Title: Christian Patriarchs of the East Visit Kurdistan, Appeal to International Community for Help. Source: Eretz Zen. Date Published: August 21, 2014. Description:
Patriarchs of several eastern churches in the Middle East traveled to the Kurdistan region and met with Iraqi Christian refugees from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain in the town of Ankawah. They also visited Erbil and gave a press conference in which they appealed to the international community for help in protecting the Iraqi Christians and other minorities and preventing them from leaving their land, thereby bringing an end to a people whose roots go back thousands of years in that part of the world. Blame was placed mainly on certain regional countries that provide a breeding ground for ISIL-like ideologies to fester and grow due to their embrace of Wahhabism and financially support such groups. The West was also blamed for providing support to Wahhabi groups during the Syrian war.Excerpt from the video below:
The Patriarchs included Beshara al-Rahi, Patriarch of the Maronite Church, Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Youssef III Younan, and Ignatius Aphrem II, Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church. They were hosted by Chaldean Patriarch, Louis Sako.
Source: OTV, LDC
"We cannot only speak about the tragedy and genocide of a Christian constituent or of Yazidi or Shabak constituents. We must raise our voice loudly and tell the whole world that it is not permissible for the civilized world in the 21st century to accept the extermination of a human group, irrespective of what religion, race, or color it belongs to.
We know that this genocide or attempted genocide of our people was at the hands of a Takfiri group that does not accept the 'Other.' The very dangerous issue about this is that this group (ISIL) grew up and was raised in societies with the support of countries known in the region. . . (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait), which are founded on Wahhabism in Islam and are now trying to dodge this by not taking responsibility because they claim that al-Qaeda is their enemy.
Today, we, as spiritual shepherds, we want to participate with all those who defend human rights and raise the voice to all the international powers, as the Patriarchs just said. We would like to remind them, especially the West - the U.S., Britain, and France - that these Takfiri groups did not become strong if it weren't for their - at best - hidden support. Today, they are retreating and trying to hide the issue under the rug." [1:48 - 3:40].
