Kurds in Iraq voted overwhelmingly last week in favor of seeking full independence from the central government in Baghdad — setting off a firestorm of international retaliation, including strong objections from the U.S. But the Kurdish quest for their own country has also prodded other minorities in the region — namely the long persecuted Christian community — to vocalize their fears and frustrations about being caught in the middle, and their own ambition for some form of a “safe haven” or autonomy.
“Christians understand the sentiment of self-determination and liberty that drives every man or woman,” Mark Arabo, President of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation, told Fox News. “One thing that gives Christians hope is that if Kurdistan is successful in their effort to attain sovereignty, perhaps Christians can successfully carve out a space in the Nineveh Plains that would grant them far greater protection than is currently had.”
There are an estimated 200,000 Christians left 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. – READ MORE
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