DUHOK, Kurdistan Region – Almost six months since the death of Yezidi spiritual leader, Tahsin Saeed Beg, the ethnoreligious minority has yet to appoint a successor for the role, known as a Mir.
None of the seven candidates who have come forward to become the new Mir have been appointed, leaving the community in a leaderless limbo.
Born on August 15, 1933, in Ba’adra, near Shekhan, Duhok province, Tahsin Beg succeeded his father as chief of the Yezidi community at age 11.
Having presided over the community through several turbulent decades, Mir Tahsin died in a hospital in Hanover, Germany on January 28, 2019, aged 85, after being hospitalized for an illness.
Long an outspoken figure, Mir Tahsin joined the Kurdish Aylul (September) Revolution against the Iraqi government in 1970. He fled to Iran, where he became the target of an attack.
He migrated to the UK in 1975 and returned to Iraq in 1981, surviving two attempts on his life in 1992 and 2003.
Notable Yezidi figures mourned the death of the last Mir as a figure who provided strength and unity during the genocide exacted by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014.
From exile in Germany, he called for international military assistance in defense of his people. He also broke with religious custom and ruled that women raped by ISIS fighters must not be excluded from the faith.
Yezidis were due to appoint a new Mir soon after his death, but disagreements over who should replace him appear to have delayed the process.
One of the candidates, Hemran Mirza Beg, offered up some potential reasons.
“There are some possibilities why a Mir hasn’t been appointed yet. This could be because of the failure of the late Mir’s family to reach an agreement among themselves. Also, there are some people who want to take this authority illegitimately, without considering the will of the Yazidis and the Mir’s family,” he told Rudaw.
“I have an agenda to serve the Yezidi community. There are some people who just want to become Mir. But the person who becomes Mir should be a competent person in all respects,” he said of his candidacy.
The frontrunner for the role of Mir is Hazim Tahsin Beg. The eldest son of the late leader, he acted as his deputy for several years. According to media reports at the time of his father’s death, Hazim had been named as his successor.
“We have held several meetings, but they haven’t yielded any results. We will meet in the coming days in a bid to reach a solution on this delayed matter,” Hazim told Rudaw.
Tahsin Saeed’s 74-year stint as Mir has left an unfamiliar void in leadership. Hazim said that a mechanism to appoint a Mir is not in place, and each candidate wants to implement one that serves his interests - further delaying the process of appointment.
The five other candidates for Mir are Kamiran Khairi Beg, Amir Mehmud Beg, Serzad Faruq Beg, Miran Sebah Beg, and Salim Necman Beg.
Sihud Misto is an advisor to the Yezidis’ Spiritual Council, the community’s main religious body. He warned that the issue should not be delayed any further.
It is not good that a Mir has still not been appointed for the Yezidi community because he has a strong global position that can have influence over the interests of the Yezidis,” he said.
While genocide at the hands of ISIS is over, Yezidis continue to face hurdles in their rehabilitation and the reconstruction of their homes, for which they have sought both national and international assistance. Many remain displaced from their homeland in Shingal and its surrounding areas, while thousands continue to reel from the effects of years of sexual and physical violence.
Misto said he, along with other advisors on the Yezidi Spiritual Council, met with the family of the late spiritual leader and discussed the urgency of appointing a new community chief, in the run up to Eid al-Jamma, one of the most important Yezidi festivals of the year when the community, scattered across Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Germany gathers in the temple city of Lalish, close to Shekhan.
“Eid al-Jamma cannot proceed without a Mir. Mir should supervise the feast which is approaching. It will be held in October,” Misto asserted.
“In our last meeting with the family of the Mir, they told us if they didn’t reach an agreement on this issue, they will let the Yezidi community pick a chief,” he added.
Reporting by Ayub Nasri, translation by Salim Ibrahim
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