Yazidi lawmaker accuses Kurds of attacking his family

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Yazidi lawmaker Ameen Farhan Jijo on Monday said that elements of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) attacked his family in Shikhan after he accused the party of violating the elections law, calling on the premier to send troops to the province. “Elements from the KDP attacked my family on Monday afternoon (Jan. 26) and instigated the region’s residents against us,” Jajo told IraqiNews.com news agency. For his part, MP from the KDP, Saad al-Barzanji denied what the Yazidi lawmaker said, asserting that “these claims are false and fabricated and aim at deforming Kurds’ reputation before the elections.” He underlined that the KDP does not use threatening means because “its far from its principles.” The Yazidi parliamentarian had accused Kurds of “illegitimate campaigning,” a charge denied by a Kurdish lawmaker who threatened to file lawsuits against those who make such “groundless” accusations. I have photographic evidence pointing to violations committed by the third division of the Iraqi army, which pastes the posters of the Ninewa Fraternal List on their vehicles,” Jijo said. The Ninewa Fraternal List encompasses the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), the Assyrian National Congress, the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), the Kurdistan Communist Party, and the Kurdistan Socialist Party. Jijo, who is also the secretary general of the Yazidi Reform and Progress Movement, said that it has made a complaint to the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) in Ninewa province and attached the photographic evidence. Meanwhile, MP Saadi al-Barzanji from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) rejected the accusations as “fabricated and unfounded.” Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds. Most of them 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. Yazidis worship seven angels, in the form of peacocks, who are subordinate to the supreme god who created the universe. SH (S)/SR 1