RT Article
T1 Christians in Syria and Iraq: From Co-optation to Militarisation Strategies
JF Studies in world christianity
VO 28
IS 3
SP 334
OP 360
A1 Roussos, Sotiris
A1 Drakoularakos, Stavros
LA English
PB Edinburgh Univ. Press
YR 2022
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1819844021
AB After the eruption of civil strife in Syria and Iraq, widespread violence and harassment, mainly by jihadist groups, came to substantiate fears for the extinction of the Christians. Various jihadist groups have perpetrated an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians. The paper will examine another alternative to co-optation, a survival strategy that has developed among the Christians in Iraq and Syria, that of armed resistance and the organisation of militias. This militarisation trend reveals serious inner-communal disagreements. Caught among regional antagonisms and suspicious of the ascendent Sunni, Shia and Kurdish political aspirations and nationalisms, the idea of self-determination and self-government in an autonomous zone around Nineveh seems the best alternative to state co-optation. The paper will also look into the evolving relationship of the Christian communities with the state, the Muslim majorities, the other non-Muslim communities and the international community in a system of overlapping authority and multiple loyalty in the region.
K1 Militarisation
K1 Militias
K1 Isis
K1 Syria
K1 Iraq
K1 Middle Eastern Christianity
DO 10.3366/swc.2022.0403