The Return of Iraq’s Christians Could be the Hope for the Country

By Martin Accad

On the 15^th of October 2017, the Iraqi central government forces reasserted their military and political control over Kirkuk, in northern Iraq following a growing push for independence that led to a Kurdish secession referendum on the 25^th of September 2017 where 93% of Kurds expressed support for independence. The poll indicated deep divisions between sections of the population loyal to the Barzani clan and others loyal to the Talabani clan.

Among other ethnic groups, the dissent has been far stronger. Interviews carried out by Carnegie Endowment researchers revealed that “large segments among non-Kurdish minorities—Turkmen, Yezidis, Christians, Sunni Arabs, and Shabak—want to live under Iraqi federal government control.” These non-Kurdish minorities perceived the Kurdish Democratic Party to be corrupt, with its leaders getting rich at the expense of any achievements that would benefit the region, leading local supporters of other parties to feel bullied.

It is doubtful whether life will improve for Christians under an independent Kurdish government. Currently, there remain no signs indicating that an independent Kurdish nation will not mimic the usual tribal, undemocratic, corrupt, and often oppressive governments of much of the Arab world.

In a 2006 draft constitution, as indicated by a map provided by an Oxford Analytica article on the matter, – though not during this latest referendum – the Kurdish Region of Iraq claimed borders that included the city of Mosul, one of the most important centers of Iraqi Aramaic Christianity. However, there is a turbulent history between the Kurds and Armenian and Syriac Christians (a subsidiary of the Aramaic tradition), with memories of bloody massacres carried out by Kurdish forces under oppressive Ottoman policies at the turn of the twentieth century.

Christians of Iraq may do well to refrain from taking an official position in support of any of the parties involved in the current tensions between Iraqi Kurdistan and the central government in Baghdad. After all that they have gone through, they are not in a position to suffer further losses that may derive from miscalculated alliances.

On the other hand, Christians certainly have a role to play in working towards healing the past and building peace. Some of Turkey’s Kurds seem to have been willing to admit to their participation in the massacre of Armenians in 1915, even contributing to the reconstruction of destroyed churches. Can such acts of kindness be built upon, and become models for reconciliation as Christians in the Kurdish Region of Iraq reach out to their Kurdish neighbors to strive for more pluralistic societies with equal citizenship? Furthermore, would deeply wounded Iraqi Christian refugee communities be willing to risk returning to their homes for the sake of peace?

There are reports of numerous Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, who fled the ISIS warzone a few years ago, coming to faith in Christ in their lands of refuge. Might these respond to a divine call to return and build bridges between these two communities in a way that might bring healing to the land and its people? What message might biblical prophets have for Iraqi followers of Jesus today in their countries of exile, as they struggle to recover a sense of national identity and seek return to their country of origin?

We recall the dual message of the prophet Jeremiah to the exiled people of Israel (Jer 29:4-8). On the one hand, the prophet calls those in Babylon to settle and discern their prophetic calling in the land of exile, saying, “…seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (NIV). In there is an invitation to accept God’s judgement, but also one to seek to bring peace, development and blessing to the host country. But secondly, Jeremiah completes his prophecy with the return of the people to their land. After the exile transforms them and brings them back to God, they are allowed to return to their country; and as God brings them back, they return to the land with a transformed understanding of God.