Afrinpost
The American Forbes magazine spoke in a report about the persecution of Yazidis in the Middle East, and said that “Yezidis in Iraq in 2014 were subjected to the atrocities of genocide by ISIS mercenaries, and now, after six years, they face another existential threat in the Middle East.”
On May 29, 2020, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad and the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador sent a shocking warning that “Turkish-backed groups are carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against Yazidis in Afrin, that they kidnap women, kill civilians and destroy homes and shrines.”
Yazda also reported that “because of their religious identity, Yazidis in Afrin suffer from harassment and persecution by Turkish-backed groups, and crimes against Yazidis include forcing them to change their faith, rape of women and girls, humiliation and torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and forced displacement.”
She said that approximately 80% of Yazidi religious sites in Syria have been looted, destroyed or desecrated, including the Sheikh Junaid shrine in Faqira village, the Malik Uday Temple in Kemar Village and the Sheikh Hussein shrine and the Jill Khanna Temple in the village of Kemar, and the Sheikh Rekab Temple In the village of Jadir, where these shrines and graves were desecrated.
Yazda also pointed out that the Yezidis in Afrin are forced to “hide their identity, the inability to practice their faith, and they live in constant fear for their lives.”
She stressed that the current situation is not a new phenomenon, but it has continued since the Turkish occupation of Afrin, where thousands of Yazidis have been forced to flee their homes in 22 damaged villages.
According to Yazda, about 3,000 Yazidis who fled Afrin now live in three camps for internally displaced people and three villages: Al-Awda camp, Al-Asr camp, Al-Maqamah camp, Tal Rifaat village, Al-Kabeer and Al-Ziyara village, all located in Al-Shahba area, and 1,200 Yazidis have escaped from Sere Kaniyeh / Ras Al-Ain to the Washokani camp for internally displaced people who are struggling to access humanitarian aid.
However, it is not just the thousands of displaced people, but also the fate of each affected person. The Nadia Initiative, a non-governmental organization founded by Nadia Murad, has reported on a number of related issues, including that Areen Hassan, an Yazidi girl, who was kidnapped on February 27, 2020, and has not been released yet. Ghazaleh Battal has been kidnapped by Turkey’s mercenaries and her fate is still unknown. Narges Daoud, a 24-year-old girl, who was martyred by several bullets fired by the mercenaries of Turkey, also Fatima Hami lost her life after the mercenaries threw a grenade at her house in the village of Katmeh.
The situation requires a comprehensive response. At the end of April 2020, the USCIRF raised in its annual report the issue that religious minorities in areas occupied by Turkey, such as Afrin, experienced continued persecution and marginalization, especially against Yazidis and Christians.
(USCIRF) has called on the American administration to “exert great pressure on Turkey to provide a timetable for its withdrawal from Syria, while ensuring that its army and groups do not expand their control in northeastern Syria, and that they do not carry out ethnic cleansing in the region or exploit the rights of religious and ethnic minorities there. ”
The targeted Yezidis in Syria need urgent assistance, because the attacks targeting them threaten their lives and the future of their presence in the Middle East, in light of their recent targeting in Afrin, as well as the massacres committed by ISIS against them a few years ago, and previous persecutions.
