Feyli Kurds organize conf. to set up bloc for next elections

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The chairman of the Feyli Kurds gathering in Iraq said that the gathering organized a conference Friday to establish a bloc which will take part in the coming parliamentary elections. “The gathering held a conference (unity and justice road to flourishing future) to discuss ways of holding talks with Kurdish movements and organizations to establish a bloc to take part in the coming parliamentary elections,” Mohamed Saeed told Iraqi News. Feyli Kurds are largely a Shiite community living in Baghdad and the province of Diala around Khanaqin and Mandili. They are an estimated 2-3 million Feylis living in Iraq. Also in Iran, mainly in Ilam and Kermanshah as well as due to migration, to cities such as Tabriz, Tehran and Hamadan. Feylis speak Feyli, a dialect of the Pahlawani. The roots of the Feylis go back to the Aryan immigrants of the first millennium BC, and more specifically, the Parthian/Pahlawi/Pahlawanid settlements of the 2nd century BD. They embraced Islam in the early stages of the Islamic conquest and colonisation of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Iran, though archaeological evidence from the Ilam province in Iran indicates that a significant proportion of Feyli were Nestorian Christians until the 18th Century. When the Safavid dynasty (1507-1721) held sway over Persia, Feyli Kurds switched to the Shiite Jaafari doctrine under Persian influence. In modern times the Feylis have been subject to state persecutions. In the mid 1970s, Iraq expelled around 40,000 Shiite Feyli Kurds who had lived for generations near Baghdad and Khanaqin, alleging that they were Iranian nationals. SH (S) 1