The government of Iraqi Kurdistan opened the first Armenian church in the capital Erbil,  Western Armenia TV reported.

The church, located in the Ainkawa district, was built under the leadership of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Religious Affairs.

Representatives of the government of the Kurdish autonomy, as well as foreign guests attended the ceremony of consecration of the church.

“The opening of this church itself is laying another foundation stone for a peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups in the Kurdistan Region,” Safeen Dizayee, the spokesperson of the KRG present to represent Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani at the observance.

The autonomous region has a unicameral parliamentary legislature with 111 seats, with five quota seats each reserved for Turkmen and Christian parties and one seat specifically set aside for a member of an Armenian party.