Former Assyrian KRG Minister Johnson Siyawash: Either we govern our Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian national home now, or we will become permanent guests in our own land

ANKAWA, ARBA’ILO (ERBIL), Iraq — Jonson Siyawash, a former Assyrian Minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government under (then) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, issued a forceful statement this week calling for an emergency summit that brings together Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian church patriarchs, civil society institutions, political leaders, and parliamentarians. He declared that the time has come for a sweeping political and national uprising in response to what he described as systematic demographic engineering in the Christian Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian-majority district of Ankawa, embedded within the city of Arba’ilo (Erbil). 

In his statement, Siyawash warned that recent developments in Ankawa are not isolated incidents but part of a long-standing campaign to displace and marginalize Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians. 

“What is unfolding in Ankawa is merely the latest chapter in a larger policy of forced displacement and demographic reconfiguration that has targeted our towns and villages in the Nineveh Plains and the Kurdistan Region since 2003,” he stated.

Siyawash placed direct blame on the authorities in both Baghdad and Arba’ilo (Erbil), accusing them of complicity—whether through active collusion or passive silence—in allowing land grabs and the displacement of indigenous peoples to persist unchecked. He drew parallels to similar patterns of encroachment and demographic dilution witnessed in towns like Bartella and Baghdede (Qaraqosh), warning that the survival of the Christian population in Iraq may be approaching a tipping point. 

“This is not a new scenario,” Siyawash said. “We saw it in Bartella, we saw it in Qaraqosh. If we do not act now, our people risk full dissolution and extinction in the diaspora.”

He urged the internationalization of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian cause through a calibrated diplomatic campaign engaging Washington, Moscow, and the European Union. The goal, he said, is to secure meaningful external support and protection for a people that has long faced systemic exclusion and political marginalization within Iraq. 

In a bid to establish long-term solutions, his statement put forward a vision centered on three strategic objectives. Siyawash called (1) for the creation of an autonomous region under international protection, to be guaranteed for a 25-year period. (2) He also advocated for the formal establishment of Nineveh Plains Province, based on the demographic data of the 1957 census—a period widely regarded by community leaders as reflective of their rightful presence in the area. Additionally, he urged the international community to (3) recognize and intervene in the ongoing demographic changes and land violations occurring across both the Kurdistan Region and the Nineveh Plains. 

To that end, he proposed a unified national congress bringing together Chaldean-Syriac-Assyria leaders from both the homeland and diaspora to craft what he called “a collective salvation project.” He concluded with a stark warning:  

“Either we govern our national home now, or we will become permanent guests in our own land—until we disappear.”