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A Fight for Survival: 'Without This the Cradle of Christianity Will Be Done'

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ANKAWA REFUGEE CAMP, Northern Iraq – The Kurdish military has begun to liberate many Christian villages and towns captured by ISIS. But many who fled from their homes are afraid to return for fear it could happen again.

Today, the Christian town of Qaraqosh is free of ISIS for the first time in more than two years. The town will require massive rebuilding and Sister Diana with the Nineveh Relief Organization told CBN News, it also needs security.

"It's number one priority because if it's not safe even if everything is provided from the infrastructure, from the facility, from the services, but number one is the security," Sister Diana explained.

"What's the point of coming back rebuilding and then another group will come and force us to leave. If not forcing us to leave, maybe worse would happen too.  So we need something tangible that tells us you're going to be safe," she said.  
 
That's because ISIS, also known as DAESH, is only the latest group to target these Iraqi Christians.

Archbishop Bashar Warda, with the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, told CBN News, "It's a continuous persecution since 2003."

"With the emergence of DAESH this was really shown. It was shown deeply," he said.  "Villages are empty now, probably destroyed. The heritage is gone. The past and all of these good and strong memories -- it's not there anymore."
 
The numbers back up their fear. Constant attacks have caused the population of Iraqi Christians to drop from 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 300,000 in 2016.

Thousands of Christians whom ISIS forced to flee from their homes have lived in the Ashtee Refugee Camp for more than two years. The camp is located in the Ankawa neighborhood just outside of Erbil. Now there are proposals to establish a safe zone for Christians and other ethnic groups in the plains of Nineveh.

U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., introduced House Resolution 152, which says in part, "The indigenous communities of Iraq's Nineveh Plain Region – Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac Christians, Yazidis and others – have a right to security."

The bill would support Iraq's creation of a safe zone, allow for autonomy, and commit the international community to help maintain the security. The bill envisions a three-level security system made up of a local Christian militia, the Iraqi army or Kurdish military and an international rapid response team.

"Because without this the cradle of Christianity will be done.  Christians will not be able to live in the Middle East, not only in Iraq, in the whole Middle East," Ashur Eskrya, president of the Assyrian Aid Society, warned.  

"It's difficult in this way to keep Christians here and it's our responsibility for all Christians to support Christians in Middle East because it's the cradle of Christianity here," he said.

Eskrya says Christians are not new to the land.  
 
"It's important because it's a Christian indigenous land," he explained. "Iraq and the Middle East, we are not visitors here. Because sometimes people think we are not from this land because we are now already like minorities in this region."  
 
Sister Diana warns that her church is in danger of disappearing.

"So if people do not return to this town, if the Syriac Catholic Church does not come back here, we're going to be spread all over the world and in a few years, there will not be a Syriac Catholic Church in Iraq," she said.

Steve Rasche with the Chaldean Church says discouragement can be a killer.

"I think one of the dangers in the West is we look at these people from afar and we say nobody's trying to kill them today," Rasche told CBN News.

"They're living in a tent; they're getting some kind of food … which is all fine if you don't care about whether or not they survive as a community … and keeping them alive in a situation where they've got no hope; they've got no future … what's more cool?  You know they're dying either way," he said.  

Ithara Assis, the mother of three daughters, echoes that feeling. She has a message for mothers in the West.  

"For all the mothers that hear me today, we tell them we need a quiet life. We need a safe life for us and our children," Assis said.      

Bishop Warda agrees with the idea of a safe zone, but he says it also needs to be personal.

"We need a process of reconciliation along all of the components of the Iraqi society and the people of the Nineveh plain because to be victim, it's one issue and to victimize others and retaliation, this will not bring peace and stability," he said.
 
In the meantime, Christians go on with their lives. Sister Diana recently led a graduation ceremony for those learning English as a second language. It's been a tough time, but they said they look to their Savior.
 
"Jesus not forget us forever.  Jesus with us all the time," one of them said. "I'm not going to lie to you, I cried a lot of nights. And praying to Jesus was absolutely. It helped me a lot."  

Rasche told CBN News what he believes Christians in the West need to know.

"Don't forget them. Don't give up on them. They're still here and there's still hope, but there's only hope if the rest of the world's Christians continue to show solidarity with them," Rasche said.  
 
"We need your support. We need your prayer. We need your voice," Bishop Warda said. "We need raising awareness to keep telling this story."

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About The Author

Chris Mitchell
Chris
Mitchell

In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a Biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world. He first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. Chris repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East. In the past