ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church on Thursday congratulated the winners of Iraq’s parliamentary elections and called for the swift formation of the government along with measures to protect the Christian communities in the country.

Sako, Iraq's top Christian leader and the architect of Pope Francis' historic visit to the country in 2021, is a key interlocutor between the Iraqi government and its Christian minority.

“Despite their civilizational history and human values, Iraqi Christians have been subjected to kidnapping, killing, exclusion, marginalization, and mass displacement from their towns, which has driven a third of them to emigrate abroad in search of better conditions,” Sako said in a statement.

“Their existence remains threatened if exclusion continues, and if the government shows no interest in ensuring their justice and treating them as equal citizens like other Iraqis through actions and not just kind words,” he added.

Sako also called on Christian authorities in Iraq to work towards safeguarding their rights.

“From this existential standpoint, and given the unstable internal circumstances and regional transformations, Iraqi Christians, especially independent parties and church authorities, must work to keep Christians on their land, preserve their rights, civilization, and language, and maintain their harmonious connection with their partners in the homeland,” he said.

Last year, Sako had been embroiled in a war of words with controversial Christian leader Rayan al-Kildani. Sako and Kildani traded accusations of illegally seizing Christian-owned properties.

Kildani is the leader of the Iran-backed and nominally-Christian Babylon Movement.

The Babylon Movement is an Iran-backed, nominally-Christian party and militia affiliated with Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The party and Kildani himself have been repeatedly slammed for land grabs in Christian-majority towns in Iraq’s northern Nineveh Plains, as well as in the capital Baghdad.

Its armed wing, the Babylon Brigades or the PMF’s 50th Brigade, are routinely accused of threatening Christian residents in Nineveh and Baghdad, particularly in the former after the Islamic State (ISIS) was defeated in the area. A profile of the brigade in March 2023 described it as “a local Christian force but has been recruited largely from Shia Muslim communities in Baghdad’s Sadr City, al-Muthanna, and Dhi Qar.”

In 2019, the US Treasury sanctioned Kildani for human rights abuses, corruption, and the persecution of religious minorities in Iraq.

Sako on Thursday pushed for the creation of an independent council to represent the Christians politically in Iraqi communities. The body would include Chaldean, Assyrian, Syriac, and other representatives, along with independent figures, experts, and advisors from inside and outside Iraq without clergy involvement.

He also demanded reform of discriminatory laws including the 2024 Personal Status Law and revision of the education curriculum to remove offensive language towards minorities. Sako further proposed that security be transferred to local residents in Christian communities after training and the withdrawal of militias.

Iraq has one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Syriac, an ancient dialect of Aramaic - believed to have been the language spoken by Jesus - is still used as a liturgical language by the Chaldean Catholic Church.

According to the European Centre for Law and Justice, Iraq’s Christian population has declined from 1.5 million in 2003 to merely 150,000 as of 2024, with many fleeing due to sectarian violence and attacks perpetrated by the Islamic State (ISIS).

Many Christians sought refuge from ISIS attacks in the Kurdistan Region, while hundreds of thousands have fled the country due to years of conflict.