The highest authority of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, has been forced to leave the patriarchal see in Baghdad and move to a monastery in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, via Istanbul.
This is a direct consequence of the “deliberate and humiliating campaign” against the Chaldean patriarch by the Babylon Brigades, a pro-Iranian Christian militia.
Such persecution is compounded by the decision of Iraq’s president to withdraw “the Republican Decree (147), an unprecedented [act] in Iraqi history”, Card Sako says in a statement in Arabic and English posted on the patriarchate’s website.
A few  days ago, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid withdrew what could be called the “institutional recognition” of the office of the patriarch.
According to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Arab, al-Kildani wants to include the Christian question in its political agenda and use it “in the service of the militias that control Iraq behind whom is Iran”, unlike the patriarch who has always tried to “preserve the independence of the Chaldean Christian community.”
According to the governor of Wasit, Muhammad Jamil al-Mayahi, Cardinal Sako “is a symbol of unity and brotherhood, and his departure from Baghdad is a loss for all of us.”
Meanwhile, in the cities of Karamlesh and Erbil Iraqi Christians have rallied in support of the Chaldean patriarch.
“The entire Christian community of Iraq is threatened, and Chaldean and Syriac Assyrians have united to affirm their support for the patriarch of the Chaldean Church,” said several associations, such as the Assyrian Democratic Movement, the Popular Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Council, the House of Mesopotamia (Bet-Nahrain) Patriotic Union, the Sons of Mesopotamia (Bnay Nahrain) Party, and the Assyrian Patriotic Party.