This is
a full transcript, in the original English, of my conversation with Swedish
Assyrian journalist and activist Nuri Kino about the liberation of Qaraqosh and
other Christian towns and villages in the Mossul region. Read the news story, in Portuguese, here.
Transcrição integral, no inglês original, da minha
entrevista ao jornalista e activista sueco/assírio sobre a libertação de
Qaraqosh e de outras vilas e aldeias cristãs na região de Mossul.
A reportagem está aqui.
We have had conflicting reports about the
situation in Qaraqosh. From your information, what is the situation on the
ground?
The news
regarding the Christians is that Bartella, a town of about 30 thousand
inhabitants prior to ISIS, has been fully liberated. We have received videos
and pictures of the church bells ringing. That is of course very satisfying.
When it
comes to Qaraqosh we received pictures of the main hospital being liberated,
the town hall buildings and also the Iraqi Army headquarters. But it is very
hard to know if it is totally liberated or not. We are also receiving conflicting
information about that.
I just
spoke to two of the priests from Qaraqosh and they also have no full
information, but the Iraqi army and some of the Christian forces are supposed
to be inside Qaraqosh.
Two days
ago we received information that it had been liberated. Then information came a
couple of hours later saying that there were about 20 ISIS suicide bombers and
snipers left in Qaraqosh and they were shooting people from the rooftops. Also,
one of the biggest problems is the mines. There are a lot of mines around the
city, both anti-personnel mines and street mines.
But we
believe that Qaraqosh will be liberated today. [Saturday 21st
October]
How does that make you and other Christians
feel?
Qaraqosh
is about 70% Syriac Catholic and 30% Syriac Orthodox and I am Syriac Orthodox.
For us there is no difference whether it is in southeast Turkey, where I was
born, or in Syria or Iraq, or in Iran or in Lebanon. We are all the same
nation, the same ethnicity, the same people with different names: Assyrian,
Syriac, Chaldean...
Of
course, after more than two years of ISIS in our home towns, we are very happy
to see it, though we are also careful and cautious, because we never know how
things will turn.
Look at
what happened in Kirkuk yesterday... All of a sudden sleeping terrorist cells
in Kirkuk started to hit the street, more than 20 suicide bombers. They also
kidnapped some people and threatened to kill them, and battles are ongoing in
Kirkuk, which is also a bit Iraqi city.
So I
would say that we are cautiously joyful.
Also,
after the liberation there is a lot of work to be done for our people to return
to the Nineveh plane, where Bartella and Qaraqosh are. The Swedish MEP Lars
Adaktusson is presenting a new resolution in the European Parliament about
self-administration in the Nineveh Plane and two other provinces in Northern
Iraq, so that these people can feel that they get their dignity back and rule
their own areas, or at least get some power in the administrations, so that the
inhabitants can feel confident to come back.
Also it
is about dignity, so as to get their dignity back. The same thing is going on
in Washington DC, there are political movements and political solutions –
hopefully – so that people can move back.
In Iraq,
before the fall of Saddam, approximately 1.3 million Christians lived there.
After the fall of Mossul, we don't know, but we estimate that there are more
not more than 250 thousand left.
So more
than one million have already left the country, and people are emigrating every
day, because they lost hope in the world leaders to protect them. But we do
have some hope in what is happening these days, in the liberation of Nineveh
and Mossul, and we also have hope in the political solutions that will be on
the table over the coming weeks.
Are Christians afraid to be caught in between
Baghdad and the Kurds, over who actually controls this region...
That has
been going on since the fall of Saddam, it’s nothing new. It’s not a question
of being afraid, we know it’s a fact, it’s been a fact for a decade now. So
that is why we are asking for self-administration, so as not to be caught in
the middle.
Will Bagdad and Kurdistan accept that idea?
Well we
hope on the European Union and on Washington and the UN.
