Patriarch Mar Louis Sako: Iraqi Christians must move beyond emotions and illusions – SyriacPress

BAGHDAD — Patriarch of the Chaldean Church Mar Louis Raphaël Sako issued a statement, on 13 November, calling on the Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians to unite their voice. This urgent patriarchal call comes against the backdrop of parliamentary elections held earlier this week. Within the manipulable quota system, where five parliamentary seats are allocated to Christians, two Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian candidates were elected to parliament with the backing of a Shia political block and three with the backing of a Kurdish political bloc. Several Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian parties have strongly denounced the confiscation of this constitutional right to elect their own representatives. 
This week’s Iraqi elections have again exposed the precarious political maneuvering space within which the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people of Iraq operate. Addressing the longtime manipulation of the Christian quota and the political weakness within his own people, Mar Louis Sako reiterated in his statement his previous call to the Christians of Iraq to start working as a team and to speak with one voice. Mar Louis words it as “to move beyond emotions and illusions.” He urges the Christians of Iraq, i.e. basically the Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians, to unite in one independent body, a council that acts as a representative political platform. This council should be formed from Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian political parties, honorable and trustworthy MPs, activists, experts and consultants from inside and outside Iraq, “without involving clergymen,” hinting at the necessity of separating religion from politics. 
Only when Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians unite their demands through a common council can “just political representation” be achieved, Mar Louis states. Moreover, he mentions several goals that could be achieved if such a unified front would come into being: amendment of the election law to protect the Christian quota; removal of unwanted militias from the Nineveh Plains and replaced by own town guards and police; Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians can obtain a united (self-) administration in the Nineveh Plains; and Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians can return to their hometowns. 
To achieve all this, Mar Louis proposes to base the Council on a shared foundation: Christianity. This is perhaps to avoid the heated name debates within the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people. Possibly because he doesn’t want to conflate religious names with historical national names. It’s not entirely clear, and perhaps not important either. For Mar Louis, “The beauty of unity lies in diversity.” Whether this admirable idea will resonate within the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people remains to be seen.
NORTH AND EAST SYRIA — The Democratic Autonomous Administration of the Region of North …
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