By Baghdadhope
Ankawa.com website published the first part of an investigation about the situation in different areas of Baghdad where the Christian community was once large but where now only a few tens of Christian families live. More than a year after the starting of the operations aimed at extending the control of the goverment in areas for a long time controlled by Al Qaeda fighters, and despite the repeated assurances of greater stability and the news about the return of many families who fled because threatened with death, the situation for Christians, according to some witnesses, has not improved at all. If on the 15 of November 2007, after many months, the Chaldean church of St. John the Baptist in Dora had been reopened with a solemn ceremony officiated by Mgr. Shleimun Warduni, Patriarchal Vicar of Baghdad, the same bishop only some days ago stated that "Dora, a Christian neighbourhood of the capital, has emptied out."
The investigation is focused on the neighbourhoods that are in Karkh area, in the south west of Baghdad. Areas such as Dora, for a long time considered as the most dangerous of the capital, Hay Al 'Adl, Hay al-Jami'a, Saidiya, Al-Bay'a, Al-Ghazali, etc.. Areas where the high presence of Christians is testified by the number of churches and Christian institutions many of which are now closed: the Chaldean churches of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. John the Baptist, and of Mar Yacoub Bishop of Nisibis, the Assyrian Churches of the East of Mar Zaia and Mar Khorkhis, the Syriac Orthodox one of Mar Benham and Sheikh Matti and the Ancient Assyrian Church of the East one of Mart Shmoni, in addition to several convents and monasteries belonging to different churches and the Pontifical Babel College, the only Christian theological faculty in Iraq and the Chaldean major seminary of St. Peter that were transferred in the north controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in January 2007 for security reasons. In the past, according to the author of the report, Fadi Kamal Youssef, more than 10000 Christian families used to live in those neighbourhoods, a number reduced now to about only a few dozen. The phenomenon of the flight of Christians from those areas is impressive, and nothing seems able to reverse its trend. Thousands have fled. The most affluent and far-sighted went abroad before the violence began to rule, the less affluent went to north, and the poorest fled to other districts of the capital considered as more secure. It is precisely the members of three families still living in Baghdad who, interviewed, explained why, despite a slight improvement in the situation, not yet deem safe to return to their homes and their activities. All the interviewed, in fact, despite acknowledging that recent military operations contributed to making the neighbourhoods safer, so that some members of two families refer that they regularly go to check the abandoned houses, underline how this is not enough. Not only, in fact, the control of the government is not total, but those areas are now inhabited by people who moved there from other districts or from other provinces. It is, in fact, difficult to trust unknown people, people with whom is difficult to recreate those neighbourhood relations that once existed in spite of different religious and that had become strong in the years. The still alive perception of the lack of security is not however the only reason that hampers the return of these families to their homes and their activities. The daily life in the areas where they moved, however difficult – they are in any case IDPs - is better than in those they come from. In the center in fact, they say, there are more job opportunities, better services, the possibility of attending the church, even to stay out in the evening. It seems to read the description of a normal city, any city in the world where people work, go to market, to church, even find the desire to spend a few hours outside. Yet is the description of the red zone of Baghdad - not the green one protected by the Americans - the most dangerous city in the world, in the eyes of the Christians who found there their little piece of paradise.
Ankawa.com website published the first part of an investigation about the situation in different areas of Baghdad where the Christian community was once large but where now only a few tens of Christian families live. More than a year after the starting of the operations aimed at extending the control of the goverment in areas for a long time controlled by Al Qaeda fighters, and despite the repeated assurances of greater stability and the news about the return of many families who fled because threatened with death, the situation for Christians, according to some witnesses, has not improved at all. If on the 15 of November 2007, after many months, the Chaldean church of St. John the Baptist in Dora had been reopened with a solemn ceremony officiated by Mgr. Shleimun Warduni, Patriarchal Vicar of Baghdad, the same bishop only some days ago stated that "Dora, a Christian neighbourhood of the capital, has emptied out."
The investigation is focused on the neighbourhoods that are in Karkh area, in the south west of Baghdad. Areas such as Dora, for a long time considered as the most dangerous of the capital, Hay Al 'Adl, Hay al-Jami'a, Saidiya, Al-Bay'a, Al-Ghazali, etc.. Areas where the high presence of Christians is testified by the number of churches and Christian institutions many of which are now closed: the Chaldean churches of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. John the Baptist, and of Mar Yacoub Bishop of Nisibis, the Assyrian Churches of the East of Mar Zaia and Mar Khorkhis, the Syriac Orthodox one of Mar Benham and Sheikh Matti and the Ancient Assyrian Church of the East one of Mart Shmoni, in addition to several convents and monasteries belonging to different churches and the Pontifical Babel College, the only Christian theological faculty in Iraq and the Chaldean major seminary of St. Peter that were transferred in the north controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government in January 2007 for security reasons. In the past, according to the author of the report, Fadi Kamal Youssef, more than 10000 Christian families used to live in those neighbourhoods, a number reduced now to about only a few dozen. The phenomenon of the flight of Christians from those areas is impressive, and nothing seems able to reverse its trend. Thousands have fled. The most affluent and far-sighted went abroad before the violence began to rule, the less affluent went to north, and the poorest fled to other districts of the capital considered as more secure. It is precisely the members of three families still living in Baghdad who, interviewed, explained why, despite a slight improvement in the situation, not yet deem safe to return to their homes and their activities. All the interviewed, in fact, despite acknowledging that recent military operations contributed to making the neighbourhoods safer, so that some members of two families refer that they regularly go to check the abandoned houses, underline how this is not enough. Not only, in fact, the control of the government is not total, but those areas are now inhabited by people who moved there from other districts or from other provinces. It is, in fact, difficult to trust unknown people, people with whom is difficult to recreate those neighbourhood relations that once existed in spite of different religious and that had become strong in the years. The still alive perception of the lack of security is not however the only reason that hampers the return of these families to their homes and their activities. The daily life in the areas where they moved, however difficult – they are in any case IDPs - is better than in those they come from. In the center in fact, they say, there are more job opportunities, better services, the possibility of attending the church, even to stay out in the evening. It seems to read the description of a normal city, any city in the world where people work, go to market, to church, even find the desire to spend a few hours outside. Yet is the description of the red zone of Baghdad - not the green one protected by the Americans - the most dangerous city in the world, in the eyes of the Christians who found there their little piece of paradise.
Can we imagine how was their hell in Dora?