ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani received Yezidi Nobel laureate Nadia Murad in his Erbil office Thursday morning and applauded her global efforts for peace and for carrying the voice of the Yezidi community to the outside world.
“The prime minister congratulated her for receiving the Nobel Prize and he expressed full support to her activities for peace and helping Yezidi victims and carrying their voice to the world,” reported the PM’s office.
Nadia Murad, 25, was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in Oslo on Monday. She was abducted by ISIS in her village of Kocho near Shingal in the summer of 2014 and held captive for weeks before she escaped to the Kurdistan Region.
Her village was one of the most brutal sites of ISIS massacre where many men, women and children were summarily executed by the extremist militants.
Barzani also stood by Murad in her efforts “to bring ISIS terrorists to justice and to have the Yezidi case recognized as genocide.”
I met with Yezidi activist Nadia Murad and congratulated her for receiving the Nobel prize. I support her efforts in raising international awareness of atrocities committed against Yezidis in Iraq & working to fight crimes against women everywhere. We are proud of her. pic.twitter.com/Omn66SpbIP
— Nechirvan Barzani (@PMBarzani) December 13, 2018
Murad who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador recounted her tragic story of abduction and captivity and that of her community to the Kurdish prime minister while stressing the importance of restoring peace and order to the Yezidi areas.
Murad has spoken to world media about helping the Yezidi community return to their homes by rebuilding their destroyed homes and providing essential public services and security.
She asked PM Barzani for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to participate in helping the displaced people return home and live in stability and peace.
Murad gave Barzani a copy of her new book ‘The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State.’
Masrour Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, also received Nobel Peace laureate Nadia Murad Thursday.
Masrour Barzani “expressed his opinion on the protection and role played by Yezidi Kurds as an indigenous and inseparable community of the Kurdistani nation within the framework of the KRG to protect a repeat of similar incidents,” read a KRSC statement.
Murad thanked the KRG for protecting and helping Yezidis, according to Masrour Barzani’s office.
Murad also met with Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region Qubad Talabani. The two were joined by Murad’s fiancee Abid Shamdeen and Talabani’s spouse Sherri Kraham Talabani.
Talabani said he was “very proud” of Murad and her activist work and “showing that after a tragedy there is the determination to see the protection & recovery of the Yezidis.”
Very proud to welcome the courageous & impressive @NadiaMuradBasee. I’m very proud to see how she is raising global awareness of the genocide of the Yezidis, sexual violence & showing that after a tragedy there is the determination to see the protection & recovery of the Yezidis pic.twitter.com/BqqhmZgkwx
— Qubad Talabani (@qubadjt) December 13, 2018
Prior to coming to Erbil, Murad met with Iraqi leaders in the capital of Baghdad on Wednesday.
The Kurdistan Regional Government was the first to recognize the Yezidi plight as a genocide.
Updated at 5:54 pm
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