Ezidi leader sets conditions for Shingal's KRG administration

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The leader of the Yezidi (Ezidi) community on Sunday set conditions for the city of Shingal to be administrated by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Mir Tahseen Beg, the temporal leader of the Ezidi community, said the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, including Ezidi fighters, are the main force defending and protecting the Ezidis of Bahzan, Bashiq, and Shingal in Nineveh Province and Shekhan in Duhok Province.

Tahseen Beg is the leader of the Ezidi people in Kurdistan and across the globe whose number is believed to be over 800,000. 

Tahseen Beg responded to Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani’s call to turn Shingal into a new province under the KRG's administration.

“We have not decided on this 100 percent yet because Ezidis have conditions for this,” he said.

“If Shingal is formed into a new province, the city would be administrated by the Ezidis themselves under the leadership of the KRG,” he added.

After hundreds of years living peacefully together in Shingal and surrounding areas, some Arab tribes betrayed Ezidis and helped the Islamic State (IS) massacre them, Tahseen Beg said in an interview with BBC Arabic.

He explained not all Arab tribes joined IS and that there are good Arab tribes and bad ones.

Regarding the trust between Ezidis and Arab’s in the area, Tahseen Beg admitted it would be difficult.

“Is it easy to trust those who enslaved your daughter and sold her at the slave market? It is not easy,” he remarked.

After IS’ occupation of Shingal in August 2014 with the support of some Arab tribes in the area, they began to massacre Ezidis and enslave the women.

As a result, a large number of Ezidis moved to Shingal Mountain and the Kurdistan Region while others fled to neighboring countries.

Concerning the efforts to free the enslaved Ezidi girls and women, Tahseen Beg said the Iraqi government had not helped.

However, he mentioned the KRG’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani played a significant role in freeing some of the enslaved girls and women.

In November 2015, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with the aerial support of the US-led warplanes, successfully liberated the city from the jihadist group.

Since then, few people have returned to Shingal. Over 80 percent of the city has been destroyed and damaged by the IS, and coalition air strikes.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany