To the Editor:

In "Christian Sects in Kurdish Lands Dwindle" (letter, May 24), Alastair Bruton claims that the numbers of Christians living in the Kurdish area in the north of Iraq and southeast of Turkey have been reduced from 25,000 to 200 to 300 "because the Kurds told them they had no future in a land the Kurds would soon control." Mr. Bruton concludes by appealing for the linkage of "safeguards" to Western aid earmarked for the peoples of Kurdistan-Iraq because otherwise the West will be facilitating "ethnic cleansing" there.

Throughout this century, Muslim Kurds and Christian Assyrians and Chaldeans in Kurdistan- Iraq have enjoyed good and cooperative relations. In the 1930's, for example, the Kurds did not retaliate against Christians who displaced them, in collaboration with British colonists, from the oil rich area of Kirkuk. More recently, some Christians have joined Kurdish political parties.

In the 1980's many Christians left the Kurdish area for Baghdad or destinations abroad for economic reasons. Iraqi Kurds, themselves victims of chemical warfare and an operation that, it is estimated, claimed the lives of 180,000 Kurds, were hardly in a position to force any other people out of the region.

Some Christians fled to Turkey in the April 1991 refugee exodus and refused to return for economic reasons or because they had no homes to which to return. This is documented in reports released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and in an April 1992 investigation report by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

In the last year, in preparation for the May 1992 election, the Kurdistan Front set aside 5 seats (out of 105) for Christians in the new Kurdish Parliament. This quota assured the representation of Chaldeans and other Christian groups. Because the two major parties hold 50 seats each, the Christian members of the Kurdish Parliament will cast the deciding votes should a stalemate arise.

As the Iraqi military again looms as an ominous presence on the horizon of Kurdistan-Iraq, the fledgling democracy deserves and needs Western humanitarian aid as long as its leaders apply the law equitably to all people.

Salah Aziz, President, Badlisy Center for Kurdish Studies Tallahassee, Fla. May 25, 1993

New York Times, June 4, 1993.