Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Barzani’s visit to Vatican annoys Assyrian nationalists

The KDP agency Peyamner reported that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) president Masoud Barzani visited the Vatican on Friday 27 February 2009, and was warmly received by the pope Benedict XVI.

Barzani is the president of the Kurdish federal region in Iraq and head of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP).

During this official he was accompanied by Fuad Hussein, Chief of Staff of the Kurdistan Region Presidency, Sarkis Aghaja, the KRG Minister for Finance and Economy, and Albert Yelda, Iraq's Assyrian Ambassador to the Vatican (Also a member of KDP).

In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI honoured Sarkis Aghajan by naming him a Knight Commander of the order of Saint Gregory the Great.

The visit will probable be an effective means to combat Assyrian nationalistic claims the KDP mistreats Christians.

Many Assyrian internet communities were alarmed by the Vatican visit. Earlier before Assyrian nationalistic media even suggested Aghajan could have been killed, after disappearing from the scene. KRG officials said that Aghajan had health problems.

But now Aghajan showed up again in Vatican countering Assyrian claims. The KRG president is currently busy with a lobbying trip in Europe.

Last January the Kurdish supported Assyrian Isthar slate won the provincial elections in the Mosul province and the Christian seat in Bagdad.

Immediately Assyrian diaspora media claimed voters were pressured to vote for the Isthar slate. But it seems that the religious non-islamic sect of Kurdish Yezidi’s in Mosul didn’t vote for the KRG.

Assyrian nationalists work together with the Turkomen front and a separate Yezidi party to combat the influence of the Kurdish government. Some Kurdish nationalist claims these three organizations are supported by Turkey.

Assyrians did ask for Turkish support against Kurdish nationalists.

The Assyrian lobbyist Attiya Tunc (who is also active on the European level) recently succeeded in convincing the Dutch government to launch an investigation into the position of Christians in Iraq.

She also works together with the Turkmen lobby in Europe.
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(Source: KP)