Feyli Kurds

Feylis (also Faylis, Failis, Faylees or Pahlis) are mostly a group of Shia Muslim Kurds[1][2][3][4] [5][6][7] whose heartland is divided between Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces in Iran and the eastern parts of Diyala Governorate and Wasit Governoratein Iraq. They speak the Feyli dialect of Southern Kurdish.[8]

In his book A Memoir of Baghdad (issued by Al-Rais publishing house, in Cyprus in 1993), the ex-minister Mosa Al-Shabandar describes the life of the Feylis.

Feyli homeland

Since ancient times, the Feylis have lived in the border area between Iraq and Iran, which consists of both sides of the Zagros Mountains, which they call it Kabir Kuh, "the great mountain". The areas on the Iraqi side from north to south are the following: some parts of Shahraban (now called Al-Meqdadia), Khaneqin, Mandali, Badrah, Zorbateyah, Jassan, Al–Kut and Al-Azizyah. They also reside in a number of cities in the area of Shaikh Sa’ad, Ali Sharqi, Ali Gharbi and Al–Kofah, which is 170 kilometres (110 mi) south of Baghdad. However, as early as the first decade of the 20th century, many Feylis moved to Baghdad and lived in its center. Consequently, there are some areas which are named after them, such as the Kurdish quarter, the Kurdish alley, and the Kurdish Street.On the Iranian side, the Feylis live in the following areas, from north to south: Kermanshah, Qasre Shirin, Eslamabad e Gharb, Ghilan e Gharb, Eyvan, Sirvan, Chardavol, Ilam, Chavar, Badreh, Dehloran, Abdanan, Darreh Shahr, Meymeh, Pahleh .

The Feylis in Iraqi society

The existence of the Feylis in Iraq has never been marginal. On the contrary, they have participated in all political, social, cultural, and economical activities.

Deportation from Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era

The Feylis were seen highly suspiciously by the Baathist regime.[9] Most of the targeted families were of significant influence on a large spectrum of Iraqi society. Having a high level of education, commercial success and ranking positions in the military. The Baathist regime fearing potential dissidence and opposition, implemented deportation policies against Feylis. The official claim was that Feylis were Iranian nationals.[10]

Joost Hiltermann points to the old Safavid–Ottoman struggle, as the leadership of each country used religious references to characterize themselves, their enemies and their battles, unfailingly casting these in sectarian terms. One group of victims of this practice was the Feylis, whose members were deported by Saddam Hussein’s regime to Iran on the grounds that, supposedly, they were basically Persians. It was no coincidence, however, that Feylis are also Shiites. Feylis were not the only Iraqi Shiites to be deported to Iran, either during the Iran–Iraq War or before it. The practice affected any Iraqi Shiites who were listed in Iraq’s population register as ‘‘of Persian origin’’ (taba’iya Faresiya), as opposed to ‘‘of Ottoman origin’’ (taba’iya Othmaniya). This designation stemmed from Ottoman times, when citizens who sought to evade extended military service used a Persian ancestor to claim they were not Ottoman subjects. The modern Iraqi state inherited this system in the early 1920s. Post-1958 republican regimes used it as the basis for deportation policies designed to serve political agendas.[11]

In 2010, the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration reported that since 2003 about 100,000 Feylis have had their citizenship reinstated.[12]

2010 Trial of Baathists involved in crimes against Feylis

On Monday 29 November 2010, an Iraqi court found Saddam Hussein's longtime foreign minister Tariq Aziz guilty of terrorizing Feylis during the Iran–Iraq War (see Kurdish rebellion of 1983 and Al-Anfal Campaign), sentencing him to 10 years in prison. Mohammed Abdul Saheb, a spokesman for Iraq's high criminal court, said: "Today a judge found Tariq Aziz guilty and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The evidence was enough to convict him of displacing and killing Feyli Kurds. Aziz was a member of the revolutionary command council which cancelled the Iraqi nationality for many of the Feyli Kurds."[13] The spokesman also said Aziz was spared a death sentence for the crimes against humanity because he had a lesser involvement than some of his co-defendants in the atrocities against the Feyli Kurds.[14] Of the other 15 defendants in the Iraqi High Tribunal case, three Saddam Hussein loyalists were found guilty and sentenced to death. Two, including Aziz, were sentenced to 10 years in prison. The remaining 10 were acquitted, including Hussein's two half brothers, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and Sabbawi Ibrahim al-Hassan. The Feyli Kurd minority comes mainly from an area in northeastern Iraq that straddles the Iran–Iraq border. Saddam Hussein's regime killed, detained and deported tens of thousands of Feylis early in his 1980–1988 war with Iran, denouncing them as alien Persians and spies for the Iranians.[14]

2011 Feyli Conference in Baghdad

On Saturday the first of October 2011, the National Conference for Feyli Kurds held a conference in the Iraqi capital Baghdad which was attended by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki said in a speech "the Feyli Kurds have been targets for harming, similar to other Iraqi communities". He also called "for the unity of Feyli Kurds under a common tent, uniting them and organizing their activities, together with other Iraqi communities". He ended his speech by saying "we shall support the rights of the Feyli Kurds, beginning with the restoration of their official documents and their presence in their homeland and ending with the paying back the funds that were confiscated from them (during the former regime)". The Iraqi Prime Minister also recognized "that over 22,000 Feyli Kurds had been deported from Iraq by the former regime, calling for the restoration of their rights".[15]

2012 UNHCR report on stateless people residing inside Iraq

An estimated 120,000 persons are believed to be stateless in Iraq as of 2012. These are mainly Kurds, including some Feylias. This figure is gradually decreasing with increasing numbers of Feylis regaining their Iraqi citizenship in accordance with the Nationality Law of 2006. UNHCR is assisting in the identification of stateless persons, raising awareness about their problems and facilitating their access to IDs and other legal documents.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Full Text Iraqi Constitution confirming Feylis are Kurds "the Faili Kurds"". 28 August 2005. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "Feili Kurds in Iran seek way out of identity impasse". 28 May 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  3. ↑ Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada. "Iraq: Information on the Kurdish Feyli (Faily/Falli) families, including their main area of residence and their relationship with other Kurdish groups and the Iraqi regime". Iraq: Information on the Kurdish Feyli (Faily/Falli) families, including their main area of residence and their relationship with other Kurdish groups and the Iraqi regime. Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
  4. ↑ "Feili Kurds in Iran seek way out of identity impasse". 28 May 2008. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Contributions to the anthropology of Iran,Henry Field
  6. ↑ Curazon, George N. "George N curazon's ethnological description of the feyli tribes [Archive] - Anthrogenica". anthrogenica.com.
  7. ↑ Nomadism in Iran From Antiquity to the Modern Era D. T. Potts
  8. ↑ "Kurdish, Southern". Ethnologue. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Library/ publications. "REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS". www.cia.gov.
  10. ↑ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld | Iraq: Information on the Kurdish Feyli (Faily/Falli) families, including their main area of residence and their relationship with other Kurdish groups and the Iraqi regime". Refworld.
  11. ↑ Hiltermann, J. (2007). A new sectarian threat in the Middle East?. International Review of the Red Cross, 89(868), 795-808.
  12. ↑ "The Faili Kurds of Iraq: Thirty Years Without Nationality". ReliefWeb. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  13. ↑ Chulov, Martin (29 November 2010). "Tariq Aziz given additional 10-year jail term for persecution of Shia Kurds". the Guardian.
  14. 1 2 Iraq court gives Tariq Aziz new 10 year sentence Archived December 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine., Associated Press via Yahoo! News
  15. ↑ Aswat al-Iraq | Over 22,000 Iraq’s Faili Kurds deported by former regime, Maliki says
  16. ↑ Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit | UNHCR Iraq Fact Sheet June, 2012 Archived October 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.