The source of denying weapons to the Christian Militia is not the Kurds. It is certain Leadership within the Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and their stealth association with Hezbollah in name of fighting ISIS.
see: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/01/pmf-deputy-commander-muhandis-details-hezbollah-ops-in-iraq.php
The Kurds in Iraq has had a long history of protecting the Christians. Iran of course has not.
I've read that Prime Minister Maliki was not aware of the involvement of Hezbollah until after the fact.
Over the years I respected Joseph Farah and WND for perspective on Lebanon and Iraq. In this case, I believe he missed the real issue.
The article is excerpted, please read the entire article for better understanding.
Thanks for posting that. I was pretty shocked since everyone who has been over there say the Kurds have always protected the Christians ( even some of the Iraqi muslims protect Christians, or at least they used to). Saddam, may his soul rot in hell, protected the Christians
“The Kurds in Iraq has had a long history of protecting the Christians. Iran of course has not.”
Wrong. The Sunni Kurdsvwere historically (as late as the 1930’s) the principal enemies of Christians in the region (Assyrians and Armenians).
Sunni Kurdish tribesmen during WW1 were the prinicipal henchmen in the genocide of Armenians and Assyrians (Kurdish organizations acknowledge that they were used by Ottoman Turks for this nefarious purpose).
After WW1 it was Armenian and Assyrian militia in the Iraq, Turkey and Iran area that massacred many Kurds. At the same time... well into the 1920s the Kurdish forces of Simko massacred thousands of Christians, until Simko was killed by Iranian forces (Iran’s army had elite units of Assyrian and Armenian Christians!).
1936 the Kurds (along with Sunni Arabs) in Iraq massacred again numerous Assyrians in Simele, Iraq.
To this day there is much bad blood between Kurds and Assyrians.
Their common foe now (since Saddam actually) are Sunni Arabs... currently in shape of ISIS.
The Kurdish regional government in Iraq doedn’t want several ethno-religious militia (such as Christoan, Yazidi), instead they want to place them all within the Peshmerga framework for pragmatic and political reasons.
As to Iran... why the “of course”?
Modern Iran (both before and after the Revolution) has a much better relationship with local Christians. There is a long record of Assyrian and Armenian Christians serving with distinction in Iranian armed forces both before and after the Revolution. The only (rather minor) friction was in the 1940’s due to pro-Soviet agitation among Armenians and Assyrians). Today Iran and Armenia and Iran enjoy very good relations. What the Islamic Republic Iran persecutes are Muslims who convert to Christianity... that’s a different matter than relations with the Christian ethnic groups.
When looking at the 20th Century, Kurdish-Christian relations have been MUCH more strained and bloody than the largely benign Iran-Christian relations.
>> The source of denying weapons to the Christian Militia is not the Kurds
An important clarification.