First Batch of Iraqi Yezidis in Georgia, Dozens More Awaited

TBILISI, Georgia – A first batch of 15 Kurdish Yezidi refugees from Iraq has been in Georgia for about a week, and community leaders said they are expecting dozens more.

Some of the arrivals want to remain in Georgia and have already sought asylum, while others said they wanted to leave for countries in Europe.

“We are here during seven days, my parents stayed in Kurdistan, where the situation was horrible,” said one of the Yezidis, who arrived with his own and his sister’s families.

Employees and volunteers of the Georgia House of Yezidis provide help and accommodation for the arrivals until they contact the proper Georgian authorities.

“Fifteen people are already in Georgia, but this is not the full number we are waiting for,” said Agit Mirzoev, executive director of the House of Yezidis. “In the coming days we are expecting at least 100 refugees who contacted us” he added, explaining that travel out of Iraq is very difficult due to the war.

Mirzoev added he had met with Georgian authorities in charge of handling internally displaced person (IDPs) and refugees, and that authorities are ready to grant asylum. He also met officials from the embassies of the United States, Switzerland, Turkey and Poland.

He explained that the Georgian government, in coordination with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), is ready to provide arriving refugees with about $200 for accommodation and $40 per person every month” he said.

“Also, we have mobilized community resources as well. There are a lot of people who have offered to provide not only money, but also food, clothes and furniture for refugees,” Mirzoev said.

The majority of Kurds in Georgia are Yezidis whose ancestors fled persecution in modern-day Turkey during the end of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. They enjoy many language and cultural rights and have not faced the kind of oppression of Kurds in the Middle East and Turkey.

Mirzoev said that the persecution of Yezidis in Iraq had been a long-term process, and feared that the reported abductions and killings of their community members means that the gentle community in Iraq will now become more radicalized.

On Wednesday, Georgia’s Yezidi community staged its second anti-IS rally, where activists signed a petition demanding that the Georgian government take part in humanitarian support of Yezidis and Christians in Iraq.