Iraq’s Christian Genocide of the 21st Century
by Dr. Adhid Miri
Part III
Since its establishment, the modern Iraqi state has witnessed instabilities, insurgencies, continuous cyclic violent conflicts among its heterogenic components. The emergence of ISIS group in Iraq was the latest and at the same time one of the darkest episodes in the series of modern Iraq’s turbulent history. This bloody and horrible violent wave that embodied in the form of such terrorist organization, which committed all kinds of brutality against humanity, forced ordinary Iraqi people from all its heterogenic populations, together with experts to question the possibility of peaceful coexistence, stability, and continuance in living together within the border of an integrated Iraq.
False Promises by Great Britain and the USA
To deal with each of Iraq’s violent waves and prescribe prescriptions for each of them, the continuous, persistent, and intractable conflicts were just symptoms, and the cause of modern Iraq’s problems had proceeded from misperception and miscalculations of both state builders (Great Britain and the USA) during their efforts for state-building in Iraq in the 1920s and 2003, respectively.
All US promises post 2003 of democracy, stability, freedom, prosperity etc. turned up to be a fallacy and have fallen flat with high degree of domestic violence, corruption, militia rules, religious zealots’ decimation of minorities, abolishment of rights theocracy and the rule of Shia clergy!
The US of the 21st century is not interested in nations building and will abandon Iraq after the Neo—Netanyahu CONs destroyed it just as it did in other parts of the world. Millions of people ‘s lives were destroyed, Christianity and minorities are decimated, therefore, political apologies by the Bush, Blair school of lies are pointless and pathetic.
The United States claims to protect the Christian component in Iraq and the region, but the facts on the ground represent a dilemma for the people. Therefore, most Christians who abandoned the plain were not satisfied with returning to it after its liberation, especially considering the clarity of the scenario of the armed factions that are working to fortify their interests in all of Nineveh by relying on the resources of the plain.
Assessments and documentation
As Iraqi Christians living outside Iraq we are committed to chronicling and assessing the evolving phenomenon of the persecution of Iraqi Christians as well as providing support to the persecuted and suffering of Iraqis in the diaspora. Our aim is to create a research center to collect, document and examine the conditions that led to this tragedy.
Today, according to news and research over 1.3 million Iraqis live around the world after leaving a country where they suffered some form of persecution, such as arbitrary kidnapping, violence, a full range of human rights violations and even murder. Our duty is to document these violations of religious freedom in reports and call on religious freedom advocates around the world to address the merciless targeting of Christians as a common denominator in countries around the middle east driven by hatred of Christians and the faith itself. Radical, extremist Islam is responsible for the persecution of Christians in 22 of the worst-offended countries and in Iraq.
Most recent research shows grave violations of religious freedom took place in many of these countries with minority faiths—with Christianity figuring most prominently among these who suffered instances of severe discrimination as well as evidence of outright persecution, even to the point of death!
The precise number of Christians who are killed because of their faith in Iraq remains unclear; reports showing the number of deaths during the period June 2014 to June 2017 is below 10,000 reflecting that the level of violence aimed at Christians remains severe.
Post ISIS Era
In the post-ISIS era, the trauma of the ISIS attack and mass displacement, as well as disappointment in the Iraqi government, weighed against the need for the international community make the question of protecting identity more relevant than ever, as it profoundly affects the future of the Christian component and other minorities.
After the withdrawal of the cross-border extremists, Iraq’s political parties sought to design or modify their new regime based on amending previous governance political structures and envisage their future existence in a post-ISIS Iraq. The militias are the military arms of politicians, political parties, business moguls controlled by Iran to advance the political agenda and consolidate power and nothing to do with defending the country.
The minorities living in Nieveh were particularly affected by the persecution by ISIS that gained power after 2013. The tragic event and its mental health consequences on the Christian community as well as associated influences on affected families cannot be ignored.
Research indicates a high burden of health strain and mental health problems in the surviving minority displaced families and women, especially post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and depression. Concerning transgenerational trauma, the recent genocide has revived past experiences in the history of the community. The actual consequences could be passed onto descendants. Long-term care and support of the affected persons, their descendants, and the Christian community seems indispensable.
Lessons of History and Genocide History of just the 20th Century reveals, unsurprisingly, that nearly all genocides were preceded by extensive ethnic conflict, persecution, and refugee flight. The latter dimension includes demographic changes, resettlement (relocation) of the persecuted populations, post conflict syndromes, trauma, stigma and depression. The question for decision-makers is what to do in trying to reverse the situation.
The Old Enemy and the New Protectors
The historic enemy is now the protector! The Nineveh Plain region, inhabited by a mixture of Christians, Yazidis and Arabs, witnessed serious setbacks, after it was taken over by the “Shabak Hashd” (they are a small component compared to the Christians in Nineveh), thanks to their association with the “Popular Mobilization Authority” to turn the Mosul province to an arena for local and international conflicts.
The Yazidis have been an ancient and vibrant community in Iraq for centuries. ISIS rolled into their homeland in 2014, thousands were killed. Thousands of women were taken captive and sold into sexual slavery. Hundreds of thousands were forced from their homes, and many were chased as far away as Europe.
The Christians in the Nineveh Plain (Chaldeans and Syriacs), were spread in three districts: Telkef, Sheikhan, and Hamdaniya, and their number reached about one and a half million Iraqis, according to statistics between 2003 and 2014, this number decreased after 2014 to less than 400 thousand While there is no official statistic of their numbers in 2019, local officials claim that the number of Christians in Nineveh today nolonger exceeds a few thousand, due to deportation, displacement and intimidation, perpetrated by ISIS, armed factions, and the Popular Mobilization.
The pre-2014 population of Hamdaniya was estimated to be 226,367, a mix of Christians of diverse sects and denominations, including ethnic Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Syriacs a significant Shabak community and a very small, minority Arab population.
Hamdaniya is one of the six districts in Ninewa that the KRG government laid claim to as part of the Disputed Territories (in addition to Sinjar, Tal Afar, Tilkaef, Sheikhan, and Makhmour).
In the context, the conflicts within the plain are not only the maneuvers of the Shabak Mobilization Forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, but there are also external wills working to control the strategic area. Iran is seeking to build a strong sectarian camp facing the northern regions and controlling Mosul through the plain.
According to Christians politicians there have been efforts for some time to make a demographic change in the areas of Christians, Chaldeans, Assyrians and Syriacs in the Nineveh Plain, and Christian properties in the plain where seized. These areas were attacked by armed parties, including the Shabak. Even when Christians petitioned the judiciary to file a complaint against these violators of their rights and property, they are not dealt with in a good way, because most courts in the Nineveh Governorate are backed by partisanship. What is happening in Nineveh lacks due process, the local and regional plans to completely deport the Christian component, and a policy of supporting the non-Iraqi Shiite tide in it.
The resigned Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, in 2019, ordered the “30th Brigade” (consisting of the Shabak) in the “Popular Mobilization”, to withdraw from the Nineveh Plain areas after the name of the brigade commander, Waad Qaddo, was included on the US sanctions list, for his involvement in cases of corruption and human rights violations in the Nineveh Plain region. The commander was additionally tied to complaints from political and popular forces in Mosul regarding his violations against the population. The brigade however rejected the decision, provoked unrest, and chaos, clinging to its outposts, and clashing with the army forces that came to take over its positions, in addition to moving its followers to block roads and set up sit-in tents, under the pretext of the residents’ adherence to the protection of the Shabak armed faction in the area.
From there followed four consecutive years void of holiday celebrations for the Christian component due to the decline of religious freedom, the uncontrolled weapons and sectarian elements that had taken over the area, most Christians were forced to celebrate in their Homes only.
At that time, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Church, Cardinal Louis Sako, who supported Abdul-Mahdi’s speech, intervened, and called for “restricting arms in the hands of the state, which fortifies its institutions, and consolidates the national awareness of Iraqis on a single national identity,” declaring at the same time his “categorical rejection of the existence of any faction.” Or any armed movement bearing a Christian character because that contradicts the spirituality of the Christian religion, which calls for love, tolerance, forgiveness, and peace. Here, the Nineveh Plain entered a new phase, as the Christian “Babylon” militia affiliated with the “Popular Mobilization” and located in the Nineveh Plain did not silence Sako’s words and launched a campaign of violent criticism against him.
The plain is witnessing a series of problems that seem to have no end. In addition to the Iranian American conflict over the region, there is the conflict of armed factions among them, and on the other hand there is a conflict of religious authority. Christianity is with the Babylon militia, which accuses Sako of being supported by the Americans and Israel, while the Chaldean Church carries out attacks from time to time on Christian militias.
Iran ‘Land Bridge’ to the Mediterranean
Iran’s escalating efforts to gain influence over Iraqi geographical areas represent a well-established tenet in Iran’s national security policy. Iran knows these lines will be strategic buffers within its policy of confrontation with the United States, which is seeking to push northwards.
The history of Iran’s land bridge goes back many years. Allegations that Iran is constructing a swath of influence from Iran to Lebanon to link up with its Hezbollah ally, and the Golan heights grew as Iran consolidated its influence in Iraq and Syria in the last decades. This was particularly true after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS which provided Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps an excuse to intervene in Iraq and Syria. Iran worked closely with Shi’ite paramilitaries in Iraq, the Syrian regime and Hezbollah, Iran’s influence grew.
Iran has worked to entrench Shiite militias in Sunni-majority northern Iraq to achieve two ends: first, to wipe out the armed Kurdish opposition in the region which targets the Iranian home front, second, to change the map of the Iranian corridor to pass through the northern pathway (a road to the sea) by crossing the city of Mosul instead of relying on passing through the Iraqi desert.
Within the borders of the Iraqi province of Nineveh, it is possible to say that there is a secure land route inside Iraqi territory linking Iran to Syria. It begins from the road from the eastern borders of Iraq with Iran to enter the province of Diyala, then heading towards the northern areas of the province of Salahuddin and is heading towards the western desert of Nineveh, to the Syrian border. The aim of the Iranian corridor to establish a land corridor connecting Tehran to Beirut through the Walid crossing to Damascus or Homs and thus to al- Bekaa and be a way through which Iran can reach the Mediterranean.
Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq were using the war on ISIS to drive on of Iran’s most coveted projects, securing an arc of influence across Iraq and Syria.” Iran’s influence going through Baquba, Shirqat, Sinjar, Qamishli to Kobani and then Idlib, Homs and the sea. This was interesting because it showed areas under control of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a group in Syria that was working with the US to fight Islamic State, as key to the route.
Iran had changed the “course of road to Mediterranean coast to avoid US forces.” The new route would go through Tel Afar near Mosul and then to Mayadin and Deir el-Zor in Syria before crossing the desert to Damascus and continuing to Latakia.
The Nineveh Plains region has constituted one of the elements of the Iranian regional strategy in the past period for many reasons, including Iran’s lack of tools to control and dominate this region. Iran worked to connect the Nineveh Plains through three military lines but the situation in the post-ISIS era has become totally different. Tehran worked to outline a full-fledged strategy to impose its control over this region, turning it into strategic buffers or corridors, including:
• The first line: this begins with the Iranian borders – Sulaymaniyah- Kirkuk and the Syrian borders.
• The second line: from the Iranian borders – northern Diyala-Amerli-Tuskhurmatu-Kirkuk-southern Mosul-Sinjar and Rabia to the Syrian border.
• The third line: is an internal line beginning from within the center of Mosul- the Nineveh Plains-Tal Afar-Sinjar. It is used for logistical support operations.
Iran’s alleged project received an increasing spotlight in 2017 as the war on ISIS appeared to wind down. After Iraqi federal forces, backed by Shi’ite militias, retook Kirkuk and Sinjar from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in October 2017, Iran seemed to gain more influence.
There is no room for complacency when it comes to exploiting the Nineveh Plains region by the United States, which seeks to set up military bases there. This is considering the presence of many Iran-Hashd personnel capable of threatening these areas.
The western powers that brought the Khumaini Islamic Republic regime in Iran, as well as Erdogan Muslim brotherhood in Turkey are major culprits in this international game where weak minorities are the ultimate victims. Under the false pretext of establishing democracies, they in fact helped establish extreme theocracies in Iran, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Iraq.
In part IV we will cover the historic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq in March 2021, the rebuilding efforts, and the province solution.