Kurdistan PM congratulates Yezidis on annual pilgrimage, calls for Sinjar security to be 'normalized'

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday extended his congratulations to the Yezidi (Ezidi) religious minority across the world on their annual Gathering and Feast of Seven Days, also known as the Jamayi Eid.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Tuesday extended his congratulations to the Yezidi (Ezidi) religious minority across the world on their annual Gathering and Feast of Seven Days, also known as the Jamayi Eid.

This comes less than a week after the top Ezidi spiritual leader passed away while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in Erbil at age 87.

Read More: Yezidi spiritual leader dies in Kurdistan Region

Also known as the Jamayi or the Ziyaret, the week-long observance is a sacred time when Ezidis make a pilgrimage to the temple of Lalish to unite as one people. Lalish, the Ezidi's most holy site, is located in the Kurdistan Region's province of Duhok.

Read More: PHOTOS: Take a walking tour of Lalish's main temple

Prime Minister Barzani extended his “warmest congratulations and blessings to the prince of the Ezidis, the Ezidi Spiritual Council, and all the Ezidi brothers and sisters in Kurdistan and the world on the occasion of the coming of (Jamayi Eid).” He said he wished them a holiday “full of goodness and joy and to mark the end to all their grief and suffering.”

“With the sadness that hangs over us from the departure of His Eminence Baba Sheikh, this Eid comes under difficult circumstances amid the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic,” he continued, expressing his hope that the Ezidi community would overcome such difficulties.

He also pledged his government’s ongoing efforts to provide services to Ezidis in the Kurdistan Region and in territories disputed by the regional and federal governments such as the Ezidi-majority city of Sinjar (Shingal). He explained that, in the interest of safety, the security situation in such areas must be “normalized” so that displaced Ezidis now living in camps “can return to their homes with their heads held high.”

There are about one million Ezidis worldwide, with almost half of them living in Iraq and the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

The emergence of the Islamic State and its violent assault on Shingal in 2014 led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of members of the religious community. Most of them fled to the Kurdistan Region, while others resettled in neighboring countries or in Western states.

Others were not as lucky and remained stranded in the war zone, where they experienced atrocities and mass executions at the hands of the extremist group for years. Militants subjected women and girls to sexual slavery, kidnapped children, forced religious conversions, executed scores of men, and abused, sold, and trafficked women across areas they controlled in Iraq and Syria in what are now widely recognized as acts of genocide.

Editing by John J. Catherine