Afrinpost – Special
Islamic militias affiliated with the Turkish occupation continue to violate the sanctity of religious cemeteries and shrines in the occupied Kurdish region of Afrin, by digging and razing graves, without deterrence from human values and religious laws.
In the context, a video tape, published by activists on social media, revealed that the Turkish occupation militias are still exhuming and vandalizing the Yezidis graves in Afrin and destroying their sacred religious centers.
According to the activists, the last of these religious centers was the robbery and vandalism that affected the shrine of “Sheikh Hamid”, in the village of “Qastal Jindo” affiliated with “Shara/ Sharan” district, which is considered a holy shrine for the Yezidi Kurds, in search of treasures and relics, and in the context of intimidation of religious and sectarian minorities in the region.
Among the Yezidi shrines that have been targeted by the Turkish occupation forces and its militants:
- Emptying the shrine of Sheikh Ali in the village of Basofan and tampering with its contents.
- The Sheikh Gharib shrine was destroyed in the village of Sinka in the district of Shara, and the mocking the Yazidis of the village.
- The destruction of the Qara Jarneh shrine near Meydanaki.
- The destruction of the shrine of Malek Adi in the village of Kibar.
- Destruction of Yazidi shrines in Qastal Jindo village (Parseh Khatun shrine and Sheikh Hamid shrine)
- In the city center of Afrin, the cultural and social headquarters of the Yezidis Union were destroyed, and the statue of the Prophet Zoroaster and the Dome of Lalsh were destroyed.
- The destruction of the shrine of Sheikh Junaid and Abdel Rahman in the village of Faqira.
- The destruction of Mazar Hanan in the village of Mashael.
- The seizure of the largest Yazidi shrine in Rojava, located at the top of the “Sheikh Barakat” mountain, which supervises the town of “Darat Azza”, which made a control center by the Turkish occupation, and removed the Yezidi monuments from it and islamized it.
