Mesopotamia's Christians community is one of the most ancient in the Near East. It played a vital role in the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Moslem world and through it to the mediaeval West.
In the 12th and 13th Centuries, its Nestorian branch, whose patriarchy was based in Kurdistan, had an influence that spread to countries as far as China and Burma.
This prestigious community, which made a considerable contribution to the culture and civilisation of Mesopotamia, is now the victim of murderous and aggressive attacks in several Iraqi provinces, in particular in Mosul and Baghdad. The jihadists, who claim to be making Iraq into a Sunni Arab Caliphate, are carrying out a policy of religious purification through indiscriminate attacks on Christians, Yezidis and Shiites.
Even though the gradual improvement of the country's security is reducing the harmful capacities of these jihadist groups, allied to the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Christians in Iraq are worried.
Many of them are taking the road to exile towards neighbouring countries or to the West. Tens of thousands have come to settle in Kurdistan, which benefits from conditions of peace and security.
Is this exile, which began in the 1990s and has been growing over the last few years, a solution? Is there not a danger of it becoming permanent and gradually leading to the end of all Christian presence in Mesopotamia, with incalculable cultural results?
Pending better times, can these Christians rejoin their brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan, as the Kurdistan Regional Government has invited them? What are the problems raised by them settling in Kurdistan? What can the Iraqi Government do to encourage this process? What can France and the European Union do to help the Christians remain on their ancestral lands and rebuild their future?
