Assyrians in Iraq

The Syrian Christians in Iraq are the majority within the Christian population in Iraq.

The Christians in Iraq are mostly Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arameans (proper name: Syriac ), and also Chaldo - Assyrians are since the fall of the Saddam regime, called. They speak mostly the Syrian language ( a dialect of Aramaic ), and Arabic. They belong to at least 5 different Syrian churches and denominations; the largest Syrian Church in Iraq is the Chaldean Catholic Church, followed by the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.

In recent years, many Christians have left the country because of religious persecution by Muslim extremists. The number of Syrian Christians in Iraq has shrunk, while the Diaspora community, especially in the U.S. and Europe, continue to grow.

Situation of the Syrian Christians

In the majority of Iraq, the Christians can hardly feel safe. Bearable their location is in the northern provinces, where they constitute a majority in the Nineveh plain. Most of them live in the big cities such as Baghdad, Mosul and traditional in their towns and villages in the Nineveh plain.

For the Christians of Iraq has become a difficult home; again and again she caught in the crossfire of Shiites and Sunnis. Where 15 years ago were still nearly 2 million Assyrian / Aramean Christians, today there are only about 600 000 At the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003, they still made ​​approximately 5% of the Iraqi population, or 1.5 million out. For several years the Christian Iraqis have become increasingly the target of Islamist terrorists; so leave every day hundreds of them to Iraq toward Syria or Jordan.

In order to prevent further Christian depopulation of Iraq, Christians demand in the north of the country autonomy in the Nineveh plain. The towns and villages of the Nineveh - level of Christian Assyrian / Aramaic militias and soldiers, such as the " Qaraqosh Protection Committee ", defended and monitored.