Shafaq News- Baghdad
The Yazidi Cause Alliance on Thursday rejected plans torelocate the offices of the acting mayor of Sinjar and the director ofAl-Shamal subdistrict to Sinjar district in Nineveh province, warning that themove could deepen the area’s administrative crisis.
In a statement, Murad Ismail, head of the alliance, said thedecisions “must not be made partially or without consulting Yazidirepresentatives,” adding that any administrative settlement “should be reachedthrough political understandings in which Yazidi representatives are a mainparty.”
Relocating the acting mayor and subdistrict director toSinjar after an absence of 11 years, without a political agreement or a final settlement on appointing permanent officials, would “exacerbate the crisis,”Ismail noted. He suggested postponing the move for another six months to allowtime to reach a “fair and sustainable solution.”
According to Ismail, Yazidi demands focus on appointing “twoindependent Yazidi figures accepted by residents through political consensus,not imposition.” The discussions aimed at reaching an administrative settlementhad been ongoing for months and were “close” to producing an initial agreement,he added.
The dispute comes amid continuing disagreements over theadministration of Sinjar, a district in northwestern Iraq disputed between thefederal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government since theISIS attack of August 2014, which displaced large numbers of residents anddevastated infrastructure.
Although Iraqi forces retook Sinjar in 2015, the district’sadministrative situation has remained unresolved. Tensions increased afterBaghdad and Erbil signed the Sinjar Agreement in October 2020, which has notbeen fully implemented.
In July 2024, the Nineveh Provincial Council announcedadministrative changes affecting several positions, including those in Sinjar,but implementation stalled because of political disputes. Subsequent judicialand administrative decisions have yet to produce a final resolution.