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Iraq: Christians who just returned home forced to flee again amid skirmishes between Kurds and government

Oct 25, 2017 10:28 am By Robert Spencer

According to Premier, the Kurdish Pershmerga has been heeding Muhammad’s dictum, “War is deceit”: “The Iraqi Christian Relief Council reported on Twitter that: ‘Kurdish Peshmerga have been shooting indiscriminately…to make it appear as though the Iraqi Army is injuring civilians’. They added: ‘Three Christian children were caught in the crossfire and injured while playing soccer. One woman was also injured.'”

The Christian population of Iraq is now down to 200,000, from over 1.5 million before the 2003 U.S. invasion. Islamic jihadis on all sides of the battle for Iraq — Sunni, Shi’a, and Kurdish — have all targeted Christian communities. But no one cares. After all, it isn’t as if there were any outbreak of something really serious like “Islamophobia.” And the Church in the West, particularly the Catholic Church, is far too interested in pursuing a self-defeating and chimerical “dialogue” with Muslims to worry about some little thing such as hundreds of thousands of Christians being victimized for their faith.

“Iraqi Christians forced to flee homes again after skirmishes between Kurds and central government,” by Perry Chiaramonte and Hollie McKay, Fox News, October 25, 2017 (thanks to Rita):

Sources in Northern Iraq tell Fox News that nearly 2,000 Christian families have fled have been forced to evacuate the village of Teleskof, an Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christian town about 19 miles north of Mosul, on Tuesday after they were caught in the crossfire between Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

The first Iraqi Christians to return home after their village was freed from Islamic State control were forced to flee yet again Tuesday as Peshmerga forces stormed the area, a dark turn in what was broadly considered a “success story” of rebuilding in Northern Iraq.

Between 700-1,000 Christian families have been forced to evacuate the village of Teleskof, an Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christian town about 19 miles north of Mosul, sources in the region told Fox News.

Peshmerga fighters from neighboring Kurdistan stationed in the village started engaging in a battle with forces from the Iraqi central government. The fighting wounded civilians, including children. People who returned only recently to rebuild their homes have been told to leave the village before the standoff between Kurdish and Iraqi forces reaches a boiling point.

“An emissary from the Iraqi government told the people of the village that they had until sunrise to evacuate,” a source in the region, who asked to be unidentified, tells Fox News. “They were told that the Iraqi army and the Shiite militia have said they will forcibly evict the Peshmerga in the morning.”

Teleskof was only recently liberated from ISIS and was considered the model for rehabilitating minority community towns and villages across the Nineveh Plain region of Northern Iraq earlier this year. The town was recently rebuilt with $2 million in aid from the Hungarian government.

Villagers rushed to leave Teleskof on Tuesday evening after an Iraqi emissary told them to evacuate before sunrise in anticipation of further gunfire.

A majority of the Assyrian towns in the plain have been left decimated. In some of the other towns, most of the infrastructure has been reduced to rubble; in others, dangerous chemical compounds have been dumped, polluting the ground to toxic levels.

“The one success story in Northern Iraq and it’s about to be destroyed over a pissing contest between the Kurds and Iraqi central government,” sources familiar with humanitarian efforts in the region told Fox News. “The whole thing is a mess.”

Clashes between Iraqi and Peshmerga forces broke out on October 16 in the aftermath of a referendum where the Kurdish people voted overwhelmingly in favor of seeking full independence from the central government in Baghdad.

The already frail Christian population of Northern Iraq has been caught in the crossfire.

“The writing was on the wall when the KRG decided to go through with their premature referendum against the recommendation of world powers,” Juliana Taimoorazy, president of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council and senior fellow for Philos Project, which promotes “positive Christian engagement in the Middle East,” told Fox News.

“What we see develop today does not come as a surprise but it brings with it immense heartache for our international Assyrian Chaldean Syriac community, for we watch our already battered family and friends find themselves once again on the run, leaving behind the very little they had started to accumulate since their recent return to their homes in the spring of this year.”

An estimated 200,000 Christians remain in Iraq, down from over 1.5 million prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion, the majority of whom were forced to flee Mosul and other parts of the Nineveh Plains to the Kurdish-held north in 2014 as ISIS assaulted in on their land.

Deemed the ancestral homeland of all Christianity, many of these Christian areas in the Nineveh now lie in the disputed areas between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) based in Erbil, and the central government further south in Baghdad.

“This is probably the [Iraqi] Christians’ Waterloo,” a source within the region’s clergy system said to Fox News, also asking to remain unidentified for fear of retribution from Kurdish forces. “This is really the last stand.”

The source added, “Christianity could be wiped out from the region come tomorrow morning.”…

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Filed Under: Featured, Iraq, Kurdistan, Muslim persecution of Christians Tagged With: Teleskof


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Comments

  1. Mo says

    Oct 25, 2017 at 10:33 am

    So horrifying and sad. I wish there was something we could do for these people. They are caught in the middle, and helpless.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 25, 2017 at 9:44 pm

      All Western nations should offer these oppressed Christians asylum.

  2. mortimer says

    Oct 25, 2017 at 12:37 pm

    It is important for the US and other countries to IMMEDIATELY recognize an independent Kurdistan to impose greater stability in the region. With that done, the US will have one undying strategic ally in the region, providing airbases and land bases for US troops.

    IT MUST BE DONE NOW and WITHOUT DELAY.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 25, 2017 at 9:49 pm

      Mortimer, it is also the Kurds endangering Christians here.

      The Kurds have been less violent towards Christians of late–largely because they could largely count on Christians to vote with them in places like Iraq (although they attacked and beat Christians who *didn’t* vote the way they wanted).

      I am guardedly in favor of an independent Kurdistan, given current conditions in the region. But–with all respect–I think we would be foolish to consider the Kurds automatic allies of the free West. A hundred years ago, they were enthusiastically slaughtering Christians in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. They are still Muslims.

      • Debi Brand says

        Oct 26, 2017 at 2:08 am

        Well stated, g.i..

        Well said.

      • Tilly says

        Oct 26, 2017 at 5:15 am

        Well said.

        A good Muslim/Religious person is one who does not impose their will on others. All others I don’t trust.

        As bad as the Nazis maybe but I fear this cult is worse (Islam).

        Everybody keep well and always speak the truth about Islam when you hear lies.

        Cheers

        Tilly

  3. Voytek Gagalka says

    Oct 25, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    For Catholic Church those Christians are not considered Christians at all; rather as heretics. They were never under “jurisdiction” or “protection” of Rome with exception of brief periods during Crusades and the “Kingdom of Heaven” which ended just before 12th century was over. Secondly, even if Islamic State ended apparently now, none of hate against them will ever end as long as Islam lasts, and regardless of internal differences between all stripes of Sunnis or Shiites: all of them share the same view on the “People of the Book” with all dire consequences and yoke for them.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 25, 2017 at 9:59 pm

      More proof that Voytek here hates Catholics–and Protestants–more than he does murderous Muslims.

    • red rose says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 8:17 am

      @ Voytek Gagalka
      Are you kidding? The Chaldeans are Catholics – they make up the majority (80%) of Christians in Iraq and the Assyrians are Orthodox. At the end of the day, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ AND that is the most important.

  4. Peter Buckley says

    Oct 25, 2017 at 1:13 pm

    There is a viable solution: the establishment of a state of Assyria, by playing quid pro quo with the Kurds:

    We support an independent Kurdistan

    In return, they must support an independent (Christian) Assyria on its own borders.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11136/assyrian-independence

    If they don’t agree, no independence for the Kurds.

    Any complaints from Turkey, Iraq, Iran should be answered with: “Sorry guys, you’ve had your chance to create a secular state, and failed. We know some people who actually want one, and we are going to fund them. Simples…”

    Meanwhile, Israel continues to grow…………

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 25, 2017 at 10:52 pm

      I would *love* to see this–but i don’t think it is apt to happen.

  5. gravenimage says

    Oct 25, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    Iraq: Christians who just returned home forced to flee again amid skirmishes between Kurds and government
    ……………………………….

    Horrible.

    And this story should be a cautionary tale to those who believe that the Kurds are Muslims who are–magically–paragons of tolerance. For recent political reasons, they have been generally less genocidal than most other Muslims in the region, but this is only comparative.

  6. Chand says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 4:52 am

    Fox News: “This is probably the [Iraqi] Christians’ Waterloo,” a source within the region’s clergy system said to Fox News, also asking to remain unidentified for fear of retribution from Kurdish forces. “This is really the last stand.”

    The source added, “Christianity could be wiped out from the region come tomorrow morning.”…

    Oops! There goes my short-lived dream of enlightened Kurdish Muslims being a beacon for others. It lies shattered………….

    Here’s continuing to hope that they continue to protect religious minorities though, in the future, if things improve. Like the Assads in Syria used to do. Even Saddam Hussein used to protect the Christians though he was terrible with the Kurds as the latter wanted to secede.

    But this latest Peshmerga-Iraqi govt. fight is an unfolding tragedy………………

  7. Paddy says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    Kurds were enthusiastic butchers for the Turks in the Armenian genocidal massacres. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are completely reformed.

    • gravenimage says

      Oct 26, 2017 at 8:23 pm

      Yes–this is true. They were oppressed in Turkey a hundred years ago, too, but this did not stop their slaughtering Christians.

  8. Paddy says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 2:56 pm

    On that basis we may safely conclude that they will be enthusiastic killers for Islam again. Don’t be enamoured of the Kurds.

  9. UNCLE VLADDI says

    Oct 26, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    So much for those who insist the MUSLIM Kurds were some sort of “moderate” and noble breed ever since Saladin etc – in the recent past, they eagerly helped the Turks loot and genocide the Armenians, too!

    The Turks had “hired” the Kurds back in 1915 to kill off a couple of million Armenians in what is now Turkey by giving the lands, houses and possessions of the dead Armenians to the Kurdish killers.

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