Eyes and Ears in Iraq

Ghazwan Alyass (left) and Hanan Qia (right) recently visited the United States to coordinate the mission of the Chaldean Community Foundation. Photo by Alex Lumelsky.

Ghazwan Alyass and Hanan Qia work to further CCF’s efforts in the Nineveh Plain

By Cal Abbo and Sarah Kittle

Ghazwan Alyass and Hanan Qia are independent contractors who joined the staff of the Chaldean Community Foundation in 2022 in order to be the eyes and ears of the CCF, which is currently working on rebuilding villages and creating economic opportunities for the people of the Nineveh Plain in Iraq. They were here in Michigan recently to attend the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce’s Awards Dinner and to tour the Chaldean Community Foundation. Cal Abbo was able to sit down with each of them for an interview about who they are and what they hope to accomplish.

Ghazwan Alyass, Director of CCF Iraq

Ghazwan is a journalist from Iraq. He was born in 1978 in Alqosh, in the Nineveh Plains of northern Iraq. As a youth, he dreamed of having a goal, a “message” in his life.

Earning a bachelor’s degree in the field of art and media helped Ghazwan engage with other storytellers, writing and directing plays and songs, even some for Chaldean singers here in Michigan. He earned his own TV show on Kurdistan TV and was the presenter from 2003 until 2012. That program was in the Chaldean language; there were others he presented in Arabic.

Ghazwan excelled at production and many of his colleagues from the Department of Fine Arts asked him to produce their plays and poetry readings. As he immersed himself in the arts and gained a greater voice, he felt pulled toward politics. After the run of his TV show ended in 2012, he was often a guest interviewee on other channels as an activist engaged in preserving history. He got involved in the non-profit sector and began learning about non-government organizations (NGOs).

“After 2003, Christians had the opportunity to get involved in politics,” said Ghazwan. “We started educating our people to participate in elections, to vote for our candidates.”

Ghazwan himself was a candidate in the Iraqi parliamentary elections of 2018. Although he did well within the Chaldean communities of Iraq, he did not ultimately win the race. “I was so close,” he recalls.

Part of the platform Ghazwan ran on was guaranteeing rights for Christians from the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) and the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad. That issue remains unresolved.

Ghazwan talked about his experience in Iraq in 2014, when ISIS swept through the area. By June, ISIS had taken control of a third of the country. Their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the creation of an Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and named himself caliph. He then instituted a reign of terror that included rape, abductions, executions, mass murder, pillaging, extortion, seizure of state resources, and smuggling.

“We were at the front lines,” said Ghazwan. On the commercial road that passed the villages and towns, Peshmerga forces and the Iraqi Army gathered to present the last line between the villagers and ISIS.

“Hanan and I were visiting them frequently,” said Ghazwan. “Sometimes we brought NGOs to give support, sometimes we received international delegates’ media, and for personal visits as local supporters to boost their morale.” He felt it was important to acknowledge and show appreciation for their sacrifice.

“Our feelings were not easy to describe,” Ghazwan explained. “We felt we were diluted from the land of our ancestors, every town and village. We felt a spirit in our hearts, that our very existence was at stake, and this is the end. Many of our people left. Immigration has been on their mind since that time.”

Like many Christians in Iraq, Ghazwan has two minds about their future there. Although they want to stay in their home country, they feel desperate because there are no services and no infrastructure. He shared, “Most of our communities are destroyed and nobody is doing the reconstruction.”

Asked about his work with the Chaldean Community Foundation in Michigan, Ghazwan said, “It’s not important that they (the community) know about me, but they have to know about our people there—their situation, their conditions.”

He feels the Chaldeans in Michigan are an important political and economic force and are in a unique position to help in Iraq. “We’ve created a good connection for the community with the Iraqi government and the KRG…we ask them to support Hanan and I in Iraq so we may be able to achieve something for the people there…even though you are here (in the US) for a long time, you have to take care of your ancestral land…it contains the cradle of Christianity and the remains of your forefathers. You must empower us to be the guardians of these holy lands.

“I told them clearly. I think this is the last chance we have.”

Hanan Qia, Associate Director of CCF Iraq

Hanan was born in Baghdad in 1986. He was the youngest of four and attended primary school on the outskirts of town, along with many Shia Muslims.

A gifted student, he skipped 6th grade in 1997 and passed a high school exam in 2003, allowing him to take courses in physical science at Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical science in 2007.

During his four years at university, many of Hanan’s colleagues became victims of terrorist attacks by al Qaeda, who bombed targets with little to no discernment. Clearing the country of intelligent and independent thinkers is always a goal in a hostile government takeover, and this attempt was no different. Crowds of students leaving class became victims of car bombs. His colleagues also fell prey to sectarian infighting in 2006, when some were kidnapped and killed by rival Sunni or Shia groups.

“We became accustomed,” (to the violence) said Hanan. “We were just in survival mode.”

The Shia neighborhood that Hanan lived in, now called Southern City, was the battleground for many military operations between the US Army and the Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM), a Shiite militia led by Muqtada al-Sadr. This brought another challenge for Hanan and his friends and family.

“We were Christians,” said Hanan, and because of that, “they thought we were 100% with the American forces.” Although that wasn’t the case, Hanan is grateful to God that they survived. His parents passed away during these tumultuous years, and Hanan lived with his older brothers. They all graduated the same year, 2007.

“And then in November of 2007, I had to flee to Sweden,” Hanan remembers. “Due to the increasing sectarian fighting and lack of job opportunity, Baghdad was a war zone.” He arrived in Sweden at the end of 2007 and applied for asylum. For two and half years, Hanan lived in Sweden, working on his English, and praying for a better life.

The government of Sweden denied Hanan asylum, saying that Christians in Iraq were now in a good situation, and he could return. In June of 2010, he did return to start over again as an elementary teacher in an Arab village just outside Alqosh. Then ISIS came in 2014.

“It was another shock to us, the Christians there,” said Hanan. “We saw our people fleeing in convoys of thousands of vehicles in the middle of the night.” By mid-August of 2014, the Nineveh Plain was basically empty of Christians. “They all left.”

“We never thought that in modern times, a terrorist group could invade our community,” said Hanan, “and nobody is doing anything.” Although social media was not as far-reaching and global as it is today, there are some videos on Facebook from that time. People left with only a few possessions, many with just passports and what money they had on hand. They left property and assets; some left their whole inheritance behind.

“It was a shock,” Hanan repeated. “We didn’t anticipate that at all.”

What he did anticipate was a quick recovery, and the slow pace of reorganization led to disillusionment for Hanan. “We thought there was international support to eradicate the caliphate,” he explained. The people also had a lot of faith in the Iraqi Army, who were trained and armed by the US Army for nearly a decade. They didn’t realize it would be such a struggle.

Kurdish forces were still trying to repel the invaders, but it was in 2016 that liberation operations began in earnest. Town after town was freed from the oppressive rule and ISIS was kicked out of each area until eventually even Mosul, the capital of the Islamic caliphate, was liberated in 2017.

“We started to feel that things would get better,” said Hanan, “but our people continued leaving on a daily basis, sometime five families leaving every day. It was the disassembly of our simple life.”

Hanan applied to work as a local coordinator. His command of English and interest in security made him a good fit for the role. He also understood that local norms are important, so he learned all he could about the Shabak, Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, Arabs, Chaldeans and Syriacs living in the Nineveh Plain. “It (knowledge of local norms) was a favored skill among the NGOs,” said Hanan, “and I started working with them.”

Asked what his hopes are for the next 50 years, Hanan said, “I feel like I’m working with something that’s also aligned with my goals. We would like to be at least small soldiers in the mission of reestablishing our presence in Iraq.

“If Alqosh is gone, Telkeppe gone, we will vanish. It’s okay to be American, but it’s better to have a unique identity.”