The 2003 invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition may have toppled a dictator, but it also marked the beginning of an exodus of Christians from the country.
While the campaign against Saddam Hussein was over in short order, decades of conflict with militant groups, including the notorious ISIS, followed.
In that time the Christian population went from around 1.5 million, to less than a quarter of a million.
Now Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is encouraging émigré Christians to return. Christians have reacted with scepticism to the plea, which came with promises of investment in health and education and land allocation projects.
A report by journalism organization Nirij suggested that such promises were unlikely to convince Christians to return to Iraq because they failed to address the root causes of why they fled the country to begin with, namely the failure of Iraqi governments to provide security and rule of law, and ongoing concerns about political marginalisation.
In interviews with Christian activists, Nirij found a number of common grievances. As well as protection from violent extremists, many Christians wanted the restoration of properties that had been confiscated or illegally occupied.
Others complained of anti-Christian discrimination in the Muslim-majority nation and of a lack of meaningful political representation.
Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mosul, Kerkheslokh (Kirkuk), and the Kurdistan Region Mor Nicodemus Daoud Matti Sharaf told Nirij, “Calling on Christians to return without addressing what forced them to emigrate will not produce any results.”
Nirij raised the possibility that Iraqi overtures to its former Christian community could actually be an attempt to curry favour with US President Donald Trump.
Trump, who has significant electoral support from Evangelical Christians, has often signalled his support for Christians overseas, most recently Nigeria, a fact that has apparently not gone unnoticed in other world capitals.
Earlier this month, Chinese authorities released a pastor held in arbitrary detention for nine months. Reports suggest the release was ordered by President Xi Jinping as a goodwill gesture to the US on its 4 July Independence Day celebrations.
