Yezidis mark their return to Bashiqa with ritual ceremonies

BASHIQA – A number of Yezidis returned to the liberated town of Bashiqa on Friday expressing happiness with holding their ritual ceremonies inside the town for the first time in more than two years.

 

Peshmerga liberated the town on Monday from ISIS but sporadic clashes continued with remaining militants until Thursday morning. At least 29 militants were killed in the clashes.

 

Kurdish President Masoud Barzani announced on Wednesday in Bashiqa that with the liberation of the town the extremist group no longer poses a threat to the Kurdish Region. 

 

Lying only 20 kilometers northeast of central Mosul, Bashiqa had a diverse population with a majority of Yezidis and Shabaks and a minority of Assyrians and Arabs, leading it to be often described as ‘the little Iraq.’

 

Bashiqa, the latest town lost by ISIS to Peshmerga forces, gets its name from the words Bet and Ashiqa meaning ‘house of lovers,’ according to one possible source for the town's name.

 

The town was historically peaceful, where neighbors of different ethnicities and religions called each other blood brothers, and locals celebrated with music, dance, and food particular to their town, not their different ethnic groups.