Iraqi Christians take up Arms

Forming these forces could pave the way for hundreds of Assyrian Christians from abroad to join their brethren fighting in Iraq for the Ninevah Plains. Christians in the diaspora might also consider creating a Christians-only region in the plains, an idea that Christian organizations abroad support.

In this context, Christian armed units have several options. They may form:

• under the peshmerga to fight for certain regions that would then be under KRG control,
• under the federal government’s control for the same purpose and establish their own governorate in the Ninevah Plains, or
• push for their region’s independence under international management or with guarantees by the international community to protect their independent status.

All those avenues would be difficult to pursue, which explains the deep-rooted internal conflict between Christian political movements and Christian religious leaders in Iraq.

“The Iraqi Christians have the absolute right to self-defense,” Patriarch Louis Sako, head of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, told Al-Monitor. “However, protection should be provided by the state that is responsible for protecting and defending all its citizens. As for establishing militias based on ethnic and religious affiliations, this would destroy the country.”

Sako’s fears seem justified. Forming militias could deepen sectarianism and escalate the conflict in the absence of the state. The conflict then would become a powerful card in the hands of terrorist Islamic groups that want to revive the Crusades.

The patriarch’s statements came in response to the KRG’s support for arming Christian volunteers in special fighting units under the Ministry of Peshmerga’s control and for forming Christian forces under the management of the Popular Mobilization Units.