Assyrians in Iraq#Post-Saddam Iraq

{{See also|Assyria|Neo-Assyrian Empire}}

The Assyrians are typically Syriac-speaking Christians who claim descent from Ancient Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia.{{cite book|author=A. Leo Oppenheim|title=Ancient Mesopotamia |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/ancient_mesopotamia.pdf|year=1964|publisher=The University of Chicago Press}}

Scholars have said that Kurds also fought against the Assyrian Christians because they feared that Armenians or their European allies could take control of the area. Both Arabs and Kurds thought of the Assyrians as foreigners and as allies of colonial Britain.Margins of empire. S.l.: Stanford University Press., and https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=akron1464911392&disposition=inline {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170105054629/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=akron1464911392&disposition=inline |date=2017-01-05 }}""""THE SIMELE MASSACRE AS A CAUSE OF IRAQI NATIONALISM: HOW AN ASSYRIAN GENOCIDE CREATED IRAQI MARTIAL NATIONALISM """"Eric Davis, Memories of State (Los Angeles: University of California Press 2005): 62; Records of Iraq, v. 7, Consul Mon ypenny to Mr. Ogilvie- Forbes, 21 Aug. 1933, 580. Cited https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101084753/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file |date=1 November 2020 }}? accession=akron1464911392&disposition=inline

Persecution of Assyrians has a long and bitter history. In 1895, in Diyarbakır, Kurdish and Turkish militia began attacking Christians, plundering Assyrian villages. In 1915, Kurds and Turks plundered villages, about 7000 Assyrians were killed. In 1915, Turkish troops "with Kurdish detachments" committed mass slaughters of Assyrians in Persia. In the Assyrian village of Haftvan almost 1000 people were beheaded and 5000 Assyrian women were taken to Kurdish harems.The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies Richard G. Hovannisian (2011).

In 1894, the French diplomat Paul Cambon described the creation of Kurdish Hamidies regiments as "the official organization for pillage at the expense of Armenian Christians". In these places "the system of persecutions and extorsions became intolerable to populations who had become accustomed to their slavery". According to Cambon, the Porte refused reforms and persisted in "maintaining a veritable regime of terror, arrests, assassinations and rape.".Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeʼor. 116-18{{better source needed|date=December 2022}} In 1924, the Muslim Kurds around Sheik Said "rose in revolt against the "atheist government of Ankara" and demanded autonomy, the restoration of religious laws and of the sultanate".Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeʼor. 40{{better source needed|date=December 2022}} In 1932, Iraqi forces commanded by Kurdish general Bakr Sidki killed 600 Assyrians at Simel, near Mosul. Kurds committed the slaughter "in which 65 Nestorian villages in northern Iraq were plundered and burned down, priests were tortured and Christians were forced to renounce their religion while others in Dohuk were deported and about a 100 were shot".Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeʼor. 188{{better source needed|date=December 2022}} In 1843, Nestorians in the Tauris region refused to pay Kurds the jizya, and "by way of reprisal 4350 Nestroians were slaughtered, about 400 women and children were reduced to slavery and all their houses and churches destroyed".Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeʼor. see in hommaire de hell, voyage en turquie 2:22-24, where it is recounted{{better source needed|date=December 2022}} Historians have noted that in "Kurdistan Jews, Nestorians and Armenians were subject to tallage and corvees at whim of authorities".{{cite book |title=Islam and Dhimmitude: where civilizations collide |date=2002 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3942-9 |page=102}}{{better source needed|date=December 2022}}

Historians have noted that Bedir Khan Beg (also known as Bedirhan) called the Kurdish Muslims to fight a sacred war against the Assyrians and Armenians, and ordered to massacre and annihilate them. Kurdish writers have recounted that "the Kurdish troops attacked the Assyrians and started slaughters. Consequently, a few Assyrians were killed, their villages were destroyed and set into fire... For the second time, in 1846, the Assyrians residing at the Thuma region have been massacred...." British writer William Eagleton said that "in 1843 and 1846, Bedirhan started a massacre and booting campaign against the Christian Assyrians (Nestorians) he was anxious about whose getting stronger and independent through becoming able to rule themselves. It was intolerable for Bedirhan to see the Assyrians living on his own territories getting stronger. Thus he killed ten thousand Assyrians. Even though Bedirhan was a feudal tribal leader, he was expressing the aspirations of Kurdish nationalism." Kurdish and Arab attacks on Assyrians continued, culminating in the August 1933 Simele massacres. About 3000 Assyrians were killed in that single month alone.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atour.com/education/20000825a.html|title=The Assyrians in the Christian Asia Minor Holocaust|website=www.atour.com}}

Beginning in August 1933, Iraqi soldiers and Kurdish militia killed thousands of Assyrias in Simele (Iraq). The massacre had a big influence on Raphael Lemkin, the jurist who coined the word "genocide.{{Cite web |url=https://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/center-study-genocide-conflict-resolution-and-human-rights/assyrian-genocide-1914-1923-and-1933-pres |title=The Assyrian Genocide, 1914 to 1923 and 1933 up to the present | Rutgers–Newark Colleges of Arts & Sciences |access-date=2016-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207170051/https://www.ncas.rutgers.edu/center-study-genocide-conflict-resolution-and-human-rights/assyrian-genocide-1914-1923-and-1933-pres |archive-date=2018-02-07 }} The Simmele Massacre is also commemorated yearly with the official Assyrian Martyrs Day on 7 August. The massacre was carried out by the Iraqi Army, led by Kurdish General Bakir Sidqi, and Kurdish and Arab irregulars. There were about 3,000 victims of the massacre.{{Cite web|url=http://www.aina.org/releases/20040805022140.htm|title = The 1933 Massacre of Assyrians in Simmele, Iraq}}

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During July 1933, about 800 armed Assyrians headed for the Syrian border, where they were turned back by the French. While King Faisal had briefly left the country for medical reasons, the Minister of Interior, Hikmat Sulayman, adopted a policy aimed at a final solution of the "Assyrian problem". This policy was implemented by an Iraqi-Kurd, General Bakr Sidqi. After engaging in several unsuccessful clashes with armed Assyrian tribesmen, on 11 August 1933, Sidqi permitted his men to attack and kill about 3,000 unarmed Assyrian civilian villagers, including women, children and the elderly, at the Assyrian villages of Sumail (Simele) district, and later at Suryia. Having scapegoated the Assyrians as dangerous national traitors, this massacre of unarmed civilians became a symbol of national pride, and enhanced Sidqi's prestige. The British, though represented by a powerful military presence as provided by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, failed to intervene or allow the well-disciplined Assyrian Levies under their command to do so, and indeed helped whitewash the event at the League of Nations.

The Assyrian repression marked the entrance of the military into Iraqi politics, a pattern that has periodically re-emerged since 1958, and offered an excuse for enlarging conscription.

In the early 1970s, the secularist Ba'ath regime initially tried to change the suppression of Assyrians in Iraq through different laws that were passed. On 20 February 1972, the government passed the law to recognize the cultural rights of Assyrians by allowing Aramaic be taught schools in which the majority of pupils spoke that language in addition to Arabic. Aramaic was also to be taught at intermediate and secondary schools in which the majority of students spoke that language in addition to Arabic, but it never happened. Special Assyrian programs were to be broadcast on public radio and television and three Syriac-language magazines were planned to be published in the capital. An Association of Syriac-Speaking Authors and Writers had also been established.{{cite web|url=http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CERD.C.240.Add.3.En?OpenDocument |title=Twelfth periodic reports of States parties due in 1993: Iraq. 14/06/96, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (the Iraqi government's point of view) |publisher=Unhchr.ch |access-date=2012-06-18}}

The bill turned out to be a failure. The radio stations created as the result of this decree were closed after a few months. While the two magazines were allowed to be published, only 10 percent of their material was in Aramaic. No school was allowed to teach in Aramaic either.{{cite web|url=http://www.zindamagazine.com/html/archives/1999/feb22_1999.htm#Anchor-49575 |access-date=February 28, 2007 |title=GOOD MORNING BET-NAHRAIN|work=ZENDA |date= February 22, 1999|author=David Nissman}}

Reports from various sources "indicate a better human rights situation overall in the Kurdish-controlled areas of Northern Iraq than exists elsewhere in the country" (AI 2000, 135; U.K. Immigration & Nationality Directorate Sept. 1999; USDOS 25 Feb. 2000){{Cite news|url=http://www.refworld.org/docid/3dee0b564.html|title=Refworld {{!}} Iraq: Chaldean Christians|last=Refugees|first=United Nations High Commissioner for|work=Refworld|access-date=2017-06-08|language=en}} Also, according to the reports, "while freedom of speech, religion, movement, and press are strongly restricted throughout Iraq, these freedoms do exist to a certain extent in parts of the Kurd-controlled area "(USDOS 25 Feb. 2000). However, reports regarding isolated human rights abuses continued in 1999. The US State government reported that in 1999 Assyrian Christian Helena Aloun Sawa was murdered, and according to AINA, "the murder resembles a well-established pattern of complicity by Kurdish authorities in attacks against Assyrian Christians in the north". The murder was investigated by a commission appointed by the KDP but no results of the investigation were reported by year's end.{{Cite news|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/nea/787.htm|title=Iraq|publisher=U.S. Department of State|access-date=2017-06-08}} There were also incidents of mob violence by Muslims against Christians in northern Iraq. Christian Assyrians were also targeted in a series of bombings in Erbil in 1998 to 1999, and Assyrian groups have criticized the KRG for the lack of investigation. According to the AINA, the KDP blockaded Assyrian villages in 1999 and "later entered the villages and beat villagers". However, after invervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross the KDP left the villages again.

According to the UK Immigration & Nationality Directorate "despite Tariq Aziz's lofty position in the Baghdad regime, Christians have little political influence in the Ba'ath government" (Sept. 1999).{{Cite news|url=http://www.refworld.org/|title=Refworld {{!}} The Leader in Refugee Decision Support|last=Refugees|first=United Nations High Commissioner for|work=Refworld|access-date=2017-06-08|language=en}}

Education in any language other than Arabic and Kurdish was prohibited by the government in Baghdad. Therefore, Assyrians were not permitted to attend classes in Syriac. In the Kurdish-controlled northern areas, classes in Syriac have been permitted since 1991. However, according to some Assyrian sources "regional Kurdish authorities refused to allow the classes to begin." However, details of this practice were not available, and Kurdish authorities denied the accusations. In 1999, the Kurdistan Observer claimed that "the Central Government had warned the administration in the Kurdish region against allowing Turkoman, Assyrian, or Yazidi minority schools."

According to the UK Immigration & Nationality Directorate, "the Central Government has engaged various abuses against the Assyrian Christians, and has often suspected them of 'collaborating' with Kurds" (Sept. 1999). According to a report by The World Directory of Minorities "Assyrians were unable to avoid the Kurdish conflict. As with the Kurds, some supported the government, others allied themselves with the Kurdish nationalist movement" (Minority Rights Group International 1997, 346).{{Cite web|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/index.htm|title=U.S. Department of State {{!}} Home Page|website=state.gov|access-date=2017-06-08}}

After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq by US and its allies, the Coalition Provisional Authority disbanded the Iraqi military, security, and intelligence infrastructure of former President Saddam Hussein and began a process of "de-Baathification".{{Cite web |title=Coalition Provisional Authority Order 1 De-ba'athification of Iraqi Society|url=http://www.cpa-iraq.org/regulations/20030516_CPAORD_1_De-Ba_athification_of_Iraqi_Society_.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509145453/http://www.cpa-iraq.org/regulations/20030516_CPAORD_1_De-Ba_athification_of_Iraqi_Society_.pdf |archive-date=9 May 2008 |access-date=2022-02-10 |website=}} This process became an object of controversy, cited by some critics as the biggest American mistake made in the immediate aftermath of the Invasion of Iraq, and as one of the main causes in the deteriorating security situation throughout Iraq.{{cite news |date=1 August 2007 |title=Mullen's Plain Talk About U.S. Mistakes in Iraq |newspaper=National Public Radio |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/08/mullens_plain_talk_about_us_mi_1.html |access-date=24 September 2010}}Henderson & Tucker, p. 19. Social unrest and chaos resulted in the unprovoked persecution of Assyrians in Iraq mostly by Islamic extremists (both Shia and Sunni) and Kurdish nationalists (ex. Dohuk Riots of 2011 aimed at Assyrians & Yazidis).

Iraqi Christians have been victims of executions, forced displacement campaigns, torture, violence and the target of Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. Since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Christians have fled from the country and their population has collapsed under the Government of Iraq.{{cite news|title=On Vulnerable Ground |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/11/10/vulnerable-ground/violence-against-minority-communities-nineveh-provinces-disputed|access-date=18 November 2016|publisher=Human Rights Watch |date=10 November 2009}}{{cite news|title=Iraq|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm|access-date=18 November 2016|publisher=U.S. Department of State}}

On 1 August 2004 a series of car bomb attacks took place during the Sunday evening Mass in churches in Baghdad and Mosul, killing and wounding a large number of Christians. The Jordanian jihadist and 1st emir of Al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was blamed for the attacks.{{Cite news|date=2004-08-02|title=Leaders condemn Iraq church bombs|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3527032.stm|access-date=2020-06-08}}

In 2006, an Orthodox priest, Boulos Iskander, was snatched off the streets of Mosul by a Sunni Arab group that demanded a ransom. His body was later found, with his arms and legs having been cut off.

In 2007, there were reports of a push to drive Christians out of the historically Christian suburb of Dora in southern Baghdad, with some Sunni extremists accusing the Christians of being allies of the Americans. A total number of 239 similar cases were registered by police between 2007 and 2009.{{cite book|last1=Barrett|first1=Greg|title=The Gospel of Rutba: War, Peace, and the Good Samaritan Story in Iraq|date=2012|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=978-1-60833-113-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtAu9jwDTy0C&q=Christian+suburb+of+Dora+in+southern+Baghdad%2C+2007&pg=PA171|language=ar}}

In 2008, a priest called Ragheed Ganni, was shot dead in his church along with three of his companions. In the same year, there were reports that Christian students were being harassed.

In 2008, the charity Barnabas conducted research into 250 Iraqi Christian IDPs who had fled to the north of the country (Iraqi Kurdistan) to seek refugee status and found nearly half had witnessed attacks on churches or Christians, or been personally targeted by violence.

In 2009, the Kurdistan Regional Government reported that more than 40,000 Christians had moved from Baghdad, Basra and Mosul to the Iraqi Kurdistan cities. The reports also stated that the number of Christian families moving to Iraqi Kurdistan is growing and they were providing support and financial assistance for 11,000 of those families, and some are employed by the KRG.{{cite news|title=The status of Christians in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq|url=http://cabinet.gov.krd/uploads/documents/Status_Christians_Kurdistan_Region_Dec_09__2009_12_22_h16m26s16.pdf|access-date=18 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110211733/http://cabinet.gov.krd/uploads/documents/Status_Christians_Kurdistan_Region_Dec_09__2009_12_22_h16m26s16.pdf|archive-date=10 January 2017}}

In 2010, Sunni Islamist groups attacked a Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad during Sunday evening Mass on 31 October, killing more than 60 and wounding 78 Iraqi Christians.{{cite news|last1=Shadid|first1=Anthony|title=Baghdad Church Attack Hits Iraq's Core|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html|access-date=7 June 2017|work=The New York Times|date=1 November 2010}}

In 2011, Islamist extremists assassinated Christians randomly using sniper rifles.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} Two months before the incident, two Christians had been shot for unknown reasons in Baghdad and two other Christians had been shot by Jihadis in Mosul. Human rights organizations have recorded 66 assault cases on churches and monasteries until 2012, as well as about 200 kidnappings. On 30 May 2011, a Christian man was beheaded by a Salafi extremist in Mosul.{{cite web |author=Hani Nesira |date= |title=Religious minorities in the Arab world between terrorism and crises of fragile States: Observation and Analysis |website=Geneva Center for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue |url=http://www.gchragd.org/sites/default/files/Nesira-religious-minority.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010060611/http://www.gchragd.org/sites/default/files/Nesira-religious-minority.pdf |archive-date=2017-10-10 |access-date=7 June 2017}}

On 2 August 2011 a Catholic church was bombed by Sunni extremists in the Turkmen area of Kirkuk, wounding more than 23 Christians.

On 15 August 2011 a church was bombed by al-Qaeda in the center of Kirkuk.{{cite news|author=Mohammed Tawfeeq |title=Iraq church bombing wounds at least 20|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/02/iraq.church.attack/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715014213/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/08/02/iraq.church.attack/|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 July 2014|access-date=7 June 2017|language=en}}

In 2014, during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) ordered all Christians in the area of its control, where the Iraqi Army had collapsed, to pay a special tax of approximately $470 per family, convert to Islam, or be killed. Many of them took refuge in nearby Kurdish-controlled regions of Iraq.

After Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, the Assyrian Democratic Movement was one of the smaller political parties that emerged in the social chaos of the occupation. Its officials say that while armed members of the Assyrian Democratic Movement also took part in the liberation of the key oil cities of Kirkuk and Mosul in the north, the Assyrians were not invited to join the steering committee that was charged with defining Iraq's future. The ethnic make-up of the Iraq Interim Governing Council briefly (September 2003 – June 2004) guiding Iraq after the invasion included a single Assyrian Christian, Younadem Kana, a leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement and an opponent of Saddam Hussein since 1979.

Assyrians in post-Saddam Iraq have faced a high rate of persecution by fundamentalist Islamists since the beginning of the Iraq War. By early August 2004 this persecution included church bombings, and fundamentalist groups' enforcement of Muslim codes of behavior upon Christians, e.g., banning alcohol, forcing women to wear hijab.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3529364.stm |work=BBC News |title=Analysis: Iraq's Christians under attack |date=2004-08-02 |access-date=2010-04-25}} The violence against the community has led to the exodus of perhaps as much as half of the community. While Assyrians made up only just over 5% of the total Iraqi population before the war, according to the United Nations, Assyrians are over-represented among the Iraqi refugees (as much as 13%) who are stranded in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.{{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061225/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_celebrating_christmas |author=Qais al-Bashir |agency=Associated Press |title=Iraqi Christians celebrate Christmas |work=Yahoo! News |date=2006-12-25 |access-date=2007-01-07 }}{{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{cite web|url=http://www.iraqslogger.com/downloads/Iraqis_in_Jordan.pdf|archive-date=13 Aug 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813035758/http://www.iraqslogger.com/downloads/Iraqis_in_Jordan.pdf |access-date=October 31, 2013 |title=Iraqis in Jordan}}{{cite web|url=http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/idp/200706iraq.pdf|archive-date=1 Jan 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101035348/http://www.brookings.edu/fp/projects/idp/200706iraq.pdf |access-date=October 31, 2013 |title=Iraqi Refugees in the Syrian Arab Republic: A Field-Based Snapshot}}

A large number of Assyrians have found refuge in ancient Assyrian Christian villages in Nineveh Plains and Kurdistan Region.{{cite web|url=http://www.worthynews.com/9963-iraqi-christians-speed-exodus-to-kurdistan |title=Worthy Christian News » Iraqi Christians speed exodus to Kurdistan |publisher=Worthynews.com |date=2011-02-08 |access-date=2012-06-18}}{{cite news|last=Rizan |first=Ahmed |title=Displaced Mosul Christians celebrate Easter in Nineveh Plain |url=http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/8/234562/ |access-date=5 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504073550/http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/8/234562/ |archive-date=4 May 2011 }} This led some Assyrians and Iraqi and foreign politicians to call for an Assyrian Christian autonomous region in those areas.{{cite news|last=Timmerman|first=Kenneth|title=TIMMERMAN: Iraqi Christians to Congress: Please help|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/mar/1/iraqi-christians-to-congress-please-help/|access-date=5 June 2011|newspaper=The Washington Times|date=1 March 2011}}

In 2008 the Assyrians formed their own militia, the Qaraqosh Protection Committee{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95343489 |title=Christian Security Forces Growing Stronger In Iraq |newspaper=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |access-date=2012-06-18}} to protect Assyrian towns, villages and regions in the north. In 2008 the Assyrian Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul was assassinated by some Kurds while some have claimed assassins were hired by local Arab tribes. Rahho was a defender of Assyrian self-administration. Some observers have claimed that Kurdish KDP forces often used to practice their shooting on important Assyrian cultural heritage sites.HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON ASSYRIANS IN IRAQ 2013, by Assyria Council of Europe and the Assyria Foundation

Kurdish KDP security forces have been criticized for human rights abuses, abuses "ranged from threats and intimidation to detention in undisclosed locations without due process." In 2015, the local KDP security forces arrested and detained political activist Kamal Said Kadir, for having written articles on the Internet critical of the KDP. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Some activists have claimed that membership in Kurdish parties is necessary to obtain "employment and educational opportunities" in Iraqi Kurdistan. The US State department report said that "Kurdish authorities abused and discriminated against minorities in the North, including Turcomen, Arabs, Christians, and Shabak", and that Kurdish authorities "denied services to some villages, arrested minorities without due process and took them to undisclosed locations for detention, and pressured minority schools to teach in the Kurdish language". Christian minorities in Kirkuk also "charged that Kurdish security forces targeted Arabs and Turcomen".[https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm Iraq report], Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 2005. March 8, 2006. "The Kurdish parties also control "the pursuit of formal education and the granting of academic positions". In 2015 Kurdish security forces in Bartalah reportedly broke up a peaceful demonstration by Shabak people, thereby assaulting several demonstrators. The US State department reported on allegations that the KRG discriminated against Christian minorities. Christians living in areas north of Mosul said that the KRG seized their property without compensation and that the KRG began building Kurdish settlements on their land. Assyrian Christians also said that the "KDP-dominated judiciary routinely discriminated against non-Muslims and legal judgments in their favor were not enforced". The Kurdish political parties "encouraged and supported resettlement of Kurds in Kirkuk outside the framework of the IPCC". However Arabs remained "in antagonistic and extremely poor conditions, facing pressure from Kurdish authorities to leave the province". In 2015 elections, many of the mostly Christian residents in the Nineveh Plain were unable to vote, "polling places did not open, ballot boxes were not delivered, and incidents of voter fraud and intimidation occurred". Kurdish militia refused to "allow ballot boxes to pass to predominantly Christian villages". The KRG also reportedly "pressured NGOs into hiring only Kurds and dismissing non-Kurds on security grounds"."

Assyrians have criticized the kurdification of the school curricula, and have complained about the confiscation and occupation of Assyrian lands, and "that the Kurds invent new and impossible laws when the legitimate owners ask for their lands".{{Cite web|url=http://www.aina.org/releases/20111010102607.htm|title = The Genocide of Assyrians -- then and Now}} Assyrians have criticized that while Kurds are very well funded, the Assyrian Christians receive almost no funding for their schools. Assyrians have also said that Kurds have modified and falsified school textbooks (kurdification) and changed traditional Christian names to Kurdish names. In textbooks it was even claimed that some biblical figures were Kurdish.{{Cite news|url=https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article155513600/Ein-Krieg-um-Schulbuecher-bestimmt-Syriens-Zukunft.html|title=Kurden und Christen: Ein Krieg um Schulbücher bestimmt Syriens Zukunft|newspaper=Die Welt|date=20 May 2016}} It was reported that the man accused of killing the Christian politician Francis Yousif Shabo in 1993 is "allowed to walk around freely" in Kurdistan. The impunity for those who attacked or killed Assyrians in the Kurdistan region was criticized.{{Cite web|url=https://ekurd.net/mismas/articles/misc2010/6/state3940.htm|title=Murderers of Iraqi Kurdistan MP Francis Yousif Shabo lives in KDP controlled regions|website=ekurd.net}} Assyrian Christian David Jindo was one of many murdered Christian politicians. Other prominent Assyrian leaders who were killed by Kurdish nationalists include Patriarch Mar Shimun, Franso Hariri, Margaret George (one of the first female Peshmerga) and Francis Shabo. Many of these figures were killed "in spite of their attempts to engage with, or work under, Kurds".{{cite web |url=http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-assyrians-of-syria-history-and-prospets-by-mardean-isaac/ |title=Syria Comment » Archives "The Assyrians of Syria: History and Prospets" by Mardean Isaac - Syria Comment |website=www.joshualandis.com |date=21 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224202420/http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-assyrians-of-syria-history-and-prospets-by-mardean-isaac |archive-date=2015-12-24}}{{cite web | url=http://www.syriacsnews.com/press-release-general-public-syriac-assyrian-chaldean-people/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320030655/http://www.syriacsnews.com/press-release-general-public-syriac-assyrian-chaldean-people/ | url-status=usurped | archive-date=20 March 2016 | title=PRESS RELEASE: To the General Public & Syriac-Assyrian-Chaldean People | Syriac International News AgencySyriac International News Agency }}

The US State government also reported that in Kurdish controlled areas Assyrian schools and classes Syriac were not permitted or prevented in some cases.{{Cite web|url=http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/nea/787.htm|title = 2000 County Reports on Human Rights Practices}} There were also incidents of mob violence by Kurdistan Workers party (KWP) against Christians in northern Iraq. Christian Assyrians were also targeted in a series of bombings in Erbil in 1998 to 1999, and Assyrian groups have criticized the KRG for the lack of investigation. According to the US Department of State the KDP blockaded Assyrian villages in 1999 and "later entered the villages and beat villagers". However, after invervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross the KDP left the villages again.

An example of Kurdification is the attack on the Assyrian town Rabatki in 2013 by General Aref al-Zebari and his brother Habib al-Hares Zabari, reportedly by Kurdish peshmerga soldiers. It has been reported that many Assyrian girls are forced into prostitution by Kurdish criminal organizations, and the families of these girls have also been threatened.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, bishop Jules Boutros, of the Syriac Catholic Church, said most young Syriacs were trying to get out of Iraq. "Most of our young people are trying to get out of Iraq and Syria. They find it difficult to stay in Iraq, because they have lost confidence in their government, they have faced so much persecution. More than 60,000 Syriacs were forced to leave the Nineveh Plain in one night. In total, more than 120,000 Christians were obliged to flee to Kurdistan, and from there they have been going to the west. A good number returned home, and that is a good sign, because we have a mission in this part of the Middle East. But many families are still trying to get out."{{Cite web |last=ACN |date=2022-08-18 |title=Hope for Syriac Catholics |url=https://acninternational.org/hope-for-syriac-catholics/ |access-date=2022-11-17 |website=ACN International |language=en-US}}

The publication of satirical cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 led to an increase in violence against the Assyrian community. At first, the cartoons did not get much attention, but when the Egyptian media picked up on the publication in late December 2005, violence and protests erupted around the world.

On 29 January, six churches in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Kirkuk were targeted by car bombs, killing 13-year-old worshipper Fadi Raad Elias. No militants claimed to be retaliating for the pictures, nor was this the first time Iraqi churches have been bombed; but the bishop of the church stated "The church blasts were a reaction to the cartoons published in European papers. But Christians are not responsible for what is published in Europe."{{cite news|title=Iraq Christians on edge as cartoon row escalates|date=2006-02-03|work=Reuters UK|url=http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-03T112627Z_01_GEO338358_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RELIGION-CARTOONS-IRAQ.xml}}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

Many Assyrians in Iraq now feel like "Westerners should not give wild statements [as] everyone can attack us [in response]" and "Today I'm afraid to walk the streets, because I'm Christian."

Also on 29 January, a Muslim Cleric in the Iraqi city of Mosul issued a fatwa stating, "Expel the (Assyrian) Crusaders and infidels from the streets, schools, and institutions because they have offended the person of the prophet."{{cite news|date=2006-01-29|script-title=ar:تفجيرات الكنائس العراقية على علاقة برسومات الدنمارك |publisher=Elaph.com|url=http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/Politics/2006/1/124132.htm|language=ar}} It has been reported that Muslim students beat up a Christian student at Mosul University in response to the fatwa on the same day.

On 6 February, leaflets were distributed in Ramadi, Iraq, by the militant group "The Military Wing for the Army of Justice" demanding that Christians "halt their religious rituals in churches and other worship places because they insulted Islam and Muslims."{{Cite web|url=http://www.sotaliraq.com/iraqi-news/nieuws.php?id=17602|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060301092629/http://www.sotaliraq.com/iraqi-news/nieuws.php?id=17602|title=Sotaliraq.com - صوت العراق|archive-date=March 1, 2006}}{{cite news|url=http://www.aina.org/news/20060206123245.htm |title=Iraq Islamic Group Asks Christians to Stop Prayers in Churches |publisher=Aina.org |date=2006-02-06 |access-date=2012-06-18}}

The Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy arose from a lecture delivered on 12 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in Germany. Many Islamic politicians and religious leaders registered protest against what they said was an insulting mischaracterization of Islam,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5348436.stm |title=BBC Article. In quotes: Muslim reaction to Pope last accessed September 17, 2006 |work=BBC News |date=2006-09-16 |access-date=2012-06-18}}{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5353208.stm |title=Article:Pope sorry for offending Muslims, last accessed September 17, 2006 |work=BBC News |date=2006-09-17 |access-date=2012-06-18}} contained in the quotation by the Pope of the following passage:{{cquote|Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.}}

After the Pope's comments were known throughout the Arab world, several churches were bombed by insurgent groups. A previously unknown Baghdad-based group, Kataab Ashbal Al-Islam Al-Salafi (Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions)Ashbāl has been mistranslated in the media as Boy Scout. The Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines shibl (plural ashbāl اشبال) as meaning "lion cub; a capable young man, brave youth, young athlete." Compare with Ashbal Saddam (Saddam's Lion Cubs). threatened to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize to Muhammad within three days.{{cite news |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20060916154058.htm |title=Christian Killed in Iraq in Response to Pope's Speech: Islamic Website |publisher= Assyrian International News Agency |date=September 16, 2006 }} Christian leaders in Iraq asked their parishioners not to leave their homes, after two Assyrians were stabbed and killed in Baghdad.{{cite news |url=http://www.aina.org/news/20060917014616.htm |title=Second Assyrian Christian Killed in Retaliation for Pope's Remarks |publisher=Aina.org |date=September 17, 2006 }}

There have been reports of writing on Assyrian church doors stating "If the Pope does not apologise, we will bomb all churches, kill more Christians and steal their property and money."{{cite web|url=http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060929iraq.shtml |title=Violence against Christians grows in Iraq, Ekklesia, 29 September 2006 |publisher=Ekklesia.co.uk |access-date=2012-06-18}}

The Iraqi militia Jaish al-Mujahedin (Holy Warriors' Army) announced its intention to "destroy their cross in the heart of Rome… and to hit the Vatican."[http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,437461,00.html "Vatikan verschärft Sicherheitsvorkehrungen"], Der Spiegel, 16 September 2006 {{in lang|de}}

Despite the Pope's comments dying down in the media, attacks on Assyrian Christians continued and on 9 October Islamic extremist group kidnapped priest Paulos Iskander in Mosul. Iskander's church as well as several other churches placed 30 large posters around the city to distance themselves from the Pope's words.{{cite web |url=http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=iraq |title=Growing violence against Christians in Iraq |publisher=Ianpaisley.org |date= October 26, 2006}} The relatives of the Christian priest who was beheaded three days later in Mosul, have said that his Muslim captors had demanded his church condemn the pope's recent comments about Islam and pay a $350,000 ransom.{{cite news |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/986D3437-8801-4AE2-91C1-860A42D5EB68.htm |title=2006 Iraq priest killed over pope speech |publisher=Aljazeera.net |date=12 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061112105947/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/986D3437-8801-4AE2-91C1-860A42D5EB68.htm |archive-date=2006-11-12 }}

Massacres, ethnic cleansing, and harassment has increased since 2003, according to a 73-page report by the Assyrian International News Agency, released in summer 2007.{{cite news |title=Incipient Genocide |url=http://www.aina.org/reports/ig.pdf |newspaper=Aina.org }}{{cite news |first=Doug |last=Bandow |title=Thrown to the Lions |newspaper=Spectator.org |date=July 2, 2007 |url=http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11665 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070705190013/http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=11665 |archive-date=July 5, 2007 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/Iraq/Story/0,,1888848,00.html |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=In 20 years, there will be no more Christians in Iraq |date=2006-10-06 |access-date=2010-04-25 |first=Mark |last=Lattimer}} On 6 January 2008 (the Feast of Epiphany) five Assyrian churches, one Armenian church, and a monastery in Mosul and Baghdad were coordinately attacked with multiple car bombs.{{Cite web|title=عاجل سلسلة تفجيرات تطال كنائس في بغداد والموصل|url=https://www.ankawa.com/forum/index.php/topic,157932.0.html|access-date=2021-02-15|website=www.ankawa.com|archive-date=29 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029053527/https://www.ankawa.com/forum/index.php/topic,157932.0.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://business.maktoob.com/News-20070423135913-Churches_monastery_bombed_in_Iraq_Police.aspx |title=Churches, monastery bombed in Iraq: Police |publisher=Business.maktoob.com |access-date=2012-06-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080110195828/http://business.maktoob.com/News-20070423135913-Churches_monastery_bombed_in_Iraq_Police.aspx |archive-date=2008-01-10 }} Iraqi vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi expressed his "closeness to Christians", whom he called "brothers" in the face of this "attack that changed their joy to sadness and anxiety".{{cite web|url=http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1743312524 |title=AKI - Adnkronos international Iraq: Vice-president condemns church attacks |publisher=Adnkronos.com |date=2003-04-07 |access-date=2012-06-18}} Two days later, on 8 January, two more churches were bombed in the city of Kirkuk; the Chaldean Cathedral of Kirkuk and the ACOE Maar Afram Church, wounding three bystanders.{{cite web |url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBZZy2XNngjtpMOUTx-Yv_ZDLutA |title=AFP: Car bombings target churches in north Iraq |date=2008-01-09 |access-date=2012-06-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724012949/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jBZZy2XNngjtpMOUTx-Yv_ZDLutA |archive-date=2012-07-24 }} Since the start of the Iraq War, there have been at least 46 churches and monasteries bombed.{{cite news|url=http://www.aina.org/news/20080107163014.htm |title=Church Bombings in Iraq Since 2004 |publisher=Aina.org |access-date=2012-06-18}}

{{main|Assyrian exodus from Iraq}}

File:Church of Saint Thomas 1.jpg: The church was used as a prison by Islamic State insurgents until the city's liberation in 2017.{{cite news |last=Arraf|first=Jane|date=31 March 2018|title=Iraq's Christians Remain Displaced This Easter|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/03/31/598503561/iraqs-christians-remain-displaced-this-easter|work=NPR|access-date=18 May 2018}}]]

Leaders of Iraq's Christian community estimate that over two-thirds of the country's Christian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced since the US-led invasion in 2003. While exact numbers are unknown, reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Christians have left the cities of Baghdad and Al-Basrah, and that both Sunni and Shiite insurgent groups and militias have threatened Christians.{{cite web|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/05/A453003E-DEC4-491A-9069-81255C27A7FA.html2006 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907133733/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/05/A453003E-DEC4-491A-9069-81255C27A7FA.html2006 |archive-date=2012-09-07 |title=Population 'under attack', Radio Free Europe |publisher=Rferl.org |access-date=2012-06-18 }}

Youssef Adel, a Syriac Orthodox priest with Saint Peter's Church in Baghdad's Karada neighbourhood, was killed by gunmen while travelling in a car on 5 April 2008.{{Cite news|url=http://archive.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/04/06/christian_priest_shot_dead_in_baghdad/|title = Christian priest shot dead in Baghdad|newspaper = Boston.com|date = 6 April 2008|last1 = Gamel|first1 = Kim}} On 11 April, President Bush was interviewed by Cliff Kincaid of the EWTN Global Catholic Network; after being informed about the deteriorating situation of the Assyrians; President Bush was quoted as saying "This is a Muslim government that has failed to protect the Christians. In fact, it discriminates against them....It's time to order U.S. troops to protect Christian churches and believers."{{cite web |author=Cliff Kincaid |url=http://www.aim.org/aim-column/journalist-asks-bush-to-protect-iraqi-christians/ |title=Journalist Asks Bush to Protect Iraqi Christians |publisher=Aim.org |date=2008-04-11 |access-date=2012-06-18 |archive-date=7 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207125156/http://www.aim.org/aim-column/journalist-asks-bush-to-protect-iraqi-christians/ |url-status=dead }}

A 1950 CIA numbers report on Iraq estimated 165,000 Assyrians, most of which were Chaldean Catholic with smaller numbers of the Church of the East and Syriac Catholic and Orthodox churches.{{cite web|title=National Intelligence Survey: Iraq: Section 43|publisher=CIA|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001252339.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123040704/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001252339.pdf|archive-date=January 23, 2017}}

According to a report by the Assyrian Policy Institute Before the war in Iraq, the number of Christians in Iraq was estimated at over 1.5 million.

According to statistics gathered by the Roman Catholic Church when doing censuses of Chaldean Catholic diocese in Iraq in 2012 and 2013, Chaldo-Assyrians in Iraq numbered 230,071 people.{{Cite web|url=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/rite/dch2.html|title=Current Chaldean Dioceses [Catholic-Hierarchy]|website=www.catholic-hierarchy.org}}

{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Assyrian elections in Iraq
• Assyrian genocide
• Assyrian independence movement
• Christianity in Iraq
• Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq
• List of Assyrian settlements
• List of Iraqi Assyrians
• Minorities in Iraq
• Simele massacre
• Persecution of Assyrians by the Islamic State

{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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{{refend}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090201052834/http://assyriacouncil.eu/3.html Assyrian Council of Europe Press Releases]

{{Commons}}{{Demographics of Iraq}}

{{Assyrian communities}}

{{Asia in topic|Assyrians in}}

Category:Demographics of Iraq

Category:Ethnic groups in Iraq

Category:Society of Iraq