Bishop of the Assyrian town of Qaraqosh explains why it's demographic balance
should not be changed.

Garagosh or Assyrian Baghdida is an Assyrian town in the northern Iraq Ninawa Governorate, part of Al-Hamdaniya Municipality. It is located about 32 km southeast of the city of Mosul amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of Nimrud and Nineveh. It is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the towns of Bartella and Karamles which connects to the city of Arbil as well. The second which was gravel until the 1990s when it was paved,
is direct to Mosul.

On September 12, 2009 a petition was submitted to the governor of Nineveh Mr. Ethel Nujaifi and the Council of Nineveh province by more than four thousand signatures from the neighborhood elders and notables of Hamdaniya who requested that they be allowed to participate in the acquisition and bidding process during the slae of the Municipality properties of the Hamdania so that percentage-wise the demographic balance of the population in the town can be maintained as it was during the 1957 census, as it is mandated by the Article 23 and paragraph b of III of the Constitution. This petition was criticized by the Arabs and Shabak leaders who declared that this was a ploy cooked up by foreign interests (perhaps Kurds) to drive out none christians out of Hamdania.

following is a reply by The Bishop Jerjis Al-Kass Mussa who rejects such accusations which were published by Al-Zamman news paper about Qaraqosh, expressing his surprise that they have claimed that this is due to religious prejudices.

September 19th, 2009
Mosul – Ankawa.com
The Bishop, Baseliose Al-Kass Mossa, the Pastor of Mosul Parish and the Syriac Catholic vicinity, strongly denied that the Christian of Qaraqosh is source of threats to the other non-Christian people. He expressed his surprise from Al-Zamman news paper who published such allegations few days ago, entitled,” threats targeting the evacuation of Qaraqosh from non-Christian people” by the journalist Jareer Mohammed from Mosul.
The Bishop adds in an exclusive statement to Ankawa. Com, there is no threats to the non-Christian inhabitants in Qaraqosh and we are surprised by adopting the subject in this dramatic way by Al-Zamman news paper. Such thing touches our moral, our values, our behavior, our history, our present and future orientations and we are an essential component of the province of Nineveh and our nation of Iraq.
He added, we refuse to broach the subject in this way because the reader will develop excitement and we affirm that there are no threats. It is enough for us suffering and tragedies and the goal of rising new story with no root and no origin, but only to justifying other issues.
He explained that there are dozens of non-Christian families living in Qaraqosh, since many years ago, and we were and are still dealing with them in brotherhood way, and who want to see and be sure about that let him come to see our houses and our hearts are open for them. About the demographic change in Qaraqosh, he said, we refuse the demographic change because in that way we will become the minority in our regions. The previous regime delivers 3000 residential lands in Qaraqosh, approximately 98% of which were given to stranger people from this region and other regions of Iraq. The current system has switched off 4000 residential lands for delivering, and so, bringing strangers from the other regions, workers and employees affiliated to government agencies, putting in mind that Qaraqosh houses not exceed 5000 house. So, if these lands are distributed, I am sure we will be strangers in our land, in addition to the effects on the social, cultural life and the fading of the privacy of the region. He talks also about Qaraqosh lands and how our ancestors struggled for decades in a case started in Istanbul and ended with people of the region gaining their lands.
About covering the subject with a religious form by Al-Zamman news paper, he said we refuse to present the subject in a sectarian religious form between Christian and non-Christian and who try to sow discords and confusion is rejected by us. The history of Qaraqosh witnesses good relations with the surrounding neighboring villages and 90% of the educational staff in these villages are from Qaraqosh people.
The Bishop asked, why focusing on the demographic change in Qaraqosh by bringing people not from the region to live here? As it is free for any Iraqi to live where he like, our refusal come from the programmed way of distributing the lands in official or semi official way.