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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iraq
Index
The Yazidis are of Kurdish stock but are distinguished by
their unique religious fusion of elements of paganism,
Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. They live in small and
isolated groups, mostly in the Sinjar Mountains west of Mosul.
They are impoverished cultivators and herdsmen who have a
strictly graded religiopolitical hierarchy and tend to maintain a
more closed community than other ethnic or religious groups.
Historically, they have been subject to sharp persecution owing
to their heretical beliefs and practices.
The Turkomans, who are believed to constitute somewhat less
than 2 percent of the population, are village dwellers in the
northeast living along the border between the Kurdish and Arab
regions. A number of Turkomans live in the city of Irbil. The
Turkomans, who speak a Turkish dialect, have preserved their
language but are no longer tribally organized. Most are Sunnis
who were brought in by the Ottomans to repel tribal raids. These
early Turkomans were settled at the entrances of the valleys that
gave access to the Kurdish areas. This historic pacification role
has led to strained relations with the Kurds. By 1986 the
Turkomans numbered somewhere around 222,000 and were being
rapidly assimilated into the general population.
The Assyrians are considered to be the third largest ethnic
minority in Iraq. Although official Iraqi statistics do not refer
to them as an ethnic group, they are believed to represent about
133,000 persons or less than 1 percent of the population.
Descendants of ancient Mesopotamian peoples, they speak Aramaic.
The Assyrians live mainly in the major cities and in the rural
areas of northeastern Iraq where they tend to be professionals
and businessmen or independent farmers. They are Christians,
belonging to one of four churches: the Chaldean (Uniate),
Nestorian, Jacobite or Syrian Orthodox, and the Syrian Catholic.
Data as of May 1988
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