(C) ASSYRIAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT LEADER ON CHRISTIANS'

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000131 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/25/2016 TAGS: PREF PREL PGOV PHUM PINR PINS ECON KDEM IZ SUBJECT: (C) ASSYRIAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT LEADER ON CHRISTIANS' STATUS IN KRG AREAS KIRKUK 00000131 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Tim Uselmann, Political Officer, IPAO, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) General Secretary, Salim Kako, stated on July 9 that poor security and ethnic discrimination were causing Christians and Kurds to resettle to northern areas of Iraq, which was straining the relations between Kurdish and Assyrian Christian communities. Many of these imigris have not been able to find housing or employment. The ethnic association of each community was complicating the situation. Assyrian Christians viewed themselves as Iraqis, while the Kurdish migrants have rediscovered their own Kurdish nationalist identity. Proselytizing activities of evangelical Christians were causing the Iraqi Assyrian Christian community to lose numbers on the national ethnic registry because they are being reclassified as Kurds. END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. (C) CHRISTIAN, KURDISH POPULATION SHIFTS NORTH -------------- - ¶2. (C) ADM leader, Salim Kako, met with IPAO on July 9, 2006, to discuss the current status of Christians in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) areas. He said that poor security in central and southern Iraq was causing Christians and Kurds to move to northern areas, which was straining the relationship between the two communities. Both ethnic groups were competing for scarce housing space and employment opportunities. Kako said the only controls on this demographic shift were due to KRG security measures, since migrants to KRG areas were required to register with the local security office to prove they had an extended family or other means of support, and also to identify any political associations or activities. (C) SOME ASSYRIAN AREAS AT RISK, OTHERS PROTECTED -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) Between 85 and 95 percent of Assyrian Christians in Iraq lived in the Ainkawa-Dahuk-Mosul triangle, according to Kako. (Note: Ainkawa is situated on the outskirts of Erbil, and is the seat of the Chaldo-Assyrian bishopric. End note.) He said Assyrian Christians were especially concentrated in the villages of Karakush, Karamlis, Bartallah, Tel Kaif, Tel Uskuf, Batnayah, and Al-Qosh. Kako said the KRG had prohibited Kurds from purchasing houses or land in Ainkawa to protect its traditional Christian identity and to avoid potential ethnic tensions in the KRG capital that could result as Kurdish ex-patriots returned from abroad and bought up property. He said that in other areas Kurds have been purchasing land from Christians who often used the money to leave Iraq, and that this was causing problems between the returning Kurds and the remaining Assyrian Christians who increasingly found themselves in the minority. Kako claimed the ADM had requested the KRG give land and property to Christians but so far they had received none while the Kurds continued buying Christian houses. (C) "LIKE ICE IN WATER" -------------- ¶4. (C) Kako said the proselytizing activities of evangelical Christians, mostly Anglican Protestants, were causing problems within the Assyrian and Islamic communities. First, the evangelical churches were causing the disappearance of Assyrians from the national roster because Kurdish was the official liturgical language of the evangelical churches in northern Iraq. Kako stated that, upon conversion, former Assyrians were automatically re-registered as Kurds since the national roster was based on linguistic identity, creating a present but invisible Assyrian community, like "ice dropped in water." Second, Islamist groups such as Jami'a Islamiyya were blaming all Christians for recent Muslim converts to the evangelical churches, and used these proselytizing activities as justification to attack Christians in general, to include Assyrians. (C) RELATIONS WITH KDP AND PUK -------------- ¶5. (C) Kako dismissed the impression he said many people held that Assyrian Christians had better relations with the PUK than the KDP. He said this impression was due to geo-political and cultural factors, namely that most Iraqi Christian cities fell under KDP areas of control and because there was a Turkish presence in Erbil which was more Islamist than in other areas. Kako asserted PUK-controlled Sulaymaniyah contained a relatively minor Christian presence and was also more open and tolerant. (C) KURDS WANT MOSUL, KIRKUK; ASSYRIANS LOOK TO BAGHDAD -------------- -------------- KIRKUK 00000131 002.2 OF 002 ¶6. (C) According to Kako, there was a growing political disconnect between the Kurds and Assyrians as the new Iraqi government took shape. The Assyrian position vis-`-vis the Kurds had changed since 2003, when Kurds openly started talking about gaining Mosul and Kirkuk. The strife between Shia and Sunnis positioned the Kurds to a new national power status, Kako said, but the KDP and PUK cared only about getting Mosul and Kirkuk, not about Baghdad, and put their Kurdish identity first. He said the Assyrian community, in contrast, historically looked to Baghdad because this was the political center, Assyrians were traditionally well represented in government, and because Assyrians considered themselves to be Iraqis. (U) COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) It is worth noting Kako repeatedly expressed concern during the meeting over the Assyrian communities in and around Mosul; he claimed the KDP appointed local leaders, had little concern with true democracy, and wanted to "use" the Assyrians to take control of the eastern portion of the city. The villages Kako cited as having the highest concentration of Assyrians are all situated just north and east of Mosul, and thus annexation of these areas into the KRG would affect the bulk of Iraqi Assyrians. JBIGUS