Serhan Isa
Born in 1974 in South Kurdistan. After high school he began to write poems. In 1997 came his first poem collection "longing" out, then came "mourning pink" out in 2001. In 1993 he formed and a part of Yezidis intellectuals’ Association Kaniya SPI. " The association has its head office in Germany with the goal of preserving Yezidis ancient culture, tradition, and help for their human and religious rights.
Isa lives in Germany and is the editor of the Web page Kaniya SPI, and studying in Denmark on media and communications line.
In recent years, there have been terrorist attacks against Yezidis, in the area Senghal. Can you summarize the events?
Senghal is Yezidis largest area. There are 400 000 inhabitants in Senghal, about 80 percent of the population consists Yezidis. Senghal lies west of the southern Kurdistan, and is located 120 km from the city of Mosul. Western part of the area extending towards the Syrian border. Senghal is part of Kurdistan. Despite the persecution and massacre during the course of history have Yezidis be held at the Kurds’ ancient culture and religion.
After Saddam Hussein’s defeat Yezidis thought that their dream of human rights and religious freedom would come true. But it was the opposite.
August 14, 2007 became Senghal attacked by terrorists. It ended up more than 311 people were killed, 304 people were injured and 300 houses collapsed. 3050 buildings were destroyed and 170 small businesses were affected.
After the events, decided the government in Iraq that they should contribute with ten million dollars for the people who were severely affected. The terrorist attack against Yezidis protests were hard from many politicians from various parts of the world including The White House, human rights organizations, the Iraqi president Celal Talebani and the president of Kurdistan region Mesud Barzani. Despite promises from the Government of Iraq, Kurdistan, and from the outside world, to make effort for the victims, the victims have not received enough help.
In recent years, there have been several terror attacks against Yezidis in three of their areas. Seyhan, 14-16 February 2007, Behzane, April 7, 2007 and Mosul, 22 April 2007. That affected people very hard. Even today, there has been no investigation of the incident from the Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government – KRGs direction.
Yezidis has any representatives in the Iraqi government or the KRG?
In the first elections in 2004, there were three representatives. During Prime Minister Iyad Al-alawis government had yezidis a ministerial post in charge of social issues. During Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Ceferis management (2005-2006) took away their representatives. Today there are only three left in the KRG. The political parties in Iraq wanted to get rid of these three individuals with, which means they have removed the "Law 50". With the result that they will not have the right to send their representatives to the regional government. Despite KRGs promises to Yezidier to retain their representatives in Parliament so are their rights under threat (interview: Gabar Çiyan – EuroKurd Human Rights).
