Relations between Yezidis and Shi’a in the new millennium

Relations Between Yezidis and Shi’a in the New Millennium The relationship between the Yezidis and the Shi’a in Iraq, in particular, was shrouded in some ambiguity in the last century, for several inaccurate reasons, some of which are historical, namely linking the Yezidis to the Muslim caliph Yazid bin Muawiyah (683-647 A.D.) who ordered to fight Hussein bin Ali in the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D., and some of them are politically linked The Iraqi regime used some Yezidis to suppress the 1991 uprising in the south. The relationship between the Yezidis and the Shi’a converged after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, as Yezidis and Shi’a were both participants in government positions or members of the new Iraqi parliament. The relationship entered a new phase after ISIS took control of the Yezidi cities and villages in the Sinjar region, as well as after the liberation of that region from the Islamic State, in a geographical area where militias and alliances abound.