Yazidis decry international silence in face of PKK violence

THE YAZIDI community, who have been unable to return to their homes due to the presence of PKK terrorists in northern Iraq’s Sinjar region, have been struggling to survive in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-controlled Duhok region.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Yazidis from Sinjar decried the indifference of the international community to the difficulties they have faced so far due to oppression by the PKK terrorist group.

Yazidis, who had to flee their homes after the Daesh terrorist group carried out an attack on the Sinjar district of Mosul in 2014, have been living in camps under harsh conditions for eight years.

After being driven out of their homes by the PKK, a vast majority of the community dwells in tents, despite unfavorable weather conditions in the summer and winter.

Yazidis await the implementation of the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, with one of the main objectives being the elimination of PKK terrorists in the region.

In October 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the KRG in northern Iraq signed an agreement to preserve security in Sinjar via the Iraqi federal security forces in coordination with the KRG’s Peshmerga forces.

Yazidis called on international institutions to help them end their nomadic life and create suitable conditions for them to return to their hometowns.

Emin Bahri Ibrahim, who took refuge in the Sharya Refugee Camp in Duhok, said he has had to leave his home in Sinjar twice over the past seven years.

“We have been calling out to the world since 2014, but no one hears our voices. We expect conditions to improve in Sinjar and for illegal groups (PKK) to leave our city. That’s how we can go back,” Ibrahim told AA.

“The superpowers in the world and human rights organizations are not interested in our problems. Yazidis have been exposed to persecution, but the international community and the Iraqi government did not take care of us,” said Faisal Osman Resho, another Yazidi from Sinjar.

Resho accused the U.N., human rights organizations, the Iraqi government and other institutions of remaining indifferent to the problems of Yazidis, saying: “Our situation couldn’t be worse than this.”

He called on the Iraqi parliament to hold a special session on the situation of Yazidis and find an immediate solution to their problems.

Daesh terrorists attacked Sinjar, a region with a Yazidi-majority population, in August 2014.

The terrorist group kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas under its control.

The PKK terrorist organization managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Yazidi community from Daesh terrorists.

Sinjar has a strategic position as it is some 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul and close to the Turkish-Syrian border.

The terrorist group aims to create a corridor between the YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria and Iraq’s northern Qandil region.