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| Enclave: Christian families file into Sunday mass at Saint Elias church in Ainkawa, one of the largest enclaves for Christians
in Iraqi Kurdistan. Sam Dagher |
Iraqi Christians cling to last, waning refuges
Al Qaeda-linked militants and Kurdish ultranationalists are both pressuring Iraq's largest Christian enclave.
from the March 6, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
"I had a choice: Convert to Islam, pay the tax, or give away one of my daughters," says a man originally from Baghdad, who was kidnapped two years ago and released only after his family paid a hefty ransom. Now, he's trying to leave Iraq for good.
The current joint US-Iraqi military operation in and around Mosul – that has been said to be the decisive battle against Al Qaeda in Iraq – has not done much to hem in militants here.
One resident of the village of Karamles, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described in chilling detail how a notorious Mosul-based Al Qaeda in Iraq operative nicknamed Abu Huthaifa managed to slip into the Nineveh Plain area two weeks ago, posing as a needy Christian, and met with the local priest.
He later called the priest, according to the resident, and told him who he really was and demanded that he pay the tax, but the priest refused. Now, heavily armed men stand guard all around Karamles.
The men are members of a new militia called the Church Guards and they are present in many villages in Nineveh Plain and are being funded by Sarkis Aghajan, a multimillionaire Assyrian Christian businessman who is also the minister of finance for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
"We have no government, it's all thanks to master Sarkis," says Father Danna of the Bartella church, which on a recent visit was ringed with a contingent of these guards. "All I get from the American officials, who visit me, is empty talk and souvenirs."
Mr. Aghajan's portrait is on the wall of the church recreation center. He has spent millions of dollars in Nineveh Plain and inside the Kurdish-controlled region on churches, homes for the displaced, and on community projects, says Danna.
Aghajan has strong ties to the top leaders of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which has established outposts in nearly every town and village in the plain. These compounds are frequent targets of car bombs. Government forces in the area are dominated by Kurdish peshmerga, an elite Iraqi fighting force, and KDP intelligence officers. Kurdish flags and banners praising KDP leader Massoud Barzani are everywhere.
The squeeze from Kurds
To the east of the Nineveh Plain, Kurdish nationalists are pressing hard for the area to join the adjacent semiautonomous KRG. The fate of the area, and whether it would become part of Iraqi Kurdistan, is to be decided in a referendum in accordance with Article 140 of the Constitution.
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