The spiritual and secular leader of the Yezidi visited Göttingen

On September 24th, 2009, Mir Tahsin Said Beg, the spiritual and secular leader of the worldwide some 800,000Yezidi, visited the international secretariat of "Society of Threatened Peoples” (GfbV) in Göttingen.. After he met with the General Secretary Tilman Zülch and the Near-East consultant Dr. Kamal Sido, a press conference took place and he also met with Yezidi from the region and their friends.

In his speech Mir Tahsin focused on the situation of the Yezidi in Iraq: Even in their main settlement area, the highland of Sinjar in Northwestern Iraq and the autonomic state Kurdistan, Yezidi are not save from assaults by Islamic fundamentalists. Many Yezidi in Germany worry about members of their religious community in Iraq, who live in constant fear for their life.

Approximately 50,000 Yezidi live in Germany today. Most of them fled from religious persecution in Turkey. Roughly 25,000 Yezidi are residents in Lower Saxony and 2,000 of them live in the area of the Göttingen, Einbeck and Northeim.

Close to Lalish, the religious shrine of all Yezidi, Mir Tahsin Beg was born in 1931 in Ba´adre, north of Mosul. Since the office "Mir” is heritable, he became leader of the Yezidi at the age of thirteen, after his father had died. His grandmother Meyan Khatoun constantly gave advice and helped him a lot. His office makes him a target for Islamic fundamentalists. As a critic of the Iraqi government’s anti-Yezidi politics Mir Tahsin had to leave the country in 1970. He emigrated to London. In response the government in Baghdad tried to force a new, pro-government leader upon the Yezidi community, though without success. In 1982 Mir Tahsin Beg returned to Iraq.

With some 550,000 Yezidi, most members of this ancient religious community live in Iraq. In addition there are roughly 5,000 Yezidi in Syria and roughly 1,200 in Georgia. In Turkey currently there are only a few hundred Yezidi. In the past about 300,000Yezidi lived in Turkey, but tens of thousands have been assimilated or expelled.

Mir Tahsin Beg thanked the Human Rights Organisation for their engagement for the persecuted religious community of the Yezidi. This engagement has led in his opinion to more public attention towards the situation of the Yezidi and they receive more visitors in Iraq now. He asked "Society of Threatened Peoples” and the German public to continue their work for Yezidi rights.

In addition Mir Tahsin pointed out, that one of his goals for Iraq is that he can move as freely as in Germany, without security. He called on the Yezidi in Germany to follow the German law, because this very law has helped them. For the future Mir Tahsin wishes, that the cooperation with the GfbV will further intensify and that the Yezidi will remain having a direct contact person in case of attacks.