KURDISTAN REGION TO GRANT AUTONOMY TO THE CHRISTIANS

Rudaw
Feb 9 2009
Iraq

The Christian parties and groups in Kurdistan are demanding that
their right to autonomy be established in the Kurdistan Region’s
constitution in those provinces where they form the majority. The head
of the Assyrian National Party says that the political leadership of
Kurdistan accepts that demand.

Last week, the Speaker of the Kurdistan parliament, Adnan Mufti,
said that the project of Kurdistan Region’s constitution has been
completed and sent to the leadership of Kurdistan Region as well as
the political sides through the parliament members so that they will
give their own remarks and observations on it.

In a joint press conference with the Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani,
Adnan Mufti said that one of the points that have not been decided
yet is the issue of fixing a common name for the Christians in
the constitution. He said: In this respect, they themselves are in
dispute with each other. They have to agree unanimously on a common
name. However, the Assyrian sides deny they may have any conflict
among themselves over the issue of the name. They say that all the
side are unanimous on being called "Sryanis Chaldeans Assyrians" But
the Chaldeans, and particularly the Chaldean National Party chaired
by Ablahad Afram, demand that the Chaldeans be treated as an ethnic
group different from the Assyrians and that was fixed in the permanent
Iraqi constitution.

The head of the Assyrian National Party, Namrud Bito, told Rudaw that
they do not want to repeat in the Kurdistan Region constitution what
happened in the Iraqi constitution, where the names of the Christians
were registered as "Chaldeans and Assyrians". He said: We are one
nation and we want the name to be mentioned as "Siryanis Chaldeans
Assyrians" in the Kurdish Region’s constitution without a word or a
comma between the names.

With regard to the same point, the head of the Bet Nahrayn Party,
Romeo Hakari, who represents the Christians in the commission
for drawing up the constitution, told Rudaw: Over six months ago,
all the sides of the "Siryani Chaldean Assyrian" people presented a
memorandum to the Commission for Drawing up the Constitution. Article
6 of the project says that the people of Kurdistan consist of Kurds,
Turkomans, Chaldeans, Assyrians and Armans [Armenians] and they were
mixed in this way. We are against that item. We have suggested that
it should be written that the people of Kurdistan consist of Kurds,
the "Chaldeans Siryan Assyrian" people, Turkomans and whatever other
nations are added. The commission is free in this respect. However,
we never accept being divided into three nations and we regard it
as an injustice perpetrated against us as we were subjected to that
injustice in the Iraqi constitution and we were divided into more
than two nations on purpose.

Romeo Hakari demanded: That mistake in the constitution of Iraq
should be corrected. He added: If they say that the name should be
as it is in the Iraqi constitution, that will be indeed an excuse
for perpetrating the same injustice against us.

Namrud Bito said all the Christian groups are unanimous that the draft
constitution, before it was amended, was not up to what was necessary
with regard to securing their rights and how they were named. But he
said: After the memorandum which we gave to the parliament, we were
reassured by the parliament chairmanship and the leaderships of the
two parties that our demands would be fixed in the draft constitution
along with the right to autonomy.

Regarding the demand for autonomy, in May last year the Christian
groups presented a proposal to the Commission for Drawing Up the
Constitution. One of its points was establishing an autonomous
region in the Naynawa plains. Prior to that, Minister of Finance
Sarkis Aghajan presented that suggestion too. However, Romeo
Hakari denied having demanded a specific region and said: What we
demand is autonomy and not an autonomous area. We demand autonomy
in the historical areas of our own people, in which our people are
a majority, for example in Qara Qush administrative district – that
is, Hamdaniyah and the administrative subdistricts of Bartla, Alqosh,
Tilkef and such places. The elections of the governorate councils last
week proved that our people form a majority in those areas. What we
demand is that in those regions our people should have the right to
"self-rule", according to the system of autonomy, but a viewpoint
says that the decision for autonomy is in the federal government’s
authority and not that of the regions. Romeo Hakari said: In the
federal system there can be many regions and there can be autonomous
provinces within the regions.

In the same respect, Namrud Bito announced that what they demand
is recognition of their right to autonomy as an ideological issue,
and said: What we want is for the constitution to say these people
have that right. It need not necessarily specify the geographical
borders of that autonomous region. But for the Siryani Chaldean
Assyrian people, the recognition of the right to form an autonomous
region is an important matter. After that, the other details – such
as where that region will be and what are its borders and authorities
– such matters are not normally explained in the constitution. The
constitution only decides on the issues in principle.

Namrud Bito also said that they have not yet seen the final draft of
the constitution project. However, in accordance with the implications
they have received from the political leadership of Kurdistan, they
expect the draft constitution to have completely guaranteed their
rights. He also confirmed: We do not like to be called Christians. It
is true that we are Christians in terms of religion, but we do not ask
for the right to become Christians. That is, the issue is ethnic and
not religious. Our rights, religiously speaking, like the worshipping
of God and such matters, have been secured and we have no problems in
this respect. What we wish for is that our rights should be specific
as an ethnic group and not a religious group, which terminates with
the construction of several churches and guaranteeing the freedom of
praying and fasting.

For his part, the head of the Bet Nahrayn Party, Romeo Hakari, said
they are trying to win the support of all sides for their rights. He
added: To date, the three leaderships in Kurdistan Region have
supported our demands, including the right to autonomy.

The head of the commission for drawing up the constitution in the
parliament of Kurdistan reiterated that, in agreement with the final
draft of the project, the Christians, in the regions where they are a
majority, have the right to autonomy. But Romeo Hakari denied that:
It does not contain the right to autonomy and we ask that it should
be established.

The head of the Bet Nahrayn Party supported the system of quota for
the elections and said: We support the quota system: that is, there
should be individuality but not in the form of 1992 because it has not
been formally established, so far, that the Chaldean Syrian Assyrian
people should have five members in parliament. We urged that this be
fixed before the elections are implemented and that we should always
have five representatives in the parliament.