Scheme to expel Yazidis from their historical lands

Pir Haydar Yazidkhani - Member of the Political Bureau of the Yazidi Freedom and Democracy Party

Seven years after the genocide committed by ISIS mercenaries against the Yazidis in August 2014, which led to the kidnapping of more than 6,400 Yazidis, only half of them were able to flee or survive, while the fate of the others remains unknown until the moment, despite the geographical defeat of ISIS caliphate whose brutal attacks caused the displacement of nearly 100,000 Yazidis abroad and to the Kurdistan Region, the Region’s government, which is governed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, is working in various ways to obstruct the return of the Yazidi displaced to Şengal, after its liberation nearly six years ago.

The government maintains the displaced and forces them to stay in its displacement camps, and does not allow them to return except with the return of the Peshmerga administration and forces to Şengal, where it uses them as a pressure card against Baghdad and human rights organizations to achieve its goals on the one hand and to exploit the displaced on the other hand.

On the other hand, the Kurdistan Democratic believes that the return of the Yazidi displaced to their areas will lead to the loss of large numbers of voters registered on the records as their supporters, and this of course is what is happening, without the knowledge of the displaced, and the idea of ​​their support for the party.

The worst thing that can be talked about is that what the Kurdish Democratic is doing is in the category of continuing the genocide against the Yazidis, so if you want to strip any people or any component of their culture and make them forget their long history, you must keep them away from their historical land, and Şengal is known as the center of gravity of the Yazidi religion in the world, with Yazidis losing it, they will lose a significant part of their deep-rooted culture and religious legacy as well.

Within this scene, the displacement camps witness daily cases of mass burning of tents, and the displaced loss of their lives as a result of that, and the last incident was the fire in the tents in Perseviezakho camp, which took place this month, as a group of tents were burned as a result, and a family of 4 members; a father and his three children died. In addition, dozens of suicides are witnessed in the camps, as a result of the deteriorating health and psychological status of the displaced.

The displaced people live in harsh and tragic conditions in the camps in Duhok governorate and Zakho province, these camps lack the most basic services for living, while the channels affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) systematically promote false news about the security situation in Şengal, with the aim of spreading terror and fear among the displaced to keep them in camps, so that it can use them for other purposes, such as elections.

The Yazidis remain stuck between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the central government, and they pay the price of the dirty policies that are being hatched against them, including the last agreement that was held on October 9, 2020 between Hewlêr and Baghdad, which stipulated that the administrative, security and service levels in Şengal be jointly managed between the two parties and the absence  of Şengal people’s will, who were abandoned by the two governments, and became vulnerable to the brutality of ISIS which committed the most heinous crimes against them.

Forcing the displaced to stay in the camps indicates the continuation of the genocide committed by ISIS mercenaries against them in 2014, especially since Şengal was subjected to a clear and explicit threat by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who threatened on the 22^nd of January to launch a direct attack on Şengal and occupy it.

This was not the only threat, as Turkish warplanes raided more than once, since Şengal liberation, sites in the province which created a state of instability for the residents there, especially since Turkey primarily targeted leaders in Şengal Resistance Units, and prominent figures within the Yazidi community such as Mam Zaki Shankali, thus it wanted to eliminate the Yazidi elite and keep it away from the Yazidi situation, in order to work on the completion of its policies against them.

Therefore, by creating a state of interconnectedness between what happened in 2014 and the Turkish threats, and preventing the return of the displaced by the Kurdistan Democratic and obstructing this, the observer of the situation in Şengal and the situation of the Yazidis in general reaches the seriousness of the threat posed to the Yazidi presence in Şengal, and the plans being made to take them away from their land.

D.H