In a letter to mark the one year anniversary since the Islamic State captured the last Christian majority town in Iraq, Qaraqosh, Patriarch Raphael Louis Sako said Christians and Yazidis have had their land "occupied and their heritage threatened with extinction."
Iraqi refugees at the Khazair checkpoint
Instead of calling for military action he instead asked the government to earnestly and energetically embark on a process of "national and political reconciliation" as the foundation of the "common citizenship" of all of Iraq's ethnicities and religious groups.
"The authentic basis for reconciliation is loyalty to Iraq - the united homeland of the whole people, and not just for individual persons or groups," he said, with all citizens "giving priority to the common good."
He also called for Iraq to become a "strong modern civil state that is sustainable and representative of the best and most realistic ideals of its people."