Report: Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against Iraq’s Assyrians

From AINA:

While all Iraqi civilians are victims of violence in Iraq, there is an organized agenda being carried out by Islamists and Kurdish authorities to either rid the country of their indigenous inhabitants, or to reduce them to nothing more than a religious minority with no grounds for asserting their ethnic identity. The Assyrian Christians are the only indigenous population of Iraq and comprise 95% the Christian population, and have lived in their lands for almost 7,000 years. Before the liberation of Iraq in 2003, Assyrians were an estimated 1.5 million (8%) of the population of Iraq. Reports indicate that up to 50% have fled the country since 2003. This report answers the question: If over the centuries, these Assyrians endured genocides, massacres, and a vicious Ba’athist regime, what has been causing a mass exodus of these people since 2003?

The Assyrians have suffered violence throughout central Iraq, with just over 60% of the murders taking place there. 35% of the Assyrians killed were in the purportedly “peaceful region” of Iraq, the Kurdish north. These systematic killings — since 1996 and especially since 2003 — are a clear signal that there is a methodical effort to rid Iraq of this ethnic and religious minority, for religiously and politically motivated ideological reasons.

Full report here.

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Theme: Christians under the New Tyranny in Iraq