Kurdistan
Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, speaking to Rudaw on March 9, 2024. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, on Saturday told Rudaw that a recent court ruling to remove quota seats from the Kurdistan Region’s parliament was “unconstitutional,” and expressed concern about how the country's top court was making decisions.
“The ruling contradicts the law and the constitution, and does not honor prevailing customs. There are a lot of things that are not in the hands of the court,” Sako told Rudaw.
The Federal Supreme Court last month ruled that the 11 quota seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities were unconstitutional, effectively eliminating the seats.
Sako said he believes that issues such as disputes over the minority seats should be resolved in the parliament and not the court, whose objectivity he questioned.
“There is always targeting behind the rulings. When my decree was revoked, it was targeting the Christians, not Louis Sako personally. And here also, there is a sort of targeting, targeting of the coexistence and harmony in the Kurdistan Region,” Sako added.
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid in July revoked a special presidential decree formally recognizing Cardinal Sako and granting him powers over Christian endowment affairs, citing constitutional grounds.
A series of rulings by Iraq’s top court in recent years, criticized by Kurdish officials as detrimental to the Kurdistan Region’s political entity, have sparked concerns over the future of the Region’s semi-autonomous status.
“The Kurdistan Region was established based on the constitution and it is a federal region. There is a dialogue between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government on thorny issues. The court needs to support this dialogue, rather than cancelling it through a unilateral decision,” said the Chaldean patriarch.
In the latest blow to the Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq’s top court in late February ruled that the Region’s oil and non-oil revenues must be handed over to Baghdad. In addition, all salaries are to be paid directly by the federal government, rather than Erbil.
While the Chaldean patriarch criticized the elimination of quota seats in the Kurdistan parliament, he said some similar reserved seats in the Iraqi parliament could be done away with because they had been “kidnapped” and that those who win them do not represent the Christian community, obliquely referring to a nominally Christian armed group aligned with Shiite parties.
“The ruling contradicts the law and the constitution, and does not honor prevailing customs. There are a lot of things that are not in the hands of the court,” Sako told Rudaw.
The Federal Supreme Court last month ruled that the 11 quota seats in the Kurdistan Region’s parliament reserved for ethnic and religious minorities were unconstitutional, effectively eliminating the seats.
Sako said he believes that issues such as disputes over the minority seats should be resolved in the parliament and not the court, whose objectivity he questioned.
“There is always targeting behind the rulings. When my decree was revoked, it was targeting the Christians, not Louis Sako personally. And here also, there is a sort of targeting, targeting of the coexistence and harmony in the Kurdistan Region,” Sako added.
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid in July revoked a special presidential decree formally recognizing Cardinal Sako and granting him powers over Christian endowment affairs, citing constitutional grounds.
A series of rulings by Iraq’s top court in recent years, criticized by Kurdish officials as detrimental to the Kurdistan Region’s political entity, have sparked concerns over the future of the Region’s semi-autonomous status.
“The Kurdistan Region was established based on the constitution and it is a federal region. There is a dialogue between the Kurdistan Region and the federal government on thorny issues. The court needs to support this dialogue, rather than cancelling it through a unilateral decision,” said the Chaldean patriarch.
In the latest blow to the Kurdistan Regional Government, Iraq’s top court in late February ruled that the Region’s oil and non-oil revenues must be handed over to Baghdad. In addition, all salaries are to be paid directly by the federal government, rather than Erbil.
While the Chaldean patriarch criticized the elimination of quota seats in the Kurdistan parliament, he said some similar reserved seats in the Iraqi parliament could be done away with because they had been “kidnapped” and that those who win them do not represent the Christian community, obliquely referring to a nominally Christian armed group aligned with Shiite parties.
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