ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Three candidacies and seven months later, and Baghdad’s premiership purgatory has ended. Iraq's new prime minister faces the mammoth task of addressing the grievances of persistent protests, a collapse in the price of the oil upon which the country's economy so heavily depends, and the spread of coronavirus. But activists from Iraq’s cross-stitch of ethnic and religious minorities have expressed concern that the cabinet Mustafa al-Kadhimi has chosen to take on that task is a poor reflection of the country’s diverse ethnoreligious reality. “The limited ethnic and religious composition of the recently formed government is a disappointing start for Prime Minister Kadhimi,” Mays al-Jaboori, Minority Rights Group International’s (MRGI) Civilian Rights Officer for Iraq told Rudaw English via email. Minority groups — including various Christian denominations, Shabaks, Yazidis, Kaka’i, and Turkmen — have been specific targets in waves of violent onslaughts, most recently at the viciously intolerant hands of the Islamic State (ISIS). Two and a half years after the militant group's territorial defeat, some members of these communities still express fear of returning from the IDP camps they inhabit to their former homes in areas like Mosul, Shingal, and the Nineveh Plains - home to a once particularly rich patchwork of ethnic and religious groups - where neighbourhoods lie in ruin, land remains laden with landmines, and employment opportunities are scarce. Activists from minority groups have been appealing to Baghdad for aid in rebuilding and returning to their homes since the fall of ISIS, but have complained that their calls for reconstructive action have fallen on deaf ears. “Minority communities including Christian, Yezidi, Turkmen and Shabak have faced unprecedented violations of their human rights in the recent conflict. The newly-formed government must acknowledge minority losses and grievances as well as long-standing minority disenfranchisement from public life, and afford communities with meaningful minority representation,” Jaboori said. While some groups are guaranteed parliamentary representation under the ethno-sectarian muhassassa quota system, ministerial representation is not a given for many groups — aside from one minister position reserved for minorities, expected to go to Christian representatives. According to MRGI, which monitors the status of minority groups across the globe, the homogeneity of the new cabinet demonstrates the “failure” to include “long excluded” groups in a political system built on sectarian lines. Before the emergence of ISIS, the vast majority of Iraq’s Yezidis lived in Shingal, an area close to the Syrian and Turkish borders. The group ravaged the Yezidi heartland in August 2014, in what has been largely recognised a genocide. Although Baghdad has fought Erbil for authority over the area, the federal government seems to be dragging its feet in aiding survivors of the ISIS onslaught, who were displaced, enslaved and indoctrinated for their faith. For Murad Ismael, a Yezidi activist and co-founder of NGO Yazda, the current “sidelining” of his community only adds to a historical sense of neglect. “The lack of Yezidi representation affects directly the relationship with the Yezidi community, who have already lost trust in the institutions in Iraq generally after they were left behind to face the genocide. This sidelining of the Yezidis is very unacceptable. It’s not only unacceptable - it’s immoral.” “There has been no representation for the Yezidi community in the decision-making positions in Baghdad, and this has reflected very negatively on the overall response of the central government to the Yezidi issue and to the return of the IDPs to the Yezidi areas,” Ismael said. Yezidi survivor and activist Nadia Murad has appealed to the new premier for increased government diversity, as well as aid for the often neglected community. The community’s spiritual council and Baghdad’s three Yezidi MPs have also reached out to Kadhimi, but it is unclear if this will sway Kadhimi when figures for permanent roles are proposed. Ismael said the Yezidis hope in particular for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement - a post provisionally held by Transport Minister Nasir Hussein until a permanent replacement can be found. Like the Yezidis, members of the Turkmen ethnic group — a Sunni-majority community who number around three million across Iraq — were abducted by ISIS in the summer of 2014. Iraq’s third largest ethnic group after Arabs and Kurds, Turkmen typically live in the Kurdistan Region and in disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and Erbil. Amid a growing security vacuum in these areas, insurgent ISIS attacks including arson, kidnap and ambush remain rife. “Representing Turkmen is an important message for all Iraqis and Turkmen that the state considers them citizens to the same degree as others. The absence of this representation is the reverse,” Dr Ali al-Bayati, a member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights told Rudaw English this week. This is the second cabinet that has seen no Turkmen representation, added Bayati, who also heads the Turkmen Rescue Foundation. “Marginalizing such a big part of the Iraqi community is real discrimination and against democratic measures. Iraqi minorities, without exception, must all be represented in such a large cabinet,” he added. Whether calls for wider representation will be heeded remains to be seen, but the ball is now in Kadhimi’s court to make Iraq, or at least its cabinet, what Ismael calls “inclusive for all.”
