Iraq | Pope meets little Alan’s father, a symbol of the refugee crisis

France Media Agency

Photographs of the body of a three-year-old boy trapped on a beach in Turkey have caused shock and awareness about refugees from the war in Syria.

“The Pope spoke at length with Abdullah Kurdi, who now lives in Iraqi Kurdistan,” and “heard the grief of a father who lost his family,” a statement from the Vatican said, while the Sovereign Pope welcomed the refugees. , One of the main themes of his Pontifate.

Alan Kurdi along with his older brother Gallip and his mother Rehana sank their sinking boat in the middle of the Aegean Sea. The family was originally from Kobane in northern Syria and wanted to join Canada.

Pope Francis concludes his visit to Iraq, the first pope in the history of the country, with Mass at a stadium in Erbil on Sunday evening.

Since Friday, he has crossed Baghdad, Mosul or Kharakosh in the north persecuted by jihadists and caused one of the oldest Christian communities, but to the world’s most dispersed great Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a religious figure. Reference to many Shia Muslims.

In his speeches, Pope Francis called for “peace” in the Middle East and “especially in martyred Syria”, where a popular uprising escalated into a complex war 10 years ago, killing 387,000 people.