Displaced Yezidis award Kurdish city that sheltered them for 8 years
ZAKHO (Kurdistan 24) - Yezidis in the Cham Mishko internally displaced person camp in the Kurdistan Region's Zakho awarded representatives in the city for sheltering them for the past eight years.
A festival dubbed "Zakho and Sinjar are one soul" was organized on July 6 by the non-governmental Hivi Group and Lalish cultural center inside Cham Mishko camp. The camp hosts over 20,000 displaced Yezidis from Sinjar.
The festival's main aim was to honor the people of Zakho through their representatives and officials for what the Yezidi displaced representatives called the warmest welcome, treatment, and help they have received and continue receiving from them.
Held in a humble field inside Cham Mishko camp, the festival started with some of the Yezidi MPs and officials praising people of Zakho from all backgrounds for receiving them with open arms in 2014 when they had to flee the ferocious attack on Sinjar that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Yezidi prince Hazem Tahseen Beg, political and religious Yezidi leaders each handed Zakho officials from different departments an award as a token of appreciation.
In August 2014, Zakho was one of the first places to receive the displaced, given its proximity to Sinjar. People in Zakho opened the doors of their homes, mosques, church, and schools to shelter the displaced from Sinjar.
Nechirvan Shekh Shamo, a Yezidi lawyer in the festival, expressed the gratitude of Yezidis by saying that Yezidis don't throw stones in the water spring they drink from and that it's part of Yezidi culture to deliver thanks when due.
Sinjar Art Group, founded in 1981, performed multiple traditional dances from Sinjar wearing traditional Yezidi clothes.
Khalaf Hali, a well-known Yezidi folklore singer, also sang at the festival. He told Kurdistan 24 that he hopes all displaced Yezidis can eventually return home and this festival can be held in Sinjar.
Mahma Khalil, a Yezidi member of Iraq's council of representatives, explained that Zakho region sent their sons to help liberate Sinjar from ISIS in addition to aiding and sheltering the Yezidis.
Elif Khalo, a Yezidi IDP, said it was an emotional moment when Dayi Shami Dero, known as the mother of Sinjar martyrs, gave an appreciation award to a mother from Zakho whose Peshmerga sons died fighting ISIS.