Yazidi women face Turkish massacre from Shengal to Afrin

The crimes committed by the Turkish state against Yazidi women living in Afrin are on par with the crimes ISIS committed in Shengal.

The Yazidis have been targeted by the Turkish state throughout history. The Yazidis, who were subjected to numerous massacres during the Ottoman period, protected themselves thanks to their resistance structures. Trying to complete what the Ottomans could not do, the Turkish state continues to commit massacres in front of all humanity in the 21st century. The Turkish state, which occupied Afrin with various pretexts and an international conspiracy, also targets the Yazidis living here.

Afrin, where there are 23 Yazidi villages, is also the city hosting the highest number of Yazidis after Shengal. It is possible to come across people belonging to the Yazidi faith in many districts of Afrin. The practices of the Turkish state and its gangs in Afrin are on par with the practices ISIS committed in Shengal in 2014. The Turkish state, seeking to destroy everything belonging to the Yazidi belief, destroyed 19 Yazidi temples in Afrin. One of the main objectives of policies to change the demographic structure in Afrin is the Yazidis.

Yazidi women suffer the most from the brutal crimes of the Turkish state. Since the occupation of Afrin in March 2018, crimes against Yazidi women are increasing each day. While the gangs kidnapped hundreds of Yazidi women and released some of them in return for ransom, the fate of most of them is still unknown. A Yazidi woman named Xaliya Seid who was abducted from Ceqlê village was released for 7 thousand Euros. No news was received from another Yazidi woman named Xezalê, who was abducted in Basofa village, after she suffered severe torture. Edulê Sefer, kidnapped in the village of Qestel Cindo, was released in return for a ransom of 6 thousand dollars after staying in the captivity of the gangs for 6 months. A woman named Fatima Nesro was abducted from the village of Qibar. Fatima was also released for a thousand dollars.

The Turkish army continues its threats against Yazidi women. They are forcing the Yazidis to migrate.

Eyşê Seydo, a member of the Yazidi Women's Coordination, stated that the fate of hundreds of kidnapped Yazidi women is unknown, and the Turkish state forced many Yazidi women into marriage. Reminding that this practice was also carried out by ISIS in Shengal in 2014, Eyşê noted that the Turkish army wanted to distance the Yazidis from their beliefs, force them to convert to Islam, or to migrate.

Gulê Cafer, one of the directors of the Afrin Region's Civil Society Organizations Coordination, talked about the practices towards Yazidi women and recalled that dozens of Yazidi women are still in the hands of the Turkish state and its gangs.

According to the data shared by the Yazidi Union in Afrin, dozens of Yazidis were massacred in the Turkish occupied city. The Yazidi Union, which reports the names and identity information of the victims, shares all the data and documents it obtains with international human rights institutions. Despite all this, the international community, maintaining its silence, encourages the Turkish state to commit more crimes.

The gangs, who do not recognize any laws when dealing with Yazidis, also take away their property rights. Recently, the gangs raided a house in the village of Feqira and announced that they had confiscated all the assets of Xano Iso (65) leaving him tied in chains.

The Turkish state, acting like ISIS with its practices in Afrin, is also trying to revive ISIS. Yazidi institutions in Afrin consider this as an effort to bring back Ottomanism. Continuing his threats against the Yazidis, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a statement he recently made regarding Shengal, said, "We might come suddenly one night," signaling that he will continue the massacres against the Yazidi community that he could not complete.