Iraqis in Greece
The Iraqi Arabs who arrived in Greece are Muslims from the central and southern parts of Iraq, mostly Sunni with a tiny Shia minority. Sunni Arabs form 17 per cent of the total Iraqi population, which is almost an equal amount if not more than their Turkmen counterparts. Assyrians have a disproportionately large representation amongst Iraqis in Greece, this could be primarily because Greece has a Christian society, in which Iraqi Christians will find it easy to settle down in. Forming a quarter of the population in Greece, Iraqi Christians make up the majority of Christians from the Middle East, who arrived in Greece from the early 1990s.
Mahmudiya District
Mahmudiya District has approximately 550,000 inhabitants, about over 88 percent of them Shia and the rest Sunni. This ratio is the result of the Iraqi Civil War of 2006-2007, when the Shias of Yusufiya and Iskandariya moved to Mahmudiya, and the Sunnis of Mahmudiya sought refuge in the other two cities. Most of the inhabitants live in rural areas.