Iraqi Kurds Offer Christians a Sanctuary

[rug]

They have fled in droves to escape sectarian violence, but now Kurdish politicians are helping some rebuild their lives.
By Samah Samad - Iraq
ICR Issue 380, 12 Oct 11

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, party is offering homes to poor Christian families uprooted by sectarianviolence in what it says is a humanitarian gesture, denying suggestions the move is designed to boost its electoral base in the disputed Kirkuk region.

Since the 2003 United States-led invasion, Iraqi Christians have often been the target of violence by Islamist extremists, forcing more than 200,000 of them to leave Iraq.

In the worst outrage in October 2010, al-Qaeda-linked militants stormed a church in central Baghdad, killing over 60 people.

In an effort, the PUK says, is aimed at alleviating their plight, the joint ruling party in Iraqi Kurdistan has provided 200 plots of land and 10,000 US dollar grants to low-income Christian families in a gated compound in Se Ganian (The Three Springs in Kurdish), a Kurdish village destroyed by Saddam, ten kilometres north of Kirkuk.

http://iwpr.net/report-news/iraqi-kurds-offer-christians-sanctuary

[Enrique]

1. wait, this must be a typo, right?

Bush's glorious war couldn't have led to increased violence against Christians, could it?

Since the 2003 United States-led invasion, Iraqi Christians have often been the target of violence by Islamist extremists, forcing more than 200,000 of them to leave Iraq.

[Deep13]

2. Ah, Assyrians (Chaldeans).

I'm doing a paper on the 1933 Assyrian genocide in Iraq.

[rug]

3. What role, if any, were the Kurds playing in Iraq at that time?

[Deep13]

4. Good question.

I don't really know. I may find out while writing.