18May2024

Urgent Appeal to Iraqi Government: Include Arameans also in Constitution & ID Cards!

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Urgent Appeal to Iraqi Government: Include Arameans also in Constitution & ID Cards!

Letters by WCA & Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Bishops of Iraq to Government Officials

Iraq’s Arameans express deep concern about the lack of constitutional recognition as a distinct ethno-religious people and their uncertain future in their homeland in the Nineveh Plain which soon may be retaken from ISIS. Unlike other populations in Iraq such as Turkmen, Chaldeans and Assyrians, the Syriacs are not mentioned in Article 125 of the Constitution.

Therefore, they are now forced to identify themselves by one of these identities, or the Arab one, and thus adopt an identity that is entirely foreign to them in the ID Cards that have to be issued. This has caused serious concerns and angry reactions among hundreds of thousands of Iraq’s indigenous Arameans in and outside Iraq who refuse to identify themselves other than Syriacs or Arameans.

The World Council of Arameans (Syriacs) (“WCA”) addresses this pertinent issue in a letter sent to Iraqi government officials and the media. The WCA and its Member Federations also sent it to Iraq’s Ambassadors across Europe, the USA, Australia and Russia, requesting them to share it with Baghdad and the dignitaries in charge of constitutional amendments and also requesting for meetings to further clarify the issue and the uncertain future of Iraq’s Aramean Christians in the post-ISIS period in Iraq, considering that the Nineveh Plains may be reconquered in the near future.

Watch this Video Message in English & Arabic!

Watch this important video message on the unjust exclusion of the Aramean (Syriac) people from Iraq’s Constitution and ID Cards. The message is first in English and then in Arabic.