International Shia News Agency

90% of the Orthodox in Iraq has fled

SHAFAQNA (Exclusive) –  Metropolita realizes Baghdad and Kuwait and Surroundings, Greek Orthodox Bishop Ghattas Hazim that the task placed on him, headed by the Holy Synod of Antioch Patriarch John X Yazigi, appointed patron of those diocese, is not easy. Hazim realizes also, that his mission may be historical, which requires much effort in order to heal the wounds of the Christians in those Arab region, especially Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, which began in 1991, during the invasion of the late President Saddam Hussein of Kuwait, and continues in various forms , in order to provide all the conditions for proofed in their own land and the preservation of facial Christian, and specifically Orthodox, in Mesopotamia.

Bishop Hazim is the son of the town Mharda in Hama in Syria, which includes more than 20 thousand Christian, who is also the nephew of the late Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim, is supposed to join new Bibrchith before the end of this year, where Cislmh Patriarch Yazigi «stick care» will assess in the Orthodox archbishopric in Kuwait.

Hazim stresses the need for Christians not to feel that they are alone in Iraq, describing the parish priest there as a hero and a true Mujahid, where Orthodox citizens did not leave, and he cares about them and trying to meet all their needs in spite of difficult circumstances.

Hazim reveals , for «Assifir » newspaper, about numbers that are shocking about the existence of the Orthodox in Iraq, indicates that there they are no longer in Baghdad, only 30 families out of more than 600 families expelled continuously since the invasion of Kuwait, and that what remained in Mosul, does not exceed ten families. In Basra has expelled all Orthodox families after being killed and threatened, drawing attention to the displacement of the Orthodox in Iraq generally exceeded 90 percent, as a result of the overwhelming security chaos that dominated the country during the past eras.

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