Kurdish Yezidi becomes MP in Georgian Parliament

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Following parliamentary elections in Georgia on Saturday, a Kurdish Yezidi (Ezidi) man gained the required number of votes to become a member of parliament on the ruling party’s list.

Isko Dasni is a Kurdish Ezidi resident of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. He nominated himself for the Georgian parliament enlisting in the Georgian Dream party, the ruling party in the country.

[Isko Dasni, Kurdish Ezidi MP in Georgia. (Photo: Archive)]

On Saturday, the party declared victory in the election as partial results gave the Georgian Dream party a commanding lead.

As 60 percent of the election’s votes have been counted, the party gained nearly 50 percent of the votes, according to the country’s electoral commission.

However, the opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), is in second place with almost 27 percent of the votes.

In 2012, Tamaz Avdalyan, another Ezidi, became a member of the parliament in the Georgian Dream party but died due to a heart attack.

Official statistics show there are 12,000 Kurdish Ezidi people in Georgia, but unofficial sources claim there are about 22,000 Ezidis in the country.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and economic recession in the 1990s, a large number of Ezidis fled to Russia and the West.

Based on a census conducted in 1989, there were more than 30,000 Ezidis in Georgia, and the number decreased to 18,000 in 2002.

Ezidis are believed to number 800,000 people all over the world.

Lalish remains the holiest temple for Ezidis located in the district of Shekhan in the Province of Duhok, Kurdistan Region.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Khoshawi Mohammed from Moscow)