Sasha Uzunov
Macedonia

Churches belonging to the Christian Assyrians, one of Iraq's indigenous peoples, have become the latest target of terrorism in the strife-torn country. This conjures up disturbing parallels with the decade long religious and ethnic conflict in the Balkans.

Iraq reminds me of the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, both communist federations consisting of various competing ethnic groups. Both of these nations lasted about 70 years before fragmenting violently into a multitude of new nation states in the early 1990s.

Iraq is a hodge podge consisting of an ethnic Arab majority, many of whom are Shiite or Sunni Muslim. A very small number are Arab Christians. Add to this mixture, millions of Sunni Muslim Kurds and Turkmans in the north of the country. Kurds are non-Arabs, whilst the Turkmans are closely related to the Turks. Not forgetting the Assyrian Christians, who were the original inhabitants of Iraq before being swamped by an Islamic Arab invasion in 637 AD, more than 1300 years ago. There are also tiny numbers of ethnic Christian Armenians, and two little known sects, the Sabia, who worship water, and the Yazidi, mistakenly referred to as "devil worshipers."

The irony is that Iraq is one of the cradles of Western and Judeo-Christian civilisation. Anyone who has studied ancient history at high school can recall the Sumerians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and the mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Iraq has Yugoslavia written all over it. Can such a country survive intact? Can the west, in particular the United States-lead coalition of the willing, hold it all together?

The Kurds in the north have been fighting for their own homeland for decades. Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein brutally suppressed them by gassing and bombing them. He also brutally suppressed the Shiite Arab majority, located in the south, which have religious ties to neighbouring non-Arab state, Iran, the descendant of Ancient Persia.

Saddam, as a way of dividing the rival groups, appointed an Arab Christian,the bespectacled Tariq Aziz, as his Foreign Minister. Aziz, being a Christian had no hope of building an anti-Saddam conspiracy.

Northern neighbour Turkey is not comfortable with an independent Kurdistan arising from northern Iraq, as there are millions of Kurds within Turkish borders. Turkey has fought a 20-year Kurdish insurgency and is concerned about the plight of its Turkman kin.

Christian Assyrians also live in Syria and Iran. The father of famous American tennis player, Andre Agassi, is an Assyrian from Iran. These people are a small and persecuted minority in their own homelands. So it comes as no great surprise that a large ethnic Assyrian diaspora exists. In the next couple of months or years, don't be surprised if more of them try to flee to the west.

Another of those persecuted indigenous peoples we hardly hear about is the Christian Egyptian Copts, who have suffered at the hands of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. The former Egyptian Foreign Minister and UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, is a Copt. Like the Assyrians, many Copts have made the west home.

Then there are the Berbers of Algeria. These people are the original nomads of North Africa, who were converted to Islam by invading Arab armies eons ago. A deadly rivalry still exists been Arabs and Berbers.

In Sudan, black African Christians in the Darfur region are being attacked by the Islamic Arabic controlled government and militias.

Can there ever be a peaceful solution to the Middle-East and North Africa?

Mr. Sasha Uzunov is a freelance journalist and covers the Balkans region.