With the Kurds now likely to engage Turkish forces in battle, Christians and other minorities are afraid they will be left without protection. This confrontation may trigger an exodus, further depleting the Christian population of Syria, which has already shrunk by 80% since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011.
One of Iraq’s most prominent Christian leaders has deeper concerns. On the fifth anniversary of the ISIS invasion of northern Iraq, Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Catholic archdiocese of Erbil, Kurdistan, stresses that “Christianity in Iraq is perilously close to extinction.”
He said the Church has been on the forefront of “quelling violence and seeking dialogue and peace. It is likely that it will be a slow healing process which needs extraordinary leadership.”
The killing of the Coptic martyrs helped to bring the issue of Christian persecution into focus for the wider Western culture and media, and spurred an outpouring of donations for charitable aid.
But the hospitality shown to the Pope cannot hide the fact that Christian worship in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is heavily restricted.