Norway MP who nominated Peshmerga for Nobel Peace Prize visits Duhok
“I’m here to see the work done by the NGO, IAHV [International Association for Human Values] and Art of Living, who are helping the Yezidis living in camps outside Duhok,” Gulati told Rudaw.
“I think this is very good and important work and I’ve come here to see this with my own eyes.”
Hundreds of Yezidi families are living in camps around Duhok after fleeing a genocidal campaign launched by ISIS in 2014 in Shingal. The group slaughtered thousands of Yezidis and sold women and girls into sexual slavery.
Gulati praised his country’s contribution to fighting the war against ISIS and efforts to alleviate the suffering of internally displaced peoples.
“Norway has also contributed to the international alliance for fighting Daesh. It is important that the entire world community stand together in this fight. And of course there is now a big refugee crisis, and Norway contributes with a lot of donations and development funds to try to help refugees all over the world including in Kurdistan and other places,” he added.
Norwegian lawmaker Himanshu Gulati
In January, Gulati nominated the Peshmerga for the Nobel Peace Prize. He told Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen at the time that the Kurdish armed forces had been “crucial” in the fight against ISIS.
“Without the sacrifices of the Peshmerga victims on the frontline of the battle against ISIS, ISIS probably would be bigger and more powerful than they are today,” he said.
ISIS was declared militarily defeated in December last year after three years of war. However, the Peshmerga has continued to serve to eliminate ISIS remnants as a partnered force in the US-led international coalition, of which Norway is a member.
Norwegian soldiers have trained Peshmerga at the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center.
"This kind of evil is the duty of all humanity to fight, and here the Peshmerga have been on the frontline on behalf of the rest of the world," said Gulati.
Gulati is eligible to nominate by invitation of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
"It will be a big signal from the world to recognize this effort and the lives that have been lost," added the MP.
More than 1,700 Peshmerga died and more than 10,000 were injured in the war that began in 2014.
Peshmerga soldiers were the first to fight back against ISIS after the group overran the Iraqi Army in the country's second-largest city of Mosul and were just kilometers away from the gates of the Kurdistan Region's capital of Erbil.
Iran initially backed the Peshmerga with arms. The United States and then later the coalition provided air support, training, advising, and weapons to the Kurdish forces.
The Peshmerga maintained a frontline against ISIS that ran roughly from Shingal to Khanaqin, which shielded the Kurdistan Region, Turkey, and Europe.