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Protect Chaldean, Apostolic, & Syriac Assyrians Now!
In light of the recent kidnapping and death of the Chaldean Assyrian Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho in Mosul, Iraq, I write you as an American very concerned about the plight of the Assyrian people in northern Iraq.
Today’s Assyrians are the direct descendents of the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia and have lived in northern Iraq for millennia. Christians since the first century A.D., modern Assyrians practice their faith under a variety of denominations, in particular the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Apostolic Church of the East, and the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Since the beginning of the Iraq War, all Assyrians have suffered tremendous persecution. Hundreds have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have fled as refugees. Although Assyrian Christians represented only 3% of Iraqis before the war, as many as 40% of the refugees are Assyrians. The ethnic cleansing is staggering, and it must stop.
The best solution to secure a safe and permanent presence for all Assyrians in the fabric of a free, stable, and peaceful Iraq is the development of an administrative unit under the central Iraqi government in the Nineveh Plains, the heart of the ancestral Assyrian lands. Permitted by Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution, an administrative unit would allow Assyrians in the Nineveh Plains to develop security forces and engage in limited self-rule. Moreover, the creation of an administrative unit is a necessary first-step to bring the hundreds of thousands of Assyrian refugees back home.
I applaud Rep. Anna Eshoo (California, 14th Congressional District), the only Assyrian-American in Congress, for her dedicated support of Assyrians at this critical time in their history.
The United States will continue to play a large role in the future of Iraq. As we work to bring peace, we must not tolerate the ethnic cleansing of Assyrians from Iraq.
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