Between Syria and Iraq, while the Islamic State's military defeat is approaching, different and conflicting Kurdish entities seek international endorsement for their own independence cause, casting shadows on the future status of the remaining native Christian communities
It doesn't seem that the almost-to-come military defeat of the jihadists of the self-proclaimed Islamic State's will ensure a rapid stabilization of the local scenarios devastated after years of wars and massacres. Both in Iraq and in Syria there are various Kurdish political and military entities, which may cast some shadows on the future layout of the areas recently snitched back from the jihadist militias and, could put at stake the future of small local Christian communities, already marked by years of violence and forced escapes from their homes.
Nineveh plain, a controversial area
Between spring and summer 2014, in the face of the militia of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, tens of thousands baptized fled from the Plain of Nineveh, area with indigenous Christian communities dating back to Mesopotamian times. Now that those lands have been taken back from the jihadists, Christians are slowly returning to their homes, though the Caldean Patriarchate of Babylon last week denounced that "they are trying to get their hands on the cities of the Plain of Nineveh, through clashes or occult maneuvers, "which "have negative effects for the indigenous peoples of this land."
The Nineveh Plain has become a "controversial area" in recent months, as it succumbed to a large-scale geopolitical game such as that linked to the possible, future proclamation of an independent and autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, on which the regional government has called for a referendum due next September 25. In a communique issued last week, the Chaldean Patriarchate claimed that the Nineveh Plain is under a creeping form of "control / invasion" that "is erasing the legitimate rights of the natives, and pushing them to emigrate or making them exclude the "Idea of returning to their homes."
The Kurdish President Masud Barzani's offensive to gain Christian support for the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan has tightened over the least a year. On July 16, 2016, the Kurdish leader had promised to some Christian political representatives he had convened in Erbil, the full political and administrative self-determination of the Christian communities of the Nineveh Plain, and had also foreshadowed a local poll to allow the inhabitants of such autonomous area to have their own political status under the government of the future independent Iraqi Kurdistan, rather than under the central government of Baghdad.
By trying to win Christians’ support for their independent plan, Kurdish leaders of Erbil are reviving the year-long dream of turning the Nineveh Plain into a semi-autonomous "homeland" for Christians. For their cause, Kurdish leaders may also call into question the regional government’ commitment to welcome and assist Christian refugees fleeting from Mosul and the towns and villages of the Plane during the jihadist occupation. However, in local situations, the methods used by the Kurds to show Christians they are the dominant power are even more ruthless: on April 13, 2016, hundreds of Syrian Christians and Assyrians from the Dohuk area protested in front of the Parliament of the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan in Erbil, denouncing illegal expropriations of their property in recent years not by Daesh jihadists, but by influential and notorious Kurds, who had been repeatedly denounced, yet in vain. While these days, Christians are protesting in Alqosh, the town where the Council of the Nineveh Province of Iraq had removed the Christian mayor Abdul Micha - with allegations of corruption - and replaced him with a local political leader near the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK). The removal was arranged by Bashar at Kiki, head of the Provincial Council of Nineveh, also a member of the PDK.
Kurdish leaders are also pressing Europe and the Vatican: on July 11, President Barzani met in Brussels with some European Parliament representatives to seek support or at least neutrality over the independentist referendum, obviously opposed by the central Iraqi government. Even in Brussels, the Kurdish leader reaffirmed his commitment to respect the self-determination of the populations of Nineveh Plain. While Rezan Qader, Kurdish representative of the regional government of Erbil in Italy, in an interview published on June 21 by the Basnews Agency, reassured that even in the Vatican "has a positive perception of the Kurds" and that Pope Francis "appealed to the International community to support the Kurds, since the Peshmerga (Kurdish militias in Iraq, Ed.) fought on behalf of the international community."
The Kurdish game in Syria
The already complicated "Kurdish issue" is even worsened by the divisions and hostilities between the various Kurdish political entities spread between Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
In the Syrian war scenarios, many Kurdish militias have received heavy weapons and artillery from the US-backed ranks. The most well-known militia of the US-backed anti-Assad group, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are also Kurds. Instead, in the northeastern Syria, militants and militiamen of the Kurdish Democratic Party (PYD) are the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is rooted in neighboring Turkey. In recent times, they have begun to realize in facts their intent of creating an autonomous Kurdish region in the Syrian region of Jazira, which the Kurdish media already referrer to with the Kurdish name of Rojava. In the northeastern province of Hassakè, the self-proclaimed autonomous administration of Rojava has begun implementing a local tax system to subsidize the region's public services without any previously agreements with the Damascus government. "In addition to trying to impose this new tax system," Catholic Syrian Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo told Fides Agency. PYD's also demanded and closed the schools. Half of them have turned them into barracks, and in the others they said they wanted to introduce new curricula, which will be done in Kurdish. "
According to Archbishop Hindo, who heads the Syro Catholic Archeparchy of Hassaké-Nisibi, "The Kurdish militants of PYD feel strong because they believe they have the support of the US. I warned them: look, Americans will leave sooner or later, and you will find yourself worse than before." Kurdish organized groups of northeastern Syria, linked to the PKK, say they only aspire to greater local autonomy and are enemies of the Kurds of Masud Barzani, who in Iraq are marching towards the referendum to proclaim the full independence of Iraqi Kurdistan.
And in complex games that intertwine about the stability and future set-up of the region, Christians - as the Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako once said - always risk being "used as a currency exchange" by the global and regional forces participating to the game.
