The association SOS Chrétiens d'Orient faces the disappearance of four collaborators in Iraq

SOS Christians of the East, without news for six days of its four collaborators, missing in Iraq. Three Frenchmen and an Iraqi, who work to help the Christian communities of the East persecuted in several countries, disappeared on Monday January 20.

Seen for the very last time near the French embassy in Baghdad, they were in the Iraqi capital for administrative reasons, Jeanne der Agopian, head of the association's press relations, told France 24. "We do not have volunteers in Baghdad for obvious security reasons," she explains. "We have actions in Baghdad, in particular to contribute to the reconstruction of a school in the Christian quarter, but even if these four collaborators were to go there to follow the progress of the project, it was not the main goal of their visit to Baghdad ", she specifies, insisting on the will of the NGO to preserve the identity of the missing employees and to avoid any detail allowing to identify them.

The collaborators went to the embassy to renew their visa, but also to continue the procedures of registration of the association in Iraq, whose branches are located only in Iraqi Kurdistan. "Given the situation in Iraq, we had repatriated, for the past few weeks, all of our volunteers to Erbil for security reasons," said Jeanne der Agopian.

🔴🇮🇶 #Irak - Monday January 20, 4 of our employees disappeared at #Bagdad. French and Iraqi authorities are coordinating to investigate.
We invite you to pray for them and their families and to support us in this ordeal.

👉Read more: https://t.co/XPU9ADQ2pC pic.twitter.com/BMB9vxeL6k

While SOS Chrétiens d'Orient boasted in November 2017 that it had "no significant problems" in four years of existence, it is today facing its very first major security incident.

"We have extremely comprehensive security procedures," said the official, referring to a nearly 200-page manual devoted to security and drawn up "in good understanding" with the French authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We have always done our utmost in terms of security," she continues, "but obviously, we will have to review all of this and think about it again, because something has happened."

Emergency aid and "maintenance of an active spiritual life"

Created in 2013, the association, which provides humanitarian aid to Christian populations living in the Middle East, acts in particular in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

It was after the capture of the Christian village of Maaloula (Syria) by the rebel group of Salafi jihadist ideology, Front al-Nosra, that Charles Meyer and Benjamin Blanchard founded SOS Chrétiens d'Orient. They then went there to "bring food, medicine and toys to the country".

Since then, the NGO, which also has a branch in Jordan, has increased the sending of food and volunteers, mainly to Iraq and Syria, to help the Christian minorities in the region.

Emergency aid is provided to refugees living in crowded camps. SOS Chrétiens d'Orient explains, on its website, bringing water, food, housing, basic necessities, hygiene products and coverage to these communities, some of which are victims of persecution.

The association also finances pharmacies, mobile infirmaries, sanitary equipment and medicines, and implements various projects allowing the "maintenance of an active spiritual life" (security and restoration of churches destroyed by the Islamists) and the education of young people. Eastern Christians (construction of schools, organization of shows).

In February 2017, the NGO obtained, by a decree signed by the hand of the Minister of Defense, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the status of "partner of national defense". Among the fifty institutions, companies and associations concerned by the decree, SOS Chrétiens d'Orient was rewarded for its "commitment" to the promotion of national defense.

Indeed, "many of our volunteers are members of the army as reservists", explains Jeanne der Agopian, adding that the NGO has worked closely, and has always done so, with the Ministry of Defense.

Last September, the subsidy of 22,000 euros that Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region wished to grant to the NGO SOS Chrétiens d'Orient caused such a controversy that the Region resolved to deny and indicate that no action would be taken on the association's request for a grant.

This decision, which was initially to be submitted to a vote in committee, notably provoked the ire of the opposition group (socialist) which, in a tweet, had denounced the will of Laurent Wauquiez to "want to support an association whose leaders are known for belonging to the far right. "

SOS Chrétiens d'Orient: @laurentwauquiez persists in wanting to support 1 association whose leaders are known for belonging to the far right. No, L.Wauquiez has not changed, it is still a question of making @ auvergnerhalpes 1 political laboratory of a hard right and identity pic.twitter.com/Aa8Lie1Ktm

Controversy over its ties to the far right

If it presents itself as "apolitical", the NGO is regularly singled out for its links, present or past, with the extreme right, or identity and nationalist movements.

Charles Meyer, its co-founder, is currently the parliamentary attaché of Thierry Mariani, today an MEP under the label of the National Rally (RN). Benjamin Blanchard, the other personality at the origin of the association was the parliamentary assistant to the European deputy Marie-Christine Arnautu, vice-president of the former National Front (FN) from 2011 to 2018.

Other members, or ex-members, are linked to more radical movements. Maxime Gaucher and Damien Rieu are known to have been executive and spokesperson for the extreme right identity political movement "Génération identitaire" respectively; François-Xavier Gicquel, appointed director of operations at SOS Chrétiens d'Orient, was expelled from the FN in 2011 after being photographed while saluting the Nazis.

"Of the 2,000 volunteers who left, there is absolutely no political color," defends Jeanne der Agopian, however. "We have volunteers from all countries, from all backgrounds, and I challenge anyone to explain to us that all are affiliated with the radical right. This is absolutely not the case."

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