Patriarch Sako condemns Turkish attacks on South Kurdistan

The Turkish state's air and land attacks on South Kurdistan should end immediately, said Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of the Babylonian Chaldeans, the highest religious leader of all the Chaldeans living in the world.

Evaluating the attacks carried out by the Turkish state in recent days to the Vatican-based Catholic Church's official news agency, Fides, Patriarch Sako said that the attacks should end immediately. Pointing out that there are also Christian minorities who are members of the Chaldean and Assyrian communities in the regions bombed by the Turkish state, Sako underlined that civilians are being targeted.

The religious leader of the Chaldeans, citing the attack that resulted in the death of 5 civilians in the past days, said that he was worried because of the continuing attacks. He added that he could not understand what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to achieve with these attacks, and criticized the Iraqi government for its silence.

Born in Zaxo, South Kurdistan, Louis Raphael Sako served as Catholic Chaldean Catholic Archbishop from 2003 to 2013. In 2013, Sako was elected head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, or religious leader of the Chaldeans as the Babylonian Patriarch.