Are Yazidis a separate ethnic group or Kurds?
In recent weeks, a heated debate has been ongoing on Yazidi and Kurdish social media on whether the Yazidis are an ethnoreligious group or Kurds. The Yazidi Spiritual Council, historically the highest authority within the Yazidi society, controlled by Mir Hazim, a Yazidi from Sheikhan and pro-KDP, has released a statement asserting that Yazidis are Kurds and condemning any attempts to contradict this assertion. However, separately, several religious and political Yazidi groups in Sinjar have issued statements claiming Yazidis are not Kurds but an ethnoreligious community. Among those promoting Yazidis as an ethnoreligious group are pro-Hashd and pro-PKK factions, as well as those who identify as Yazidi nationalists.
Given that self-identification is a crucial component of ethnic affiliation, it can be argued that some Yazidis who consider themselves are Kurds, while others are not. However, there is no research quantifying the percentage that identifies as an ethnoreligious group, but a cursory survey on social media suggests that those who identify as an ethnoreligious group appear to be more numerous. Nonetheless, there are a few notable facts: the KDP typically receives the highest vote in Sinjar; for instance, in the last Iraqi election, they won all three seats in the Sinjar district, but a Yazidi nationalist advocating for Yazidism as an ethnoreligious group won the one Yazidi quota seat.
Furthermore, there appears to be a distinct geographic divide between Yazidis of Sheikhan, where Baadre (the so-called capital of the Yazidis) is located, and Yazidis of Sinjar, who constitute approximately 70% of Iraq's Yazidi population. Yazidis of Sheikhan are more inclined towards considering themselves as Kurds, while those of Sinjar predominantly do not. Two potential reasons why the Yazidis of Sinjar are much more supportive of being identified as a separate ethnic group might be rooted in both history and recent events. The recent ISIS onslaught and the KDP Peshmerga's withdrawal, leaving them unprotected, have certainly prompted many of them to further distance themselves from Kurdishness. However, there might also be a historical reason, as many of the Yazidis of Sinjar are those who have fled persecution at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as well as Muslim Kurdish groups in Sheikhan, which could have further reinforced the idea of distancing themselves from the Kurds.
Additionally, the promotion of Yazidis as an ethnoreligious group is endorsed by pro-PKK and pro-Hashd media, while KDP media has vehemently opposed it, promoting historical sources claiming Yazidis are Kurds. However, as mentioned earlier, self-identification is the determining factor in one's ethnic affiliation. If a Yazidi believes they belong to an ethnoreligious group, then those individuals are considered as such, as they argue that they possess a distinct culture, history, and that speaking a variation of Kurdish does not make them Kurds, just as Latinos who speak Spanish are not considered Spanish but their own ethnic group.