ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Armenian Christians have historically been part of the Iraqi community but their numbers are drastically decreasing as most have left the country due to instability and violence.
In Kirkuk, a small part of the community remains. They celebrated Orthodox Christmas, which is on January 6.
“There are four of us: my wife, a son, and a daughter. We stayed in this city, but after [the year] 2000 the number has decreased to 30 to 35 families,” Awadis Humberso, an Armenian in Kirkuk, told Rudaw.
The Armenian Orthodox Christmas mass in Kirkuk lasted two hours and about 30 people attended, mostly elderly, saying there were only a few young Armenians left in Iraq.
“The difficult situation in Kirkuk has led Christians to migrate, some to Erbil and some abroad,” said Harut Krikor, a retired teacher.
One student said they would also like to leave the country but their current situation does not allow it.
Most of the Armenians left Iraq in search of better job opportunities, according to community members.
“I came from Baghdad yesterday, today, and tomorrow to celebrate Eid [Christmas]. We used to have many more Armenian families in Iraq, about 20,000, but now that number is gone,” a priest in the Armenian church explained.
In 1987, an estimated 540 Armenian families were living in Kirkuk, making up 2,300 people in total. They still have their churches and cemeteries.
The Kurdistan Region recognizes Armenians as an ethnic component, provides the right to mother-tongue education in the Armenian language, and previously reserved one seat in parliament for Armenians before an Iraqi top court ruling removed it.
There are six Armenian churches in the Kurdistan Region - four in Duhok province, and one each in Erbil and Kirkuk.
Armenian churches in the Region house memorial statues placed to honor those massacred during the Armenian Genocide - the systematic killing and deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, in which approximately 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
