ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A new political party representing the Shiite Feyli Kurds is set to launch in Baghdad in October, with the party’s leader stating that the current leadership does not adequately represent the minority.
“A particular group is dominating the Kurdish Feyli cause who are not representing the Kurdish Feylis,” Munir Haddad, head of the Feyli Kurds National Movement, told Rudaw.
The primarily Shiite Feyli Kurds have historically lived in southern Baghdad and disputed areas along the southern border of the Kurdistan Region, with a large population also residing in Iran.
In Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, they have been notable for their leadership in the business community, as well as for being staunch supporters of Kurdish independence movements. This, coupled with their Shiite faith, led to their persecution under Saddam Hussein’s regime, which the Iraqi parliament in 2011 voted to recognize as a genocide.
The party is set to be officially launched in Baghdad on October 5.
During Saddam’s Baath regime, the Feyli Kurds were subjected to mass displacement and property confiscation, most notably under the Revolutionary Command Council Resolution 666, which stripped them of their Iraqi nationality. As many as 1.4 million Feyli Kurds were deported to Iran between the 1960s and 1980s, with thousands killed. Many Feyli Kurds today still lack citizenship documents and feel neglected by both Erbil and Baghdad.
“Feyli Kurds after the liberation of Iraq in 2003 have faced marginalization. We have leaders in the Kurdish, Shiite, liberal, and leftist parties, but a lot of our rights are lost,” Haddad said.
The historical homeland of Feyli Kurds includes disputed territories such as Khanaqin and Mandali along the border with Iran.
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