Shkoi Kurdistan-
During his historic visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, Pope Francis met with the father of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy whose drowning in 2015 became one of the most iconic images of the refugee crisis.
“I received an email before he came to Iraq, saying that he wants to see me. I said that it would be a great honor for me,” Abdullah Kurdi, the father of the Kurdish child who died while trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Greece, told Rudaw’s Rangin Sharo on Sunday.
“It was a great feeling. I really didn’t believe it was going to happen,” added Kurdi, following a Mass held by the pope at Franso Hariri stadium in Erbil.
“After I lost my family and my child, I dedicated my life to serving children,” Kurdi says he told Pope Francis during their ten minute meeting. “I only ask you to dedicate half an hour of your time to see the children, their situation is very painful.”
“The Pope cried and then I cried. I couldn’t hold myself back,” added the father.
Kurdi and the pope exchanged gifts. He received a medal from Pope Francis and he presented the pontiff with a painting of his son made by artist Karzan Mohammed, which Kurdi said represented the suffering of Kurds.
Alan Kurdi drowned with his mother and brother Ghalib, 4, after their boat capsized on the way to the Greek island of Kos from Turkey on September 2, 2015.
A photograph of Alan’s dead body in a red t-shirt and blue shorts lying face down on the shore of a Turkish beach caused shock and revulsion worldwide and led to calls for European leaders to offer refugees safe and legal passage.
The family from Kobane, like many others from Syria, took to the sea in a small boat from Turkey to Greece, which later capsized.
Following their deaths, the pope called on Catholic European parishes and religious communities to provide shelter to migrant families, as Europe faced a mounting crisis of war refugees, mostly from the Middle East.
During the height of Europe’s refugee crisis, more than one million people mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, fled to Europe in 2015, many of them by crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats that often sank.
“I was very happy. I prepared myself and the government helped me see him. The Kurdistan Region is to thank – from the President to the lowest ranking officials. They all helped me,” added Kurdi, who runs a charity in Erbil.
According to a statement from the Vatican, Pope Francis was “able to listen to the father’s pain for the loss of his family and express his and the Lord’s deep participation in the man’s suffering,” reported Vatican News.
Pope Francis, 84, arrived in Baghdad at 2pm local time on Friday for a three-day visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, welcomed by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi then met with Iraqi officials, including President Barham Salih, before ending the day at the capital’s Syriac Our Lady of Salvation Church, the site of a bloody massacre in 2010 in which 52 worshippers were killed by Islamic extremists.
On Saturday, pope met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf then the site of the ancient city of Ur, believed to be the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, who is revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Then following his arrival in the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, Pope Francis ventured to the town of Qaraqosh in the Christian heartland of the Nineveh Plains and Iraq’s second largest city Mosul, before returning to Erbil to celebrate an evening Mass.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani had a brief meeting with Pope Francis at Erbil airport where the pontiff stopped off before going to Mosul.
Barzani welcomed the pope to Kurdistan, saying his visit is “a great honor for us and a source of pride for the people of Kurdistan,” according to the president’s office.
Pope Francis thanked Barzani for the warm reception he received, saying “for a long time, I have wanted to visit the Kurdistan Region and I am very happy that I managed to respond to your invitation today.”
“I am grateful that, despite being in war, you received the displaced Christians and other minorities from Mosul, Nineveh Plains and Qaraqosh. You opened your arms to Christians,” said the pope.
Pope Francis became the first Catholic pope to visit the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, almost seven years after the Region opened its doors to nearly 140,000 Christians who fled the Nineveh Plains as Islamic State (ISIS) militants massacred thousands of religious minorities in their blitzkrieg across northern Iraq.
