Retired Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, CEO of the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement think tank, says that following the Trump administration’s travel ban, Iraq’s Kurds “may now feel compelled to implement their own travel ban against U.S. citizens, since their Muslim brethren would interpret such opposition as both a betrayal and an unpardonable offense against their religion.” Credit: Near East Center for Strategic Engagement.
By
Bradley Martin, February 9, 2017
Assyrian
autonomy would do more than rectify a centuries-old injustice. It could also be
the key to preventing irreversible damage to relations between the U.S. and the
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
President
Donald Trump’s controversial
travel ban against seven Muslim-majority countries has been met with a growing
backlash in the Middle East. In response to Trump’s executive order, the Iraqi
parliament voted
to support reciprocal restrictions, barring Americans from entering Iraq unless
Washington reverses its decision. This leaves Iraqi Kurds in a very precarious
position.
“The
KRG must now decide whether to help unify Iraq or go to war with Iraq,” said
retired Lt. Col. Sargis Sangari, an expert on Assyrian Christians and CEO of
the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement. “The Kurds may now feel
compelled to implement their own travel ban against U.S. citizens, since their
Muslim brethren would interpret such opposition as both a betrayal and an
unpardonable offense against their religion.”
Any
refusal by the KRG to implement such a ban would put the Kurds at odds with the
federal government in Baghdad. It would also prove damaging to Kurdish
aspirations for independence, since the KRG cannot afford to enter negotiations
while opposing the travel bans imposed by Iran and Iraq against American
citizens.
By
supporting Assyrian statehood, the KRG would send a clear message that it
stands firmly with the U.S. and Western values. The three countries would share
an unbreakable bond based on shared morals and economic prosperity. Assyrians
are indigenous to
Mesopotamia, and their history spans more than 6,700 years. When the Assyrian
Empire came to an end in 612 B.C.E, the Assyrians would go on to become the
first nation to convert to Christianity. The Assyrian language,
a dialect of Aramaic, is likely what Jesus would have spoken during his
lifetime.
Prior
to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East, the Assyrian Church had an
estimated 80 million adherents. Today, the Assyrian population throughout the
world has been reduced to a
little more than 4 million. Continuous murder, rape and forcible conversions to
Islam have resulted in as much as 95 percent of this ancient community being
forced to live outside there native region.
Until
2003, the Assyrian-Christian population numbered 1.5 million in Iraq. By the end
of 2015, that number had been reduced
to an estimated 150,000. This constitutes a 90-percent reduction of the
Assyrian Christian population in their ancestral homeland. This genocide of
Assyrians continues today, with the Islamic State terror group committing mass
murder, forced conversions, rape and the destruction of Christian holy sites
under its dominion.
“If
a new Assyrian state becomes a reality, Assyrians from all over the world would
go back,” said Sangari. “The majority of talented, Western-educated Assyrians
would probably go back as well.”
American
Assyrians who return to their homeland would represent a link to the U.S.,
which the KRG could cultivate by supporting the foundation of this new Assyrian
state. President Trump recently stated that persecuted Christians in the Middle
East would be given priority
as refugees. If the KRG were to aid in the rebuilding of the Assyrian national
homeland, this would represent a goodwill gesture that would reverberate to
Washington and send a powerful message that the genocide of Christians in the
region will not be tolerated.
Western-educated
Assyrians would serve as a significant boon to the region. Coupled with oil
production, a sophisticated economy would emerge for everyone’s benefit.
Kurdish statehood is therefore contingent on the rebirth of an Assyrian state.
Although KRG President Massud Barzani recently stated that a declaration of
Kurdish independence was imminent,
the problem is that the KRG remains deeply divided. There is no guarantee that
the two factions that make up the Kurdish Peshmerga forces will remain unified,
since both
militias remain deeply partisan. This division, compounded by potential
conflicts with Iran and Iraq, does not bode well for the continued survival of
a Kurdish state. Rather than a blessing, oil wealth would be a regional curse
as it is used to fund further military campaigns.
If
the KRG supported the rebirth of an Assyrian state, it would have a reliable
and powerful ally in the region. A new U.S.-backed alliance between Kurdistan,
Assyria and Israel that enshrines Western principles of freedom and democracy
would create an oasis of peace and prosperity in an area of the world that
desperately needs it.
Bradley
Martin is a fellow with the Haym Salomon Center news and public policy group
and deputy editor for the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research.
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