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| Is Kurdistan an i-racki success story? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 24 13, 4:18 (1,547 Views) | |
| FeyliKurd | Mar 24 13, 4:18 Post #1 |
Alîşerwanî
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![]() In the evening, snowy mountains soar above the city of Halabja on January 21, 2011 in Halabja. South Kurdistan has been tipped by newspapers and magazines to be a new travel destination. By Robert A. Destro and A. Larry Ross - Washington Post The 10th anniversary of the start of the i-rack war this week is a fitting occasion to consider the current status of religious and ethnic minorities in the Kurdistan Region of i-rack (KRG). Though i-rack is a majority Muslim country, it is also home to some of the world’s oldest Christian communities. Concerned about their welfare and the KRG’s capacity to absorb hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees pouring into the Kurdistan Region from Syria and southern i-rack, an interdenominational delegation representing Catholic; Orthodox; Episcopal, and Evangelical Protestant Christianity, led by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, traveled there late last year to see for ourselves how this majority Muslim region treats religious and ethnic minorities. The group was organized by The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law as part of its South Kurdistan Religious Freedom Project. There are actually at least two Iraqs. Because it continues to make headlines, most Americans are familiar only with the southern region and its capital city, Baghdad. The northern region is rarely in the news. By every measure, it is a success story. South Kurdistan has been an autonomous region since 1991, when the United States and its allies in the first Gulf War declared the “Northern No-Fly Zone.” The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has used that security shield to create one of the few safe harbors for religious freedom and pluralism in the Middle East. Remarkably, this liberty extends beyond simple freedom of worship. The KRG has rebuilt seminaries and churches, supported church-related schools and welcomed Christian refugees from southern i-rack and Syria. This is an impressive achievement in a region with a tragic past and an uncertain future. Approximately 182,000 residents of the Kurdistan Region were murdered in the 1970s and 1980s. At least 40 chemical weapons attacks have been documented over the course of Saddam’s nearly 20-year campaign against the people of the Kurdistan Region. The March 1988 attacks alone took the lives of an estimated 5,000 innocent men, women, and children and injured nearly 10,000 more. Today, the KRG’s Christians live peacefully among their Muslim neighbors. The indigenous Chaldean Catholic and Assyrian Orthodox communities have built (or rebuilt) churches, schools, hospitals, and community centers, and have begun the arduous task of reclaiming land, villages, homes, and farms lost during Saddam’s murderous “al-Anfal” genocide. The Christian enclave of Ainkawa, on the outskirts of the Kurdistan Regional capital of Hewlêr , and Christian communities in the North near Dohuk and Zakho, have been growing as Christians flee the violence of neighboring Syria and other parts of i-rack, including the Nineveh Plain, to seek freedom, political stability, and economic opportunity in the Kurdistan Region. Unfortunately, these Christian communities are also a shrinking population, as thousands seek new lives in the i-racki and Syrian diaspora communities in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Though i-rack has not had an official census since 1957, international organizations estimate that, in 2003, there were 500,000-600,000 Christians. Today, estimates put that number at approximately 100,000. |
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From Erzingan to Îlam From Gire Spî to Agirî Kurdistan will be free | |
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| ALAN | Mar 24 13, 6:42 Post #2 |
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| Russian Girenak Joseph, who visited Kirkuk in Kurdistan as a part of his tour throu the 1870 - 1873 AD, who published the results of his trip & his studies later in 1879, in the 4th volume in the Bulletin of the Caucasus department of the Royal Geographical Russian Society estimated Kirkuk's population as many as 12-50,000 people, & he emphasized that except 40 Christian families, the rest of the population were Kurds. As for The Turkmen & Arabs, they have not been already existed at the time. | |
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| FeyliKurd | Mar 25 13, 12:31 Post #3 |
Alîşerwanî
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I believe we kurds are one of the most hospitable people in the world when it comes to tolerance towards our enemies and those who hates us. During the kurdish clothing day in Kirkuk when the turkomans refused to wear kurdish clothes, we accepted it. They were allowed to wear their own filthy clothes. We never forced them to sing ey reqib, nor raise our beautiful flag during the kurdish flag day. If the turkomans would have been the ones who were majority on this land, they would have treated us the same way as their turkish brothers are oppressing us in NK. And also during Newroz I saw a lot of arabs in Hawler who refused to wear kurdish clothes, yet still they were allowed to participate peacefully with us. Just look how Barzani spoke Arabic during his Newroz speech, to 'honour' the arab citizens of SK. He even said during that speech, that the kurdish people are proud to have all of them in SK as our guests. :sad: Although I do know that he did this because it's good for our cause! Edited by FeyliKurd, Mar 25 13, 12:40.
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From Erzingan to Îlam From Gire Spî to Agirî Kurdistan will be free | |
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7:32 PM Jul 11