Yezidis granted 4 cabinet posts in new government: Shingal mayor
One Yezidi will become an adviser to the parliamentary speaker, one an adviser to Prime Minister-designate Masrour Barzani, one an undersecretary for an unspecified ministry, and one a director-general in the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs.
Khalil will himself become the adviser to the Speaker, while Sheikh Shamo will become the adviser to Masrour Barzani. The other two are yet to be named.
Masrour Barzani delivered his list of preferred cabinet ministers to the parliament on Monday. Parliament will vote on the list on Wednesday.
Near the end of June, the Yezidi Spiritual Council, the highest religious authority of Yezidis, demanded senior positions in the next KRG.
The Turkmen and Christian minority communities have already each obtained a ministry. Christian representative Ano Abdoka will become Minister for Transport and Communications, while Turkmen Front lawmaker Aydin Marouf has been granted the post of Regional Minister.
Yezidis are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority historically based in Shingal, Nineveh province. A large number of them also live in the Kurdistan Region’s Sheikhan district, Duhok province.
Although Yezidis have a quota seat in the Iraqi parliament, they have no such quotas in the Kurdistan parliament.
Murad Ismael, co-founder and executive director of Yezidi rights organization Yazda, said on Sunday that cabinet representation for Yezidis was "a fundamental right."
We sent a letter to @masrour_barzani, PM of @Kurdistan, asking him to include a Yazidi representative in his cabinet. This is important for Yazidi cause. This is also a fundamental right as more than 200k Yazidis are citizens of Kurdistan Region.
— Murad Ismael (@murad_ismael) July 7, 2019
In the summer of 2014, Shingal was overrun by Islamic State (ISIS) militants. Some 6,417 Yezidis were abducted by the jihadists. Hundreds more were murdered and buried in mass graves.
Since the genocide, thousands of Yezidis have left Iraq to start a new life in Europe and the Americas. Those remaining have become more vocal about their rights in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, demanding more political representation.