Christians in Iraq’s Kurdish region “aren’t guests but hosts,” Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), said Wednesday.

Barzani was speaking at a press conference in Erbil after meeting representatives of the Bet-Nahrain Democratic Party, a Christian party.

“Christians and Muslims have always lived together in the region. Christians are the hosts here; they aren’t strangers,” Barzani said.

He went on to stress that the KRG would do what it could to help Christians who had been forced to flee from their homes by Daesh return to their native city.

Barzani added that thousands of Christians and other ethnic minorities had been massacred by Daesh militants following the capture of the northern Iraqi city.  

Recent violence perpetrated by Daesh has prompted 1.2 million Iraqis – including Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Ezidis – to flee their homes.