ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nergiz Dawoud, a 23-year-old Yezidi woman from the northwest Syrian district of Afrin, was allegedly killed on Sunday by suspected Turkish-backed Syrian fighters, according to several sources. Afrin fell under the control of Turkish forces and their Syrian militia proxies in early 2018 following Operation Olive Branch. A source inside Afrin, who must remain anonymous to protect them from reprisals, confirmed the woman’s identity in a series of voice messages sent to Rudaw, claiming she was killed by a group of armed men on Sunday in the village of Kimare. Rudaw’s source inside Afrin said it has not yet been confirmed who was responsible for the killing. Ezidi 24, a local news outlet focusing on the Yezidi community, also reported Dawoud’s death and accused Syrian proxies backed by Turkey of killing her. Dawoud was reportedly working for Afrin’s Civil Defense Organization. She was allegedly attacked while carrying a large sum of money to pay the salaries of the organization’s employees, according to Rudaw’s source. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor, said another individual was killed alongside Dawoud. Hawar News, a media outlet close to Kurdish authorities in northern Syria, identified the other person as Ali al-Shaghouri, an Arab man from Eastern Ghouta, who had settled in Afrin following Turkey’s invasion of the Kurdish enclave. He was also a member of the Civil Defense Organization. Their bodies were discovered early on Sunday morning on the Gumrik village road in the Mobata sub-district in Afrin, the outlet said. The Kurdish-majority region of Afrin is isolated from other Kurdish towns and cities by a Turkish-controlled zone in northern Aleppo. Turkey launched its Afrin offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in January 2018 to force the group back from its border. Ankara accuses the YPG of fostering ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group fighting for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. Turkey’s Syrian proxies were accused of looting Kurdish homes and businesses, vandalizing Kurdish cultural landmarks, and resettling Arab families in vacant homes left by fleeing Kurdish families. According to UN estimates, upwards of 150,000 Kurds were displaced. General lawlessness, arbitrary kidnappings, and assassinations have overrun Afrin. According to Rudaw’s source from Afrin, the Yezidi ethno-religious minority, who faced genocide in Iraq at the hands of the Islamic State group (ISIS), nowadays face a double stigma in Afrin. As Kurdish speakers, they are a target of Turkish-backed groups, while their non-Islamic faith has also made them vulnerable to aggression. According to Rudaw’s source, Islamists among the Turkish-backed groups have pressured local Yezidis to convert to Islam.
