IRAQ-CONFLICT-RELIGION-CHRISTIANITY-ASSYRIAN

The newly-elected Iraqi Catholicos-patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III (formerly known as Mar Gewargis Sliwa), waits to receive Iraqi Kurdistan president Massud Barzani at the Saint Youhanna church (Saint John) in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on September 28, 2015. Mar Gewargis Silwa, who is based in Arbil, was elected this month by a council of prelates to succeed to the late Mar Dinkha IV under the ecclesiastical name Mar Gewargis III. AFP PHOTO / SAFIN HAMED (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP via Getty Images)