Now, just days after the supreme spiritual council had settled on his son Mir Hazim Tahsin Beg taking the mantle, a rival group affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has elected a candidate of its own choosing.
The Shingal Protection Units (YBS) said on Sunday it does not recognize Mir Hazim as the legitimate spiritual leader, instead anointing Mir Naif Dawud Sulaiman Beg at the Yezidi shrine of Shibel Qasim.
He was nominated by Khudeda Choki, former YBS commander and current mayor of Snune in Shingal.
Mir Hazim was inaugurated as the new Yezidi spiritual leader in a ceremony at the Temple of Lalish in Sheikhan, Duhok province on July 27.
He was one of the six candidates drawn from the same family to replace Tahsin Saeed Beg Ali Beg Hussein Beg, who died on January 28 at the age of 85. After months of wrangling, Mir Hazim was finally selected.
“Choosing Mir Hazim sparked massive outrage among many Yezidis because his parents are not from the family of Mir,” Choki alleged, speaking to Rudaw.
Although Mir Tahsin Beg is from the Mir bloodline, he married a Yezidi woman from outside the family. Critics argue this makes his son Hazim unfit to become Mir.
“According to the Yezidi religion, the leader must come from the Mir family,” Choki said.
“Additionally, Mir Hazim has been assigned for the position by a certain political party of Kurdistan, not by the Yezidis themselves,” he added, likely in reference to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
“Therefore we chose Mir Naif as the Mir of Yezidis,” he added.
Mir Naif is currently based in Germany. He often visited the Kurdistan Region during the war with the Islamic State (ISIS) and in the aftermath of the 2014 Yezidi genocide.
“Mir Naif will permanently return and will create a residence of his own on top of the Mount Shingal,” Choki said.
He dismissed claims that Naif was selected by the PKK.
“They have no connections to this subject and we are grateful if they help us,” he said. “Mir Naif is neutral.”
However, Qasim Shasho, a Peshmerga commander and a prominent figure among Yezidis, insists Mir Naif was appointed by the PKK. He also believes another two other Yezidi factions are planning to appoint their own Mirs. He did not identify which factions.
Sheikh Shamo, who advises the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) prime minister on Yezidi affairs, downplayed the rivalries.
“Nothing impacts Mir Hazim as he is the only Mir of all Yezidis of Kurdistan and the world,” Shamo told Rudaw.
Mir Tahsin Beg’s legacy is keenly felt in the deeply traumatized community, just five years on from the ISIS genocide.
Born on August 15, 1933, in Ba’adra, near Shekhan, Mir Tahsin Beg succeeded his father as chief of the Yezidi community at age 11.
Having presided over the community through several turbulent decades, Mir Tahsin Beg died in a hospital in Hanover, Germany on January 28, 2019, aged 85, after being hospitalized for an illness.
Long an outspoken figure, he joined the Kurdish Aylul (September) Revolution against the Iraqi government in 1970. He fled to Iran, where he became the target of an attack.
He migrated to the UK in 1975 and returned to Iraq in 1981, surviving two attempts on his life in 1992 and 2003.
Notable Yezidi figures mourned the death of the last Mir as a figure who provided strength and unity during the ISIS genocide.
From exile in Germany, he called for international military assistance in defense of his people. He also broke with religious custom and ruled that women raped by ISIS fighters must not be excluded from the faith.
When ISIS attacked the Yezidi homeland of Shingal in the summer of 2014, thousands of Yezidis fled to the Kurdistan Region, Mount Shingal, and to Kurdish areas in northern Syria, also known as Rojava.
Those who were unable to escape were murdered by the jihadists. Thousands of women and children were taken captive for use a slaves and as child soldiers.
There were an estimated 500,000 Yezidis in Iraq before the genocide. Around 100,000 have left Iraq and 360,000 remain internally displaced.
Of the 6,417 Yezidis believed to have been abducted from Shingal, 2,992 remain missing, according to KRG figures.
