Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East opens its doors in Erbil

By The New Arab
Dana Taib Menmy

Photo by Rudaw

The Assyrian Church of the East on Monday opened its new Patriarchate in Erbil, the capital city of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Masoud Barzani, president of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Irvin Hicks, the general counsel of the United States in Erbil, Mar Awa Royel, the church's Patriarch, the Christian community, and other Kurdish officials.

Rudaw reported that the patriarch "was built upon the request of the Barzani Headquarters," but The New Arab could not confirm that from independent or related sources.

TNA reached out to Royel and an official at the Barzani Headquarters, but they were not immediately available to comment. "It was then where the foundation for co-existence and brotherhood was laid out, and there is nothing more beautiful than a country where everyone lives as brothers," Barzani was quoted as saying by Rudaw during a speech at the inauguration ceremony.

"The Assyrian Church of the East today opened its new Patriarchate in Erbil. It's a move decades in the making. The patriarchal seat left Iraq in 1933, but always with an eye on returning. Construction of a new facility in Erbil was announced in 2006," Joe Snell, an Assyrian and the Middle East reporter with Al-Monitor, wrote on Twitter.

Photo by Rudaw

Regarding the significance of opening this Patriarchate in Erbil, Joseph Slewah, a former Iraqi lawmaker from Nineveh who led the Warka bloc, told TNA that opening churches in Iraq is not enough in ending the mayhem against Christians in the war-torn country.

"The Christian people in Iraq, including the Assyrians, are prosecuted across the country, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The stones in the churches have no value if the Christian people are being prosecuted, feel they are second-degree citizens, evacuated from their lands and their political will denied across the country," Slewah said.