diaspora

Prominent Êzîdîs worldwide

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This article gathers significant Êzîdî personalities arranged by country and region: from the religious leadership in the Iraqi heartland through the old Caucasus diaspora to activists, politicians, scholars, artists and athletes in Europe and overseas. Included are exclusively real, documented persons whose Êzîdî origin and life dates are confirmed by reliable sources. Since Êzîdîs, Sunni Kurds, Alevis and Armenians are frequently confused in the media, the following rule applies throughout: when in doubt, leave out or transparently mark as “unconfirmed”: never invent.

Note on delimitation: A thematically (by field of activity) ordered overview is provided by the article Known people. Here the focus is on persons by geographic impact. The Mîr office and the religious offices are explored in depth in Sacred genealogy, the political present in Êzîdî politics, the women in Êzîdî women, the 2014 genocide in Genocide 2014, the Caucasian history in Êzîdîs in Armenia & Georgia, the German diaspora in Êzîdîs in Germany.

Convention: Spelling “Êzîdî/Êzîdîs”; the central angel Tawûsî Melek is never referred to as “the devil”, this equation is a centuries-old, externally-attributed slander. Disputed life dates follow the wiki’s internal numbers canon.

Iraq

Iraq, namely the Kurdistan Region with the Şêxan district (seat of the Lalîş sanctuary, north of Mosul) and the Şingal/Sinjar region (Nineveh), is the historical and religious heartland of the Êzîdîs. Here resides the religious leadership (Mîr, Baba Şêx, Spiritual Council), here the IS genocide (74th Ferman) took place in 2014, and from here come the internationally best-known Êzîdî personalities of the present day, from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad to resistance fighters such as Qasim and Heydar Şeşo. Tawûsî Melek, the Peacock Angel, stands at the center of their faith and must never be misunderstood as “the devil”, a slander that historically served to justify persecution.

The following compilation comprises exclusively real, documented persons. Life dates follow, where disputed, the internal WIKI-ZAHLEN-KANON.md.

Religious leadership

Mîr Hazim Tahsin Beg (*1963)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Hazim Tahsin Beg (Hezim Têhsîn Beg)
  • Life dates: born 1 May 1963 in Ba’adre (Şêxan district, Kurdistan Region/Iraq); living
  • Field: Religious-secular head of all Êzîdîs (Mîr/Prince of Şêxan)
  • Career: Son and successor of Mîr Tahsîn Saîd Beg. Bachelor’s degree in agriculture (University of Baghdad). In 2009 he won a seat in the Kurdish regional parliament as a KDP candidate. After his father’s death in January 2019, six rival candidates withdrew their candidacies to leave the office to him.
  • Impact: Enthroned as Mîr on 27 July 2019 in the Lalîş sanctuary (Duhok province), supreme authority of the Êzîdîs in both religious and communal matters, representative vis-à-vis the state and the tribes. His election by the Spiritual Council was not without controversy: parts of the community accused the KDP of exerting influence.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Hazim Tahsin Beg; The New Arab, 28.07.2019; France 24, 27.07.2019

Mîr Tahsîn Saîd Beg (1933–2019)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Tehsîn Saîd Beg (Mîr Tehsîn Beg)
  • Life dates: born 15 August 1933 in Ba’adre; died 28 January 2019 in Hannover (Germany), aged 85; buried on 5 February 2019 in Ain Sifni (Şêxan)
  • Field: Mîr of all Êzîdîs, predecessor of Hazim Tahsin Beg
  • Career: Assumed the hereditary office already in 1944 at the age of 11 after the death of his father Saîd Beg, thereby leading the community for 75 years (1944–2019). Joined the Kurdish movement in 1969, survived an assassination attempt in 2004.
  • Impact: Embodied the continuity of Êzîdî leadership across three generations. On 4 August 2014 he issued an international appeal for help against the IS attacks on the Êzîdîs, one day before Vian Dakhil’s famous parliamentary speech.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Tahseen Said; Wikipedia: Mîr Tehsîn Beg

Baba Şêx Xurto Hecî Îsmaîl (†2020)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Xurto Hecî Îsmaîl (Baba Şêx, highest spiritual office after the Mîr)
  • Life dates: died 1 October 2020 in a hospital in Erbil, aged 87 (heart and kidney failure); Baba Şêx since 2007
  • Field: Supreme spiritual dignitary (Baba Şêx, “Father of the Sheikhs”), head of the religious rites and of the Spiritual Council
  • Impact: Left a legacy as a defender of the Êzîdî women abducted and enslaved by IS: he publicly declared that the returning survivors were full Êzîdî women and welcome in the community, a theologically significant decision that enabled many women to return.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Khurto Hajji Ismail; Middle East Eye: Baba Sheikh dies

Şêx Alî Ilyas (successor as Baba Şêx, *1979)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Şêx Alî Ilyas (Sheikh Ali Ilyas Haji Nasir)
  • Life dates: born 1979 in Şêxan (Duhok province); living
  • Field: Baba Şêx of the Êzîdîs (successor of Xurto Hecî Îsmaîl)
  • Career: His father was likewise a spiritual leader from 1978 to 1995. Sworn in on 18 November 2020 in Lalîş and invested by Mîr Hazim Tahsin Beg with the title of Baba Şêx.
  • Impact: Spiritual head; however, his appointment was not recognized by parts of the community, especially in Şingal, an expression of the tensions between the KDP-aligned leadership in Şêxan and the more autonomous structures in Şingal.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Sheikh Ali Ilyas; Rudaw, 18.11.2020

Spiritual Council (Encumena Ruhanî)

The Spiritual Council (also “Supreme Spiritual Council”, Spiritual Council) is the highest religious body, which advises the Mîr and, among other things, co-supports the election or confirmation of the Mîr and the Baba Şêx. It elected Mîr Hazim Tahsin Beg in 2019 and confirmed the appointment of Şêx Alî Ilyas in 2020. Its seat is Lalîş in the Şêxan district. (Source in the context of the enthronement reports: Kurdistan24, 2019)

Meyan Khatun (1873/74–1957/58)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Meyan Xatûn
  • Life dates: born around 1873/74 in Ba’adra (Ottoman Empire); died 1957/58 in Şingal
  • Field: Êzîdî princess and regent
  • Career & impact: Over decades the de facto ruler and regent of the Êzîdî principality of Şêxan: she conducted the secular affairs of the Mîr house through several minorities and is regarded as one of the most influential women in modern Êzîdî history.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Meyan Khatun

Mira Khatun Wansa (1917–2015)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Mira Khatun Wansa
  • Life dates: born 1917 in Tikrit; died 25 June 2015
  • Field: Êzîdî princess (Mîr house)
  • Career & impact: From 1934 to 1938 wife of Mîr Saîd Beg, the secular head of the Êzîdîs; member of the princely family of Şêxan.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Mira Khatun Wansa

Mir Ismail Chol Beg (≈1888/89–1933)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Mîr Îsmaîl Çol Beg
  • Life dates: born around 1888/89 in Ba’adra (Iraq); died 1933
  • Field: Êzîdî prince (Mîr), political leader and reformer
  • Career & impact: Secular head (Mîr) of the Êzîdîs in the 1910s–1930s; he advocated for education and for the legal recognition of the Êzîdîs in the emerging Iraqi state and is considered a reform-minded prince of his time.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Mir Ismail Chol Beg

Activism, human rights and genocide survivors

Nadia Murad (*1993, Nobel Peace Prize 2018)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Nadia Murad Basee Taha
  • Life dates: born around 1993 in Koço (Kocho), Şingal region; living
  • Field: Human rights activist, genocide survivor, author
  • Career: Abducted in 2014 at the age of 19 during the IS attack on Koço; after around three months of captivity and the most severe abuse she managed to escape. She made her fate public, founded Nadia’s Initiative (rebuilding of Şingal, support for survivors) and, together with Amal Clooney, the Global Survivors Fund. Memoir: The Last Girl (2017).
  • Impact: Nobel Peace Prize 2018 (jointly with Dr. Denis Mukwege) for the fight against sexualized violence as a weapon of war. The first survivor of human trafficking ever to become a UNODC Goodwill Ambassador (appointed September 2016). Previously, in 2016, the Sakharov Prize and the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. Worldwide the face of the Êzîdî genocide.
  • Sources: Nadia’s Initiative, Nadia Murad; UNODC, Oct. 2018; UN News, 05.10.2018; Britannica: Nadia Murad

Lamiya Aji Bashar (*1998, Sakharov Prize 2016)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Lamiya Aji Bashar (Lamiya Haji Bashar)
  • Life dates: born 1998 in Koço, Şingal region; living
  • Field: Human rights activist, genocide survivor
  • Career: Abducted by IS in August 2014 at the age of 16, together with Nadia Murad, forced into slavery and, among other things, coerced into building explosive vests. Escape in April 2016 with the help of smugglers; during the escape a landmine detonated, killing two companions and injuring and scarring her face. Subsequently medical treatment in Germany.
  • Impact: Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2016 of the European Parliament (jointly with Nadia Murad; awarded in Strasbourg in December 2016). Since then she has campaigned to raise awareness of the fate of the Êzîdî community and for affected women and children.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Lamiya Haji Bashar; European Parliament, Sakharov Prize 2016

Farida Khalaf (pseudonym; *around 1995, author of “The Girl Who Beat ISIS”)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Farida Khalaf (pseudonym)
  • Life dates: born around 1995 in Koço (Kocho), Şingal region; living
  • Field: Genocide survivor, author, NGO founder
  • Career: Abducted along with her family during the IS attack on Koço in August 2014 and sold into slavery; her father and brother were murdered. After captivity, mistreatment and sexualized violence she managed, together with five younger girls, to escape through the Syrian desert; subsequently medical treatment and admission to Germany.
  • Impact: Memoir The Girl Who Beat ISIS: My Story (2016, with the German journalist Andrea C. Hoffmann; in English also The Girl Who Escaped ISIS), an internationally noted testimony of the Êzîdî genocide. In 2019 co-founder and president of the Farida Global Organization, an NGO registered in Germany and led by survivors of the genocide and of conflict-related sexualized violence.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Farida Khalaf; Wikipedia (DE): Farida Khalaf

Fawzia Amin Sido (*around 2004; freed from Gaza in 2024)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Fawzia Amin Sido
  • Life dates: born around 2004 in northern Iraq (Şingal region); living
  • Field: Genocide survivor
  • Career: Abducted by IS in August 2014 as an approximately 11-year-old child during the attack on Şingal; forced in Syria into marriage with a Palestinian fighter and taken to the Gaza Strip in 2020, where after his death she remained in captivity with his family.
  • Impact: Her liberation from Gaza in October 2024: after more than ten years of captivity, through an internationally coordinated operation, followed by a return to Iraq, drew worldwide attention as a reminder of the ongoing fate of the Êzîdî women and children still missing.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Fawzia Amin Sido; CNN, 04.10.2024

Nareen Shammo (*1986, journalist and activist)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Nareen Shammo
  • Life dates: born 1986 in Başiqa (Bashiqa), Nineveh region; living
  • Field: Journalist, TV producer, human rights activist
  • Career: She campaigns through her journalism for the rights of Êzîdî women and has documented since 2014 the fate of the women and girls abducted by IS; she contributed to raising awareness of the genocide and to the liberation of those affected.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Nareen Shammo; Wikipedia (DE): Nareen Shammo

Nagham Nawzat Hasan (*1978, gynecologist and activist)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Nagham Nawzat Hasan
  • Life dates: born 1978 in Başiqa; living
  • Field: Gynecologist, human rights activist
  • Career: As a physician she cares for survivors of sexualized violence, among others at the Women Survivors’ Center in Dohuk, and supports Êzîdî women enslaved by IS medically and psychosocially.
  • Impact: Internationally recognized for her commitment against gender-based violence.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Nagham Nawzat; Wikipedia (DE): Nagham Nawzat Hasan

Vian Dakhil (*1971, parliamentary speech 2014)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Vian Dakhil
  • Life dates: born 1971 in Mosul; living
  • Field: Politician, member of the Iraqi parliament
  • Career: Comes from a respected, medically oriented family; MS Biology / BS Microbiology (Salahaddin University Erbil), initially an academic career. Long the only Êzîdî-Kurdish woman in the Iraqi parliament, member of the KDP.
  • Impact: On 5 August 2014 she delivered her globally noted, CNN-broadcast speech in the Iraqi parliament, in which she pleaded in tears for help for the Êzîdîs trapped in the Şingal mountains (“Save us!”). Her appeal contributed substantially to triggering US airstrikes and humanitarian aid. On 12 August 2014 she was injured in an aid-helicopter crash over Şingal (broken leg; the pilot was killed). Awarded, among others, the Anna Politkovskaya Prize (2014), CNN “Woman of the Year” (2014) and the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Prize (2015).
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Vian Dakhil; Gariwo: Vian Dakhil; RFE/RL

Murad Ismael (co-founder of Yazda, member of parliament since 2025)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Murad Ismael
  • Field: Activist, education founder, member of the Iraqi parliament
  • Career: Êzîdî from Şingal; schooling in the Kurdistan Region, then two master’s degrees (environmental engineering, Norwich University; geophysics, University of Houston). During the 2014 genocide a member of the Sinjar Crisis Management Team, which provided US authorities with situational information and thereby contributed to the life-saving airstrikes and aid drops.
  • Impact: Co-founder of the human rights organization Yazda (four years as Executive Director) as well as a contributor to Nadia’s Initiative; later founder and president of the Sinjar Academy (educational initiative). In the Iraqi parliamentary election on 11 November 2025 he won the Êzîdî quota seat as an independent grassroots candidate with over 50% of the Êzîdî votes, a programmatic signal that Şingal must not be forgotten.
  • Sources: Wilson Center: Murad Ismael; Al-Monitor: Yazidis historic win; The Middle East Uncovered

Abid Shamdeen (Nadia’s Initiative)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Abid Shamdeen
  • Field: Development expert, human rights activist
  • Career: Born and raised in Şingal; Master’s in political science (School of International Service, American University). During the 2014 genocide he was likewise active in the Sinjar Crisis Management Team and conveyed eyewitness reports to US authorities that contributed to the rescue of tens of thousands of Êzîdîs trapped on Mount Şingal.
  • Impact: Executive Director of Nadia’s Initiative, leading worldwide advocacy work for survivors of sexualized violence and the rebuilding of Şingal.
  • Sources: Wilson Center: Abid Shamdeen; Nadia’s Initiative, Team; American University SIS

Pari Ibrahim (founder of the Free Yezidi Foundation)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Pari Ibrahim
  • Field: Lawyer, human rights activist
  • Origin: born in Iraq, of Êzîdî origin; fled in 1991 as a child with her family from the Saddam regime, later lived in the Netherlands (today the USA). Studied law at the University of Amsterdam; speaks Kurmancî, Dutch and English. (Iraqi origin thereby confirmed; biographically closely connected to the Dutch diaspora.)
  • Career & impact: In August 2014, immediately after the genocide, she founded the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) to support the community and survivors. She spoke, among others, before the UN Security Council and the British Parliament; published in the Washington Post and the Guardian.
  • Sources: Free Yezidi Foundation, Pari Ibrahim; Washington Institute: Pari Ibrahim; UN Women, 2017

Dalal Khairo (survivor, author)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Dalal Khairo (Dalal Khario)
  • Life dates: born around 1997 in Hardan (Şingal region); living
  • Field: Genocide survivor, author, activist
  • Career: Abducted on 3 August 2014 at the age of 17 during the IS attack on Şingal; around nine months of captivity, sold and abused several times. Escape; today lives in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Her mother and sister are considered missing.
  • Impact: Published in 2016 under the pseudonym “Shirin” the memoir I Remain a Daughter of the Light; she is committed to raising awareness and to justice for the Êzîdî victims and testified in international court proceedings.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Dalal Khario

Politics

Êzîdî quota seat in the Iraqi parliament

The Iraqi Council of Representatives reserves 9 of 329 seats for religious and ethnic minorities (Christians, Êzîdîs, Shabak, Sabaean-Mandaeans, Faili Kurds). The Êzîdîs are allocated one quota seat in Nineveh province. Unlike general mandates, the minority seats are filled nationwide: every Iraqi voter, regardless of origin, can vote for minority candidates running individually (not via party lists).

(Local governors/mayors of Şingal: The district has been the subject of competing administrative claims between Baghdad and Erbil since 2014; a clearly documented, named Êzîdî mayor/governor figure could not be established beyond doubt for this section and is therefore omitted rather than listed as unconfirmed.)

Mahma Xelil (mayor of Şingal)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Mahma Xelil (Mahma Khalil)
  • Field: Politician, mayor of Şingal (Sinjar)
  • Career: Êzîdî politician; incumbent mayor of the Şingal district, previously a member of the Iraqi parliament (Kurdistanî list) and a Peshmerga commander.
  • Impact: Central local administrative and representative figure in the rebuilding of Şingal after the 2014 genocide.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Mahma Xelil

Pîr Xidir Silêman (1952–2021)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Pîr Xidir Silêman
  • Life dates: born 1952 in Ain Sifni (Şêxan, Iraq); died 15 November 2021 in Dohuk
  • Field: Writer, teacher, cultural official, parliamentarian
  • Career: Kurdish-Êzîdî writer and educator; president of the Kurdish Writers’ Union (1991–1997).
  • Impact: Co-founder of the Lalish Cultural Center (1993), which is dedicated to the preservation and study of Êzîdî culture, language and tradition, one of the most important cultural institutions of the Êzîdîs in Iraq.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Pîr Xidir Silêman

Amin Farhan Jejo

  • Name (Kurmancî): Emîn Ferhan Cejo
  • Field: Politician, author
  • Career & impact: Iraqi-Êzîdî politician and author; one of the chairmen of the Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress, which advocates for the political representation and the rights of the Êzîdîs in Iraq.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Amin Farhan Jejo

Military and history

Mir Jafar Dasni (d. 841)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Mîr Cafer Dasinî
  • Life dates: died 841 AD
  • Field: Kurdish-Êzîdî leader
  • Career & impact: Led a rebellion in 838 AD against the Abbasid caliph al-Mutasim: one of the earliest recorded examples of organized resistance by the Daseni/Êzîdîs against the central power. He thus falls within the early history of the Êzîdî (Daseni) tribes in present-day northern Iraq.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Mir Jafar Dasni

Shir Sarim (early 16th century)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Shir Sarim
  • Life dates: active around 1505/06
  • Field: Êzîdî leader / rebellion leader
  • Career: Led a rebellion of the Êzîdîs in the early 16th century in the Kurdistan/Diyarbakir region.
  • Impact: His rebellion was directed against Safavid Persia under Shah Ismail I: an early documented example of Êzîdî resistance against the regional ruling power of the time.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Shir Sarim; Wikipedia (DE): Shir Sarim

Hemoyê Şero (1850–1935)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Hemoyê Şero (Hammo Shero)
  • Life dates: 1850–1935
  • Field: Êzîdî tribal leader in Şingal
  • Career: Forged the social stratum of the Faqîrs into a tribal unit and established himself as their leader. He ruled after the First World War with British support until Şingal became part of the new Iraqi state in 1919.
  • Impact: During the Armenian Genocide (from 1915) he saved around 20,000 Christians (predominantly Armenians) by hiding and protecting them in the Şingal mountains; armed Êzîdî groups under his leadership repelled Ottoman pursuers and freed deportation convoys. An enduring symbol of Êzîdî solidarity with persecuted minorities.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Hemoye Shero; Gariwo: Hammo Shero; Armenian Weekly, 26.03.2025

Sheikh Khairy Khedr (d. 2014)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Şêx Xeyrî Xedir
  • Life dates: died 22 October 2014 (Siba Sheikh Khidir, Cezîre/Iraq)
  • Field: Êzîdî militia commander
  • Career & impact: Founder and commander of the Êzîdî militia Malik-Al-Tawus unit (“Force of the Peacock Angel”), from which the Şingal resistance units (YBŞ) later emerged; he fell in October 2014 in combat against IS while defending the Êzîdî homeland.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Sheikh Khairy Khedr

Mahmoud Ezidi (1944–1979)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Mehmûd Êzîdî (born as Hashim Ilyas Silo)
  • Life dates: born 1944 in Şêxan; died 18 August 1979
  • Field: Peshmerga fighter (KDP)
  • Career & impact: Well-known Êzîdî Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP); a symbolic figure of the armed Kurdish-Êzîdî resistance of the 1960s and 1970s.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Mahmoud Ezidi

Qasim Şeşo (commander in Şingal)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Qasim Şeşo (Qasim Shesho)
  • Field: Êzîdî military commander (within the alliance of the Kurdish Peshmerga/KDP)
  • Career: Belonged already in the 1970s to the armed Kurdish opposition against the Saddam government.
  • Impact: In 2014/2015 he defended, with an Êzîdî militia, the Şerfedîn shrine (Sherefedin) on Mount Şingal, which IS sought to burn down; for months a central symbol of Êzîdî resistance. Referred to in the media as the “old tiger of Mount Şingal”.
  • Sources: VICE: The Old Tiger of Mount Sinjar; Wikipedia: Battle of Sharfadin Temple; RFE/RL

Heydar Şeşo (founder of the HPÊ)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Heydar Şeşo (Haydar Shesho)
  • Field: Êzîdî military commander, founder and supreme commander of the self-protection militia HPÊ (Hêza Parastina Êzîdxanê, Protection Force of Êzîdxan)
  • Career: His family emigrated to Germany (Bad Oeynhausen) in 1990 under Saddam Hussein; he served for a time in the Bundeswehr. At the beginning of the Şingal massacre in August 2014 he returned to Iraq together with his uncle Qasim Şeşo and several cousins to protect the Êzîdî homeland.
  • Impact: Under his leadership the HPÊ mobilized around 1,300 deployable fighters and a larger reserve (approx. 4,000) for the armed defense of the Êzîdîs against IS.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Haydar Shesho; Jamestown Foundation

Êzîdî Mîrza (1600–1651)

  • Name (Kurmancî): Êzîdî Mîrza (Ezidi Mirza; also Mîrza Beg Dasinî)
  • Life dates: born 1600 in Başîqa (Mosul Eyalet, Ottoman Empire); died 1651
  • Field: Êzîdî military commander and governor
  • Career: Born into a respected sheikh family of the Qatanî line as the youngest of three brothers; after the killing of his family by Muslim raiders (around 1605) he grew up as an orphan. Appointed governor of Mosul in 1649. The Şêxan region was at that time administered as the Ottoman sanjak “Sanjak Dasinî”, to which the epithet Dasinî is linked.
  • Impact: A central heroic figure of Êzîdî oral tradition (legends, poems) on account of his military deeds, to this day a symbol of Êzîdî independence and resilience.
  • Sources: Wikipedia: Ezidi Mirza; Kurdish History: The Defiant Pasha

Caucasus and the former Soviet Union

The largest and oldest Êzîdî diaspora outside the Middle East arose in the southern Caucasus. Already in the 19th and early 20th centuries many Êzîdîs fled persecution in the Ottoman Empire to Armenia, Georgia and the then Russian Empire. In the Soviet Union Kurdish-Êzîdî culture experienced a flourishing: its own written language (at first Latin, from 1946 Cyrillic), the newspaper Rya T’eze, Kurdish-language broadcasts of Radio Yerevan and a circle of Êzîdî writers and scholars. Armenia counts the Êzîdî people to this day among its largest recognized minorities; in Aknalich stands the world’s largest Êzîdî temple (Quba Mêrê Dîwanê), and Armenia was, after Iraq, the first country to legally recognize the genocide against the Êzîdîs. Note on the convention: Tawûsî Melek (the Peacock Angel) is in the Êzîdî religion a central, sacred figure and must under no circumstances be equated with “the devil”, this equation is a historical slander.

Armenia

Cangîr Axa (Jangir Agha) (~1874–1943)

Field: Military leader, public figure.

Career & impact: Cangîr Axa (English Jangir Agha, also Cîhangîr Axa) is regarded as an Êzîdî national hero of Armenia. During the Armenian-Turkish fighting of 1918 he raised an Êzîdî cavalry unit and fought alongside the Armenian troops against the invading Ottoman army. In the Battle of Bash-Aparan (16–18 May 1918) he led a battalion of around 300 Êzîdî horsemen. In the decisive Battle of Sardarabad (21/22 May 1918) the Êzîdî cavalry unit near the village of Molla Bayazet prevented the Ottoman troops from attacking the Armenian formations from the rear. His engagement is honored as an essential contribution to the rescue of the young Armenian Republic; a monument in Yerevan commemorates him.

Sources:

Aziz Tamoyan (1933–2021)

Field: Politics, community leadership.

Career & impact: Aziz Amari Tamoyan was born on 1 July 1933 in the village of Zovuni (Armenia) and died on 2 January 2021. On 30 September 1989 he was elected chairman of the “National Union of the Êzîdîs of Armenia”, and in 1997 chairman of the “Yezidi National Union” (Êzîdî National Union of the World). For around three decades he was the defining spokesman of the Êzîdî community in Armenia. He campaigned for the preservation of Êzîdî identity and for Êzîdî-Armenian friendship; on the question of ethnic self-designation he held, quite controversially, the position that Êzîdîs are a distinct nation and not part of the Kurds.

Sources:

Rustam Bakoyan (member of parliament)

Field: Politics (National Assembly of Armenia).

Career & impact: Rustam Bakoyan is an ethnic Êzîdî and was elected to the Armenian National Assembly on 9 December 2018 via the list of the “My Step” bloc (today the Civil Contract party). He serves as deputy chairman of the Standing Committee on the Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs. Bakoyan is a central voice in the parliamentary recognition of and commemoration of the genocide against the Êzîdîs: in 2018 the Armenian parliament passed a resolution classifying the IS massacres of the Êzîdîs in 2014 as genocide. Following his legislative proposal, the National Assembly decided in 2024 to officially declare 3 August the day of commemoration of the Êzîdî genocide, Armenia thereby became, after Iraq, the first country to enshrine this in law. (Living person; details from parliamentary and media sources.)

Sources:

Emerîkê Serdar (1935–2018)

Field: Writer, journalist, publicist, translator.

Career & impact: Emerîkê Serdar was born on 8 February 1935 in the village of Pampa Kurda (Sipan, Armenian SSR) into a Kurdish-Êzîdî family and died on 19 February 2018. From 1965 he was a member of the Journalists’ Union of Armenia, and in 1995 he was admitted to the Writers’ Union of Armenia. In 1991 he took over the leadership of the Kurdish-language newspaper Rya T’eze, which he led until his illness-related retirement. In 1980 he received the honorary certificate of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and in 1986 the honorary title “Distinguished Journalist of the Armenian SSR”. He is regarded as a distinctive voice of Kurdish-Êzîdî Soviet literature.

Sources:

Têmûrê Xelîl (* 1949)

Field: Journalist, writer, translator.

Career & impact: Têmûrê Xelîl was born in 1949 in Yerevan (Armenian SSR) into a Kurdish-Êzîdî family. After studying physics and mathematics, he worked for three years as a teacher in the Êzîdî village of Sipan. From 1977 to 1992 he was a reporter and later head of the culture department of the Kurdish newspaper Rya T’eze; from 1981 to 1984 he headed the Kurdish (Kurmancî) editorial desk of Radio Yerevan. From 1992 to 1997 he was deputy editor of the Russian-language newspaper Golos Kurda. He is a member of the Kurdish Institute of Paris, editor of the journal Roja Nû and has lived in Sweden since the 1990s. (Living person.)

Sources:

Roman Amoyan (* 1983)

Field: Sport (Greco-Roman wrestling).

Career & impact: Roman Amoyan was born on 3 September 1983 in Yerevan (Armenia) and is of Armenian-Êzîdî origin (in several sources he is described as an “Armenian-Yazidi” wrestler). He competed internationally for Armenia. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing he won the bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling (55 kg), the first Olympic wrestling medal for Armenia in 16 years. Added to this are several World Championship medals (including bronze 2009, silver 2010) and European Championship titles (gold 2006). He is regarded as the most prominent Êzîdî sporting figure of the Caucasus. (Living person; note: born and rooted athletically in Armenia, not in Russia.)

Sources:

Kyaram Sloyan (1996–2016)

Field: Soldier (Artsakh Defense Army).

Career & impact: Kyaram Sloyan came from the village of Artashavan (Aragatsotn province, Armenia) and belonged to the Êzîdî community of Armenia. As a soldier of the Artsakh Defense Army he fell at the beginning of April 2016 in the course of the “Four-Day War” battles over Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijani forces desecrated his body and beheaded him, an act that Armenia’s OSCE mission described as “IS-like”; the families of three soldiers killed in this way (including Sloyan) brought the case before the European Court of Human Rights. He was posthumously awarded the medal “For Courage in Battle” and the Order of the Combat Cross (1st degree); a bust was unveiled at the school of his home village in 2016. His fate became a symbol, also for the Êzîdî minority of Armenia.

Sources:

Usub Bek Temuryan (d. 1934)

Field: Political, national and military leader.

Career & impact: Usub Bek (Temuryan), who died on 12 January 1934, was an Êzîdî leader from Armenia, a political and military leader as well as a member of parliament of the First Republic of Armenia. Since 1896 he was regarded as the leader of the Êzîdîs of Transcaucasia; he took part in the Battle of Sardarabad (1918), which was decisive for Armenia.

Sources:

Samand Siabandov (1909–1989)

Field: Writer, military officer, politician.

Career & impact: Samand Aliyevich Siabandov (20 November 1909 – 14 November 1989) was an Êzîdî-Kurdish Soviet writer, officer and politician. For his services he was honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union: one of the highest distinctions of the USSR.

Sources:

Sashik Sultanyan (human rights activist)

Field: Human rights activist.

Career & impact: Sashik Sultanyan is an Armenian human rights activist and a member of the Êzîdî minority of Armenia. He founded the Yezidi Centre for Human Rights, which advocates for Êzîdî culture and language as well as for the integration of minorities into Armenian society.

Sources:

Khdr Hajoyan (* 1990)

Field: Community official, publicist.

Career & impact: Khdr Hajoyan (born 4 December 1990) is president of the National Union of the Êzîdîs in Armenia and director of Ezdikhana, the official newspaper of the union. He is committed to the organizational and cultural representation of the Êzîdî community of Armenia.

Sources:

Haje Bakoyan (* around 1974)

Field: Human rights and education activist.

Career & impact: Haje Bakoyan (born around 1974 in Armenia) is an Êzîdî human rights activist who is especially committed to access to education for Êzîdî girls and women in Armenia and has founded a corresponding initiative.

Sources:

Russia

Mirza Sloyan (1946–2019)

Field: Entrepreneur, philanthropist, donor.

Career & impact: Mirza Sloyan was born in 1946 near Aknalich (Armenia) and made his fortune as an entrepreneur in Russia. He financed the construction of the roughly 25-meter-high temple Quba Mêrê Dîwanê in Aknalich (construction began in 2014 as a response to the IS attacks on the Êzîdîs, opened in September 2019), today the largest Êzîdî temple in the world. After the 2014 genocide he organized extensive aid; in Russia he founded the “All-Russian Êzîdî Congress” and the internet television channel Lalish, which reports worldwide on Êzîdî topics. Sloyan died on 3 November 2019 after an operation in Germany.

Sources:

Zara (Zarifa Mgoyan, *1983)

Field: Pop singer, actress, social activist.

Career & impact: Zara (real name Zarifa Pashaevna Mgoyan) was born in 1983 in Leningrad into a family of Kurdish-Êzîdî origin and is among the best-known pop singers of Russia. In addition to her music and acting career she is socially engaged and is among the most visible personalities of Êzîdî descent in the Russian public sphere.

Sources:

Beyond the Êzîdî diaspora in Russia, organizations such as the All-Russian Êzîdî Congress founded by Sloyan are documented. Other Êzîdî persons in Russia (for example individual athletes) could not be verified beyond doubt for this section and are therefore deliberately omitted, in order not to make unsubstantiated claims.

Mikhail Aloyan (* 1988)

Field: Sport (boxing).

Career & impact: Mikhail Aloyan (born 23 August 1988 in Bambakaşat, Armenian SSR) is a Russian professional boxer of Kurdish-Êzîdî origin. He won several international titles in amateur boxing (including world champion) and an Olympic medal for Russia, one of the most successful athletes of Êzîdî descent.

Sources:

Aslan Usoyan (“Ded Hasan”, 1937–2013)

Field: Influential figure of the post-Soviet underworld; diaspora patron.

Career & impact: Aslan Usoyan, known as “Ded Hasan” (“Grandfather Hasan”), was born in 1937 in Tbilisi into a Kurdish-Êzîdî family and was among the best-known and most influential vory v zakone (“thieves-in-law”) of the post-Soviet space. In the Kurdish-Êzîdî diaspora he is regarded by many as a patron and protective figure of the community: he is credited with having supported Kurdish and Êzîdî causes and with having given protection and backing to his countrymen; in the underworld he was known as a respected arbiter. In 2013 he was killed in Moscow. A controversial figure, but a significant one in diaspora memory, often recounted as heroic.

Sources:

Zakhar Kalashov (“Shakro Molodoy”, * 1953)

Field: Influential figure of the post-Soviet underworld.

Career & impact: Zakhar Kalashov (born 1953 in Georgia), known in the underworld as “Shakro Molodoy”, is one of the most prominent vory v zakone authorities of the post-Soviet space and comes from a Kurdish-Êzîdî family. Like Usoyan, he is partly perceived in the diaspora as an influential patron. A controversial but extraordinarily well-known personality.

Sources:

Mamuka Usubyan (* 1994)

Field: Sport (boxing, kickboxing).

Career & impact: Mamuka Usubyan (born 2 October 1994) is a Russian professional boxer and kickboxer of Êzîdî origin; among other things, the reigning Fair-Fight lightweight champion. He belongs to the younger generation of Êzîdî athletes in Russia.

Sources:

Amirkhan Mori (* 1961)

Field: Entrepreneur.

Career & impact: Amirkhan Alikovich Mori (born 13 November 1961) is a businessman of Kurdish-Êzîdî origin (Georgia/Russia), among other things chairman of the corporate group “Regions”. He is among the well-known business representatives of the Êzîdî diaspora in the post-Soviet space.

Sources:

Georgia

In Georgia, above all in Tbilisi, there lives a long-established Êzîdî community with its own cultural institutions.

Sultan Ezid Temple and the Spiritual Council of the Êzîdîs in Georgia

Field: Religious community leadership, institution.

Career & impact: The “Spiritual Council of the Yazidis in Georgia” (SCYG) was founded in 2011; its seat is the Sultan Ezid Temple in Tbilisi. The temple was opened in June 2015, at its opening it was the second Êzîdî temple outside Iraq. It stands on a plot of land donated by the Georgian government in 2009; the construction project was initiated in 2012 by the “House of the Êzîdîs of Georgia” and financed by local Êzîdî businesspeople.

Sources:

Dimitri Pirbari (Pîr Dîma)

Field: Clergyman (Pîr), orientalist / Êzîdî-studies researcher.

Career & impact: Dimitri Pirbari (known as Pîr Dîma) is a Tbilisi-based Êzîdî Pîr and heads the Spiritual Council of the Êzîdîs in Georgia. In 2020 the council was reorganized into the “Akhtiyarate of Georgia and the Êzîdî territories of Serhed”, with Pirbari assuming the title of Extiyar (Akhtiyar). Academically he works as a researcher at the G. Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies at Ilia State University in Tbilisi and has (co-)authored several works on Êzîdî manuscripts and theology. He is regarded as a central figure in the revival of Êzîdî religious life in Transcaucasia. (Living person.)

Sources:

Isko Daseni (* 1958)

Field: Politician, jurist.

Career & impact: Isko Daseni (born 30 March 1958) is a Georgian-Êzîdî politician and jurist; since November 2016 a member of the Parliament of Georgia. He is among the most visible political representatives of the Êzîdî community in the South Caucasus.

Sources:

Scholarship and Kurdology (Soviet)

Several of the most important Soviet Kurdologists were of Êzîdî origin and rooted in the Caucasus. They created the scholarly and written-language foundation of the Kurmancî-language culture in the USSR.

Erebê Şemo (Arab Shamilov) (1897–1978)

Field: Writer, founder of modern Kurdish prose.

Career & impact: Erebê Şemo (Russian Arab Shamilov) was born on 23 October 1897 in the village of Susuz in the Kars region (then the Russian Empire, today eastern Turkey) into an Êzîdî family and died in 1978. In the First World War (1914–1917) he served as an interpreter for the Russian army. From 1931 he worked at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies and in 1927 helped develop a Latin alphabet for Kurdish. In 1935 he published Şivanê Kurd (“The Kurdish Shepherd”), regarded as the first Kurdish novel. Maxim Gorky honored him with the words that the Kurdish people now spoke “in the language of its own writer”. He is regarded as the “father of the Kurdish novel”.

Sources:

Qanatê Kurdo (1909–1985)

Field: Linguist, Kurdologist, professor.

Career & impact: Qanatê Kurdo was born in 1909 in the village of Susuz (present-day Turkey) into an Êzîdî family. He was an author, language researcher and professor of the Kurdish language and significantly advanced Kurdology in several areas, among other things with standard grammatical works on Kurmancî. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of scholarly Kurdology in the USSR.

Sources:

Heciyê Cindî (1908–1990)

Field: Linguist, folklorist.

Career & impact: Heciyê Cindî (18 March 1908 – 1 May 1990) came from an Êzîdî family and was a significant Kurdish linguist and folklore researcher in Soviet Armenia; among other things, he headed the culture department of the Kurdish radio in Yerevan and collected oral tradition extensively.

Sources:

Emînê Evdal (1906–1964)

Field: Writer, linguist, poet.

Career & impact: Emînê Evdal (1906, Yamançayir/Kars – 1964) was a Kurdish-Êzîdî writer, language researcher and poet who worked in Soviet Armenia and contributed to the development of Kurmancî-language literature and scholarship.

Sources:

Ordîxanê Celîl (1932–2007)

Field: Kurdologist, folklorist.

Career & impact: Ordîxanê Celîl (1932, Yerevan – 2007) was a Kurdish scholar from an Êzîdî family; together with his brother Celîlê Celîl he built up one of the most important archives of Kurdish folklore and folk poetry and shaped Kurdology in the USSR.

Sources:

Celîlê Celîl (* 1936)

Field: Historian, writer, Kurdologist.

Career & impact: Celîlê Celîl (born 26 November 1936 in Yerevan; lives in Austria) is a historian and writer of Kurdish-Êzîdî descent. Together with his brother Ordîxanê Celîl he contributed decisively to the collection and study of Kurdish oral tradition and is regarded as one of the most important Kurdologists of his generation.

Sources:

Khalil Rashow (Xelîl Cindî Reşo) (* 1952)

Field: Academic, writer, researcher of Êzîdî sacred texts.

Career & impact: Khalil Cindî Rashow (born 1952 in Mam Raşa, Şêxan district, Iraq) is a Kurdish-Êzîdî academic and specialist in the oral religious tradition of the Êzîdîs. He is the co-author of the seminal standard work God and Sheikh Adi are Perfect, Sacred Poems and Religious Narratives from the Yezidi Tradition (2005) together with Philip G. Kreyenbroek, one of the most important annotated Qewl editions ever.

Sources:

Hecîyê Cindî (1908–1990)

Field: Folklorist, linguist, script designer.

Career & impact: Hecîyê Cindî was born on 18 March 1908 in the village of Emançayîr (Yemençayir) near Kars into a Kurdish-Êzîdî family and died on 1 May 1990. In 1946 he designed his own Cyrillic variant of the Kurdish alphabet comprising 40 letters, which was used for Kurmancî in the Soviet Union. He earned a doctorate on Kurdish folklore, wrote readers and further Kurdish works, headed the culture department of the newspaper Rya T’eze in 1930 and worked as an announcer in the Kurdish editorial desk of Radio Yerevan. His work is fundamental to the preservation of the oral Kurdish-Êzîdî tradition.

Sources:

Qanatê Kurdo (1909–1985)

Field: Kurdologist, linguist.

Career & impact: Qanatê Kurdo (Russian Kanat Kalashevich Kurdoev) was born on 12 September 1909 in the Kars region (Russian Empire) and died on 31 October 1985 in Leningrad. He came from the Êzîdî tribe of the Şerqîyan, attended a Kurdish school in Tbilisi and studied with a scholarship at the University of Leningrad. In 1941 he earned his doctorate; in 1960 he became head of the newly founded Kurdology department. He wrote more than 100 monographs, books and essays on Kurdish language, history and folklore and mentored more than 20 further Kurdologists. His work includes the Kurmancî-Russian and the Sorani-Russian dictionaries. He is regarded as one of the most influential founders of Soviet Kurdology.

Sources:

Germany and Europe

Germany is home to the world’s largest Êzîdî diaspora. Estimates range from around 60,000 to over 200,000 Êzîdîs; confirmed surveys speak of about 100,000 to 150,000 people, which makes Germany the most significant Êzîdî community outside the regions of origin Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the Caucasus. Most families came since the 1960s and especially the 1990s from southeastern Turkey (Tur Abdin) as well as, after the genocide of Şingal/Sinjar in 2014, from Iraq. From this community numerous personalities have emerged in politics, literature, scholarship, sport and human rights activism. The other European countries (Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Austria) host smaller but organized communities.

Note on spelling and neutrality: In this section the terms “Êzîdî/Êzîdîs” and “Yazidis/Ezidis” are used according to the source; the same religious community is always meant. The central angel Tawûsî Melek is presented here neutrally and explicitly not as “the devil”, the historical equation is an externally-attributed slander. For persons whose Êzîdî origin is not clearly verifiable, this is transparently marked as “unconfirmed” or the person is omitted.

Germany: Politics

Feleknas Uca (* 1976, Celle)

Feleknas Uca is regarded as one of the first professional Êzîdî politicians of Europe and was for years the only Êzîdî parliamentarian worldwide, until the Iraqi parliament was elected in 2005. She was born on 17 September 1976 in Celle, Lower Saxony, as the daughter of an immigrated Kurdish-Êzîdî family from Turkey.

  • Field: Politics (European Parliament, later Turkey).
  • Career: At only 22 years of age she entered the European Parliament via the federal list of the PDS. From 1999 to 2009 she was a Member of the European Parliament for Germany (PDS/Die Linke). In 2014 she moved to Diyarbakır in Turkey and was later elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey via the pro-Kurdish HDP.
  • Impact: She made the genocide and persecution of the Êzîdîs an early topic of European politics and is one of the internationally most visible Êzîdî voices of her generation. She was awarded, among others, the Clara Zetkin Women’s Prize.
  • Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feleknas_Uca

Ali Atalan (* 1968, Midyat/Turkey)

Ali Atalan is a German politician of Kurdish-Êzîdî origin who was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Germany: Literature, media and activism

Ronya Othmann (* 1993, Munich)

Ronya Othmann is one of the most distinguished young authors of contemporary German literature and writes from an Êzîdî family perspective.

  • Field: Literature, poetry, essay, journalism.
  • Career: Born on 12 January 1993 in Munich as the daughter of a German mother and a Kurdish-Êzîdî father; the paternal family comes from the region around Tirbespî in the Kurdish north of Syria. Abitur in 2012, then studies including at the German Literature Institute Leipzig. She lives in Leipzig.
  • Works/impact: Debut novel Die Sommer (2020) about the Syrian civil war and the persecution of the Êzîdîs. Her second book Vierundsiebzig (2024) is a hybrid work of reportage, essay and memory about the 2014 genocide, the title refers to the fact that this genocide is, in the Êzîdî count, the 74th attempt at annihilation (Ferman). The book was shortlisted for the German Book Prize and received, among others, the Düsseldorf Literature Prize (2024) and the Erich Loest Prize (2025). At the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2019 she won the audience award. She wrote the taz column “Orient Express” and, since 2021, “Import Export” in the FAZ.
  • Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronya_Othmann; https://www.rowohlt.de/autorin/ronya-othmann-38660

Düzen Tekkal (* 1978, Hannover)

Düzen Tekkal is a journalist, filmmaker and one of the best-known human rights activists in Germany with an Êzîdî background.

  • Field: Journalism, film, human rights activism, education.
  • Career: Born in 1978 in Hannover as one of eleven children of a Kurdish-Êzîdî family that had fled Turkey in the 1960s. Since 2014 she has worked as a freelance journalist and war correspondent and traveled to the genocide region in northern Iraq.
  • Impact: Together with her sisters she founded the human rights organization HÁWAR.help e. V. (2015), which advocates above all for girls and women in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and Germany, as well as the educational initiative “GermanDream”. For her commitment she received numerous awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit and the Theodor Heuss Prize (2021). She is among the most influential mediators of Êzîdî concerns into the German public and politics.
  • Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Düzen_Tekkal; https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/civil-society-the-journalist-and-activist-duzen-tekkal; https://www.hawar.help/en/

Nadia Murad (* 1993, Kojo/Iraq): living in Germany (borderline case)

Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (2018) and a survivor of the genocide of Şingal. She is of Iraqi-Êzîdî origin and was born in Iraq, but has lived in Germany (Baden-Württemberg) since her flight and is thereby closely connected to the German diaspora.

Germany: Scholarship

Jan Ilhan Kizilhan (* 1966, Batman/Turkey)

Jan İlhan Kızılhan is an internationally recognized psychologist and psychotraumatologist and himself of Kurdish-Êzîdî origin (the origin is confirmed: he came to Germany from Turkey in 1973 with his Kurdish-Êzîdî parents).

  • Field: Scholarship (transcultural psychiatry, psychotraumatology).
  • Career: Born in 1966 in Batman (Turkey). Professor at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (Villingen-Schwenningen, since 2010), director of the Institute for Transcultural Health Research (DHBW, since 2018) and dean of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychotraumatology at the University of Dohuk in the autonomous Kurdistan Region/Iraq (since 2016).
  • Impact: He was the medical-therapeutic director of the “special contingent” of the state of Baden-Württemberg (end of 2014), through which around 1,100 especially vulnerable Êzîdî women and children who had been abducted and abused by IS were brought to Germany. He has cared for over 1,000 Êzîdî survivors and shaped the scholarly examination of the genocide trauma (among other things co-editor of the 2019 evaluation study “From the violence of the ‘Islamic State’ to Baden-Württemberg”).
  • Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_İlhan_Kızılhan

Ezidische Akademie (EZIDAK), Hannover

The Ezidische Akademie e. V. (also Êzîdî Academy) in Hannover is the most important scholarly-cultural self-organization of the Êzîdîs in Germany.

  • Field: Scholarship, education, cultural preservation.
  • Career/profile: Founded in 2009 by cosmopolitan Êzîdîs and non-Êzîdîs of various nationalities, as a non-profit migrant self-organization based in Hannover. Represented by the chairman Hatab Omar and a scientific advisory board.
  • Impact: It runs inclusive educational, integration and counseling projects (among others “Asylum procedure counseling in Lower Saxony”, EU- and state-funded) and is dedicated to the documentation, interpretation and revitalization of Êzîdî religious culture on a scholarly level. It publishes the German-language “Journal of the Ezidische Akademie”.
  • Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezidische_Akademie; https://ezidak.de/

Eskerê Boyîk (* 1941, Qundexsaz/Armenia): living in Germany

Eskerê Boyîk is an Êzîdî poet and writer in the Kurdish language who has lived in Germany since 1993.

  • Field: Literature/scholarship (Kurdish literature, essay writing).
  • Career: Born in 1941 into an Êzîdî family in the village of Qundexsaz in (Soviet) Armenia; studied economics in Yerevan (graduated 1966). From the 1960s he wrote poems and articles in Kurdish as well as contributions in Armenian and Russian and is known as a connoisseur of Soviet-Kurdish literature. After the collapse of the USSR he came to Germany in 1993.
  • Impact: Member of the Soviet Writers’ Union (since 1984), of the Armenian Writers’ Union and of the Kurdish PEN. He is regarded as an important preserver of Kurdish-Êzîdî literature and language in the diaspora.
  • Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskerê_Boyîk; https://www.lyrikline.org/en/authors/eskere-boyik

Khanna Omarkhali (* 1981)

Field: Scholar of religion, Iranologist (Êzîdî studies).

Career & impact: Khanna Omarkhali (born 1981 in Yerevan) is a researcher of Êzîdî origin and an internationally leading scholar of Êzîdî studies; she works, among other places, in the German-language academic sphere (Göttingen/Berlin). Her work The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written (2017) is regarded as methodologically groundbreaking for the study of the oral-written tradition of the Êzîdîs.

Sources:

Germany: Sport

Deniz Undav (* 1996, Varel)

Deniz Undav is a German national football player and the first footballer of Êzîdî origin to represent Germany at a major tournament.

  • Field: Sport (football, striker).
  • Career: Born on 19 July 1996 in Varel, raised in Achim near Bremen. His parents are Kurdish Êzîdîs from the village of Işıklı (Şanlıurfa province, southeastern Turkey); his grandfather emigrated to Germany after the 1980 military coup. He achieved his breakthrough at the Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise (2020–2022), then Brighton & Hove Albion (England) and, since 2023, VfB Stuttgart (permanent transfer 2024).
  • Impact: In the 2021/22 season he became top scorer of the Belgian league (18 goals) and “Belgian Footballer of the Year”. He made his debut for the German national team in March 2024; he took part in Euro 2024. As the first national player of Êzîdî origin he has a role-model effect for the diaspora.
  • Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniz_Undav

Rest of Europe

Outside Germany there exist smaller but organized Êzîdî communities. Here the individual data situation regarding prominent individuals is considerably thinner than for Germany; what is verifiable is above all community structures and organizations.

Sweden

Sweden has hosted, since around 2008, a growing Êzîdî community with its own association structures and representations. Concrete Swedish local or state politicians clearly documented as Êzîdî could not be verified beyond doubt in the research, several circulating attributions concern persons of Kurdish origin whose Êzîdî religious affiliation is not clearly documented. These are therefore deliberately omitted here or marked as unconfirmed. The existence of organized Êzîdî structures and of a notable diaspora in Sweden is confirmed.

France

In France, according to the estimate of the “Association des Yézidis de France” (AYF), around 10,000 Êzîdîs live. The AYF promotes integration into French society and the visibility of Êzîdî culture; France also took in more than a hundred Êzîdî women and children through a reception program. France was furthermore (together with Sweden) involved in an international investigation team (Joint Investigation Team, coordinated via Eurojust) for the criminal prosecution of crimes against Êzîdî victims in Syria and Iraq.

Belgium

Belgium is connected to the Êzîdî diaspora through football: the German national player of Êzîdî origin Deniz Undav celebrated his breakthrough in 2020–2022 at Union Saint-Gilloise (Brussels) and was named “Belgian Footballer of the Year” 2021/22 (see entry under Germany, Sport). A distinct, verifiable Belgian Êzîdî individual in politics or culture could not be verified beyond doubt in this research and is therefore not asserted.

Netherlands, United Kingdom, Austria

In the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Austria there exist smaller Êzîdî communities. Verifiable prominent individuals of Êzîdî origin with clearly documented religious affiliation could not be verified beyond doubt for these countries in the present research; what is documented is the existence of these diaspora communities. To preserve accuracy, no individuals are invented or attributed without evidence here.

Methodological note: All living persons named above were checked against at least one reliable source both with regard to their person and to their Êzîdî origin. Where the origin or religious affiliation was not clearly verifiable, this was marked as “unconfirmed” or the person in question was omitted. Nadia Murad and Eskerê Boyîk were not born in Germany but reside there and are classified transparently accordingly.

Turkey, Syria, Iran and overseas

This section gathers documented Êzîdî personalities from Turkey, Syria and Iran as well as from the major countries of emigration overseas (USA, Canada, Australia). All listed persons are really documented; for living persons both their existence and, as far as the source situation permits, their Êzîdî origin were checked. Where the source situation is thin, this is explicitly stated. An important convention in advance: Tawûsî Melek, the “Peacock Angel” of the Êzîdî religion, is here, as in all serious scholarship, never referred to as “the devil”, this equation is a centuries-old slander.

Turkey

Turkey, in particular the Tur Abdin region in the southeast (southeast of Diyarbakır, around Batman, Mardin and Nusaybin), was for centuries a significant Êzîdî settlement area. In the course of the 20th century, however, the community shrank dramatically: from around 30,000 people in about 1982 to fewer than 500 in 2009. The overwhelming majority emigrated to Europe, above all to Germany (Hannover, Bielefeld, Celle, Bremen, Oldenburg among others), where today a diaspora of over 200,000 Êzîdîs lives. The families that remained in Turkey are concentrated in a few villages in their old core region of Tur Abdin; occasionally, within the framework of “return-to-the-village” projects, there are returnees from Germany.

Sources:

Historical tribal leaders in southeastern Anatolia

The Êzîdî history of the region is closely linked to local tribal leaders. Documented, for example, is Hasan Kanjo (Hesen Kenco), an Êzîdî chieftain who built a fortress near Haleli east of Viranşehir, in order to fight from there against Arab desert tribes (including the Shammar); the members of his tribe were allowed to preserve their Êzîdî faith, and they camped around the fortress.

  • Field/impact: Tribal and military leadership in the Viranşehir area; an example of the temporarily relative autonomy of Êzîdî tribes in southeastern Anatolia.
  • Source situation: Thin; accessible above all through the general Êzîdî historiography. Source: Wikipedia, “Yazidis”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidis

Note on correct classification: The tribal leaders named in some lists, such as Hemoyê Shero (Hammo Shiru, ~1850–1935, savior of thousands of Armenians during the 1915 genocide), belong geographically to Şingal/Sinjar (today Iraq), not to Turkey, and are therefore treated in the Iraq section. They are mentioned here only for the sake of delimitation.

Cultural figures: the Dengbêj tradition from Tur Abdin

Êzîdîs originating from Turkey shaped the Kurdish-Êzîdî narrative and singing tradition of the Dengbêj: singers who preserved history and memory through orally transmitted epics and songs, precisely in times when Kurdish was banned. Many of these voices fled, after the genocide of 1915 or after the Kurdish uprisings of the 1920s, to the Soviet republic of Armenia and sang from the 1950s on in the Kurdish program of Radio Yerevan.

Sûsika Simo (* 1925 in the village of Mîrekêda, Elegez region, Soviet Armenia) is a documented Dengbêj singer who came from a fled Kurdish-Êzîdî family and sang for Radio Yerevan from 1955.

  • Field: Êzîdî-Kurdish folk music (Dengbêj).
  • Impact: Preservation of oral tradition via the radio; part of that generation which rescued the Êzîdî-Kurdish song repertoire through the Soviet era.
  • Career: Born into a refugee family in Armenia (roots in Anatolia), rise via the radio.
  • Source situation: Several persons of this group (including Zadîna Şakir, Fatma Îsa, Aslîka Qadir) are described in journalistic portraits as of Êzîdî/Kurdish origin; the exact confessional classification of individual singers is not always clearly documented and should be formulated cautiously.

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Syria

In Syria, Êzîdîs lived above all in two areas: in the Afrîn region (northwest, Mount Sim’an / Jabal Sim’an) and in the Cezîre/Jazira (northeast, around Hasaka). Before the war the Syrian community numbered several tens of thousands; through the civil war and especially the Turkish military operation in Afrîn in 2018 a large part was displaced. According to estimates, around 3,000 Êzîdîs who had fled from Afrîn subsequently lived in camps and villages of the Şehba (al-Shahba) region.

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Karapetê Xaço (≈1900–2005) – bearer of the tradition, but not an Êzîdî

A figure appearing in many lists is the Dengbêj Karapetê Xaço (* around 1900, depending on the source also 1903/1908, in the village of Bileyder/Binatlı near Batman, Turkey; † 15 January 2005). Important and explicitly to be clarified: Karapetê Xaço was not an Êzîdî, but ethnically an Armenian. He is named here only because he is regarded as one of the most significant bearers of the Kurdish-Êzîdî music tradition (Dengbêj) of the 20th century, an example of how this oral culture was carried across religious and ethnic boundaries.

  • Career: Born into an Armenian family in Ottoman Anatolia; in 1915 he survived as a child the Armenian Genocide, saved, according to tradition, by his knowledge of Kurmancî and his singing talent. He joined Kurdish rebels during the Sheikh Said rebellion, then fled to the French Mandate territory of Syria and served around 15 years as a soldier in the French army. In 1946 he moved to Soviet Armenia (Yerevan), where from 1955 he sang in the Kurdish program of Radio Yerevan.
  • Field/impact: He preserved traditional Kurdish melodies and epics for decades through recordings and performances; he is regarded as one of the most talented Dengbêj of the modern era.
  • Classification: He represents the close cultural interweaving of Êzîdîs, Muslim Kurds and Armenians in the region. No appropriation as an Êzîdî person.

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Êzîdî activists and cultural figures from Afrîn

Sileman Cafer (Silêman Cafer) is a documented Êzîdî community leader from Afrîn and author of the book Qewlên Êzdiyan (“The Êzîdî texts/hymns”), a collection of religious traditions.

  • Field: Religious-cultural tradition, community leadership in Afrîn.
  • Impact: Documentation of the oral Qewl tradition of the Syrian Êzîdîs.

Saad Babir (Se’d Babîr) is an Êzîdî activist from Afrîn who, after the start of the Turkish military operation in 2018, documented the destruction of several Êzîdî sanctuaries (Şrîn/shrines) and drew international attention to it, accounts that were confirmed by other activists on the ground.

  • Field: Human rights and cultural-heritage documentation.
  • Impact: Securing evidence of the destruction of Êzîdî cultural heritage in Afrîn.
  • Source situation: Documented via journalistic reporting; biographical depth of detail (dates of birth, career) is low in the available sources.

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Iran

The source situation regarding Êzîdîs in Iran is exceptionally thin and is here deliberately made transparent. In the historical Maku Khanate (18th–20th c.) in the far northwest of Iran (West Azerbaijan, around Maku and Lake Urmia), Êzîdîs are named in the population alongside Azerbaijanis, Kurds and Armenians. A coherent, well-documented Êzîdî community with persons graspable by name can, however, hardly be substantiated for Iran today.

The reference, named in the task assignment, to the “Şikak” tribe (Şekak/Shikak) is to be treated with caution: the Şikak is a predominantly Sunni-Kurdish tribe in the Urmia/Maku area, whose best-known leader was Simko Şikak (Ismail Agha Şikak). A direct Êzîdî attribution of the Şikak tribe is not substantiated in the available sources; Simko himself was not an Êzîdî. This point should not be overextended in the finished article, the Êzîdî presence in Iran remains historically marginal and poorly documented.

  • Conclusion: No seriously substantiable, namable Êzîdî individual from Iran. The thin source situation is openly stated instead of inventing persons.

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USA

The largest Êzîdî community of the USA is located in Lincoln, Nebraska (around 2,500 people). Many came as former interpreters of the US Army in Iraq and through family reunification; from this group several formative activists have emerged.

Hadi Pir

Hadi Pir is co-founder and vice-president of Yazda, an international Êzîdî relief and advocacy organization (founded in 2014 after the genocide of Şingal, with its seat among other places in Texas/USA).

  • Career: Êzîdî from northern Iraq; shortly before completing his studies when the USA invaded Iraq in 2003. Subsequently around seven years as an interpreter and cultural advisor for US special forces. After moving to the USA, a teacher at public schools in Lincoln; B.A. (English as a Second Language, University of Mosul), M.A. in Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).
  • Field/impact: Human rights advocacy, recognition of the genocide, building of Êzîdî structures in the USA.

Sources:

Ziyad Smoqi

Ziyad Smoqi is an Êzîdî activist, co-founder of Yazda and a former interpreter of the US Army in Iraq; he earned a doctorate in the field of mechanical engineering/materials science at UNL.

  • Field/impact: Like Hadi Pir, co-builder of Yazda and lobbying for the Êzîdî cause in the USA.

Source: Nebraska Today (see above)

Murad Ismael

Murad Ismael is co-founder of Yazda and the Nadia Initiative as well as co-founder and president of the Sinjar Academy (educational initiative for the community of Şingal). He was Executive Director of Yazda for four years.

  • Career: Êzîdî from Şingal; schooling in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; two master’s degrees (environmental engineering, Norwich University; geophysics, University of Houston). During the ISIS attack of 2014, part of the Êzîdî delegation that made its case at the White House and thereby contributed to the US intervention (airstrikes, humanitarian drops for those trapped on Mount Şingal).
  • Field/impact: Education, humanitarian aid, international advocacy. Strongly connected to the USA (studies and activism there); at the same time a member of the Iraqi parliament according to more recent profiles, the USA classification is therefore to be understood as “place of impact of the activism”, not as the sole location.

Sources:

Note: Nadia Murad (Nobel Peace Prize 2018) and her husband Abid Shamdeen (UNL graduate, co-founder of the Nadia Initiative) are closely connected to the Lincoln community and the USA, but come from Şingal/Iraq and will presumably be listed in the Iraq section. Here only as a cross-reference.

Canada

In Canada, the Êzîdî resettlement history is concentrated on Winnipeg (Manitoba) and is closely linked to the initiative “Operation Ezra”: a relief project launched in 2015 by Jewish communities in Winnipeg, which after the ISIS genocide brought Êzîdî families to Canada. By 2017 Operation Ezra had raised around 500,000 CAD and resettled several dozen Êzîdîs; the Canadian government announced that it would take in around 1,200 Êzîdî survivors by the end of 2017.

Nafiya Naso

Nafiya Naso is the central Êzîdî activist behind Operation Ezra (verified).

  • Career: She spent her childhood in a refugee camp in Syria and came around 16 years ago (as of 2017) with her family to Manitoba. She is the resettlement coordinator of Operation Ezra and supports newly arriving families practically (health cards, school enrollment, English courses, banking system).
  • Field/impact: Refugee resettlement and advocacy. She spoke before the immigration committee of the Canadian House of Commons and campaigned for taking in significantly more Êzîdî refugees (she named the figure of 5,000 for 2017). The encounter with her gave the impetus for the founding of Operation Ezra.

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Australia

Êzîdîs in Australia have settled predominantly in regional cities, above all in Toowoomba (Queensland): with the country’s largest Êzîdî population, as well as in Coffs Harbour, Armidale and Wagga Wagga (New South Wales). Many came as survivors of the 2014 genocide.

Tosinê Reşîd (* 1941)

Field: Writer, poet, playwright.

Career & impact: Tosinê Reşîd (born 1941 in Kûrekend, Armenia) is a Kurdish-Êzîdî writer, poet and playwright; he lives in the diaspora in Melbourne (Australia). He published, among other things, poetry collections and plays and is among the literary voices of the Êzîdî diaspora from the former Soviet Union.

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Khairi Jolo

Khairi Jolo is a documented Êzîdî community representative from Iraq who fled to Australia and settled in Wagga Wagga.

  • Career: Before his flight, the contact person of his community vis-à-vis the UN refugee agency UNHCR, from which he received an honorable recognition for his protection of the community against discrimination and racism. In Australia he is engaged, among other things, as a member of the emergency services (NSW SES).
  • Field/impact: Community leadership, integration and volunteer work.

Source: NSW SES, “World Refugee Day 2024: Meet Wagga Wagga unit member Khairi Jolo”: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/news/world-refugee-day-2024-meet-wagga-wagga-unit-member-khairi-jolo

Nihad Barakt and other voices from Toowoomba

Nihad Barakt, from the Şingal region (northern Iraq), lives today in Toowoomba and is publicly engaged for the concerns of her community (among other things, the demand for a dedicated place of worship, in order to keep the old culture alive).

  • Field/impact: Community advocacy, preservation of culture and religion in the diaspora.
  • Source situation: Documented via Australian local and parliamentary sources; biographical depth of detail low.

At the national or Melbourne level, Khalaf Bashier appears as a spokesman of the Êzîdî community.

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Methodological notes on this section

  • Verification: Living persons were checked for existence and, as far as possible, Êzîdî origin. Karapetê Xaço is explicitly marked as an ethnic Armenian (not an Êzîdî) and listed only as a bearer of the shared music tradition.
  • Geographic delimitation: Several prominent Êzîdîs (Hemoyê Shero, Nadia Murad, Abid Shamdeen, Mirza Dinnayi) come from Şingal/Iraq or live in Germany and belong factually in other sections; they are named here only as a cross-reference, in order to avoid duplications and misattributions.
  • Thin source situation (especially Iran, individual Syria/Australia figures) is openly stated rather than filled by speculation.
  • Conventions: throughout Êzîdî/Êzîdîs; Tawûsî Melek never “the devil”; neutral, respectful presentation.

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