Back to Iraqi Kurdistan with Christians of the East

12:17 REPORTERS © FRANCE 24

Issued on: 06/12/2024 -

Iraq, which has witnessed wars, embargoes and Islamic State rule, is a traumatised country with Eastern Christians among the first victims. Under Saddam Hussein, there were one and a half million of them in the country, but today only 150,000 remain. Many Chaldean Catholics in exil dream of returning. We meet members of the diaspora who have chosen to rebuild their lives in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Twenty years after the Gulf War and his forced departure from Iraq, Dilan Adamat, who fled with his family to Nantes in western France, has chosen to return. This Chaldean Catholic has left his job in a law firm to join a radio station in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil in Kurdish-majority Iraqi Kurdistan. The radio station was founded by so-called “returnees”: members of the Christian diaspora who have also chosen to return home.

In this tormented Middle East, Erbil is a haven of peace. The official capital of Iraqi Kurdistan has become a small emirate, thanks to oil money and protection from the US army. Although not a land of rights, Iraqi Kurdistan remains a welcoming land for this Christian community.

Dilan on Radio Babylone, founded by Chaldean Catholics settled in Kurdistan. © Sébastien Daycard-Heid, FRANCE 24

The Chaldean Catholics speak a modern version of Aramaic. They are the descendants of the Assyrian civilisation that covered the whole of Mesopotamia. Members of this diaspora, exiled abroad in France, Sweden, Germany, North America and Australia, still dream of returning home.

With “Le retour” or “The Return”, the NGO he founded, Dilan has set himself a mission: to bring back other members of his community. This report tells the story of this return movement, which offers a glimmer of hope for Christians in the East.