed world war if not arabs would kill all british in the area of iraq aournd habanya.

you have to see the mediallion from bouth sites.

kdp helps from one site but takes away from the other site.


ok well see what the time bring if i see kurds acting good to assyrians and helping them for an autonomy area but they end instead doing this they are claiming more autonomy area in iraq which is going to include all assyrian areas in the northen iraq.

look at the map here and then look at the new map for iraqi kurdistan.
Diri could you please upload the map i dont find the site for it.

[Rumtaya]

here this one is else good



they are claiming for assyrian historical and some puppolated areas.

is that fair look the kurds in iraq how i see it have at the moment the power by the arme assyrians have just some soldiers not more then 10 000 by the way i heard there are more but i am not sure about it.

the kurds are well armed and have like 100 000 peshmerges in iraq in the north. if there comes a assyrian and say we claim this areas for us they will be taken to a kdp polit office hitten till he say ok i dont want anything.


and diri wrote by the meic forum that one fellow assyrian of my told that the village of his familie have benn take on illegel ways from kurds diri do you remeber if not ill look for that and post it into the site.


can you say me will this guys just lie or can it be that the leader of kurdish partys are just thinking about the wellness.

by the way hard to say what i say now i thing the leader would like to force all assyrians out of iraq that they wont have any problems anymore for claiming to this areas on the map.


but we hope for a better future i just want a piece land of iraq for my nation not more a save heaven for them where the assyrian womans dont have to cover or they will be get acid thrown in their face get raped or killed.

this stupid islamist want to force as accepting islam man put that islam in your ass we are christians and that is our land you stupid arab can go to south saudia arabia and force everyone else their to accept islam.

[Vladimir]

We need to sent a letter/petition to the KRG for this..
Kurds shouldn't accept practises like this.

[Rumtaya]

We need to sent a letter/petition to the KRG for this..
Kurds shouldn't accept practises like this.

how do you mean that what shouldnt thei accept?

[Vladimir]

KDP intimidating Assyrians.

[Rumtaya]

my friend you mean it in a good way but belive me it wont help politic is a dirty thing.


but like i say i hope we will live soon in the future in peace beside eachother.

at least noone is suppourting the assyrians we helping our self.

[Vladimir]

Assyrians just have to work together with the Kurds. Get seats in Kurdish government.
Not work together with Iraqi central Arab government.

"Under the parliament and government of the Kurdistan region, the Assyrians, Chaldeans and Turkmens will enjoy their rights."

[Rumtaya]

Assyrians do have their seat in kurdish goverment.

by the way chaldeans(katholic assyrians)

[Vladimir]

You have some newsreports about that from Aina.org.. or a Assyrian site .

How do the Assyrians see this?

[Rumtaya]

i just read it somewhere but that was as iraqi kurdistan was autonomy area the assyrians did get then some seats in it.

[tomjez]

There are members of assyrian communities on kurdish list...so they have seat in city councils like mossoul or Erbil. In kurdish parliament I'm not sure but I believe they do as well