Majority of Syria’s Christians have fled the country

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Around two-thirds of Syria’s Christians have had to escape the war-torn country over the last 10 years, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reports. Prior to the start of the civil war in 2011, Christians constituted between 8%-10% of Syria’s population; they now make up about 3%.

Christians in Syria were responsible for helping to fight Islamic State terrorists in the country. However, according to data received by Rudaw, the Christian community in the Kurdish Jazira region in northeast Syria has now declined from a population of some 150,000 to around 55,000.

Syria’s Christians are mostly Syriac and Assyrian, and they generally belong to three main political parties: the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO), Assyrian Democratic Party (ADP), and the Syriac Union Party (SUP).

The ADO is associated with the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition, while the ADP and the SUP have associated with Kurdish authorities in Rojava in northeast Syria.

The ADO and the SUP have recently begun talks on unifying in order to strengthen their collective influence in Syria, Rudaw said. “The talks which began a few months ago between Syriac and Assyrian parties continue. We have discussed a number of significant issues… We are working on finding a mechanism to increase coordination between parties,” Gabriel Mushe, head of relations office for the ADO, told Rudaw on Monday.

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