In 1914 my forefather 3 generations ago escaped from Kars, the former capital of Armenia because of religious persecutions.
Today we see the replica of this situation in Northern Iraq.
My ancestors then as well as my brethren stayed faithful and refused to convert to Islam.
In those early persecutions many members of my family were killed.
You can understand why I have become so sensitive about the faith of discriminated minorities.
I try to think what is the difference between the way Jews pass on their own history to future generations and the way my people do it. I came to the conclusion that one cannot compare tragedies as each loss is the most painful to the family and community it hits.
Yet I noticed one difference and in a funny way I feel envious of the Jewish people who always documented their history from ancient times.
My people, sadly have never written systematically what happened to them and only passed the stories orally from one generation to another.
I strongly believe that this literacy amongst the Jews, the culture of learning and remembering past events is part of the Jewish psyche.
For example,during Hanukkah, the Jewish festival coming up now, the song which is sang every evening while lightning the candles is Maoz Tzur and it is a records of generation of persecutions by different world powers but each such period ends with the redemption and the survival of the Jewish people: Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome and Christianity have caused the Jewish people exile and persecution but they have survived.
Every child knows this song and it leaves the entire Jewish people optimistic about their future and survival.

This gives the Jews the element of hope to go through the terrible events that fall upon them in every generation.

The Prussian Philosopher Humboldt , the founder of the Berlin university, said "Nur wer die Ver ganganheit kennt, hat eine Zukunft" , "only he who knows the past has a future" according to this expression it is very important for one to know the history and for us the Kurdish people to learn about our past and present.

Therefore, I feel happy to share with you my own people's history, my own Kurdish history since ancient times:

The original ancestor of the Medes was Madai, the 3rd son of Japeth, a son of Noah. In Genesis 10:2 you have the genealogy of the Noahs offspring where the name Medai mentioned.
The Kurds are the modern descendants of the Medes, an Indo-European people who were joined by the Persians in their successful effort to overthrow Babylon and establish themselves as a world power in the 6th century BC.

The Persians became more dominant partner in the coalition, but together the Medes and the Persians reigned for over 200 years until Alexander the Great defeated them.

Here is a map illustrating the area this empire has occupied :
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102003108

As you can see in this map the meed persian empire has occupied the current territory of Iraq, Iran and Syria where the fight of ISIS against the Kurds take place now.
The actual persecution of Yezidis is based on religious motives as mentioned above.

on the right you can view a few images of yezidi temples: in picture No 1 you can see the black snake which entered the yezidi mythology. The black snake is holy according to the yezidi religion.
The mythology tells that the black snake opened the eyes of Adam and Eve in the garden of eden to eat the apple to realise that they are naked.
According to jewish-christian tradition that That is why the yezidis gained a reputation for being devil-worshippers and ISIS is trying try to kill them off as devil-worshipper.

the second image shows us the holy temple of the yezidis

for more information: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/07/who-yazidi-isis-iraq-religion-ethnicity-mountains

When you read above you will understand where my passion for persecuted people comes from!

I will write more next week.