Participating is “a national duty”

Today and tomorrow the statistical population survey is scheduled, a crucial event to establish relations between the different communities that has not been held since 1997 due to the wars. In launching the appeal, the cardinal remembers the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis “who live in neighboring countries” and that “diversity is a strength.” The Kurds fear a “politicization” of the process.

Baghdad () – “As the date of the general census of the Iraqi population approaches, after an interruption that has lasted 27 years, and given its importance” Card. Louis Raphael Sako “invites Christians to actively participate in this very important national duty.” This is what the cardinal wrote in a message published on the website of the Chaldean Patriarchate, in anticipation of a highly anticipated event that will take place over two days full of meaning. Precisely for this reason, the message from the country’s highest ecclesiastical authority continues, the population is urged to “collaborate with the team in charge of carrying out this demographic survey.”

He national census planned for today and tomorrow, a crucial step for the future of the nation, was called last September by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, in the context of a two-day curfew to ensure regularity of operations. Previously, the last survey had been carried out in 1997 and had covered 15 provinces of the country, excluding the three in the north that make up the autonomous region of Kurdistan, where there is still no shortage of critical and controversial elements.

“We had hope,” says Card. Sako – that this census would include thousands of Iraqis living in neighboring countries, among them 100,000 Christians, and would add a section on national affiliation. “Diversity,” he points out, “is a strength, not a difference.” For this reason, the cardinal concludes by saying that he “looks forward to the accuracy, honesty and integrity of the team responsible for the survey and of the citizens in providing correct information.”

In the past, the population count was normally carried out every 10 years, but a new count has been postponed several times since 1997, particularly in 2010, when preparations appeared to be underway, due to wars, internal conflicts, jihadist violence and the fight for control of territories. The census, in a nation with balances as fragile as Iraq, is a complex and delicate exercise, on whose result the distribution of power may depend. In effect, it indirectly determines sectarian and ethnic quotas based on the distribution of the population. Additionally, it plays an important role in the ongoing conflict between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over demographic affiliations in disputed regions such as oil-rich Kirkuk.

And it is precisely from the northern Kurdish front that calls and appeals are coming in these hours, concerned about the fear of a “politicization” of the process, with the aim of influencing the face of the region. Dara Rashid, Minister of Planning of Kurdistan, warns of the danger of a distortion of quotas and representation in Parliament, also because the result of the census is linked to the reserved part in the federal budget and the number of representatives in Baghdad. Several local parties have invited Kurds from outside Iraq to return to their cities and towns of origin and participate in the census, especially in disputed areas, in order to present a clear picture of the Kurdish presence and guarantee their rights. . And there were no shortage of requests for postponement, such as that of Fahmi Burhan, head of the Authority, who justified the call due to the lack of resolution of the issue of the disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad, contemplated in article 140 of the Constitution. Requests, however, rejected the sender by the government and Prime Minister Al-Sudani.

Regional authorities do not hesitate in many cases to accuse the Iraqi federal government of working to Arabize the Kurdish regions, led by the governorate of Kirkuk, the most important disputed region of all, given the oil wealth of its territory. According to the accusations, the ruling parties in Baghdad are also working to limit the Kurdistan Region’s gains and drag it under the authority of the central government. The population census in Iraq has a more sensitive and complex character than in other countries in the world, since it is not only related to economic data, development, services and well-being of society, but also to the political system based on quotas between sects and ethnicities. In an attempt to address Kurdish concerns, Baghdad earlier this month approved the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) request to conduct the census based on residents’ place of origin rather than their current place of residence.

Also linked to the census is the issue of Iraqis in the diaspora, those who have fled abroad in recent decades because of violence or to find new opportunities. A significant element for the different components of the nation, but also and above all for the Christian minority, often persecuted. An element raised by a Christian when commenting on the appeal of Card. Sako on the Chaldean Patriarchate page: “The Iraqi government,” writes Raymond George, “should have included in this census millions of Iraqis outside Iraq, scattered around the world. This census is distorted and suspicious because it also includes a substantial increase in foreigners, introduced by the various governments after 2003, the date of the US invasion that led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.