Yezidi National Union laeder Khdr Hajoyan.
Credit: X/@KhdrHajo
Hyderabad: A community leader of the Yezidis, a religious minority from Iraq persecuted by ISIS, hopes that the Indian government can help them by presenting their cause at the United Nations.
ISIS had killed thousands of Yezidis and forced women and girls into sexual slavery.
Asked whether he seeks any help from the Indian government, Khdr Hajoyan, president of the Yezidi National Union in Armenia, on Friday replied in the affirmative and said he was part of a Yezidi delegation that visited Delhi in 2015 seeking support from India.
Hajoyan, who was in Hyderabad to attend the ongoing Lokmanthan 2024, said several organisations, including religious guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, had sent humanitarian aid to the Yezidis then.
"But, we also want at the state (government) level to protect the Yezidis. We, Yazidis, don't have our own state. India is a great country, in the UN, especially in the security council. (India) can present the reality about us and protect us from the disappearance of one of the ancient people (community), Yezidis," he told PTI.
He said Yezidis, whose population is about two to three million all over the world, presently live in various countries, including Germany, Russia, Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, US, Canada, Syria and Turkey.
The Yezidis still live in temporary shelters in Iraq, Syria and Turkey and many refugees come to Armenia where they feel safer, Hajoyan said.
Stating that the Yezidis are working for international recognition, he said the CIS countries of Russia, Armenia and Georgia recognised Yezidis as an ethnic group.
He also said Yezidi girls and women are still held in captivity by the ISIS, even as a Yezidi woman was recently rescued in Gaza.
Yezidis, who pray to the Peacock Angel, are branded as 'devil worshippers' by "Kurdish Mullahs", he added.