Nebraska Yazidi population worried about further persecution in Syria after Assad’s fall

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – Nebraska’s capital is believed to already be home to the largest Yazidi population in the United States.

An organization representing the religious minority group told First Alert 6 we may see even more of their refugees come here if things for them turn bleak in Syria now that President Bashar al-Assad no longer rules.

“We still have many Yazidis still in Syria,” said Yazda International co-founder and Vice President Hadi Pir. “And some of them, unfortunately, are still in an area of conflict.”

Yazda, which is headquartered in Lincoln, works to support the religious minority Yazidi group in the Middle East, mainly those who survived the genocide that ISIS perpetrated.

Pir has no love for recently toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“By all means, he’s one of the worst human beings on the planet,” he said.

However, he said Yazidis, Christians, Druze, and other minority groups worry about what will take Assad’s place because, like Saddam Hussein in Iraq, his absence could lead to things getting worse for them.

“Just like Saddam Hussein, at least you could exist if you did not resist or you did not threaten his power,” Pir said.

He said they don’t know the intentions of U.S.-designated terror group HTS. So whether it’s them or Sunni Islamic extremists that take over Syria, he believes Yazidis and other minorities will continue to be persecuted for practicing their culture and beliefs.

The question is to what extent.

“We don’t know if they will just mass kill them or try to mass convert them or force them to leave.”

If that does happen, Pir thinks we could see more of these groups fleeing Syria, with some of them ending up in the U.S.

Yazda is planning a trip to Washington, D.C. soon. They’re hoping for U.S. diplomatic support for Kurds and other secular Syrian groups, which they said would assure minorities of over their safety.

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