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Iraq Parliament rejects proposal to establish Christian and Yazidi provinces

The plans to establish separate provinces for Christians and Yazidis have been rejected by The Iraqi Parliament when it voted in favor of maintaining the administrative border of Nineveh province on Monday.

Displaced women from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence in the Iraqi town of Sinjar west of Mosul, make breads at the Khanki camp on the outskirts of Dohuk province, November 29, 2014. | Reuters/Ari Jalal

"The Iraqi people reject any decision that partitions the Nineveh province. The people of the city determine the destiny of their city in the post-Islamic State (IS) stage," said Ahmed al-Jabra, a Sunni Member of Parliament (MP) who requested the parliament vote, according to Assyrian International News Agency (AINA).

Shingal, a district in Nineveh Province is mostly populated by Yazidis, while a large number of Christians live in the Nineveh Plain. Yazidis and Christians are demanding the establishment of the two regions as separate provinces.

Viyan Dakhil, a Kurdish Yazidi MP, has said that Kurdish Yazidis will not be returning to Shingal unless there are changes in the administration of Nineveh Province.

Romio Hakkari, the Secretary-General of the Assyrian Bet al-Nahrain Party, is suspicious about creating a Sunni autonomous region.

"We do not want to be part of the possible Sunni autonomous region in Iraq," said Hakkari who claims that Christians suffer discrimination from Sunnis in the region, according to the same report from AINA.

Hakkari stated that about 200,000 Christians were displaced when Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gained control of Mosul in June 2014. He had previously visited Washington to ask for support in liberating the Nineveh Plain.

Earlier this month, The Christian militia known as the Nineveh Plain Protection Unit (NPU) reported the liberation of the village of Badanah in southern Mosul with the help of a United-States-led coalition.

It was later revealed that ISIS has been planting mines in the Nineveh Plain as they move away from the area.

Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of the Chaldean Catholic Church stated that it would take a massive program to remove the hundreds of mines before people can return and rebuild the city, according to Agenzia Fides.

Christians from the Nineveh Valley are divided in their opinions about the administration of the region. Some believe that Nineveh Valley should be a part of the Kurdistan Region while others want an autonomous region that coordinates with the Iraqi government.