Bahzani

Mosul

Bahzani within Northern Iraq

Bahzani (Kurdish: به‌حزانی ,Bahzanê‎,^[1]^[2] Arabic: بحزاني‎), literally from the Syriac words meaning "House of treasure," is a town located in the Al-Hamdaniya District of the Ninawa Governorate in northern Iraq.

Population[]

Bahzani's residents are mostly Yazidis and Assyrians.^[3] The Yazidis in Bahzani and its twin village Bashiqa speak Arabic as their mother language.^[4]

History[]

Bahzani is official Iraqi territory but is claimed by the Kurdistan Region since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. According to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, a referendum should decide whether it should continue to be managed by the central government or the KRG. The status of the city is still not fully understood. According to Human Rights Watch, UNHCR and other human rights organizations the townspeople are forced and threatened with violence if they should not vote for inclusion of the city in the Kurdistan Region.^[5]^[6]^[7]

The town's residents all fled for Iraqi Kurdistan following the invasion of the town by ISIS on August 2014. In late 2016 it was liberated along with its twin village Bashiqa. Many of its displaced residents have now returned and have rebuilt its Yazidi temples and its church.^{[citation needed]}