title: Korean Broadcasting System

text: After the board postponed a decision on whether or not to dismiss Gil, two of the broadcaster's largest unions went on strike.


title: Korean Broadcasting System

text: As a result of the boycott, most of the broadcaster's news output was affected. The hour-long KBS News 9 ran for just 20 minutes, and during local elections on 4 June 2014, KBS was unable to send reporters to interview candidates.


title: Korean Broadcasting System

text: The strike ended after the board of directors voted to dismiss Gil. The board passed a motion on 5 June 2014 demanding the discharge of President Gil. The majority vote decision was sent to be approved by the country's president Park Geun-hye, who has the power to appoint the broadcaster's head.


title: Korean Broadcasting System

text: In August 2017, KBS union decided to hold a strike, which began on 4 September, due to allegedly influencing news coverage to be in favor of former president Park Geun-hye's administration. As a result of the boycott, there has been a severe reduction in the airing of KBS news programs, culture programs, radio shows, and variety shows due to most staff members taking part in the strike. During its strike, the 2017 KBS Entertainment Awards was cancelled. After 141 days, the strike was over when the broadcasting company's board of directors approved the dismissal of KBS president Ko Dae-young.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy (, ), officially the Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Barthélemy, is an overseas collectivity of France in the Caribbean. It is often abbreviated to St. Barth in French, and St. Barts in English. The island lies about south of the Caribbean island Saint Martin, and is northeast of the Dutch islands of Saba, Sint Eustatius, and the independent country of Saint Kitts and Nevis.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region and department of France. In 2003 the island voted in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity ("collectivité d'outre-mer", abbreviated to "COM") of France. The collectivity is one of four territories among the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean that make up the French West Indies, along with Saint Martin, Guadeloupe ( southeast), and Martinique.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy, a volcanic island fully encircled by shallow reefs, has an area of and a population of 9,961 at the Jan. 2017 census. Its capital is Gustavia, which also contains the main harbour. It is the only Caribbean island that was a Swedish colony for any significant length of time (before the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Guadeloupe came under Swedish rule for a year before the Treaty of Paris). It remained so for nearly a century before it returned to French rule after a referendum. Symbolism from the Swedish national arms, the Three Crowns, still appears in the island's coat of arms. The language, cuisine, and culture, however, are distinctly French. The island is a popular tourist destination during the winter holiday season, geared towards the high-end, luxury tourist market.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Before European contact the island was possibly frequented by Eastern Caribbean Taíno and Arawak people, who called the island 'Ouanalao', though it is believed that the island was not inhabited permanently due to its poor water sources and soil. Christopher Columbus was the first European to encounter the island in 1493. Sporadic visits continued for the next hundred years until formal colonisation began taking shape.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: By 1648 the island was settled by the French, encouraged by Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the lieutenant-governor of the French West India Company, and initially comprised about 50 to 60 settlers, later augmented by smaller numbers coming from St Kitts. Led by Jacques Gentes, the new arrivals began cultivating cacao. However, the settlement was attacked by Caribs in 1656 and briefly abandoned.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: De Poincy was the dominant administrator in this period and a member of the Order of Saint John. He facilitated the transfer of ownership from the Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique to the Order. He continued to rule the island until his death in 1660. Five years later, it was bought by the French West India Company along with the Order's other possessions in the Caribbean. By 1674, the company was dissolved and the islands became part of the French Kingdom and added to the colony of Guadeloupe.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The island proved economically unsuccessful, and was subject to the activities of pirates (most notably Daniel Montbars aka 'Montbars the Exterminator'), as well as the British, who attacked the island in 1744. Thus deeming it to be of little worth, King Louis XVI traded the island to Sweden in 1784 in return for trading privileges in Gothenburg. This change of control saw progress and prosperity as the Swedes declared Gustavia (named after the Swedish king Gustav III who ruled at that time) a free port, convenient for trading by the Europeans for goods, including contraband material.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Slavery was practised in St. Barthélemy under the "Ordinance concerning the Police of Slaves and free Coloured People" of 1787. The last legally owned slaves in the Swedish colony of St. Barthélemy were granted their freedom by the state on 9 October 1847. Since the island was not a plantation area, the freed slaves suffered economic hardships due to lack of opportunities for employment.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: In 1852, a devastating hurricane hit the island and this was followed by a fire. The economy suffered, and thus Sweden sought to relieve themselves of the island. In 1867, a volcano “nearly destroyed the island” as recorded in the Illustrated London News. Following a referendum in 1877, Sweden sold the island back to France in 1878, after which it was administered as part of Guadeloupe.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: With few economic prospects on the islands many men from St. Barthélemy took jobs on Saint Thomas to support their families. Organised tourism and hotels began in earnest in


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: the 1960s and developed in the 1970s onwards, particularly after the building of the island's landing strip that can accommodate mid-sized aircraft. The island soon became renowned as a high-class luxury destination, being frequented by numerous celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Howard Hughes, Benjamin de Rothschild, David Rockefeller, Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Jimmy Buffett and Johnny Hallyday. The boost in tourist numbers has led to a rise in living standards and rapid modernisation.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy was for many years a French commune forming part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas region and department of France. Through a referendum in 2003, island residents sought separation from the administrative jurisdiction of Guadeloupe, and it was finally accomplished in 2007. The island of Saint Barthélemy became an Overseas Collectivity (COM). A governing territorial council was elected for its administration, which has provided the island with a certain degree of autonomy. A senator represents the island in Paris. St. Barthélemy has retained its free port status.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy ceased being an outermost region and left the EU, to become an OCT, (Overseas Country or Territory) on 1 January 2012.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The island sustained damage from Hurricane Irma in September 2017 but recovered quickly, and by early 2018 transport and electricity were largely operational.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Approximately east of Puerto Rico and the nearer Virgin Islands, St. Barthélemy lies immediately southeast of the islands of Saint Martin and Anguilla. St. Barthélemy is separated from Saint Martin by the Saint-Barthélemy Channel. It lies northeast of Saba and St Eustatius, and north of St Kitts. Several smaller uninhabited islands lie offshore, the largest of which are Île Fourchue, Île Coco, Île Chevreau (Île Bonhomme), Île Frégate, Île Toc Vers, Île Tortue, Roche Plate (Table à Diable) and Mancel ou la Poule et les Poussins. There are numerous smaller islets, such as La Petite Islette, L'Îlet au Vent, Île Pelé, Île le Boulanger, Roche le Bœuf, Île Petit Jean, L'Âne Rouge, Les Gros Islets, La Baleine des Gros Islets, Pain de Sucre, Les Baleines du Pain de Sucre, Fourmis, Les Petit Saints, Roches Roubes, Les Baleines de Grand Fond and Les Grenadins.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: St. Barthélemy forms, with St. Martin, Anguilla, and Dog Island, a distinct group that lies upon the western edge of a flat bank of soundings composed chiefly of shells, sand, and coral. From St. Barthélemy, the bank extends east-southeast, ending in a small tongue or spit. It is separated from the main bank by a narrow length of deep water. East of the island, the edge of the bank lies away.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Grande Saline Bay provides temporary anchorage for small vessels while Colombier Bay, to the northwest, has a 4 fathoms patch near mid-entrance. In the bight of St. Jean Bay there is a narrow cut through the reef. The north and east sides of the island are fringed, to a short distance from the shore, by a visible coral reef. Reefs are mostly in shallow waters and are clearly visible. The coastal areas abound with beaches and many of these have offshore reefs, some of which are part of a marine reserve.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The marine reserve, founded in 1999, covers more than of protected and vulnerable habitats, bays and islands, and includes a zone that is restricted to scientific observations only. As the sea surrounding the St. Barthélemy is rich in coral reefs and other precious marine life, the area has been declared a protected area since 1996. Environmental awareness is quite pronounced in St. Barthélemy and is promoted by the Environmental Commission.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: There are as many as 22 public beaches (most beaches on St. Barthélémy are known as "Anse de...") of which 15 are considered suitable for swimming. They are categorized and divided into two groups, the leeward side (calm waters protected by the island itself) and windward side (some of which are protected by hills and reefs). The windward beaches are popular for windsurfing. The beach of St Jean is suitable for water sports and facilities have been created for that purpose. The long beach at Lorient has shade and is a quiet beach as compared to St. Jean.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Grand-cul-de-sac is a long beach with facilities for water sports. Anse de Flamands is a very wide sandy beach and Le petit Anse (The little beach), just to the north of Anse de Flamands is very safe and popular with the locals for their children. Anse Toiny beach is in a remote location and is considered suitable for experienced surfers as the water current is very strong.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: On the leeward side, the notable beaches are: Anse du Gouverneur, Anse du Colombier that is only accessible by foot or by boat, Anse de Grand Galet (Shell Beach) and Anse de Grande Saline which is popular with nudists. The area around the salt ponds near the Anse de Grande Saline beach is marshy and is a habitat for tropical birds. Ile islet, an offshoot of the leeward side, has a white sandy beach.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Shell Beach, also called Anse de Grand Galet (in French, 'Anse' means "cove" and Galet means "pebble"), is a beach in the southwestern part of Gustavia. A large number of sea shells are scattered on this beach. This beach was subject to the strong waves of hurricane Lenny in 1999, which resulted in erosion of the sand. This necessitated supplementing the beach with new sand in 2000.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: On the north coast, on the far eastern side of the island, there are two lagoons called the Anse de Marigot and Anse du Grand Cul-de-Sac.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Morne de Vitet, in height, is the highest peak on the island. Hills and valleys of varying topography cover the rest of the island. Notable are Morne Rouge, Morne Criquet, Morne de Grand Fond, Morne de Dépoudré and Morne Lurin. The largest bodies of water on the island are Étang de Saint-Jean, Grande Saline, Grand Étang and Petit Étang.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The population is spread among 40 "quartiers", roughly corresponding to settlements. They are grouped into two "paroisses" (parishes):


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The island covers an area of . The eastern side is wetter than the western. Although the climate is essentially arid, the rainfall does average annually, but with considerable variation over the terrain. Summer is from May to November, which is also the rainy season. Winter from December to April is the dry season. Sunshine is very prominent for nearly the entire year and even during the rainy season. Humidity, however, is not very high due to the winds. The average temperature is around with day temperatures rising to . The average high and low temperatures in January are and , respectively, while in July they are and . The lowest night temperature recorded is . The Caribbean sea waters in the vicinity generally maintain a temperature of about .


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: As of 2017, Saint-Barthélemy had a population of 9,961. Residents, known as Saint-Barthélemois, are French citizens and work at establishments on the island. Most of them are descendants of the first settlers, of Breton, Norman, Poitevin, Saintongeais and Angevin lineage. There is also a big community of Portuguese emigrants mainly from the North of Portugal, around 3000 people. French is the native tongue of the population, though English is understood in most hotels and restaurants; a small population of Anglophones has been resident in Gustavia for many years. The St. Barthélemy French patois is spoken by some 500–700 people in the leeward portion of the island and is superficially related to Quebec French, whereas Créole French is limited to the windward side. Unlike other populations in the Caribbean, language preference between the Créole and Patois is geographically, and not racially, determined.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The majority of the population of Saint Barthélemy is Christian, Saint Barthélemy is considered the most religiously homogeneous territory in the French West Indies, with particular importance given to the Catholic Church.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The territory of Saint-Barthélemy forms the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption ("Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption"), which in turn depends on the diocese of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre ( "diocèse de Basse-Terre et Pointe-à-Pitre") whose see is located in the cathedral of Our Lady of Guadeloupe ("Notre-Dame-de-Guadeloupe").


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The presbytery is located in the district of Lorient and dates from 1822. The building, including the masonry terrace, the staircases, the outbuildings and the gardens have been protected as historic monuments of France since March 28, 2002.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: There are two main Catholic churches both dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption or Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption (the one in Lorient and the one in Gustavia) and a chapel of St. Catherine of Siena ("Chapelle de Sainte Catherine de Sienne") in Colombier.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint Barthélemy is also part of the Diocese of the North Eastern Caribbean and Aruba ("diocèse de la Caraïbe du Nord-Est et d'Aruba"), which is under the Church of England (Church in the Province of the West Indies) that serves a small minority on the island that is centered in the Anglican Church of Saint Bartholomew ("Église anglicane de Saint-Barthélemy") built between 1853 and 1855. The small Pentecostal Christian community does not have a church building of its own and therefore offers religious services at St Barth's Beach Hotel.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The main religious holidays are Christmas, the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15), All Saints' Day (November 1) and the feast of St. Bartholomew (patron saint of the island) on August 24.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Until 2007 the whole island of St. Barthélemy was a French commune ("commune de Saint-Barthélemy"), forming part of Guadeloupe which is an overseas "région" and overseas "département" of France. In 2003, the population voted through referendum in favour of secession from Guadeloupe in order to form a separate overseas collectivity ("collectivité d'outre-mer", or "COM") of France.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: On 7 February 2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both St. Barthélemy and (separately) to the neighbouring Saint Martin. The new status took effect on 15 July 2007, when the first territorial council was elected, according to the law. The island has a president (elected every five years), a unicameral Territorial Council of nineteen members who are elected by popular vote and serve for five-year terms, and an executive council of seven members. Elections to these councils were first held on 1 July 2007 with the most recent election in 2017.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: One senator represents the island in the Senate, while a deputy jointly elected with Saint Martin represents it in the National Assembly. St. Barthélemy became an overseas territory of the European Union on 1 January 2012, but the island's inhabitants remain French citizens with EU status holding EU passports. France is responsible for the defence of the island and as such has stationed a security force on the island comprising six policemen and thirteen gendarmes (posted on two-year term).


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The French State is represented by a Prefect appointed by the President on the advice of the Minister of the Interior. As a collectivity of France, the island's national anthem is "La Marseillaise", though "L'Hymne a St. Barthélemy" is also used unofficially.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The economy of the island is based on tourism and duty-free retail. The official currency of St. Barthélemy is the euro.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: It is estimated that the nominal GDP of Saint Martin amounted to 367 million euros in 2014 (US$487 million at 2014 exchanges rates; US$411 million at Feb. 2022 exchange rates). In that same year the nominal GDP per capita of Saint Barthelemy was 38,994 euros (US$51,735 at 2014 exchanges rates; US$43,626 at Feb. 2022 exchange rates), which was one of the highest GDP per capita in the Caribbean, more than double the GDP per capita of the nearby Collectivity of Saint Martin, as well as 85% higher than Guadeloupe and 19% higher than metropolitan France's GDP per capita in 2014.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: International investment and the wealth generated by tourists explain the high standard of living on the island. Most of the food is imported from the United States or France. Tourism attracts about 200,000 visitors every year. As a result, there is a boom in house building activity catering to the tourists and also to the permanent residents of the island.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: St. Barthélemy has about 25 hotels, most with 15 rooms or fewer; the largest has 58 rooms. Hotels are classified in the traditional French manner; 3 Star, 4 Star and 4 Star Luxe. Of particular note are Eden Rock and Cheval Blanc. Hotel Le Toiny, the most expensive hotel on the island, has 12 rooms.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Most places of accommodation are in the form of private villas, of which there are some 400 available to rent on the island. The island's tourism industry, though expensive, attracts 70,000 visitors every year to its hotels and villas; another 130,000 people arrive by boat. It also attracts a labour force from Portugal. A team of analysts have analysed Airbnb’s Luxe offerings in 27 of their most popular luxury locations around the world and concluded that St Barths in the Caribbean is the top location for luxury Airbnb accommodation worldwide.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The height of tourism is New Year's Eve, with celebrities and the wealthy converging on the island in yachts up to in length for the occasion. Corossol is noted for its handicrafts; weaving hats and bags from palm fronds is a low income economic activity of the indigenous people.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: As the terrain is generally arid, the hills have mostly poor soil and support only cacti and succulent plants. During the rainy season the area turns green with vegetation and grass. The eastern part of the island is greener as it receives more rainfall. A 1994 survey has revealed several hundred indigenous species of plants including the naturalized varieties of flora; some growing in irrigated areas while the dry areas are dominated by the cacti variety. Sea grapes and palm trees are a common sight with mangroves and shrubs surviving in the saline coastal swamps. Coconut palm was brought to the island from the Pacific islands. Important plants noted on the island include flamboyant trees, frangipanis, sabal palms, wild trumpet and Manchineel trees.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Other trees of note include the royal palm, sea grape trees in the form of shrubs on the beaches and as trees in the interior areas of the island, aloe or aloe vera (brought from the Mediterranean), the night blooming cereus, mamillaria nivosa, yellow prickly pear or barbary fig which was planted as barbed wire defences against invading British army in 1773, Mexican cactus, stapelia gigantea, golden trumpet or yellow bell which was originally from South America, bougainvillea and others.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Marine mammals are many, such as dolphins, porpoises and whales, which are seen here during the migration period from December until May. Turtles are a common sight along the coastline of the island. They are a protected species and in the endangered list. It is stated that it will take 15–50 years for this species to attain reproductive age. Though they live in the sea, the females come to the shore to lay eggs and are protected by private societies. Three species of turtles are particularly notable. These are: The leatherback sea turtles which have leather skin instead of a shell and are the largest of the type found here, some times measuring a much as (average is about ) and weighing about 450 (jellyfish is their favourite diet); the hawksbill turtles, which have hawk-like beaks and found near reefs, generally about in diameter and weigh about 60 and their diet consists of crabs and snails; and the green turtles, herbivores which have rounded heads, generally about in diameter and live amidst tall sea grasses.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Avifauna in the wild, both native and migrating include brown pelican along the shore line, magnificent frigatebirds with long wingspans of up to 1.8 metres (6'), green herons, snowy egrets, belted kingfishers; bananaquits; broad-winged hawks; two species of hummingbirds, the green-throated carib and Antillean crested hummingbird; and zenaida doves.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The marine life found here consists of anemones, urchins, sea cucumbers, and eels, which all live on the reefs along with turtles, conch and many varieties of marine fishes. The marine aquafauna is rich in conch, which has pearly-pink shells. Its meat is a favourite food supplement item and their shells are a collectors item. Other species of fish which are recorded close to the shore line in shallow waters are: sergeant majors, the blue chromis, brown chromis, surgeon fish; blue tangs and trumpet fish. On the shore are ghost crabs, which always live on the beach in small burrowed tunnels made in sand, and the hermit crabs, which live in land but lay eggs in water and which also eat garbage and sewerage. They spend some months in the sea during and after the hatching season.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Saint-Barthélemy has a marine nature reserve, known as the Reserve Naturelle that covers 1200 ha (4¾ sq.mi.), and is divided into 5 zones all around the island to form a network of protected areas. The Reserve includes the bays of Grand Cul de Sac, Colombier, Marigot, Petit Cul de Sac, Petite Anse as well as waters around offshore rocks such as Les Gross Islets, Pain de Sucre, Tortue and Forchue. The Reserve is designed to protect the islands coral reefs, seagrass and endangered marine species including sea turtles. The Reserve has two levels of protection, the yellow zones of protection where certain non-extractive activities, like snorkeling and boating, are allowed and the red zones of high protection where most activities including SCUBA are restricted in order to protect or recover marine life. Anchoring is prohibited in the Reserve and mooring buoys are in place in some of the protected bays like Colombier.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: As well as Gustavia, the capital of St. Barthélemy, there are many notable places and monuments in the island which testify to the island's colonial history under the Spanish, Swedish, British and French, and now a French territory.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Gustavia is in a U-shaped cove facing the harbour on the west. The coastal arm of this cove is in a peninsula while the dockyard is on the east side.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: When the British invaded the harbour town in 1744, the town's architectural buildings were destroyed. Subsequently, new structures were built in the town around the harbour area and the Swedes had also further added to the architectural beauty of the town in 1785 with more buildings, when they had occupied the town. Earlier to their occupation, the port was known as "Carénage". The Swedes renamed it as Gustavia in honour of their king Gustav III. It was then their prime trading center. The port maintained a neutral stance since the Caribbean war was on in the 18th century. They used it as trading post of contraband and the city of Gustavia prospered but this prosperity was short lived.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: These buildings also underwent further destruction during the hurricanes and also by gutting in 1852. However, some monuments are still intact such as the residence of the then Swedish governor, now the town hall. The oldest colonial structure in the town is stated to be the bell tower (now without a bell) built in 1799, as part of a church (destroyed in the past), in the southeast end of the town on Rue Du Presbytere. Now, a large clock is installed in place of the bell.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The road that runs parallel to the harbour face of the sea called the Rue de la Republique and two other roads connect to the two arms of the U-shaped bay. The city has a network of roads, inherited from the Swedish period, that are laid in a grid pattern, which are either parallel or perpendicular to the three main roads that encompass the bay.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Église anglicane de Gustavia, the Saint-Bartholomew Anglican Church, is an important religious building in the town built in 1855 with stones brought from St Eustatius. It is on one of the most elegant roads of the town called the Rue du Centenaire. It has a bell tower. A rock wall encircles the church.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Ancien presbytère de l'église catholique de Gustavia is the Catholic Church built in 1822 is a replacement of the oldest church of the same name in Lorient. This church also has a bell tower which is separated from the main church and which rings loud and clear.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Musée Territorial de St.-Barthélemy is a historical museum known as the "St. Barts Municipal Museum" also called the "Wall House" (musée – bibliothèque) in Gustavia, which is located on the far end of La Pointe. The museum is housed in an old stone house, a two-storey building which has been refurbished. The island's history relating to French, Swedish and British period of occupation is well presented in the museum with photographs, maps and paintings. Also on display are the ancestral costumes, antique tools, models of Creole houses and ancient fishing boats. It also houses a library.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The white tower of the Gustavia Lighthouse was built in 1961. Situated on the crest of a hill north of the town, its focal plane is above the level of the sea. It flashes every 12 seconds, white, green or red depending on direction. The round conical tower has a single red band at the top.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Among the notable structures in the town are the three forts built by the Swedes for defense purposes. One of these forts, known as Fort Oscar (formerly Gustav Adolph), which overlooks the sea is located on the far side of La Pointe. However, the ruins have been replaced by a modern military building which now houses the local gendarmerie. The other fort known as Fort Karl now presents a very few ruins. The third fort built by the Swedes is the Fort Gustav, which is also seen in ruins strewn around the weather station and the Light House. The fort built in 1787 over a hill slope has ruins of ramparts, guardhouse, munitions depot, wood-burning oven and so forth.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Some other festivals held are the Festival Gastronomique (April) and Yacht Festival (May). The national holidays observed are the Bastille Day and St. Barthélemy Day (day of adoption of French Constitution). Feast of St Louis is held on 1 November when thousands of candles are lit in the evening hours, which is a public holiday. All Souls Day is observed on 2 November, and it is public holiday.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The Caribbean, the birthplace of the calypso, méringue, soca, zouk and reggae music influence the culture tremendously. The St. Barthélemy Music Festival is a major international performing arts event held every year.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: French cuisine, West Indian cuisine, Creole cuisine, Italian cuisine and Asian cuisine are common in St. Barthélemy. The island has over 70 restaurants serving many dishes and others are a significant number of gourmet restaurants; many of the finest restaurants are located in the hotels. There are also a number of snack restaurants which the French call "les snacks" or "les petits creux" which include sandwiches, pizzas and salads. West Indian cuisine, steamed vegetables with fresh fish is common; Creole dishes tend to be spicier. The island hosts gastronomic events throughout the year, with dishes such as spring roll of shrimp and bacon, fresh grilled lobster, Chinese noodle salad with coconut milk, and grilled beef fillet etc.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Restaurants such as Maya's that serves up Creole dishes and L'Isola that serves Italian are some of the most popular restaurants on the island. Maya's also has a "to go" store where you can takeout food to have on the beach or to just take home.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: In the early 1990s, the island had two cooking schools: the Saint Barts Cooking School which emphasizes classical French cuisine, and Cooking in Paradise which emphasizes creole cuisine.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The traditional costume which is seen only among older women consists of starched white bonnets called "kichnottes".


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: A popular legend related to St. Barthélemy is of a seafarer hooligan looking to loot Spanish ships. French pirate Daniel Montbars, who was given the epithet "Montbars the Exterminator", took shelter in St. Barthélemy during his pirate operations and hid the loot in the sandy coves at Anse du Gouverneur.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Rugby is a popular sport in the island. One of the major teams on the island is "Les Barracudas," named after the ferocious fish of the Caribbean. They often play teams from Anguilla and other surrounding islands.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Gustavia is also known as a haven for yachting, with many events being held there each year. These include the St Barths Bucket Regatta, the Saint Barth's Cup and Les Voiles de St. Barth in April, and the International Regatta in May. Deep sea fishing is also undertaken from the waterfront of Lorient, Flamands and Corossol to fish for tuna, marlin, bonito, barracuda and wahoo. St Barth Open Fishing tournament is held in July.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The Transat AG2R Race, held every alternate year, is an event which originates in Concarneau in Brittany, France, reaching St. Barthélemy. It is a boat race with boats of length with a single hull and with essential safety equipment. Each boat is navigated by two sailors. Kitesurfing and other water sports have also become popular on the island in recent years, especially at Grand Cul-de-Sac beach (Baie de Grand Cul de Sac) for windy sports as kitesurfing and Saint Jean Beach ( Baie de Saint Jean), Lorient, Toiny and Anse des Cayes for surfing. Tennis is also popular on the island and it has several tennis clubs, Tennis Clube de Flamboyant in Grand Cul-de-Sac, AJOE Tennis Club in Orient and ASCO in Colombier.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The Swedish Marathon Race, also called the "Gustavialoppet", is held in December. Races of and are conducted when children, women and men participate in the races.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: St. Barthélemy has a small airport Gustaf III Airport with a runway length of 646 meter/2,119 ft. Airport codes: SBH (IATA), TFFJ (ICAO). The airport is served by small regional commercial aircraft and charters of up to 19 passengers, as well as helicopters. Passengers for destination St. Barth arrive on international commercial airlines jet airliners and large private jets mainly via the neighboring island Sint Maarten's Princess Juliana International Airport, which is a hub to connect with the regional carriers. Several international airlines and regional Caribbean airlines operate from this hub.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: St. Barth has it own airline, St. Barth Commuter which in addition of the scheduled and charter flight services, provides medical transport services.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: Many inter-island ferry services operate regularly between St. Martin and St. Barts. There are three ferry services active at the moment, one is are operated by Voyager (which leaves from Marigot) one day-trip ferry by the Edge (Leaving from Simpsons Bay) and one regular ferry service by the Great Bay Ferry from Philipsburg.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The narrow and congested roads, and difficulty in parking, have been an impetus for driving Smart cars.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: A weekly journal entitled "Journal de St. Barth" is published in the French language. Its English-language abridged version, "St. Barth Weekly", is published only during the winter (for Anglophone tourists). Reflecting the island's popularity with the rich and famous, the high-fashion magazine "L'Officiel" publishes a seasonal local edition. Other tourist related information is available at the airport and in the offices of the Tourist Authority.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: There are two local TV broadcasters and five FM radio channels (2021). The island has a fully integrated access telephone system and with capability for direct dial on fixed and wireless systems. There is 4G/LTE mobile service since 2019.


title: Saint Barthélemy

text: The island has a small hospital, the Hôpital de Bruyn, in Gustavia with an adjacent diagnostic laboratory. There is also at least one private diagnostic facility. Specialists in cardiology, general medicine, dentists, ENT, OB/GYN, paediatrics and rheumatology are also available. There are many pharmacies dispensing medicines. For more advanced facilities, patients go to Guadeloupe, United States, San Juan or France.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: OTR-21 "Tochka" ( ("point"); ) is a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. Its GRAU designation is 9K79; its NATO reporting name is SS-21 Scarab. It is transported in a 9P129 vehicle and raised prior to launch. It uses an inertial guidance system.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The OTR-21 forward deployment to East Germany began in 1981, replacing the earlier Luna-M series of unguided artillery rockets.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The OTR-21 is a mobile missile launch system, designed to be deployed along with other land combat units on the battlefield. While the 9K52 Luna-M is large and relatively inaccurate, the OTR-21 is much smaller. The missile itself can be used for precise strikes on enemy tactical targets, such as control posts, bridges, storage facilities, troop concentrations and airfields. The fragmentation warhead can be replaced with a nuclear, biological or chemical warhead. The solid propellant makes the missile easy to maintain and deploy.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: OTR-21 units are usually managed in a brigade structure. There are 18 launchers in a brigade; each launcher is provided with two or three missiles.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The vehicle is completely amphibious, with a maximum road speed of and in water. The vehicle is NBC-protected. The system began development in 1968. Three variants were developed.


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The initial version, "Tochka" (NATO reporting name Scarab A) entered service with the Soviet Army in 1975. It carried one of three types of warhead:


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The minimal range was about , maximum range was ; its circular error probable (CEP) is estimated to be about .


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: The improved "Tochka-U" (NATO reporting name Scarab B) passed state tests from 1986 to 1988 and introduced in 1989. Improved propellant increased the range to . CEP significantly improved, to less than .


title: OTR-21 Tochka

text: An unconfirmed third variant, designated Scarab C by NATO, may have been developed in the 1990s, but was likely never operational. Again, range increased to , and CEP decreased to less than 70 m (229 ft). Scarab C weighs .


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidis or Yezidis (; ) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in Iraq, primarily in the governorates of Nineveh and Duhok. There is a disagreement among scholars and in Yazidi circles on whether the Yazidi people are a distinct ethnoreligious group or a religious sub-group of the Kurds, an Iranic ethnic group. Yazidism is the ethnic religion of the Yazidi people and is monotheistic in nature, having roots in a pre-Zoroastrian Iranic faith.


title: Yazidis

text: Since the spread of Islam began with the early Muslim conquests of the 7th–8th centuries, Yazidis have faced persecution by Arabs and later by Turks, as their religious practices have commonly been charged with heresy by Muslim clerics. Most recently, the 2014 Yazidi genocide that was carried out by the Islamic State saw over 5,000 Yazidis killed and thousands of Yazidi women and girls forced into sexual slavery, as well as the flight of more than 500,000 Yazidi refugees.


title: Yazidis

text: The Yazidis' own name for themselves is or, in some areas, , although the latter, strictly speaking, is a tribal name. Some western scholars derive the name from the Umayyad Caliph Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya (Yazid I). However, all Yazidis reject any relationship between their name and the caliph. The word "Yazidi" means 'the servant of the creator'. Other scholars derive it from Old Iranian , Middle Persian , divine being. Another derivation of the word origin relates to ('Created me'). Yazidis also refer to ('God created me') and to ('We are the Ezdayi nation').


title: Yazidis

text: Scholars have discovered many striking similarities between the Yazidis, the Yaresan and the Kurdish Alevis. The shared features among the three religions can be traced back to an ancient faith that was probably dominant among the western Iranic peoples, but distinct from Zoroastrianism and derived from the pre-Zoroastrian Iranic tradition.


title: Yazidis

text: Early writers attempted to describe Yazidi origins, broadly speaking, in terms of Islam, or Persian, or sometimes even "pagan" religions; however, research published since the 1990s has shown such an approach to be simplistic.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi, who, after studying in Baghdad, established an order of his own called Adawiyya, mentioned in medieval Arabic sources as Akrad 'Adawiyya (Adawiyya Kurds), settled in Lalish valley and introduced his doctrines to the local Kurds at the time practicing an old Iranic faith, which although similar, was separate from Zoroastrianism and was of pre-Zoroastrian origin. After his death in 1162 AD, his disciples and successors blended his doctrines and teachings with the local and ancient Iranic traditions. Because of this, Yezidi tradition uses many terms, images and symbols of Sufi or Islamic origin, meanwhile still to a larger extent preserving pre-Islamic mythology, symbology, rituals, festivals and traditions.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidism was embraced by many Kurdish tribes and emirates. Yezidi manuscripts, called mişûrs which were written down in the 13th century, contain lists of Kurdish tribes who were affiliated to Yezidi Pir saints. Only two of the total of 40 manuscripts have been published so far, namely the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî and the Mişûr of Pîr Xetîb Pisî, the list in the Mişûr of Pîr Sini Daranî include some large tribes that have been mostly, or fully islamized today, including but not limited to the large Shikak, Reşan, Dumilî/Dumbuli, Memkan, Kîkan, and Musareşan tribes. In addition, Sherefkhan Bidlisi writes in Şerefname that seven of the most important Kurdish tribes were Yezidi. Yezidism was the official religion of numerous Kurdish emirates and principalities, including the principalities of Bohtan, Mahmudi, Donboli and the Emirate of Kilis.


title: Yazidis

text: Starting from the 14th century, Yezidis built up their own internal religious and political administrative apparatus in the areas that were inhabited by them. The Yezidi territory was divided into seven administrative centres, each having its own Sincaq (banner, flag, province, region), more commonly known as "Tawis" among the Yezidis. Sincaqs are sacred bronze effigies bearing the image of a bird or peacock to symbolize Tawûsî Melek. They serve as symbols of power for each administrative centre, namely:


title: Yazidis

text: Every six months, the Yezidi Qewals, who are trained reciters of Qewls and other forms of sacred oral Yezidi tradition, were sent out to other Yezidi-inhabited areas with military protection from the central administrative region of Shekhan and the spiritual centre of Lalish. This tradition served to preserve the Yezidi faith and doctrine. The Qewals were financed exclusively by the voluntary alms of the faithful. The Qewals and delegates led a Sincaq intended for the region they were visiting and paraded it through the Yazidi villages and areas to maintain the spiritual legitimacy and to symbolize the authority of Lalish and the Mîr.


title: Yazidis

text: Due to the ever-growing large and influential power of the Yezidis, they began to be perceived as a threat by the neighbouring Muslims, leading to a rapid intensification of the Yezidi-Muslim conflict that would last for centuries. Yezidis were subject to brutal persecution by Arabs, Persians, Turks and Sunni Kurds. Two of the most known early and major expeditions against the Yezidis took place in 1246, when the Yezidi leader, Sheikh Hassan ibn Adi was killed by Badr Ad-Din Lulu, and 1414, when a joint army of neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribes ransacked Lalish. During these conflicts, many important Yezidi chiefs were forcibly converted to Islam, leading to a gradual decline of the Yezidi power from the 15th century. However, Yezidis were also able to establish alliances with the authorities and neighbouring powers at various times, some Yezidi tribes allied with Qara Yusuf of Kara Qoyunlu, while others allied with Uzun Hasan of the rival Aq Qoyunlu against the Timurids. During Saladin's reign, Yezidis served as troops, ambassadors and they were given lands to govern.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidis came into contact with the Ottomans for the first time in the early 16th century and lived as semi-independent entities under the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans had conquered Kurdish regions and installed their own governors in Diyarbekir, Urfa, Shingal and Mosul. In 1516 AD, Sultan Selim the Grim launched an invasion into Syria, capturing Aleppo and Damascus from the Mamluks of Egypt. The chief of the Kurds in Aleppo was Qasim Beg, he had long been at odds with the Mamluks who wished to install Sheikh Izz ed-Din, a Yezidi, in his stead. Despite Qasim Beg paying homage to the Sultan, Sheikh Izz ed-Din was still able to have himself named the Emir of the Kurds after persuading the local Ottoman governors to execute Qasim Beg for treason. However, due to Sheikh Izz ed-Din leaving no heirs after his death, the title was returned to the family of Qasim Beg.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidis were a large and numerous group living in many places, namely, based on Evliya Çelebi's reports, in Bingöl, Bitlis, Van, Hazo, Amedi, Diyarbekir, Hasankeyf, Cizir and Duhok. Yezidi leaders occupied important positions within the provincial Ottoman system and were appointed as governors as far as Tikrit and Kerek. Yezidis were also participants in commerce and river transportation of their territory through contact with other ethnicities and religions. Evliya Çelebi describes the quality of Yezidi products in the following manner:"The quality of Yezidis' grapes and honey is priceless, and their raisins are highly priced in Baghdad, Basra and Lahsa markets. They have many Berry trees. Sinjar has important mineral as well."Çelebi also reports that Yezidis collected fees by taking people from Hasankeyf to the other side with their ferries.


title: Yazidis

text: Under the reign of Sultan Suleyman in 1534, the Yezidi leader, Hussein Beg was given the control over the domain of the Soran Emirate together with its capital of Erbil, and the Bahdinan Emirate with its capital of Amediye. Hussein Beg's father, Hassan Beg, had allied himself with the victorious Ottomans after the Battle of Chaldiran and was famed for his diplomatic and political expertise, which helped him bring Mosul under his rule and become a powerful and influential figure. His son, Hussein Beg, succeeded him after his death in 1534. Despite the persecution and the brutal rule over the Muslims of Soran, the Yezidis were able to maintain a large political, military power under the short-lived, but prosperous leadership of Hussein Beg and enjoy a rare period of peace and freedom from persecution. The Muslims of Soran opposed Hussein Beg's rule, and attempted to overthrow the Dasini rulers several times, their initial attempts were unsuccessful and were repelled, until the neighbouring Muslim rulers formed an alliance against Hussein Beg, and captured Erbil while Hussein Beg was absent and on a visit to Sheikhan, or Istanbul according to other sources. Hussein Beg's attempts to retake the city were unsuccessful due to the local support enjoyed by the Muslim rulers and resulted in the death of 500 Yezidi warriors. After the defeat, Hussein Beg was summoned back to Istanbul and executed.


title: Yazidis

text: As the relations were deteriorating with the Ottomans and strained with the Sunni Kurds, the Ottomans exploited from these tensions and used religious differences to control both groups. In 1566, Abu al-S'ud al-'Amadi al-Kurdi, who was the Mufti of the Ottoman Empire and Sheikh al-Islam, cooperated with the Ottoman Sultans and issued fatwas that legitimized the Sultan's killing of Yezidis, enslavement of Yezidi women and the sale of Yezidi slaves in the markets. This resulted in Yezidis being subject to constant Ottoman military pressure and their territories being considered "Dar Al-Harb" from a religious standpoint.


title: Yazidis

text: In later periods, Sunni Kurdish princes, particularly those of the Bahdinan principality and its Muslim clerics, requested the Ottoman Sultan to eliminate the Yazidis with the justification of Yazidi being apostates. Numerous Ottoman documents reveal the role of the princes, including one dating back to 1568 AD, which reads:"The necessity of ending the corruption and evil-doing of the Dasini sect [i.e. Yazidis] and [asking the Ottoman state to send] firmans (orders) to the governors of Mosul and Erbil to punish the Dasinis"According to another document dating back to 1571 AD, the Prince of Bahdinan, Sultan Husayn Waly, demanded the Ottomans to send a "firman" (Order) to the states (Wilayāt) of Jazira, Mosul, Amadiya, and Erbil to arrest the Yezidi leaders.


title: Yazidis

text: During the first half of the 17th century, Yezidis became a very powerful entity under the leadership of Ezidi Mirza, a young, yet reputable military leader who gained fame after leading a counter-attack against Muslim raiders in his hometown of Bashiqa and inflicting a devastating defeat despite being outnumbered. He went on to become the head of the Bashiqa-Bahzani and in later stages of his life, also the Governor of Mosul. He and his troops fought for the Ottoman side during Battle of Baghdad together with the Mîr of the Yezidis at the time, Zeynal Javkhali, and six other Yezidi chieftains. In 1649, Êzidî Mirza was appointed as the governor of Mosul, a title which he held until his death in 1651. Êzidî Mirza is mentioned in several Yezidi sagas until today.


title: Yazidis

text: During the 17th century, the Ottomans launched numerous expeditions against the Yezidis in Shingal, who had long controlled the trading routes around Shingal, attacked Ottoman caravans and refused to pay the taxes levied by the Ottomans. The first expedition was led by the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha, and took place in 1613 AD, which resulted in a Yezidi victory and 7,000 of the Ottoman soldiers being slaughtered according to the reports of Evliya Çelebi.


title: Yazidis

text: In 1640, another expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was launched by another Grand Vizier, Melek Ahmed Pasha of Diyarbekir. The Ottoman troops surrounded Shingal mountains and stormed Yezidi positions. Despite heavy casualties, the Ottomans eventually succeeded in capturing the mountain. Evliya Çelebi, who was an eyewitness of the event, reports that 3,060 Yezidis were killed on the Shingal mountain, and writes about the wealth of the Yezidis and the abundance of the Yezidi areas, which he describes as being prosperous in the Yezidis' hands. He reports the spoils from the Ottoman attacks on Yezidis in the following manner:""These Yezidis were as wealthy as Croesus, All the multitudes of troops from the provinces of Van and Diyarbekir and Mardin who came to the aid of Melek Ahmed Pasha, all the Kurdistan soldiery who participated in plundering the money and food and drink and copper vessels and household furnishings and the like which emerged over ten days from the Saçlı Dağı caves, could not carry away more than a drop in the sea and a mote in the sun. For ever since the event of Kerbela these people have been rich, and no king had ever conquered them before.""In 1655, Evliya Çelebi revisited Shingal to catch up with Firari Mustafa Pasha, the governor of Diyarbekir whom Evliya had been ordered to collect an old debt from. Firari Mustafa Pasha had encamped in Shingal to collect taxes from the Yezidis, when he sent a delegation to parley with the locals and demand tax payments, the Yezidis replied "if Melek Ahmed Pasha had come back to fight them, they would rub their faces in his footprints, but for Mustafa Pasha, they would only give ten loads of silk", which enraged Mustafa Pasha and provoked him into calling for reinforcements and launching an expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal, the result of this expedition is unknown.


title: Yazidis

text: In Evliya's works, the tribes of , Halitî (Xaltî), Çekvânî, Bapirî, Celovî, Temânî, Mervanî, Beddi, Tâtekî, Gevarî, Gevaşî, , Bezikî, Modikî, Kanahî and Şikak are mentioned as Yezidis. A lot of phrases are used by Evliya when referring to Yezidis, namely: Saçlı Kürdü (long-haired Kurds), Yezidi Ekrad (Yezidi Kurds), Saçlı Yezidi Kürdleri (long-haired Yezidi Kurds), kavm-i na-pak (impure group), bed-mezheb (bad sect), bî-din (faithless), savm u salât ve hacc u zekât vermezler (they do not know anything about these pillars of Islam), kelb-perest (dog worshippers), and firka-ı dal" (heretic sect).


title: Yazidis

text: In 1671, another battle in the Shingal mountain, which lasted for three years between the Sacheli tribe and armies of the neighbouring Pashas, ended up in a victory for the mountaineers, who captured around 4,000 prisoners.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidis are mentioned in "Van Tarihi," a 1715/1716 account by the local imam of the Van city, Ibn-i Nuh, which was about the history of Van. The report describes an Ottoman attack on the Yezidis of Van which took place in 1715. It addresses Yezidi victory during the first waves of attacks and Yezidis capturing the Pasha of the city of Van during the battle. Under the section titled as "Harb-i Yezidiyan Der Sahra-yi Canik Ba-Vaniyan" (The battle of the Yezidis with Vanis at the desert of Canik)"," Ibn-i Nuh lists the names of important people who died during the battle and describes a dreadful situation for the Muslims and Islam at the hands of what he describes as "Cünd-i Şeytan" (The army of the Devil). Under the section "Maktel-i Yezidiyan ve Intikam-i Şüheda-i Van" (The Killing of Yezidis and the Revenge of the Martyrs of Van), he recounts the Pasha of the city assembling an army of 7,000 soldiers from Ahlat, Adilcevaz and Erçiş to take on the Yezidis and the battle eventually ending up in a victory for the Empire and the Muslims. He describes that this place did not pay Jizya or poll tax and that it was considered the Abode of War. He also mentions that some Christians lost their lives and that many women and children held as captives.


title: Yazidis

text: In 1743, Nadir Shah, launched an invasion in the west and was aiming to capture Mosul, sent a force to subdue the Yezidi chieftain As after capturing Altun Kopru and Kirkuk. As had often raided the western provinces of Persia from his base in the mountains around Koi Sanjak. The Persians defeated an army of several thousand Yezidis and killed their leader Yezid. As was able to escape, enlist allies and lay siege to a ruined fort where the Persian cavalry had held Yezidi women captive. The defenders were at the edge of being overrun when the shah's nephew brought reinforcements and stopped the siege. As, who was abandoned by his allies, considered committing suicide, but finally surrendered himself to Nadir Shah instead and was eventually appointed the governor of the district.


title: Yazidis

text: Throughout the 18th century, Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were subjects to the Kurdish Principality of Amadiya, a semi-autonomous fiefdom which guarded the Ottoman frontiers in the east. The rulers, who were strict Sunni Muslims claiming descent from the Abbasids, had ruled Amadiya since the Timurid period. Amadiya was also home to a Jewish community and included Nestorians who were actively proselytized by Dominican missionaries who were stationed there from 1759 to 1779. Yezidis are briefly mentioned by one of the missionaries, Padre Maurizio Garzoni, who reported "the post of the executioner is always given by the princes of Amadiya to a Yezidi, who never loath to shed Muslim blood." Yezidi mirs of Sheikhan were also involved in several rebellions against Amadiya principality; in 1770-1771, Bedagh Beg, who was Mir of Sheikhan at the time, joined a rebellion against the Prince of Amadiya, Ismail Pasha. Bedagh Beg eventually got captured and fined, and 16 years later, his son and successor, Jolo Beg, was involved in another rebellion, but had to later retreat. In 1789-1790, Jolo still maintained the title of Mir and was involved in battles against the Tayy Arabs, who were raiding Sheikhan, but in the following year, Jolo and his brother were executed by Ismail Pasha, who appointed a Khanjar Beg as the Mir in their stead. However, after quarrels with Khanjar, the Mir position was returned to the old Dynasty and Khanjar was replaced by Jolo Beg's son, Hasan Beg.


title: Yazidis

text: In Shingal, Yezidis had gained notoriety for raiding every caravan passing between Mardin and Mosul. Yezidi raiders operated as far as in the routes between Anah and Baghdad, where one band attacked a caravan in 1782 and seized 30 donkey-loads of cotton goods. Caravans that were escorted by well-armed guards were often able to fight off raiders, whereas fate of other caravans was often a total loss or a ransom. The favourite targets were lightly-armed official couriers who relied on speed to reach their destination. In one case, a captured courier was found to be carrying 40,000 carats of high-grade pearls. As a result, several expeditions were launched against the Yezidis; the punitive expeditions from Baghdad, first one launched in 1715 and a later one in 1753, inflicted heavy casualties. However, subsequently, the expeditions launched against Shingal from Mosul and Baghdad became less severe and was counted as a cost of doing business by the raiders.


title: Yazidis

text: In 1785, the governor of Mosul, Abd el-Baqi Pasha led a raid on the nomadic Dina tribe of Yezidis living east of Tigris near Duhok, led by a young chief named Kor Namir Agha (The Blind Namir Agha) who was blind in one eye. Whilst the Pasha's troops were looting the deserted villages, they were ambushed and the Pasha, together with his brother were killed. The panic-stricken troops fled to Mosul while being pursued by the fighters of the Dina tribe. The sequel of this encounter is not recorded.


title: Yazidis

text: The enslavement of Yezidi captives and military action against Yezidis was legitimized by Muslim theologians, who classified Yezidis as heretics. At least eight expeditions are recorded between 1767 and 1809 and according to the French orientalist, Roger Lescot, the Ottomans launched 15 campaigns against the Yezidis of Shingal and Sheikhan in the 18th century alone. One expedition against the Yezidis of Shingal was led by the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Pasha, who forced many families into converting to Islam. Another expedition in 1809 was led by the new Governor of Baghdad, Sulayman Pasha, who burnt down Yezidi farms and beheaded Yezidi chieftains. The 18th-19th centuries saw a further decline of the Yazidi influence, power and population. With the ending of the semi-autonomous Kurdish principalities and the series of Ottoman Tanzimat reforms from the mid-19th century onward made the Yezidi-populated regions more prone to localized political instabilities. Furthermore, being excluded from the status of "People of the Book", the Yezidis weren't granted religious rights that were enjoyed by other groups such as Christians and Jews under the Ottoman millet system.


title: Yazidis

text: By the early 19th century, Yezidis were involved in a long feud with the neighbouring Sunni Kurdish tribe of Mizuri who with one of their clerics had issued in a fatwa in 1724 that Yezidis were infidels and apostates and that killing them was a religious duty. Female Yezidis and the Yezidi property were to be considered spoils of war. In another encounter in 1802, the Alghushiyya branch of Mizuris raided the Yezidi village of Ghabara in western Sheikhan, killed nearly a hundred people and occupied Lalish for eight months. One day, the Yezidi leader Ali Beg, sent a word the Mizuri chieftain Ali Agha al-Balti, expressing the desire for peace and friendship and offering him to act as a "kirîv" (sponsor) for the circumcision of his son. The Mizuri chieftain responded favourably and a few days later, arrived with a small escort at the town of Baadre, where the residence of the Yezidi princely family is located. It is unknown whether he took a small escort out of disdain for the Yezidi leader, or for the purpose of demonstrating his trust in his host. Upon his arrival, Ali Beg had him treacherously murdered, leading to a great degree of anger among the Mizuris and provoking them into gathering for great raid against the town of Baadre. In anticipation of the attack, thousands of Yezidi warriors stationed themselves in Baadre. The raid was called off due to fear of Bahdinan forces assembling against the Mizuris when the Pasha of Amadiya, who was also the Prince of Bahdinan and was suspected of having conspired in the Mizuri chieftain's assassination, announced his opposition to the raid.


title: Yazidis

text: Thereby, Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri, a cousin or nephew to the Mizuri chieftain and a respected religious dignitary, unsuccessfully attempted to plead for rectification from the Bahdinan Prince, who declined to sanction punitive action against Yezidis and blamed Ali Agha for naively accepting Ali Beg's offer and venturing into his enemy's own country without adequate escort. Mulla Yahya, who was disappointed and angry, was still determined to avenge the death of his kinsman and eventually managed to persuade the Pasha of Rawanduz, Muhammad Pasha, into sending a punitive force to punish the Yezidis. Accounts regarding the manner in which he persuaded Muhammad Pasha vary from him visiting and seeking the aid of the wali of Baghdad, who upon hearing the Mullah's grievances sent a letter to Muhammad Pasha and urged him to punish Yezidis for their misdeeds, to the Mullah directly visiting Muhammad Pasha, with whom he was on very friendly terms.


title: Yazidis

text: Muhammad Pasha prepared an army of 40,000-50,000 against the Yezidis, he divided his force into two groups, one lead by his brother, Rasul, and the other one led by himself. These forces marched in March 1832, crossing the Great Zab River and first entering and killing many inhabitants of the Yezidi village, Kallak-a Dasinyya, which was situated near Erbil and was the border between Yezidis and Soran Principality until the 19th century. These forces proceeded to march and capture other Yezidi villages. After arriving in Sheikhan, Muhammad Pasha's forces seized the village of Khatara and marched onwards to Alqosh, where they were confronted by a joint force of Yezidis and the Bahdinan who were led by Yusuf Abdo, a Bahdinan leader from Amadiya, and Baba Hurmuz, who was the head of the Christian monastery in Alqosh. These joint forces then left their positions and relocated to the town of Baadre. Ali Beg wished to negotiate, but Muhammad Pasha, influenced by the clerics Mulla Yahya al-Mizuri and Muhammad Khati, rejected any chance of reconciliation. Yezidis of Sheikhan were defeated and subject to devastating massacres where slaughter of both the elderly and young, rape and slavery were some of the tactics. Yezidi property, including gold and silver was plundered and looted, and numerous towns and villages previously inhabited by the Yezidis were demographically islamized. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha sent a large force to Shingal where he was met with the resistance of the Yezidis under the leadership of Ali Beg's wife. After numerous defeats, Muhammad Pasha's forces eventually succeeded in capturing the district. The Yezidis who survived the massacres took refuge in distant areas including but not limited to Tur Abdin, Mount Judi and the less-affected Shingal region. After controlling most of the Yezidi territory, the Pasha's forces enslaved and took home around 10,000 Yezidi captives, mostly females and children together with Ali Beg, to Rawanduz, the capital of the princedom. Upon the arriving in the capital, the prisoners were asked to convert to Islam, many of them, including Ali Beg and his entourage, rejected the request and thus were taken and executed at Gali Ali Beg, which is until today named after Ali Beg. Christian communities lying in the path of Muhammad Pasha's army were also victim to the massacres, the town of Alqosh was sacked, large number of its inhabitants were put to the sword and the Rabban Hormizd monastery was plundered and its monks, together with the Abbot, Gabriel Dambo, were put to death. A large amount of the ancient manuscripts were destroyed or lost. The monastery of Sheikh Matta suffered the same fate.


title: Yazidis

text: After putting Yezidis of Sheikhan to the sword, Muhammad Pasha invaded the rest of the Bahdinan, attacking Akre and after a few days, besieging the fortress of Akre which was regarded as almost impregnable and meeting the resistance of the Kurdish tribe of Zibari. Thereafter he marched towards Amadiya which capitulated after a brief siege. The entire region, from Khabur to Great Zab rivers, was brought under Muhammad Pasha's rule, including Zakho and Duhok. Muhammad Pasha appointed Musa Pasha, a relative of the Bahdinan prince Said Pasha, as the governor of the capital. Musa Pasha, who had been on bad terms with Said Pasha, had offered valuable assistance to Muhammad Pasha during the attack on Amadiya.


title: Yazidis

text: In 1840-1844, Yezidis of Tur Abdin were repeatedly attacked by the ruler of Bohtan, Bedirkhan Beg, who had previously aided Muhammad Pasha during his incursions against Bahdinan and the Yezidis of Sheikhan. Bedirkhan was a member of the Ezizan family, the hereditary rulers of Bohtan and one of the oldest and most prominent Kurdish families whom according to Sharafkhan Bidlisi were originally adherents of Yezidism. The Ezizan claimed descent from Abd al-Aziz, a son of the famous Islamic commander and companion of the Prophet, Khalid Ibn al-Walid. Yezidis of Tur Abdin had a strong tribal structure and were active participants in the political affairs. One of the largest attacks took place in 1844, when Bedirkhan sent a large army to force Yazidis into accepting Islam, those who refused were captured and killed. Seven Yezidi villages converted to Islam out of fear. The local Christian population also suffered massacres in 1843 and 1846 by the hand of Bedirkhan and his allies Han Mahmoud and Nurallah Bey.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidis were object of extra attention from Bedirkhan. During Bayram feast, when Muslims celebrate Abraham's ritual sacrifice of Isaac by slaughtering animals, Bedirkhan would round up Yezidi captives for a grisly ceremony where he would with his own hand slaughter those Yezidis who had refused to convert to Islam. A medical missionary from Urmia who visited Derguleh in 1846 reported seeing 40-50 Yezidi converts in Bedirkhan's castle, enjoying Bedirkhan's special attention and jealousy among his less favoured attendants.


title: Yazidis

text: Pressure and protests from the European Powers, namely France and England, demanding a stop to the massacres of Nestorians and removal of Bedirkhan Beg, led to the Ottoman forces, with the support of Yezidi fighters, invading his territories in 1846–1847. At the beginning of the conflict Bedirkhan was able to successfully defeat the Ottoman army sent against him and afterwards, he decided to sever all connections with the Ottoman Empire by proclaiming independence of his state and creating a currency of his own bearing the inscription "Bedirkhan, the Emir Of Bohtan". However, his success did not last for long, Ottomans attacked again and Bedirkhan Beg, despite offering some resistance, vacated Cizre and took refuge in the fortress of Evreh. His ally, Han Mahmoud, who was on his way to assist Bedirkhan, was intercepted in Tillo and defeated by Ottoman forces and Yezidi fighters. Bedirkhan had to surrender to the Ottomans at Evreh Castle in Eruh, Siirt on the 4 July 1847. He was put in chains with his family and eventually transferred to Constantinople.


title: Yazidis

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman policies towards Yezidis gained a new dimension under the reign of Abdulhamid II, under whose regime the Muslim Identity became increasingly essential for the Sultan's perceptions of loyalty among his subjects. As missionary activity and nationalism among non-Muslim groups was on the rise, conversion to Islam in order to ensure their political loyalty was crucial in the perspective of Abdulhamid's government. Conscription was one of the steps taken in order to convert them. Thereafter, Yezidis would be subject to persecution from Omer Wehbi Pasha, who had been sent to Mosul by the Sultan for a task involving institutionalization of a conscription system, collection of taxes, resettlement of tribes, and crushing local tribal rebellions. He took the initiative of completing his tasks through violence due to the lack of cooperation from Yezidis. Around 500 Yezidis died in the Shingal campaign of November–December 1892, Lalish was forcibly converted into a madrasah, sacred objects of the Yezidis were confiscated, mosques built in Yezidi villages and the Yezidi Mir Mirza Beg was provoked into converting to Islam. However, in contrast to the expectations of Ottomans, the campaign of the Pasha had crucial influence in setting a widespread religious revival in motion at Shingal. Yezidi refugees fleeing from Sheikhan, including both the commoners and the clergy, took shelter on Shingal mountain and their stories about the atrocities in Sheikhan that were committed by Muslims facilitated the vigoruous millenarian and anti-Muslim propaganda that were carried out by two religious personalities from Sheikhan who had settled in Shingal, Mirza al-Kabari and Alias Khallu. Slogans about an imminent and new Yezidi reign of justice and prosperity against Muslim oppression were successful in mobilizing large sections of the local Yezidi populace. This prompted Omar Wehbi Pasha to launch an unsuccessful intervention in Shingal, which resulted in the "faqir", Hemoyê Shero, who had earlier declared himself the Paramount of Shingal, together with his followers becoming the focus of anti-Muslim resistance and increasing their military capacity by seizing a huge amount of Turkish armaments and ammunition which would be a determining factor in World War I.


title: Yazidis

text: In the following years, a dispute occurred among the community on the mountain, causing the power of Musqura and Mihirkan tribes to deteriorate as they included large Muslim sections and were thus traditionally viewed with the suspicion of being inclined to insitage Ottoman interference in the Shingali affairs. On 9 December 1892, Sultan Abdulhamid sent a telegram in which he dismissed Omar Wehbi Pasha from his post and ordered him to remain in Mosul, pending arrival of a commission of inquiry and to be prepared to answer the charges of using Ottoman troops in combat without being given permission by the Ministry of War. Four months later the Pasha returned to the capital in disgrace. Yezidis finally regained the possession of Lalish in 1904, and the stolen sacred objects were returned to them in 1914.


title: Yazidis

text: As Hemoye Shero had acquired the Paramountcy of Sinjar, his followers drastically increased in numbers and they began to serve as a compact and organized group which started to be named as the Fuqara tribe. Among the Fuqara, tribal cohesion very much depended on membership in the "faqir" religious class to which all the male members of the tribe belonged.


title: Yazidis

text: At the Tur Abdin foothills west of Shingal, Hasan Kanjo, a Yezidi chieftain, converted to Islam and joined the Hamidiye together with his tribe. He later became the right-hand man and lieutenant of Ibrahim Pasha, the powerful chieftain of Milan confederacy and highly regarded by the Sultan Abdulhamid. Hasan Kanjo built a fortress at Haleli, east of Viranşehir, to serve as a base for fighting the desert Arab tribes including the Shammar. Members of his tribe had been allowed to keep their Yezidi faith and were camped around the fortress.


title: Yazidis

text: In Mosul, a new Governor by the name of Aziz Pasha was appointed; he had arranged a peace settlement in Shingal and allowed Yezidis of Sheikhan to practice their religion again. The Yezidi Mir, Mirza Beg, among other prominent converts to Islam, resumed their old faith. However, the price for these compromises was enforcement of military service, continuance of the Islamic schools in the settlements on a voluntary basis and the surrender of the Lalish sanctuary to Muslim dervishes, who had established a retreat there and operated an Islamic school. Lalish would later be largely abandoned and left in ruins, with reports of overgrowth of nettles and shrubbery in places where the roofs had fallen in, and the dome above Sheikh Adi's mausoleum smashed, allowing the sun to shine inside, until Yezidis would rebuild and regain the possession of the sanctuary in 1904.


title: Yazidis

text: During World War I, the Armenian genocide of 1915 caused a mass exodus of Yezidis from Van, Kars, and Bazîd, who together with many Armenians, fled from the Ottoman Empire in masses to Transcaucasia, following their kinsfolk who had already settled in territories of Russian Empire after fleeing during the Russo-Turkish wars in 1828–1829 and 1877-1878. In May 1918, Ottomans crossed Akhuryan river in order to invade the Armenian Republic. One column captured Alexandropol and marched north of Mount Aragats, where eighty Yezidis were massacred at Kurdsky Pamb, towards the Transcaucasian railway line to Baku. The other column marched southeast along the left bank of the Aras river to secure the recently completed line to Tabriz. At Sardarabad, the column marching southeast was confronted by a 4,000 strong Armenian force which included 700 Yezidi cavalry. A few days later, Armenians and Yezidis drove back the northern column from the Bash-Aparan defile on the slopes of Mount Aragats. However, during the first week of June, an armistice was reached whereby the Ottomans could use the key railways, but would leave Yerevan and Echmiadzin to the Armenians. The Yezidi participation in the decisive Battle of Sardarabad is still commemorated by Armenians.


title: Yazidis

text: Yezidis in Tur Abdin and Shingal also formed common causes with Christians and fought defensively from their mountain strongholds. Yezidis in Shingal were led by Hemoye Shero, who in 1914-1915 sheltered Christian refugees fleeing from persecution and in 1917, led raids with a mixed Yezidi tribal force against Turkish convoys and military posts on the route to Nusaybin, causing severe disruptions on Turkish communication lines north of the Shingal mountains. Additionally, he fiercely resisted Ottoman attack on the Shingal mountain when Ottoman troops besieged the mountain and briefly occupied Yezidi villages to the south, using Tel Afar as their logistic base. In 1915/1916 the Ottomans, with the support of numerous Sunni Kurdish tribes, initiated widespread persecutions against the Christian communities of Mardin, Nusaybin and Cizre. Leading to waves of Christian refugees, including Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites and Nestorians fleeing to Shingal in hope of finding shelter among the local Yezidis. By 1916 approximately 900 people had taken permanent residence in Balad (City of Shingal) and the village of Bardahali, which had by then turned into the headquarters of the Fuqara tribe. Hemoye Shero, the chief of Fuqara, promoted Christian settlement on the Mountain through granting them his protection in accordance with a Shingali custom which encouraged the settlement of Christians if a local Yazidi agha would guarantee for them. This helped Hemoye Shero to seize full control of Shingal city, the capital and most important commercial centre of the mountain, as he gained the support of local Christian merchants and thus was able to expand his economic and political prestige and dominance. In 1918, when the Yazidis of Shingal mountain received an ultimatum from Ottomans to hand over the weaponry and the Christian refugees that they were sheltering, or otherwise face consequences. The Yezidis tore the letter up and sent the messengers back naked.


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidi cultural practices are observed in Kurmanji, which is also used by almost all the orally transmitted religious traditions of the Yazidis. The Yazidis in the twin villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani speak Arabic as their mother language, however, the now Arab-speaking tribes in Bashiqa and Bahzani, including but not limited to Xaltî, Dumilî and Hekarî, have historically been classified as Kurdish tribes. Although almost all Yezidis speak in Kurmanji, their exact origin is a matter of dispute among scholars, even among the community itself as well as among Kurds, whether they are ethnically Kurds or form a distinct ethnic group. Yazidis only intermarry with other Yazidis; those who marry non-Yazidis are expelled from their community and are not allowed to call themselves Yazidis.


title: Yazidis

text: Some modern Yazidis identify as a subset of the Kurdish people while others identify as a separate ethno-religious group. In Armenia and Iraq, the Yazidis are recognized as a distinct ethnic group. According to Armenian anthropologist Levon Abrahamian, Yazidis generally believe that Muslim Kurds betrayed Yazidism by converting to Islam, while Yazidis remained faithful to the religion of their ancestors. Evliya Çelebi described soldiers of Abdal Khan of Bitlis as "Yezidi Kurds" and in fourteenth century, seven of the most prominent Kurdish tribes were Yazidi, and Yazidism was the religion of the Jazira Kurdish principality. Some traditional myths of the Yazidis tell that the Yazidis were the children of Adam alone and not of Eve, and thus separate from the rest of humanity. In the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Yazidis are considered ethnic Kurds and the autonomous region considers Yazidis to be the "original Kurds". The sole Yazidi parliamentarian in the Iraqi Parliament Vian Dakhil also stated her opposition to any move separating Yazidis from Kurds. Aziz Tamoyan the president of the Yezidi National Union ULE indicate that the term "Yazidi" is used for a nation and their language is called "Ezdiki" and their religion is "Sharfadin". According to the researcher Victoria Arakelova, Yazidism is a unique phenomenon, one of the most remarkable illustrations of ethno-religious identity, centred on a religion the Yazidis call "Sharfadin". And therefore, it is quite legitimate to speak of the unity of both the Yazidi religious identity and Yazidi ethnicity.


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidis distinguish the name of their community from the name of their religion according the phrase:


title: Yazidis

text: However, this phrase doesn't come up in the official qewls (religious hymns), rather, in those qewls where the terms Şerfedîn and Êzîd (Êzî) are mentioned together, the term "Atqat" comes up next to Ezid instead of "Millet".


title: Yazidis

text: Şerfedîn is the name of a son of Sheikh Hasan, who lead the Yezidis in the 13th century and under whose rule the final canonization of the Yezidi religion took place. As a result, Şerfedîn is considered the personification of the Yezidi religion as implied in the aforementioned qewls. Likewise with Sultan Ezid, the name of God's manifestation, who personifies "atqat" (belief). However, some Yezidis who believe themselves to be a distinct ethnicity, consider "Şerfedîn" to be the name of the religion, meanwhile using "Êzidî" as the ethnonym.


title: Yazidis

text: Additionally, the term "Millet" has only recently begun to be understood in a nationalistic sense due to the growing popularity of nationalist ideologies, as a result, the phrase itself has started to be perceived as an ethnic and national declaration. The term "millet" would've originally been equivalent to "religion" and "religious community" rather than ethnicity. Thus, the original meaning of the phrase "Miletê min Ezid" would've been "I belong to the religious group of Ezid".


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidis are regarded as ethnic Kurds in Georgia and Germany. The Soviet Union registered the Yazidis and the Kurds as two different ethnic groups for the 1926 census, but bulked the two together as one ethnicity in the censuses from 1931 to 1989. Sharaf Khan Bidlisi's "Sheref-nameh" of 1597, which cites seven of the Kurdish tribes as being at least partly Yazidi, and Kurdish tribal confederations as containing substantial Yazidi sections.


title: Yazidis

text: Conversely, during his research trips in 1895, anthropologist Ernest Chantre visited the Yazidis in today's Turkey and reported that Yazidis called their language (the language of the Yazidis) and claimed that Kurds spoke their language and not vice versa.


title: Yazidis

text: However, there's also evidence that Yezidis in the past too identified as Kurds, for example in a letter sent to the Romanov Emperor of Russia, the Yazidi leader, Usuv Beg writes that his people are Yezidi Kurds. He indicates his nationality as Kurdish, but specifies that they are Yezidi by religion:


title: Yazidis

text: ""I am happy on behalf of 3,000 Families of Yezidi-Kurds, Who 60 years ago, led by my Grandfather Temur Agha, left Turkey and sought refuge in Russia. I would like to express my gratitude and wish success to you and your family. We live very well on earth and under your rule.""


title: Yazidis

text: In addition, names of some Yazidi villages in Armenia contain Kurdish ethnonyms, such as Sipan village, which was settled in 1828 AD by Yezidis and was called Pampa Kurda/Kurmanca (Kurdish Pamb), until it was renamed to Sipan in the 1970s. In the vicinity, there is another village, that was called "Armenian Pamb", but also was renamed later on, to "Lernapar".


title: Yazidis

text: Furthermore, the Yezidi religious authorities, including Baba Sheikh, the Mîr and the Peshimam, frequently have emphasized the Kurdish ethnicity of the Yezidis. As according to letter from mayor of Shekhan to Mosul in 1966, after carrying out investigations and personal meetings with Yezidi religious leaders, Baba Sheikh and the Mir, they found out that Yazidis are considered to be of Kurdish ethnicity and nationality.""When carrying out the investigations and the personal meetings with some leaders of the Yazidis that dwell the region of our province, especially Tahsin Said, the general leader of the nation and its prince, and the Bāba-Shaykh, the religious head of the Yazidis and when enlarging upon the subject, based on what they have said, we note that the origin of the community is in the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq. Thus, the nationality of its members is considered Kurdish." - Excerpt from the 1966 letter." When Tord Wallström, a Swedish journalist, met the Yazidi Mir, Tahsin Beg in 1974. Tahsin stated his reason for participating in the Kurdish Revolt. He stated, "I believe in the principles of the revolt. However, there is no relation between the religion and the revolt. I am Kurdish, and all the Yezidis are Kurdish; this is the reason why I joined this revolt". The journalist asked whether all the Yezidis are participating in the revolt, to which Mîr Tahsin responded: "No, but because their participation in the revolt has not been necessary as of yet. I've not requested their participation, but if I do, at least 95% will join the revolt. By the way, the government executed 20 Yazidis recently in Mosul".


title: Yazidis

text: Elsewhere, in Soviet Union, the Kurdish identity played an important role for the Yazidis in Georgia and Armenia, who played a crucial role in promoting a secularized idea of Kurdish nationalism and making huge achievements in preserving and institutionalizing Kurdish culture, folklore and language already in the early 20th century. Soviet Yazidis were able to establish the first Kurdish theatre and radio station in history, in addition, the first Kurdish Latin-based alphabet was created by the Yazidi intellectual, Erebê Şemo, who was also responsible for writing the first-ever Kurmanji novel in 1929 titled "Şivanê Kurmanca" (The Kurdish/Kurmanji Shepherd).


title: Yazidis

text: The Yezidi Spiritual Council in Lalish released a statement where they emphasized and expressed their pride in the Kurdish identity of Yezidis, based on linguistic, historical, geographical and traditional facts. The statement was signed by the Mir, Baba Sheikh, Sheikh al-Wazir, a Peshimam and a Qawwal.


title: Yazidis

text: Historically, there have been persecutions against Yazidis at the hand of some Muslim Kurdish tribes. and this persecution has on numerous occasions threatened the existence of Yazidis as a distinct group.


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidism is a monotheistic faith based on belief in one God, who created the world and entrusted it into the care of a "Heptad" of seven Holy Beings, often known as Angels or "heft sirr" (the Seven Mysteries). Preeminent among these is Tawûsê Melek (also known as "Melek Taûs"), the Peacock Angel. Traditionally, Yazidis who marry non-Yazidis are considered to have converted to the religion of their spouse.


title: Yazidis

text: Kurds developed an own typical genetic profile called "Modal Kurdish Haplotype" (KMH or MKMH for Muslim Kurds) on subclade J2-M172 with the following loci: 14-15-23-10-11-12. The highest percentage of this haplotype has been measured so far in Yezidis in Armenia:


title: Yazidis

text: According to another genetic study, Yazidis from Northern Iraq may have a stronger genetic continuity with the original Mesopotamian people. The northern Iraqi Yazidi population were found in the middle of a genetic continuum between the Near East and Southeastern Europe.


title: Yazidis

text: A genetic study on the Georgian Kurds, most of whom follow Yezidism, showed that the populations with smallest genetic distance from Georgian Kurds were found to be Kurds from Turkey and Iran. Interestingly, the Kurmanji speakers from Turkey were found to be closer to the Zazaki speakers from Turkey than to the Georgian Kurds. Despite the former speaking the same dialect as the Georgian Kurds. According to the study, the Y-chromosome data suggests that the Kurdish group in Georgia was founded by Kurmanji speakers of Turkey.


title: Yazidis

text: Historically, the Yazidis lived primarily in communities located in present-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria and also had significant numbers in Armenia and Georgia. However, events since the end of the 20th century have resulted in considerable demographic shift in these areas as well as mass emigration. As a result, population estimates are unclear in many regions, and estimates of the size of the total population vary.


title: Yazidis

text: The majority of Yazidis live in Iraq. Estimates of the size of these communities vary significantly, between 70,000 and 500,000. They are particularly concentrated in northern Iraq in the Nineveh Governorate. The two biggest communities are in the Shekhan District, northeast of Mosul and in the Sinjar District, at the Syrian border west of Mosul. In Shekhan is the shrine of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir at Lalish. In the early 1900s most of the settled population of the Syrian Desert were Yazidi. During the 20th century, the Shekhan community struggled for dominance with the more conservative Sinjar community. The demographic profile has probably changed considerably since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.


title: Yazidis

text: Traditionally, Yazidis in Iraq lived in isolation and had their own villages. However, many of their villages were destroyed by the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The Ba'athists created collective villages and forcibly relocated the Yazidis from their historical villages which would be destroyed.


title: Yazidis

text: According to the Human Rights Watch, Yazidis were under the Arabisation process of Saddam Hussein between 1970 and 2003. In 2009, some Yazidis who had previously experienced the Arabisation policies of Saddam Hussein complained about the political tactics of leaders of the Kurdistan Region that since 1992 were intended to make Yazidis identify as Kurds. A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), in 2009, declares that to incorporate disputed territories in northern Iraq—particularly the Nineveh province—into the Kurdish region, the KDP authorities had used KRG's political and economical resources to make Yazidis identify as Kurds. The HRW report also criticises heavy-handed tactics."


title: Yazidis

text: Yazidis in Syria live primarily in two communities, one in the Al-Jazira area and the other in the Kurd-Dagh. Population numbers for the Syrian Yazidi community are unclear. In 1963, the community was estimated at about 10,000, according to the national census, but numbers for 1987 were unavailable. There may be between about 12,000 and 15,000 Yazidis in Syria today, though more than half of the community may have emigrated from Syria since the 1980s.


title: Yazidis

text: The Yazidi population in Georgia has been dwindling since the 1990s, mostly due to economic migration to Russia and the West. According to a census carried out in 1989, there were over 30,000 Yazidis in Georgia; according to the 2002 census, however, only around 18,000 Yazidis remained in Georgia. However, by other estimates, the community fell from around 30,000 people to fewer than 5,000 during the 1990s. Today they number as little 6,000 by some estimates, including recent refugees from Sinjar in Iraq, who fled to Georgia following persecution by ISIL. On 16 June 2015, Yazidis celebrated the opening of the Sultan Ezid Temple and cultural centre, named after Sultan Ezid in Varketili, a suburb of Tbilisi. This is the third such temple in the world after those in Iraqi Kurdistan and Armenia.


title: Yazidis

text: According to the 2011 census, there are 35,272 Yazidis in Armenia, making them Armenia's largest ethnic minority group. Ten years earlier, in the 2001 census, 40,620 Yazidis were registered in Armenia. They have a significant presence in the Armavir province of Armenia. Media have estimated the number of Yazidis in Armenia to be between 30,000 and 50,000. Most of them are the descendants of refugees who fled to Armenia in order to escape the persecution that they had previously suffered during Ottoman rule, including a wave of persecution which occurred during the Armenian genocide, when many Armenians found refuge in Yazidi villages.


title: Yazidis

text: There is a Yazidi temple called Ziarat in the village of Aknalich in the region of Armavir. In September 2019, the largest Yazidi temple in the world called "Quba Mere Diwane", was opened in Aknalich, just a few meters from the Ziarat temple. The temple is privately funded by Mirza Sloian, a Yazidi businessman based in Moscow who is originally from the Armavir region.


title: Yazidis

text: In Russia, the largest population of Yazidis is concentrated in Moscow. There are also Yazidis living in Saint Petersburg. Outside these two major metropolitan areas, Adygea, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast (capital: Yekaterinburg), and Novosibirsk Oblast each have between 3,500 and 10,000 Yazidis. Smaller Yazidi populations are also scattered throughout Russia.


title: Yazidis

text: A sizeable part of the autochthonous Yazidi population of Turkey fled the country for present-day Armenia and Georgia starting from the late 19th century. There are additional communities in Russia and Germany due to recent migration. The Yazidi community of Turkey declined precipitously during the 20th century. Most of them have immigrated to Europe, particularly Germany; those who remain reside primarily in villages in their former heartland of Tur Abdin.


title: Yazidis

text: This mass emigration has resulted in the establishment of large Yazidi diaspora communities abroad. The most significant of these is in Germany, which now has a Yazidi community of more than 200,000 living primarily in Hannover, Bielefeld, Celle, Bremen, Bad Oeynhausen, Pforzheim and Oldenburg. Most are from Turkey and, more recently, Iraq and live in the western states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Since 2008, Sweden has seen sizeable growth in its Yazidi emigrant community, which had grown to around 4,000 by 2010, and a smaller community exists in the Netherlands. Other Yazidi diaspora groups live in Belgium, Denmark, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia; these have a total population of probably less than 5,000.


title: Yazidis

text: A community of Yazidis have settled as refugees in the United States of America and Canada. Many Yazidis now live in Lincoln, Nebraska and Houston, Texas. It is thought that Nebraska has the largest settlement (an estimated number of at least 10,000) of Yazidis in the United States, with a history of immigration to the state under refuge settlement programs starting in the late 1990s. Many of the men of the community served as translators for the US military.


title: Yazidis

text: As the Yazidis hold religious beliefs that are mostly unfamiliar to outsiders, many non-Yazidi people have written about them and ascribed to their beliefs facts that have dubious historical validity. The Yazidis, perhaps because of their secrecy, also have a place in modern occultism.


title: Yazidis

text: In William Seabrook's book "Adventures in Arabia", the fourth section, starting with Chapter 14, is devoted to the "Yezidees" and is titled "Among the Yezidees". He describes them as "a mysterious sect scattered throughout the Orient, strongest in North Arabia, feared and hated both by Moslem and Christian, because they are worshippers of Satan." In the three chapters of the book, he completely describes the area, including the fact that this territory, including their holiest city of Sheik-Adi, was not part of "Irak".


title: Yazidis

text: George Gurdjieff wrote about his encounters with the Yazidis several times in his book "Meetings with Remarkable Men", mentioning that they are considered to be "devil worshippers" by other ethnicities in the region. Also, in Peter Ouspensky's book "In Search of the Miraculous", he describes some strange customs that Gurdjieff observed in Yazidi boys: "He told me, among other things, that when he was a child he had often observed how Yezidi boys were unable to step out of a circle traced round them on the ground" (p. 36)


title: Yazidis

text: Idries Shah, writing under the pen-name "Arkon Daraul", in the 1961 book "Secret Societies Yesterday and Today", describes discovering a Yazidi-influenced secret society in the London suburbs called the "Order of the Peacock Angel." Shah claimed Tawûsê Melek could be understood, from the Sufi viewpoint, as an allegory of the higher powers in humanity.


title: Yazidis

text: In H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Horror at Red Hook", some of the murderous foreigners are identified as belonging to "the Yezidi clan of devil-worshippers".


title: Yazidis

text: In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series novel "The Letter of Marque", set during the Napoleonic wars, there is a Yazidi character named Adi. His ethnicity is referred to as "Dasni".


title: Yazidis

text: A fictional Yazidi character of note is the super-powered police officer King Peacock of the "Top 10" series (and related comics). He is portrayed as a kind, peaceful character with a broad knowledge of religion and mythology. He is depicted as conservative, ethical, and highly principled in family life. An incredibly powerful martial artist, he is able to perceive and strike at his opponent's weakest spots, a power that he claims is derived from communicating with Malek Ta'us.


title: Yazidis

text: In her memoir of her service with an intelligence unit of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, Kayla Williams (2005) records being stationed in northern Iraq near the Syrian border in an area inhabited by "Yezidis". According to Williams, some Yazidis were Kurdish-speaking but did not consider themselves Kurds and expressed to her a fondness for America and Israel. She was able to learn only a little about the nature of their religion: she thought it very ancient, and concerned with angels. She describes a mountain-top Yazidi shrine as "a small rock building with objects dangling from the ceiling" and alcoves for the placement of offerings. She reported that local Muslims considered the Yazidis to be devil worshippers. (See , below.)


title: Yazidis

text: In an October 2006 article in "The New Republic", Lawrence F. Kaplan echoes Williams's sentiments about the enthusiasm of the Yazidis for the American occupation of Iraq, in part because the Americans protect them from oppression by militant Muslims and the nearby Kurds. Kaplan notes that the peace and calm of Sinjar is virtually unique in Iraq: "Parents and children line the streets when U.S. patrols pass by, while Yazidi clerics pray for the welfare of U.S. forces."


title: Yazidis

text: Tony Lagouranis comments on a Yazidi prisoner in his book "Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey through Iraq":


title: Yazidis

text: Through their history, the Yazidi people have endured much systematic violence as they upheld their religion in the face of severe Islamic persecution and attempts to force them to convert to Islam and "Arabize" them by the Ottoman Empire and later in the 20th century by Iraq.


title: Yazidis

text: The belief of some followers of other monotheistic religions of the region that the Peacock Angel equates with their own unredeemed evil spirit Satan, has incited centuries of persecution of the Yazidis as "devil worshippers".


title: Yazidis

text: On 7 April 2007, a 17-year-old Iraqi of the Yazidi faith, Du'a Khalil Aswad, was stoned to death by her family. Rumours that the stoning was connected to her alleged conversion to Islam prompted reprisals against Yazidis, including a massacre in April 2007. In August 2007, some 500 Yazidis were killed in a coordinated series of bombings in Qahtaniya that became the deadliest suicide attack since the Iraq War began. In August 2009, at least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded in a double suicide bombing in northern Iraq, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. Two suicide bombers with explosive vests carried out the attack at a cafe in Sinjar, west of Mosul. In Sinjar, many townspeople are members of the Yazidi minority.