The Ninevite's choice
Nenif Matran Hariri
By Nenif Matran Hariri
The Kurdish Globe
Christians have to decide whether to stay with the region or join the rest of Iraq.
This month, the people of the Hamdaniya and Tel Keif districts, which form part of the Nineveh Plains, will be asked whether they wish to join Kurdistan Region or remain geographically and politically attached to the rest of Iraq.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution expressly calls for areas surrounding Kurdistan Region to participate in a referendum to be held this month (pending any delays) to vote for their allegiance and align their destiny with that of Kurdistan Region.
Much has been written about Kirkuk and its prospects, but what about the districts of Hamdaniya and Tel Keif? What makes them particularly interesting is that they have a large Christian minority-for the most part Chaldean and Syrian with a handful of Assyrians.
It's almost a foregone conclusion that they will choose to join Kurdistan Region, because the majority of the districts' dwellers are ethnic Kurds, Shabaks, and Yazidis. So, in reality only a portion of the Christian vote is needed to unify the region.
The referendum has been misunderstood by some Assyrians as a vote for independence. The question of autonomy for Assyrians is not the issue here, although I'm sure the KRG will later designate the Nineveh Plains with a special status yet to be defined.
Should the vote go the other way, a NO would yield certain calamity for the Christians, for the following reasons:
First, the community would split into two parts-one run by the central government and the other by the KRG-with different languages, cultures, school systems, and of course governments. Even if the central government granted autonomy for the Nineveh Plains, what would happen to the Christians in Kurdistan Region? One wonders!
Second, it would alienate the Assyrian community in Kurdistan Region from their brethren, the Chaldeans and Syrians in the Nineveh Plains. You see very few Assyrians living in the Nineveh Plains, and absolutely none are willing to relocate there. The majority of Assyrians have chosen to return to their original villages in Kurdistan Region and have absolutely no intentions of deserting them again.
Frankly, there are hardly any Assyrians left in Iraq to be relocated. As for the Assyrians living overseas, well let's just say they're more preoccupied with moving from Chicago to Arizona than to the Plains; for them, repatriation is a four-letter word. So, a NO vote in the referendum would draw a geographical red line between the two communities at a critical time.
Third, thanks to the Barzani family and the KDP, Assyrians are blessed with a KRG that is friendly toward their settlements. (oh yes, thank you very much...wanna go kiss his feets?) But what if a less accommodating government was to seize power in the future and pressure the Christian community into repatriating to their new homes. Perhaps someone like Malla Bakhtiar of the PUK, who arrogantly claimed last month, "Assyrians are guests here and have no land rights in Kurdistan," might one day lead this great region.
Using the Nineveh Plains as an excuse, over a hundred Assyrian villages would have to be abandoned or sold at a fraction. Places such as Ankawa that have been exclusively inhabited by Christians since at least the Assyrian Empire will cease to exist. A NO vote might, in fact, decrease land capacity for Assyrians rather than increase it.
Fourth, unlike the KRG, the central government of Baghdad has shown absolutely no sign of providing either security or administrative rights for the Assyrian community, and once the Assyrians start demanding autonomy, they will then feel the full force of the brutal Arab government, God forbid.
Yes, the same government that massacred the poor Assyrians in Semel, so eerily close to the Plains, and the same government that has been unable to control the atrocities that have befallen the poor Christians of Mosul in the last four years, who are by the way now being sheltered and cared for by the KRG in Kurdistan Region. Would it, in fact, be prudent to increase the Christian population in an area infested by terrorists that the central government cannot control, or to be deliberately apathetic at the cost of Assyrian patriotism?
It's not the first time that Mosul has been used as a bargaining chip either, I might add. In the 1920s, Assyrians were told, "Give us Hakkari and we will give you Mosul." They got neither. They were given a couple of hundred homes at reduced costs in the Dora suburb of Baghdad, and two years ago were expelled from there; their church was burned down by the very people who were giving them Mosul. The Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), a political party that is urging the Christian community to retain its ties with the central government, must learn from these hindsights. D?j? vu is a wonderful gift.
The ADM, which incidentally enjoys a close relationship with Malla Bakhtiar's PUK, sees a YES vote as a green light for Kurds to usurp a dozen Assyrian villages. I see a NO vote leading Assyrians to bid farewell to a hundred picturesque villages, for the sake of 'Qara Qosh.'
http://kurdishglobe.net/displayArticle.jsp?id=911513D486344FA8F3640A670C1E0AC5
No dignity..... :ranting:
Nenif Matran Hariri
By Nenif Matran Hariri
The Kurdish Globe
Christians have to decide whether to stay with the region or join the rest of Iraq.
This month, the people of the Hamdaniya and Tel Keif districts, which form part of the Nineveh Plains, will be asked whether they wish to join Kurdistan Region or remain geographically and politically attached to the rest of Iraq.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution expressly calls for areas surrounding Kurdistan Region to participate in a referendum to be held this month (pending any delays) to vote for their allegiance and align their destiny with that of Kurdistan Region.
Much has been written about Kirkuk and its prospects, but what about the districts of Hamdaniya and Tel Keif? What makes them particularly interesting is that they have a large Christian minority-for the most part Chaldean and Syrian with a handful of Assyrians.
It's almost a foregone conclusion that they will choose to join Kurdistan Region, because the majority of the districts' dwellers are ethnic Kurds, Shabaks, and Yazidis. So, in reality only a portion of the Christian vote is needed to unify the region.
The referendum has been misunderstood by some Assyrians as a vote for independence. The question of autonomy for Assyrians is not the issue here, although I'm sure the KRG will later designate the Nineveh Plains with a special status yet to be defined.
Should the vote go the other way, a NO would yield certain calamity for the Christians, for the following reasons:
First, the community would split into two parts-one run by the central government and the other by the KRG-with different languages, cultures, school systems, and of course governments. Even if the central government granted autonomy for the Nineveh Plains, what would happen to the Christians in Kurdistan Region? One wonders!
Second, it would alienate the Assyrian community in Kurdistan Region from their brethren, the Chaldeans and Syrians in the Nineveh Plains. You see very few Assyrians living in the Nineveh Plains, and absolutely none are willing to relocate there. The majority of Assyrians have chosen to return to their original villages in Kurdistan Region and have absolutely no intentions of deserting them again.
Frankly, there are hardly any Assyrians left in Iraq to be relocated. As for the Assyrians living overseas, well let's just say they're more preoccupied with moving from Chicago to Arizona than to the Plains; for them, repatriation is a four-letter word. So, a NO vote in the referendum would draw a geographical red line between the two communities at a critical time.
Third, thanks to the Barzani family and the KDP, Assyrians are blessed with a KRG that is friendly toward their settlements. (oh yes, thank you very much...wanna go kiss his feets?) But what if a less accommodating government was to seize power in the future and pressure the Christian community into repatriating to their new homes. Perhaps someone like Malla Bakhtiar of the PUK, who arrogantly claimed last month, "Assyrians are guests here and have no land rights in Kurdistan," might one day lead this great region.
Using the Nineveh Plains as an excuse, over a hundred Assyrian villages would have to be abandoned or sold at a fraction. Places such as Ankawa that have been exclusively inhabited by Christians since at least the Assyrian Empire will cease to exist. A NO vote might, in fact, decrease land capacity for Assyrians rather than increase it.
Fourth, unlike the KRG, the central government of Baghdad has shown absolutely no sign of providing either security or administrative rights for the Assyrian community, and once the Assyrians start demanding autonomy, they will then feel the full force of the brutal Arab government, God forbid.
Yes, the same government that massacred the poor Assyrians in Semel, so eerily close to the Plains, and the same government that has been unable to control the atrocities that have befallen the poor Christians of Mosul in the last four years, who are by the way now being sheltered and cared for by the KRG in Kurdistan Region. Would it, in fact, be prudent to increase the Christian population in an area infested by terrorists that the central government cannot control, or to be deliberately apathetic at the cost of Assyrian patriotism?
It's not the first time that Mosul has been used as a bargaining chip either, I might add. In the 1920s, Assyrians were told, "Give us Hakkari and we will give you Mosul." They got neither. They were given a couple of hundred homes at reduced costs in the Dora suburb of Baghdad, and two years ago were expelled from there; their church was burned down by the very people who were giving them Mosul. The Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), a political party that is urging the Christian community to retain its ties with the central government, must learn from these hindsights. D?j? vu is a wonderful gift.
The ADM, which incidentally enjoys a close relationship with Malla Bakhtiar's PUK, sees a YES vote as a green light for Kurds to usurp a dozen Assyrian villages. I see a NO vote leading Assyrians to bid farewell to a hundred picturesque villages, for the sake of 'Qara Qosh.'
http://kurdishglobe.net/displayArticle.jsp?id=911513D486344FA8F3640A670C1E0AC5
No dignity..... :ranting:
