PKK opens schools for Kurdish Yezidis in Shingal

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region - The new Council of Yezidis in Shingal, established under the leadership of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has opened six schools for Kurdish Yezidis in Shingal, officials have announced.

“As a first and most important step, the council has decided to open schools for Yezidi children. We have been able to open six schools that will educate around 800 Yezidi students in Shingal and its sub-areas,” Saeed Hussein, head of the Council of Yezidis, said on Tuesday.

Shingal’s Council of Yezidies was established by PKK officials in January to manage reconstruction of the city and nearby areas after the region’s liberation from the Islamic State, which overran the area last year.  

All the six schools have been named after martyrs from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, the military wing of PKK forces in Syrian Kurdistan.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, commonly referred by its Kurdish acronym PKK, is a military organization struggling for Kurdish rights in Turkey. The organization has affiliated wings in other parts of Kurdistan, including Iran and Syria.   

In recent months, Shingal has been struggling to recover from the devastating ISIS attacks that unleashed a spree of killings, rapes and kidnappings against the area's predominantly Kurdish Yezidi population.