Kurdish president reiterates rejection to support councils

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: President of Iraq’s Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani on Thursday reiterated rejection to the formation of support councils. In his speech during meeting Yazidi personalities in Shikhan district, north of Mosul, the president said “unfortunately some bodies, who fought with us against the former regime, want to form the support councils to won more votes, but we will not allow this in Kurdistan.” In response to calls to form support councils in the Kurdistan Region and adjacent areas, the President said, “We support all attempts to fight terrorism but the goals of forming support councils are something else. President Barzani also referred to the historical bonds of friendship between Kurds and Arabs in Mosul. “We don’t have any ambitions in Mosul. Mosul is a place for all Iraq ’s ethnic and religious communities — Kurds, Arabs, Turkomens, Assyrians, and Chaldeans. Mosul is an example of peaceful co-existence and tolerance of all these communities,” the President added. Speaking about Yazidis, Barzani said “we have absolute trust that Yazidis are Kurds and they have the right to decide that.” The Yazidi faith is not a missionary religion. Its followers are concentrated in northern Iraq. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there are about 800,000 Yazidis all over the world. 550,000 of them live in Iraq and concentrated in the district of Sinjar, where the temple Lalesh is considered the holiest shrine for Yazidis, the district of al-Shaykhan (50 km north of Mosul), the district of Bueshiqa (15 km east of Mosul) and some other areas and villages in the provinces of Ninewa and Duhuk. Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds and most live near Mosul, with smaller communities in Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey. The estimates of their population size vary, partially due to the Yazidi tradition of secrecy about their religious beliefs. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. SH (S) 1