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Ezidikhan PM Seeks Constructive Relations with Armenia

by on 2018-05-15
 

[LALISH, Nineveh, Iraq. May 15, 2018] – Ezidikhan Prime Minister Waheed Mandoo Hammo has extended his government’s congratulations to Nikol Pashinyan upon his election as Prime Minister by Armenia’s National Assembly. In a letter addressed to Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister Hammo writes: “It is my honor to congratulate you on your recent election as the democratically chosen leader of the Republic of Armenia.” Ezidikhan’s Prime Minister also called for cooperation between the Armenian and Ezidikhan governments on a range of economic and diplomatic topics.

Prime Minister Hammo continued, “The courage of your people has been aptly demonstrated by the popular actions taken peacefully to achieve this historic transition. It is with pleasure and satisfaction that I address you…for your government’s recognition of the genocide committed against Ezidikhan peoples in August 2014.”

The letter from the Ezidikhan Prime Minister expressly calls on the Armenian Prime Minister to enter into constructive and cooperative engagement to advance trade, jobs, and economic development in each country. He also called for proposed cultural exchanges. Finally Hammo has called for shared international diplomatic engagement to define and establish new international standards for the prevention and penalties for the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity “more appropriate to the experiences of Armenians and indigenous peoples such as those in Ezidikhan.”

Pointing to the shared experience with genocide by the Armenia and Ezidikhan peoples Hammo recalled the suffering of Armenia’s people known as the Armenian Holocaust at the hands of the government of the Ottoman Empire in April 1915.

“My grandfather Hammo Shiro was the Pasha of Yezidis who acted with deliberation to save more than twenty thousand Armenian refugees during the genocide committed by Turks and Kurds in 1915-1916. Of that action by my grandfather I am deeply proud,” the Prime Minister continued in his letter to Armenia’s Prime Minister.

Prime Minister called on Armenia’s Prime Minister to join Ezidikhan in constructive cooperation to establish new international standards to prevent and penalize the crime of genocide that will ensure justice for peoples who suffer from the systematic destruction of their peoples and cultures. Hammo explained that the current international legal system through the United Nations and the International Criminal Court is inadequate to responsibly and satisfactorily adjudicate crimes such as those perpetrated on Armenia’s people and Ezidikhan people.

“The crimes committed against the Armenian people and the peoples of Ezidikhan must not be ignored,” said Prime Minister Hammo. “It is my hope that we may join together in an effort to improve and strengthen the existing international framework for adjudicating the crime of genocide,” he declared.

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