Assyrian International News Agency

AINA – The draft of Iraq’s constitution was submitted three minutes before the midnight deadline on Monday, August 22nd. It is a historic document for Iraq and may — if ratified — become the most influential document produced in the Middle East in the last one hundred years; it will have a profound influence on the development of democracy and human rights in the area and may well become the Magna Carta of the Middle East. However, viz-a-viz Assyrians and other non-Muslim minorities, it did not go far enough and takes more than it gives, and it remains to be seen how it will be interpreted and applied by jurists in protecting the minorities of Iraq, such as the Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs), Mandaeans, Yezidis, Turkomen and Shabaks…This constitution addresses the needs of Assyrians in many key areas, such as the protection of their language, their right of self-administration and the implicit recognition of their territories, but it potentially cedes control of these territories to the Kurdistan Regional Government. If Federalism, which is enshrined in this constitution, is to be applied uniformly then Assyrians must have their own regional government– under their control or the central government but not under Kurdish control — as well as Sunnis, Shiites, Turkomen, Mandeans and all other groups…[Go To Full Story]