"Armenians have a long and historical presence [in Iraq]. Ever since we existed in this country, we have considered Iraq our homeland. We cannot separate from Iraqi nations. There are talks and understandings in order for Armenians to become part of Christians in the quota system of the parliament," Hakob Sugahakayan, administrative manager of the Armenian Orthodox churches in Baghdad, told Rudaw on Friday.
Until 2004, around 350 Armenian families had been living in Basra. The number has declined to below 150 families. Of 120 families who used to live in Mosul in the past, there currently remain only three families, and the number of Armenians in Baghdad has plummeted from 6,000 to 500. This is all due to successive wars, instability, and violence against the ethnic minority group.
"We all the time pray for stability, peace, and security for Iraqis first, and the whole world in general. We do not want wars to break out, because the implications are nothing, but destruction for any country," Kivork Kashakyan, an Armenian priest in Baghdad.
Unlike other parts of Iraq, the Kurdistan Region has become a safe haven for Armenians and other minority groups who have fled displacement and violence in other parts of the country.
The number of Armenians who have sought sanctuary in the Kurdistan Region since 2014, the year the Islamic State (ISIS) rose in Iraq, has increased from 1,500 to 3,000.
The Constitution of the Kurdistan Region recognizes Armenians as an ethnic component, provides the right to mother-tongue education in the Armenian language, and reserves one seat in parliament for Armenians.
There are six Armenian churches in the Kurdistan Region - four in Duhok province, and one each in Erbil and Kirkuk.
Armenian churches in the Region house memorial statues placed to honor those massacred during the Armenian Genocide - the systematic killing and deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, in which approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
