(6 Jan 2021) LEAD IN:
On Armenian Orthodox Christmas Day, observers in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq are taking the time to reflect on the past year.
STORY-LINE:
Armenian Christians in Zakho, in Iraq's northern Kurdish region of Iraq, celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ according to the Armenian calendar.
After gathering at Virgin Mary Church, they lit candles and said prayers before a Virgin Mary statuette.
While Western churches celebrate the feast on 25 December, the Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 6.
Many worshippers used this time to reflect back on a very tough year because of the coronavirus pandemic and regional trouble.
One thing weighing on the mind of Dawood Mardusan, the head of Armenians' administration committee in Zakho, was the fierce fighting that erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the over Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"We are sad about the recent war on the Armenian land. We gave many martyrs and we ask for mercy for them," he said.
The number of Armenians in this area is about 850 to 900 people out of 3,000 in the northern Kurdish region.
There are no accurate numbers of Armenians in Iraq as a whole, but it used to be around 30,000 people in 2003.
The number of Iraq's Christians has steadily dwindled since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as they have been targeted by Islamic militants, forcing the majority to flee the country.
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