The Kurds: No friends but the mountains
An Assyrian monk (top) looks over the Nineveh Plains from the 7th Century Rabban Hormizd Monastery outside of Al-Qosh. Carved out of the mountain and built with the local rock, it is almost impossible to see Rabban Hormizd Monastery until you are in its shadow. But when you do catch sight of it for the first time, it takes your breath away. Looking up at its cliff's-edge perch overlooking the Nineveh Plains, you know you are gazing upon a structure that has stood at the center of the cradle of civilization. Down the road in the small town of Al-Qosh stand the new Chaldean Catholic monastery and a tomb to a Jewish prophet from the 7th Century BC. And, of course, there are mosques in every nearby town and village. The Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) has many religious and ethnic minorities, including the Yazidis, the Kakai, Chaldean Christians, Turkmen, Shabaks, and, of course, the Kurds themselves. The Kurds, with pockets of populations in Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, are the world...