ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani on Monday attended the inauguration ceremony of the new headquarters of the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East in Erbil, reaffirming the long-standing relationship between Kurds and Assyrians throughout history.
The opening ceremony of the new office, which was built upon the request of the Barzani Headquarters, was also attended by Mar Awa Royel, the church’s Patriarch, and Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon.
Barzani said that the new headquarters symbolizes the 100-years-long relationship between Kurds and Assyrians initiated by Kurdish leader Abdulsalam Barzani and the 117th Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East Shimun XIX Benyamin.
“It was then where the foundation for co-existence and brotherhood was laid out, and there is nothing more beautiful than a country where everyone lives as brothers,” Barzani said during a speech at the inauguration.
The KDP leader emphasized that they will continue to support the people of the Kurdistan Region regardless of nationality or faith.
“The country is ours all, and we must all live in it as brothers, freely, and with pride,” he added.
In 1933, the seat of the Assyrian Church was moved from the Middle East to the United States. In 2006, construction of a new patriarch began in Erbil and the election of Mar Gewargis III Sliwa as the Patriarch in 2015 saw the return of the authority of the church to the place of its roots.
There are only a few hundred thousand Christians left in Iraq. Following the US-led invasion of 2003, sectarian warfare prompted followers of Iraq’s multiple Christian denominations to flee, and attacks by the Islamic State group (ISIS) in 2014 hit minority communities especially hard.
According to data from Erbil’s Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda, there were more than one million Christians in Iraq before 2003. Fewer than 300,000 remain today; many of them reside in the Kurdistan Region.
KDP leader Masoud Barzani inaugurates the new Headquarters of the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East in Erbil pic.twitter.com/inUOOIL4Tp
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) September 12, 2022
