Armenian Christians celebrate Christmas in Iraq

(6 Jan 2022) LEAD IN: Armenian Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas in Dohuk in the Kurdish region of Iraq.   STORY-LINE: Armenian Orthodox Christians in Iraq got together and prayed for peace and safety on Thursday at Christmas Mass. While Western churches celebrate the feast on 25 December, the Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 6. Worshippers on Thursday attended mass at the Armenian Orthodox Church in Dohuk governorate in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Approximately 4,000 Armenians live in the northern Kurdish region and some 260 families live in Dohuk governorate, which has four Armenian churches. Iraq’s Christians, whose presence there goes back nearly to the time of Christ, belong to a number of rites and denominations, with the Chaldean Catholic the largest, along with Syriac Catholics, Assyrians and several Orthodox churches. They once constituted a sizeable minority in Iraq, estimated at around 1.4 million. But their numbers began to fall amid the