Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq is offering new incentives to encourage the return of Christianfamilies who left the country during years of turmoil, including access to thenationwide “One-Million Residential Land Plot” initiative, Prime Minister AliAl-Zaidi disclosed on Saturday.
During a meeting in Baghdad with Chaldean Catholic Church head PatriarchMar Paulus III Nona and a delegation that included Chaldean Archbishop of ErbilBashar Matti Warda and several Christian clergy, Al-Zaidi stressed thatChristians remain an important part of Iraqi society and have played alongstanding role in shaping Iraq’s history and development.
He also urged Iraqi Christian business leaders and investors livingabroad to come back and take part in reconstruction projects, citingopportunities in sectors including health care and education.
Patriarch Mar Paulus III Nona described the new government’s measures asan important step that could encourage members of the Iraqi Christian diasporato return and rebuild their lives in the country.
Iraq, a multiethnic country with a Muslim majority, once had a largeChristian population estimated at between 1.2 million and 1.5 million before2003, including Chaldean Catholics, Assyrians, and Syriac Orthodox communities. Over the past two decades, that number has fallen to fewer than 250,000,according to church and humanitarian estimates.
: Christians of Iraq: Where did they go?