Pope Francis will offer a Mass next month to
commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. For one
priest in Iraq, at least, that genocide is not a thing of the past.
The
Ottoman Empire in 1915 went after not only Armenian Christians but
Assyrians as well, and Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana is quick to point
out its relevance to what's happening today.
Speaking of Christians
living in villages along the Khabur River in northeastern Syria, who
were forced from their homes recently by the advancing forces of the
Islamic State group and who anxiously await news of more than 250 of
their relatives and neighbors who are being held by ISIS, Father
Youkhana says,
"Their grandfathers survived the Christian genocide of
1915.... The survivors fled to Dohuk, which became part of the new state
of Iraq. A year after Iraq became a member of the League of Nations, in
1932, on August 6 and 7, 1933, a new massacre and the first genocide in
the new Iraq took place in Semele, near Duhok, against Christian
Assyrians."
Ironically, August 6 and 7 of last year saw the Islamic State group take control of Christian areas of northern Iraq.
Now, after 100 years, the grandsons of the Ottoman-era Assyrians are trying to survive a new massacre, Father Youkhana says.
"
Three
massacres for the same people in one century," said the priest of the
Assyrian Church of the East. "Enough of this open ended persecution."
He
points out that the current onslaugth is accompanied by the destruction
of Assyrian historical artifacts in places like Mosul, Hatra and
Nimrud.
"If our history is being destroyed and our historical
sites are demolished, and our present is being targeted and we are being
massacred, can we have a future?" he asks.
"Is there any future if
there is no past and no present?"
Father Youkhana, head of the
Christian Aid Program in Northern Iraq, spoke by phone with Aleteia
about the Khabur River valley captives, the ideology behind ISIS, and
what the international community must do to help the Christian community
survive in its historic Middle Eastern homeland.
Could you review what happened to the Christian hostages from the Khabur River area? How were they abducted? What is the latest?
On
February 23, IS managed to advance and take over the southern part of
the Khabur River, the Assyrian region where we have 55 villages. Half of
them are on the southern part of the Khabur, half on the northern part.
So they advanced to the southern part and were able to control all the
villages there, but because of the river, thank God, they were unable to
advance to the northern part.
They were able to advance only to two of
the villages because the level of the water helped them in that
region--Tel Jezira and Tel Gouran. Villages in the northern parts were
saved from the attacks, but of course people were scared, so the whole
region of Khabur fled--some 1,200 families. Now they are displaced:
around 1000 are in the city of Hassakah, and another 200 in Qamishli.
As
to the hostages, according to the early figures we had we're speaking
about 51 families. But then we learned there were hostages from other
villages, so in total there were around 287 captives.
Thank God
one week later--last week--19 were released and then another four the
next day.
So 23 were released, and around 250 are still captives.
We
have had long decades of peaceful coexistence in the region of Khabur,
as a Church, as a community. We've lived in peace and good relations
with all our neighbors, whether Arabs or Sunnis or Kurds, so we invest
on this long history of peaceful coexistence, that there will be
hopefully a peaceful release of the captives.
There are women and
children --they had nothing to do with this fight or battles or
political positions. They are normal people living normal lives, so we
hope that prominent Arab tribal leaders can be a channel for us, to
help. But these issues are very sensitive. We should be very careful in
handling them, or coming out with public statements.
Are you hearing reports from people living under ISIS control? What are they saying?
In
all ISIS controlled areas in Iraq and Syria, you can't say there are
Christian communities living under ISIS. They all escaped.
The only ones
left are the people who failed to flee.
The advance of IS was so fast,
or some individuals lacked the means to flee. So there are no Christians
living in IS regions willingly.
So the sources of information are
very limited. But speaking for the captives, the only source we have
are our tribal leaders who are confirming that they are not harmed, so
far, and what we have witnessed from the 23 who were released, they all
gave the testimony that they were not harmed, they were not tortured.
But
speaking again to the question of Christians under IS, you see what
happened in Mosul: they were given the ultimatum either to convert to
Islam or to flee or to pay the jizya. So what kind of life, even if you
manage to stay?
Is the jizya a very heavy tax?
They are
using the so-called Sharia, and according to Sharia there are categories
for wealthy people, for young people, for children.
But the idea is not
how much you owe, it's the principle: why do I have to pay? And are you
going to survive and live as a Christian even if you pay? You see the
crosses are being removed from all the churches, in Mosul, for example.
In many cases the cross has been built into the facade of the building.
Now in the case of the St. George monastery, which was founded more than
1000 years ago, the cross has been removed from the dome of the church
and two days ago they bombed the front wall because there was a built-in
cross.
So even if you pay the jizya,... If moderate Muslims are not willing and not happy to live under IS, how can a Christian live?
One
of the freed hostages, in an interview with the Assyrian International
News Agency, said that he and the others feel that they can not go back
to their homes now, that they will go to Lebanon. How widespread is this
feeling among Christians in the region?
There is an extra factor
pushing our people to flee. Migration is something normal for all
countries, all communities. But what's harming us--not only Assyrian
Christians but all Christians under Islam in these countries--is that
the diaspora is becoming bigger and stronger than in the homeland. The
church parishes are more than what is left in the homeland--the
academic-allied people, the financial capacity of our people. But we
should keep in mind that a diaspora is a diaspora when there is a
homeland. Otherwise, it's meaningless.
Migration is an outcome of
two groups of factors: one, pushing factors--security, unclear future,
unemployment, poverty, etc., and the other group of factors are
attracting factors--a better economic situation, living in dignity,
living in organized countries, etc.
So in our case, we have a lot
of attracting factors because of 100 years of diaspora, every family has
more than half of their family in the diaspora, so they are attracting.
And we have pushing factors with what's going on in Iraq and Syria. So
the outcome is that the tendency of our people is to migrate, and now
what happened in Khabur, especially with the captives, it is very
understandable.
But I myself strongly believe that the diaspora
cannot be a homeland. The diaspora can be an individual solution for
individual cases.
You may offer the solution for several families, but
what about 300,000-plus Christians in Iraq? What about a million
Christians in Syria? Should they all leave? It is our commitment
--ourselves, our Church--to keep Christians communities in our
homelands.
Should Christianity become a museum in its homeland? What
about 2000 years of Eastern Christian Church's contribution? To escape
is not the solution of the problem.
Can you update us on the
situation of the internally displaced persons in northern Iraq? They
fled Mosul and villages of the Nineveh Plain last summer and have spent
an entire winter in camps and trailers and unfinished buildings in
Erbil. Is hope wearing thin?
What happened in northern Iraq with
the dramatic collapse of the Iraqi army and the dramatic advance of IS
in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain is something that was never expected to
happen this fast. It's not the first time people are fleeing from Mosul,
by the way.
What makes it different this time? First, this mass
exodus--no Christians are left in Mosul--the volume of displacement.
The
second issue is that it is now nine months--a long time for
displacement. This is making it more difficult for people to survive and
restore and to be confident of going back home. The only families that
went back are in Alquosh, which was not reached by IS, but people fled
because they were scared. So people went back after they were assured
that IS cannot advance.
But speaking for Christians in the Nineveh
Plain and Mosul, they are now lacking the confidence that they will go
back in the near future to their villages. When they fled in August they
were hoping they would be able to celebrate Christmas back home. Now we
are approaching Easter, and there is no indication that they will be
able to go back soon.
In addition, what makes this case special is
the position and attitude and behavior of their next door neighbors.
We
were betrayed by our neighbors, who we shared with for decades and
centuries.
So there is a lack of trust. We can't trust. It's not only
the issue of security, that IS will be defeated, as definitely it will
be defeated sooner or later. But just to restore Quaraquosh or Bartilla
or these Christian towns on the Nineveh Plain, to liberate them from the
hands of Daesh--is it enough for people to go back?
No. There's this
issue of confidence that it will not happen again, the issue of
trust--can I trust my next door neighbor, the Arab Sunni? The issue of
infrastructure: all has been damaged.
So there are too many
reasons to believe that it will not happen soon. Therefore there should
be a clear plan, first, of course, to liberate it sooner, on the
military level, but at the same time to protect it, to grant the status
of governorate of Nineveh Plain so that the non-Muslim
minorities--Christian, Yazidis--can elect their governor as all Iraqis
are doing in every governorate, so they will have a portion of the Iraqi
budget so they can rebuild what has been damaged. So that they feel
they are building their future themselves in partnership with the Iraqi
state.
Unfortunately we don't see a clear plan for this. Thanks to
all, speaking on humanitarian level, on Church level, organizations,
speaking on military level, who are helping the IDPs and stopping the
advance of IS. But we are so far only dealing with outcomes of the
problem; we need to deal with the roots of the problem. Otherwise there
will be an opening [for terrorists].
This year is the 100th
anniversary of the Christian genocide under the Ottomans, but we are
still living the same. So it's an open-ended genocide for Eastern
Christians. We need to deal with the roots--otherwise it will happen
again.
How can a governorate be initiated?
It's a very clear
legal, constitutional way, and they started before the advance of IS.
The cabinet can suggest to the parliament to create it. We have 18
governorates in Iraq, and the 19th will be created soon, the Halabjah
(in Kurdistan). So Nineveh would be maybe the 20th.
But is there any
political will for Muslim ruling parties, whether Shi'ites or Sunnis, to
give this dignity to the Christians and Yazidis? The dhimmitude culture
is ruling in Baghdad, by Shia and Sunnis. The Christians and
non-Muslims are not a priority.
We no more trust the nice wording that
comes from Iraqi rulers in Baghdad after every massacre, every
persecution. We feel enough is enough. We need action.
So we call
upon the international community to do something. It was good that the
US had this military intervention to stop the advance of IS. It's good
that western countries are all in this one position to defeat IS on the
military level.
But this is the outcome, and we should deal with the
roots.
The root is this intolerant culture, intolerant persecution,
intolerant legislation toward non-Muslims.
So they could put
pressure on Baghdad to pass this legislation to create this Nineveh
Plain province, and then with the material support of the Western
countries and people in the diaspora to rebuild this province so
Christians there feel they have a future.
You said the Islamic State will eventually be defeated. What gives you that confidence, and how will it happen?
Such
a brutal, barbaric group cannot control and operate a state of 6
million to 8 million people. I'm not a military man, but militarily
speaking they cannot survive; they will be defeated.
The military
existence of IS is the outcome of the culture of IS, of intolerant
Islam. So we will defeat IS, definitely.
But what's promoted by
IS, according to Islamic Sharia, about how they consider, how they look
toward the non-Muslims is there. The discrimination is there.
The
military advance of IS is the outcome. We should deal with the roots,
and the roots are there. With a couple of clicks you can find it in
Google, the root of the problem.
Just go to see what is the curriculum
in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in the Gulf States, what the curriculum in
the schools is telling about the non-Muslims.
Just click and see the
imams--you can see on Youtube, how they are nurturing, how they are
educating people.
I totally disagree with people who are coming with
excuses for extremism, that it's because of poverty, like the statement
from the White House that to defeat IS we should think about jobs and
employment, etc. Please!
Okay, poverty is, poverty always, poverty is a
good environment for radicals, for these groups. But the poverty in
southeast Asia, in India and other places, in Africa, is much more than
the poverty in Arab countries.
But have you seen a non-Muslim terrorist
group coming from an African or Asian poor country? What about the
10,000 insurgents coming from Europe? Is it poverty? No, it is
education.
As long as these countries are not reviewing the
constitution to be a secular one, to separate religion from the state,
this discrimination will keep going. It's not a Syrian or Iraqi issue.
It's an issue of non-Muslim minorities and Islam.
Sorry to say, we
as Christians, including myself, are big liars, because we had always
claimed, because of this dhimmitude behavior, dhimmitude attitude that
we are used to that for a few centuries; we say we have always been in
peace with our Muslim neighbors. No, sorry sir! We have never been in
peace.
Similarly, the mistake made by western countries, whether
Church or decision makers, that you try to beautify Islam more than
Muslims should do.
It's very often now you see it, in politics. Mr.
Obama himself, and others: "Yeah, IS is not Islam." Sorry sir! IS is
very Islam.
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