The spiritual leader of the Yazidis in Iraq, Mir Hazim Tahsin Beg called on the Iraqi government to invest in the city of Shangal to pave the way for the return of Yazidi refugees who left their homes due to the attack of the terrorist group ISIS in 2014.

Speaking at the MERI Forum in Erbil, during the panel discussion "Yazidis and Christians — let's not let them down," Mir Hazim Tahsin said:

"Our villages and towns were destroyed, they have not yet been rebuilt, our families were displaced in huge numbers in harsh conditions, hundreds of thousands more of our sons and daughters still live in refugee camps. Our daughters and sisters are still being held captive by terrorists, waiting to return to their families."

The Emir (Mir) of the Yazidis called on the Iraqi government to invest in the infrastructure of the destroyed region, in the field of education and rehabilitation of young people and to give them the opportunity to serve their families and the people of Iraq as a whole.

A large number of Yazidis who were taken into slavery by ISIS were rescued with the support of the Yazidi self-defense units and a special directorate created by the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani.

The spiritual leader of the Yazidis in Iraq thanked Barzani for his efforts to rescue the missing Yazidis, but added that more needs to be done.

Mian Khairi Said Bey, the wife of Hazim Tahsin Bega, also spoke at the event. She also thanked President Barzani for his role in rescuing the missing Yazidis:

"Representatives of the Yazidi people have become internally displaced persons, they have to live in tents. Nothing seems safe to the Yazidis, we have suffered so much and do not know what to even talk about… We call on the Iraqi Government to consider us Iraqis, because to this day we are not considered as such. The President of Iraq has never visited Yazidis, To at least listen to Yazidis."

Nineveh Governor Najim al-Jubouri called Shangal an arena of international conflicts. The region suffers from insecurity due to the presence of several armed groups. According to him, despite the insistence of the Kurdish authorities on the full implementation of the agreement, which was adopted in 2020 to "normalize" the situation in the region, the lack of a unified position of Baghdad on the deal hinders this process. According to the governor, he was not even consulted on the agreement, moreover, he attended the event at which the agreement was signed, only as an "escort".

Mlêtê Êzidî