#kurdification

Minorities in Northern Iraq

Northern Iraq is considered the homeland of the Êzîdî community, as Êzîdism’s holiest sites are located in Iraq. Between 700,000 to 750,000 Êzîdîs lived in Iraq in 2005. By 2014, this had decreased by 200,000 and then by a further 90,000 between 2014 and 2017. Already from 2003-2013, 150,000 Êzîdîs fled Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. It is also the homeland of the Assyrians. Since the 2003 Iraq war, Assyrians have fled from the country and their population has collapsed under the Government of Iraq. Majority of them have either fled to the Kurdistan Region or abroad. 

Systematic persecution of the minorities was a consistent feature under successive Iraqi governments, especially the former Baathist regime - including Arabization.  

Oppression continues in the Kurdistan Region (KRI) for both, Êzîdîs and Assyrians. There is also an ongoing Kurdish expropriation of Assyrian lands, and in general a Kurdification of historical Assyrian and Êzîdî homeland. 

07.03.2026

Once again, a Kurdish media outlet has published misinformation about the Ezidi people. In a recent article about the Khidr Elias holiday, the outlet Kurdistan24 repeatedly referred to Ezidis as “Yazidi Kurds.” This is not journalism. It is propaganda.

Ezidis are not Kurds. The Ezidi people are an ancient ethnic people with their own identity, history, and the religion of Sharfadin. Labeling Ezidis as “Yazidi Kurds” is a political narrative designed to erase that identity and absorb the Ezidi people into a Kurdish national framework. When media outlets repeat this phrase, they are spreading false information.

Responsible journalism requires accuracy and respect for the people being reported on. Kurdistan24 failed to meet even the most basic standards. Instead of reporting on the Ezidi religious holiday professionally, the outlet inserted political language that distorts reality. Such reporting is not only misleading; it is deeply disrespectful.

This is not the first time such narratives have appeared in other Kurdish media platforms (among others: Rudaw). For years, certain Kurdish political actors and media platforms have attempted to portray Ezidis as part of the Kurdish “nation”. Many Ezidis have repeatedly rejected this claim, yet the narrative continues to appear in articles, speeches, and broadcasts.

Even more troubling is the growing attempt to appropriate elements of the Ezidi religion, Sharfadin, and present them as Kurdish cultural traditions. The Khidr Elias holiday is a sacred observance within the Ezidi faith, rooted in the religious traditions of Sharfadin. It is not a Kurdish holiday and it has never been part of Kurdish religious practice.

This raises a serious question: why are Kurdish media outlets trying to claim Ezidi religious traditions as their own? Why are they attempting to rebrand sacred Ezidi practices as “Kurdish”? Is it because they lack their own distinct religious traditions and therefore seek to absorb those of the Ezidi people?

Stealing the identity of a people is one thing. Attempting to appropriate their religion and sacred traditions is another level entirely. The Ezidi religion of Sharfadin has survived centuries of persecution, forced displacement, and genocide. It does not belong to any political movement, media outlet, or nationalist project.

The territory they calim to be “kurdistani” have been Ezidi territories long before the kurds have existed. However, now suddenly, Ezids live in “kurdistani” territories.

If Kurdish media outlets truly wish to report professionally, the first step is simple: respect the truth. Stop spreading propaganda. Stop rewriting the identity of the Ezidi people. Stop presenting Ezidi religious traditions as something they are not.

In a recent opinion piece in Rüdaw, İkbal Dürre makes several claims about the number of Kurds in Russia and argues that official figures are inaccurate because, according to him, “Ezidi Kurds” identify simply as “Ezidi.” His argument, however, rests on assumptions that ignore history, identity, and basic logic.

His argument is that Ezidis are Kurds too and that the current statistic number about the number of Kurds in Russia are wrong. He claims that Ezidis too should be counted as Kurds.

Ezidi Times couldn’t refrain from addressing these inaccurate, politically motivated, false statements İkbal Dürre is making. Because silence and inactivity too can be dangerous if we allow people like him insist on speaking over an entire people while attempting to forcefully absorb them into an identity they do not belong to.

İkbal Dürre you are wrong becaue:

1. Who decides how Russia counts its citizens? Certainly not foreign commentators.

Dürre repeatedly implies that Russia’s official statements about population numbers are flawed because they do not reflect his personal estimates. But Russia, like any sovereign state, conducts its own census and determines how citizens can self-identify. If several hundred thousands of Ezidis in Russia register as Ezidi, that is their legal right and it is also a recognition of their distinct ethnic (ezidi) and religious (sharfadin) heritage.

What authority does an external commentator have to dispute how individuals choose to identify themselves in an official Russian census?

2. Ezidis are not Kurds and that is precisely why they are not counted as Kurds.

The argument that Russia “miscounts” its Kurdish population because Ezidis identify as Ezidi rather than Kurdish ignores a fundamental fact: Ezidis are a people of their own, with an ancient ethnic identity and a faith—Sharfadin—that predates and stands separate from “Kurdish” identity.

If Ezidis do not identify as Kurds, and Russia records them accordingly, that is not an error. It is accuracy, a fact.

Forcing Ezidis into Kurdish demographic numbers is simply rewriting people’s identities to fit someone else’s political (kurdifying and kurdification) narrative.

3. “Kurdish citizens”? Where, exactly?

Dürre refers to Ezidis in Russia as “Kurdish citizens.” But there is no such citizenship.

Citizens of Russia are Russian citizens. Ezidis in Russia have never been subjects or citizens of any “kurdish-run” state, nor have they lived under “kurdish authority” in the Russian Federation.

If they have never interacted with “kurdish administrations”, how can anyone label them “Kurdish citizens”? The term is not only inaccurate, it is invented and a false (artificial) narrative.

4. Why attempt to label Ezidis in Russia as Kurds?

Finally, Dürre’s insistence on classifying Ezidis as Kurds raises a deeper question:

Why is there a constant effort to absorb Ezidis (and Assyrians too for that matter!) into Kurdish identity, especially when Ezidis explicitly define themselves otherwise?

Is it another attempt to take credit for the cultural, professional, and social achievements that Ezidis have built in Russia over generations? Is it an effort to appropriate their success, their recognition, their contributions, and rebrand them under a different ethnic banner?

Ezidis in Russia have established their own institutions, cultural centers, public figures, and respected positions in society. They are recognized as Ezidis: nothing more, nothing less. Reducing them to an ethnic label they reject is not demographic analysis; it is cultural imperialism.

5. Identity is not a numbers game

What Dürre presents as demographic expertise is, in reality, an attempt to reshape a people’s identity according to his and other Kurdish extremists own political worldview. But Ezidis do not belong to anyone. Their heritage is older than the categories he tries to impose, and their right to self-identify is not up for negotiation.

Russia counts Ezidis as Ezidis because that is who they are. And no opinion piece or distorted writing can change that.

And finally…

After all, let’s not forget that the biggest reason why such large numbers of Ezidis live in Russia is the genocide committed against them in 1915—carried out by the Ottoman authorities and by the Kurdish groups who participated in those atrocities. Ezidis were killed, looted, and driven out. They were forced to abandon their ancestral lands, and after surviving, rebuilding, and establishing themselves in new countries, there is now an attempt to label them as “Kurdish.”

This is exactly what people mean when they say “Kurdish logic”.