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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 3 of 3
The community itself is bitterly divided over what they should do. Many see joining the Kurds as a move for self-preservation and some semblance of autonomy in being part of an area where many Christian enclaves already exist in relative peace. Others say this level of independence can be achieved via Baghdad.
Danna says the Kurds have promised autonomy and special status to the Christians if they join Kurdistan.
"We are protecting them from terrorist attacks," says Muhammad Ihsan, Kurdistan's minister of extraregional affairs, about the heavy Kurdish presence in the Nineveh Plain, adding that Christians and Kurds have always had "great relations" and that his government would "respect" the ultimate wishes of the people.
The Plain is home to other minorities like the Shabak and the Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, who suffered devastating attacks last summer in another part of Nineveh. Places like Bahzani, Basheeqa, and Sheikhan, where Yazidis dominate, are already de facto part of Kurdistan.
"No doubt our future is more secure inside Kurdistan," says Romeo Hakari, a leader of a political party that joined a special council formed one year ago and backed by Aghajan to promote this vision.
But not everyone agrees. The strongest opposition comes from the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM).
Shmael Benjamin, a former party leader based in Ainkawa, says Kurds, Assyrians, and other minorities all suffered from Saddam Hussein's policy of resettling Arabs in northern Iraq known as "Arabization." Now the Kurds, close allies of Washington, seem to be doing the same thing with "Kurdification."
The ADM's power base in the plain is in Talkeif, the westernmost town nearest Mosul, which has a significant Sunni Arab population as well. Young men in military fatigues carrying AK-47s guard the party's headquarters next to the main church.
Johnny Khoshaba, a blogger in Talkeif, was arrested last month and taken to a prison inside Kurdistan for speaking out against Aghajan, Kurdish practices, in the area, and the alleged corruption of church figures. He says he was released only after signing a pledge to stop his writing.
"This scream is for my church and our liberty," says the blog's banner.
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