Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, there was over 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq.
The conditions of war lead to an increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Islam sects which Christians were caught in the middle of.
In 2015, ISIS took control of our villages and destroyed any piece of our Church and our history they could reach.
Of the 1.5 million Christians living in Iraq, 80% belonged to the Chaldean Catholic Church, 10% belonged to the Syriac Church, and 5% to the Assyrian Church.
Today only 300k Chaldeans remain in Iraq, living mostly displaced from their villages, finding shelter in the Kurdistan region
Chaldeans truly are the native peoples of Iraq, descendants of the Akkadians and Neo-Babylonians. Today we speak the Chaldean language, a mixture of the Aramaic spoken by Jesus and the Akkadian spoken by the Babylonians
There are over 2 million Chaldeans living scattered across the globe now, mostly living in the United States in Detroit and San Diego. While we are not a strong fighting force, we are a very strong economic and diplomatic force. An estimated 60% of Chaldean households own at least one business, and Chaldeans contribute an estimated $17.6 billion yearly to the Michigan economy.
Our villages in Iraq are mostly in a region called the Nineveh Plains, located north of Mosul
A Chaldean autonomous region would allow us to keep our place in our native land and rebuild for the generations to come, and I believe we have an important role to play in restoring peace and prosperity to the region.
The United States should support this policy as a reparations to the Chaldean people and as a counter measure to the Iran-backed militias currently controlling Iraq.
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Some notable Chaldeans include Alina Habba, President Trump’s lawyer, and Tariq Aziz, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
