ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As Yazidis celebrated the renewal of life in the heart of the mountains of the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday, not far from a major military operation launched by Turkey against the militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) earlier this week, members of the Yazidi community told Rudaw English that attacks by Turkey are contributing to the reasons their religious minority cannot return home.
Yazidis celebrate their New Year on the first Wednesday of April, based on the Julian and Seleucid calendars; an occasion marked by a ceremony held in Lalish Temple in the mountains of Duhok where followers of the religion gathered and lit candles. Yet as the Yazidi New Year began, the community continues to be confronted with challenges, and remains under threat.
Among the most irredeemably grotesque acts of the Islamic State (ISIS) was its attack upon the Yazidi homeland of Shingal, northern Iraq, on August 3, 2014, setting into motion the killing of thousands, and capture of thousands more, as it fractured the religious minority’s community. For almost eight years, the Kurdistan Region has been home to tens of thousands of displaced Yazidis, many of whom exist below the poverty line despite warm words.
“Turkey is one of the main reasons people cannot return again,” Nayef Sabri, executive president of Sunrise Organization for Civil Society Development, told Rudaw English on Wednesday, referring to the ongoing Turkish bombardments in villages of the Turkey-Iraq border.
In Shingal, fresh clashes erupted between the Iraqi army and an armed group affiliated to PKK over control of the area on Monday, reported PKK media which linked the incident to Turkey’s new military operation against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. PKK media have claimed that the Iraqi army is supporting the operation by attacking PKK-affiliated forces in Shingal. Turkey claims it is rooting out the PKK.
Conflict continued in Shingal into Tuesday, a town controlled by a number of forces after ISIS militants were defeated, affiliated to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraqi government, pro-Iran Shiite paramilitary groups, and the PKK.
Sabri stated that the Yazidi community chooses to remain optimistic during these hard times, despite it becoming increasingly difficult due to a lack of support for the religious minority.
“Everyone knows that ISIS is a terrorist organization, but what about a country which uses its airplanes and bombs our region in front of the eyes of everyone specially [the] Iraqi government?” asked Sabri.
In the mountains of the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province, Turkey launched a new ground and air cross-border operation against suspected PKK bases, the Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced early on Monday. Dubbed Claw-Lock, the new operation is aimed at PKK hideouts in Metina, Zap, Avashin and Basyan areas, he added.
Ronny Saeed Hasan, 22, a Yazidi resident in Duhok and international studies and law undergraduate, echoed the statements made by Sabri, referring to the reoccurring Turkish violation of Iraq’s sovereignty as “one of the main reasons that Yazidis think there will be no future for them in Iraq.”
Saeed believed that while the current Turkish operation remains quite threatening to Yazidis in Duhok, it is different from previous threats as this one is not specifically targeting Yazidis.
“In Shingal, we feel we’re the targeted group, Yazidis. However, in Duhok, the situation gets more complicated because the areas that are being attacked are owned by Kurdish families, so eventually; I think all ethnicities in Duhok feel targeted currently,” Saeed told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
Both Sabri and Saeed expressed their wishes that the Yazidi New Year would be the beginning of a better and safer future for the Yazidi community, while also hoping for more support for the community from both the Federal and KRG.
“Besides all that, they are still celebrating their Eids in the faith of having a better future and being safe in their home, Shingal, once again,” said Saeed.
Clashes between the Iraqi army and PKK-affiliated forces in Shingal have taken place several times. The Iraqi government and the KRG signed an agreement in 2020 to “normalise” the situation which includes the withdrawal of all PKK-affiliated forces in the city. The agreement has been rejected by the PKK and its proxies.
A report by the UK-based Accountability Unit published last week on Turkey’s military operations, and specifically the conduct of airstrikes in northern Iraq, found that there are strong grounds to conclude that Turkey has targeted and/or conducted indiscriminate attacks, including airstrikes, against Yazidi civilians.
Since the removal of ISIS in Shingal, Turkey has carried out dozens of airstrikes causing further instability to a region that suffers from high unemployment and lack of services. In a UK Parliament event to discuss the report on Wednesday, Dr Leyla Ferman attributed the continuing airstrikes by Turkey in Iraq as a major reason limiting the return of Yazidis to Shingal, citing the damage to properties, infrastructure, roads and electricity caused by Turkish airstrikes.
“Since 2017, Turkey has carried out airstrikes on more than 24 days killing more than 33 people, among them 13 civilians in Sinjar [Shingal] in Iraq, the traditional homeland of Yazidis,” she told a group of MPs.
