Yezidi Identity Politics - accepted by JBNES (original) (raw)

A Look at the Yezidi Journey to Self-discovery and Ethnic Identity

Iran and the Caucasus, 2019

Yezidi communities throughout the world are struggling with their collective identity; each at a varying and somewhat differing stage of self-discovery. While the present paper does seek to elaborate upon this journey for the Yezidis in Transcaucasia, Germany, Can-ada, and the USA, its main focus remains the analysis of the political developments in the Yezidi heartland of Northern Iraq. This is so that the reader may have a fuller picture of the catalysts spurring this Yezidi reimagining. On the one hand, you have the traditional Ye-zidi leadership caught within a complex series of client-patron relationships with Kurdish leaders: ethnic identification is leveraged for promises of influence and power. While, on the other hand, newly minted Yezidi military commanders, as well as grassroot figures and Yezidi NGOs, are trying to establish themselves as heads of a Yezidi community that is undeniably distinct from their Kurdish neighbours. This paper will further show that the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga in the face of the ISIS attack in 2014, the half-hearted responses of the regional Kurdish and Federal Iraqi governments, all coupled with the stalled return of Yezidi refugees contributed to a growing Yezidi movement to cement their identity, as well as satiate a growing urgency to define themselves as a distinct ethno-religious entity.

Yezidi Identity Politics and Political Ambitions in the Wake of the ISIS Attack.doc

Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies , 2017

This article studies the impact of the ISIS attack and its political aftermath on the identity formation of Yezidis and their political ambition for a future in Iraq. Yezidis, a previously marginalized non-Muslim religious minority, came to play an important role in the Kurdish national movement both ideologically, as the "guardians of the original Kurdish faith", and practically, as a source of logistical support to the Peshmerga in the mountains. Attempts to coopt Yezidis for the Kurdish cause, contrasted to the memory of repeated persecutions by their Muslim neighbors, resulted in a shifting Yezidi identity, ranging from identifying as Kurdish to considering themselves a distinct ethno-nationalist group. The trauma of the ISIS attack and mass displacement, as well as disappointment in the Kurdish government weighed against the need for allies make the question of identity more relevant than ever, as it profoundly affects the ways Yezidis envisage their future existence in a post-ISIS Iraq.

Kurdish Studies 4(2), Special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century

Kurdish Studies 4(2), Special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century, guest edited by Omarkhali, Kh. and Kreyenbroek, Ph., London, Transnational Press London, 2016. http://tplondon.com/journal/index.php/ks/issue/view/65 The present volume deals with recent trends and developments in the Yezidi community, and analyses contemporary portrayals of the Yezidis. The initial focus is on the far-reaching consequences of ISIS’s (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [also known as ISIL or the Islamic State (IS)]) genocide of Yezidis in the Sinjar region of Iraq which began in August 2014, and its possible implications for the Yezidi religion generally. Further contributions discuss how the Yezidis have recently been described in Western media and academic literature.

Introduction to special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century

Kreyenbroek, Ph. and Omarkhali, Kh., ‘Introduction to special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century’, Kurdish Studies 4(2), Special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the Early 21st Century, guest edited by Omarkhali, Kh. and Kreyenbroek, Ph., London, Transnational Press London, 2016, pp. 122–130. The articles in this volume deal with recent developments concerning the Yezidis. They focus on the consequences of IS’s attempted genocide of Yezidis in the Sinjar region, and on aspects of the current public and academic discourse on Yezidis and their religion.

Introduction to the special issue: Yezidism and Yezidi Studies in the early 21st century

The articles in this volume deal with recent developments concerning the Yezidis. They focus on the consequences of ISIS' attempted genocide of Yezidis in the Sinjar region, and on aspects of the current public and academic discourse on Yezidis and their religion. Abstract in Kurmanji Destpêk bo hejmara taybet: Êzdiyatî û Lêkolînên li ser êzdiyan di serê sedsala 21an de Danasîna hejmara taybet: Êzdiyatî û xebatên li ser êzdiyan di destpêka sedsala 21em de. Nivîsarên vê hejmarê berê xwe didine têgihiştina rûdanên dawî yên derbarê êzidiyan de. Ev xebat dêneke taybet didine ser encamên hewla DAIŞê ya qirkirina êzdiyan li herêma Şengalê û cîhetên gotara/dîskûra giştî û akademîk li ser êzdiyan û dînê wan. Abstract in Sorani

Kreyenbroek and Omarkhali, Introduction to Yezidism 2021

Introduction to Yezidism: Between Continuity and Transformation, 2021

KREYENBROEK, Ph. and OMARKHALI, Kh., Introduction to Yezidism: Between Continuity and Transformation, edited by OMARKHALI, Kh. and KREYENBROEK, Ph., Series: IRANICA 29, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2021, pp. XI–XVI. https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/Yezidism/titel\_6984.ahtml The genocidal attack of ISIS on the Yezidi community of the Sinjar region in 2014, with its murder of men and enslavement of women and children, has had enormous consequences for Yezidi communities both in the homelands and in the Diaspora. At the same time, many communities are facing the intrusion of the modern world upon their hitherto very conservative religious traditions. This book focuses on the tensions between conservatism and the need to adapt to current circumstances in a religion which so far mostly resisted change. A number of specialists have been brought together here to offer insights into Yezidis’ often unexpected reactions to the pressures of genocide on the one hand, and modernity generally on the other. It deals with recent trends and developments concerning the Yezidis and is divided into two parts. The first part contains articles about the IS attack and its impact on Yezidi communities in the Middle East. The second part focuses on developments in the Yezidi Diaspora communities. The book will be of interest to specialists on religion, especially those working on the Middle East and on diaspora religion, but also to Iranists, Kurdologists and scholars of different disciplines working on the effects of genocide or other brutal attacks on the worldview of surviving victims, or on the influence of modernity on conservative societies.

The Yezidis: Destruction, Reconstruction, and Identity, 10-11 April 2021

The Conversion of Spaces and Places of Worskhip in Anatolia International Conference, 2021

In this paper, instead of dealing with the conversion or destruction of the Yezidi sacred places, I will discuss how the Yezidis react to exist in their homelands that they don’t live in anymore. I will focus on the Hasan Beg Cemetery (Goristana Hesen Begê), located in the village of Güneli (Geliyê Sora) in Nusaybin, Turkey, where Yezidis of Germany continue to bury their departed. The Yezidis can still not return their homelands, but they continue to manifest their existence in their lands by burying their deceased and carrying out their commemorative rituals there. In this way, they lay claim to their ancestors, past and future. This paper aims to examine the relationship between the cemetery and Yezidi identity. It will question how the Yezidi identity reconstructs and transforms itself in the monumental funerary architecture. These tombstones’ design and symbols will be analysed and the effect of exiling from the land on the mortuary practices will be discussed.

Milete min Êzîd. The Uniqueness of the Yezidi Concept of the Nation

2018

Both the current increasing nationalistic discourse of the Yezidis and the discussion about their "Kurdishness" result from the growing political significance of the Kurds and the inclusion of the Yezidis into the geopolitical game in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The paper concerns the traditional Yezidi understanding of their millet, still valid, but starting to change, which is based on the mystical and metaphysical ideas incompatible with the approach preferred by contemporary political science.