Ablahad Afraim Sawa () is an Iraqi Assyrian politician and former member of the

National Assembly of Iraq The Council of Representatives is the '' de facto'' unicameral legislature of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, it is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the country. As of 2020, it comprises 329 seats and meets in Baghd ...

. He was elected as part of the Democratic Alliance of Kurdistan, which had helped his political party, the

Chaldean Democratic Party The Chaldean Democratic Party (), also known as the Chaldean Democratic Union or the Chaldean Democratic Union Party, is an Assyrian Christian democracy, Christian democrat political party from Iraq and within the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurd ...

to begin operation. As the founder and the face of the CDP, he was elected to the

Iraqi parliament The Council of Representatives is the '' de facto'' unicameral legislature of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, it is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the country. As of 2020, it comprises 329 seats and meets in Baghd ...

in the January 2005 and December 2005 elections.

Early life

Sawa was born in 1948 in the Mar Yaqoub village in the

Duhok Governorate Duhok Governorate (, , ) is a governorate in the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Its capital is the city of Duhok. It includes Zakho, near the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Şırnak Province, Turkey. It borders the Al-Hasakah Gove ...

, and was a writer before he began his political career.

Career

On the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, Sawa founded the Chaldean Democratic Party with the help of the

Kurdistan Democratic Party The Kurdistan Democratic Party (), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the ruling Political party, party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. ...

and Chaldean National Congress. Sawa has previously commented on the restrictions that minority political parties faced in Iraq after the invasion, stating that they were given very few resources and even had to withdraw from elections at a point because of a lack of funding. Additionally, Sawa has previously contested Kurdish influence on Assyrian politics in Iraq, despite him winning a seat through the Kurdish bloc, claiming that the micro-minority status of Assyrians in Iraq made him feel like a second class citizen in the country. His comments were published through various WikiLeaks articles in the mid to late 2000s, and he would continue to comment against outside electoral interference in

Assyrian politics in Iraq Assyrian politics in Iraq have been taking many different turns since the US invasion of the country in 2003. Today, there are many different Assyrian political parties in Iraq. The main Assyrian party that came out from the 2005 elections was th ...

. Sawa has also expressed skepticism over

proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq Since the early 20th century several proposals have been made for the establishment of an autonomous area or an Sovereign state, independent state for the Syriac language, Syriac-speaking modern Assyrian people, Assyrians in northern Iraq. Histori ...

, arguing that without a heavily protected border, Assyrians could be left open to violent

Islamic extremism Islamic extremism refers to extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies adhered to by some Muslims within Islam. The term 'Islamic extremism' is contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Is ...

. His party has rarely worked with other Assyrian political parties outside though who espouse a sectarian Chaldean identity, and in 2012, he wrote an accusatory letter addressed to Yonadam Kanna and the

Assyrian Democratic Movement The Assyrian Democratic Movement (, , ADM), popularly known as Zowaa (), is an Assyrian political party situated in Iraq, and one of the main Assyrian parties within the Iraqi parliament. The Assyrian Democratic Movement states its aims are to e ...

Electoral history

Sawa, under the CDP, won the January 2005 and December 2005 Iraqi parliamentary elections, both of which were won with support from the KDP. In 2009, the CDP under his leadership won the Iraqi governorate elections for the seat in

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

. His wins, however, were criticized due to the sectarian nature of the CDP compared to the rest of the Assyrian community, as well as due to the support received from the KDP.

References

Bibliography

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Early life

Career

Electoral history

References

Bibliography

See also