The fate of Christians in Islamic State-ravaged Iraq hangs in the balance as the minority group waits for help from US and other Western countries while hoping for the Kurdish regional government to eventually gain autonomy.
Christians—at least those who have not left the country for Europe, North America, or Australia—have formed their own militias in a bid to join the Peshmerga, the Kurdistan government's militia, in the battle lines against ISIS, CNN reported.
Joining the war is crucial if the Christians are to have an equal claim to a future Kurdistan in Iraq's Nineveh province.
But so far, the unit led by a 40-year-old Chaldean man named Safaa Elias Jajo has yet to take part in the actual fighting alongside the Peshmerga.
"We have asked for the opportunity to serve at the front"—just to the south—"but we've not been given the opportunity," said Jajo, whose group has been trying to get combat experience.
There are 500 of them across Nineveh and Kurdistan. Only a small force, maybe a dozen, have stayed in air strike-leveled Telskuf. The town is Jajo's home, as it was for 12, 000 Christians.
"If there is a plan to liberate Christian areas, we want to be a part of it," Jajo said.
Although a small number of Christians have already joined the ranks of the Peshmerga, some received training to protect Nineveh after it was freed from the clutches of ISIS.
The status of Jajo's group with the Kurdistan government, however, is still in limbo as his commission has been taking months to be processed by the Ministry of the Peshmerga.
Unlike the Peshmerga, Christian militias are linked to political parties and have no consensus on their military or political role. Jajo, however, is relying on the Kurd's constitution that provides "special autonomy."
Jajo sees that Christians have hope under Kurdistan than the Iraqi central government, despite the possibility that the Kurds are just using the Christians to earn the favour of Western governments.
Thousands of Kurdish troops have been deployed to oppose any move by ISIS to push toward the Nineveh plains. If this happened in the past, locals would have opposed the Kurds. But the combination of ISIS and the continuing conflict between Sunni armed groups and Shia-dominated military has resulted to unexpected support from vulnerable minorities for the Peshmerga, wrote Aljazeera.
Jajo also urged the US and the West to help, saying:"We need support and we need it quickly. We want to fight."
The US, however, disallows weapons to land directly in the hands of Kurds, preferring to course it through Baghdad.
The fate of Telskuf may foretell the future of Christians in Iraq, CNN commented.
"Telskuf may offer a glimpse of Christianity's future in Iraq: ISIS driven back, a Christian town deserted and a handful of Christians standing amid the ruins, determined that Christianity here will not be extinguished."
The West and the Iraqi government have failed Christians since the aftermath of the 2013 invasion, CNN noted.
"The Christians of Telskuf and elsewhere in Iraq have been failed—by the US government, which did not protect them after the 2003 invasion; by the government in Baghdad, which failed to give Christians an equal status; by their political leaders, in Iraq and the West, who have been sidetracked by rivalries and arcane squabbles rather than seeking unity through compromise."
