RNA – Louis Raphaël I Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon and the Head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, criticized the growing conflict between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the central government of the war-torn country and said, “The existing conflicts have stopped the development of the country and have led to the dispersion of the people of Iraq.”
He added that recent conflicts between the Kurdistan Region and the central government of Iraq, which took place after the September 25th referendum on independence of the region, have caused fear for the people such that many people left their homes to save their and their children’s lives and fled.
“For this reason, the two sides should come to the negotiating table as soon as possible and solve the existing problems,” the chairman of the Catholic Church in Western Asia added.
Patriarch Sako stated, “The Iraqi people are dreaming of living in a country that has security, stability, equality and faces no threats, conflict and war. Iraqi officials have not learned from all the war and the terrorist acts that have confronted the country and imposed various problems and challenges on it.”
His Beatitude added, “We want the two conflicting sides to distance themselves from massacres and war, which has caused great harm to everyone, and provide a peaceful life for all sides with respect, respect and solidarity.”
The referendum on secession of the Kurdistan region was held on September 25th despite strong opposition from Iraqi authorities, the international community, and Iraq’s neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Iran.
The Iraqi parliament had ruled the vote unconstitutional beforehand.
The region then refused to hand over its airports and border crossings to Baghdad as it was ordered, triggering a military escalation. It eventually accepted Baghdad’s conditions, and took its paramilitary forces out of much of the territory it controlled.
Last month, the region’s president Masoud Barzani resigned from his post after seeing his campaign for the secession going awry.