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Is Iraq Another Yugoslavia?

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  • Is Iraq Another Yugoslavia?

    Reality Macedonia, Macedonia
    Aug 5 2004

    Is Iraq Another Yugoslavia?


    By Sasha Uzunov

    Churches belonging to the Christian Assyrians, one of Iraq's
    indigenous peoples, have become the latest target of terrorism in the
    strife-torn country. This conjures up disturbing parallels with the
    decade long religious and ethnic conflict in the Balkans.

    Iraq reminds me of the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, both
    communist federations consisting of various competing ethnic groups.
    Both of these nations lasted about 70 years before fragmenting
    violently into a multitude of new nation states in the early 1990s.

    Iraq is a hodge podge consisting of an ethnic Arab majority, many of
    whom are Shiite or Sunni Muslim. A very small number are Arab
    Christians. Add to this mixture, millions of Sunni Muslim Kurds and
    Turkmans in the north of the country. Kurds are non-Arabs, whilst the
    Turkmans are closely related to the Turks. Not forgetting the
    Assyrian Christians, who were the original inhabitants of Iraq before
    being swamped by an Islamic Arab invasion in 637 AD, more than 1300
    years ago. There are also tiny numbers of ethnic Christian Armenians,
    and two little known sects, the Sabia, who worship water, and the
    Yazidi, mistakenly referred to as "devil worshipers."

    The irony is that Iraq is one of the cradles of Western and
    Judeo-Christian civilisation. Anyone who has studied ancient history
    at high school can recall the Sumerians, the Assyrians and the
    Babylonians, and the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

    Iraq has Yugoslavia written all over it. Can such a country survive
    intact? Can the west, in particular the United States-lead coalition
    of the willing, hold it all together?

    The Kurds in the north have been fighting for their own homeland for
    decades. Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein brutally suppressed
    them by gassing and bombing them. He also brutally suppressed the
    Shiite Arab majority, located in the south, which have religious ties
    to neighbouring non-Arab state, Iran, the descendant of Ancient
    Persia.

    Saddam, as a way of dividing the rival groups, appointed an Arab
    Christian, the bespectacled Tariq Aziz, as his Foreign Minister.
    Aziz, being a Christian had no hope of building an anti-Saddam
    conspiracy.

    Northern neighbour Turkey is not comfortable with an independent
    Kurdistan arising from northern Iraq, as there are millions of Kurds
    within Turkish borders. Turkey has fought a 20-year Kurdish
    insurgency and is concerned about the plight of its Turkman kin.

    Christian Assyrians also live in Syria and Iran. The father of famous
    American tennis player, Andre Agassi, is an Assyrian from Iran. These
    people are a small and persecuted minority in their own homelands. So
    it comes as no great surprise that a large ethnic Assyrian diaspora
    exists. In the next couple of months or years, don't be surprised if
    more of them try to flee to the west.

    Another of those persecuted indigenous peoples we hardly hear about
    is the Christian Egyptian Copts, who have suffered at the hands of
    Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. The former Egyptian Foreign
    Minister and UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, is a Copt.
    Like the Assyrians, many Copts have made the west home.

    Then there are the Berbers of Algeria. These people are the original
    nomads of North Africa, who were converted to Islam by invading Arab
    armies eons ago. A deadly rivalry still exists been Arabs and
    Berbers.

    In Sudan, black African Christians in the Darfur region are being
    attacked by the Islamic Arabic controlled government and militias.

    Can there ever be a peaceful solution to the Middle-East and North
    Africa?

    Sasha Uzunov is a freelance journalist who has covered the Balkans
    region for almost a decade.
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