Jewish World Watch
by Ann Strimov Durbin
In 2014, the Yazidis in Iraq suffered genocide at the hands of the
Islamic State. Last year, the Kurds of Syria were subjected to ethnic
cleansing during a US-sanctioned Turkish military operation. Now,
both of these religious minority groups are facing yet another
existential threat at the hands of Turkish forces.
In an effort to destroy the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish
separatist group it has branded as a terrorist organization, Turkey
and its proxies have conducted numerous military operations into
territories occupied by Kurdish populations in Iraq and Syria. These
incursions have consistently resulted in serious human rights
violations against Kurdish civilians in these areas, including torture
and rape, leading many to argue that Turkey is pursuing ethnic
cleansing. Turkey’s most recent assault, into northern Iraq, has not
only impacted the beleaguered Kurds, but also Yazidi survivors of
genocide, many of whom just returned home after fleeing atrocities in
2014.
Operation Claw-Eagle
On June 14, Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced the launch of a large
aerial bombardment operation in northern Iraq coined “Operation
Claw-Eagle,” intending to target PKK strongholds. While the Turkish
ministry claimed that its goal was “neutralizing” a large number of
PKK militants, civilians told the Middle East Eye that “most of the
airstrikes in Sinjar — home of the embattled Yazidi minority — and
Makmour refugee camp, targeted civilians.” The Makhmour refugee camp
hosts more than 12,000 refugees, mainly composed of Kurds fleeing the
long-running conflict between Turkey and the PKK. The head of
communications at the camp told the Middle East Eye, “No international
law allows Turkey to bomb a UN-sponsored civilian camp. The
bombardment is an attempt by the Turkish government to massacre the
Kurdish refugees who fled persecution in Turkey.”
Among the targets struck by the Turkish warplanes were Sinjar Mountain
and its surroundings. The mountain has been home to around 2,500
Yazidi refugees since 2014, when Islamic State forces rampaged across
the province. As many as 5,000 men and boys were slaughtered at the
hands of Islamic extremists and at least 7,000 Yazidi women and girls
were kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery, regularly subjected to
torture and rape. More than 3,000 women and girls remain missing and
are believed to still be in captivity. The United Nations, the United
States, and many others in the international community designated the
atrocities perpetrated against Yazidis a genocide.
The current indiscriminate attacks come as Yazidi families had just
started to return to the area, which was liberated from ISIS control
when the jihadists were defeated by Kurdish forces — the same Kurdish
forces currently targeted by Turkey. 200 families just arrived home
in Sinjar after six years in a refugee camp in Dohuk, Iraq. The
Turkish attacks are also near towns and camps in which displaced
Yazidi families have taken refuge since fleeing genocide in 2014.
In response to the Turkish offensive, Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor
of the 2014 genocide and a 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate tweeted on
June 14, “Mount Sinjar is a war zone right now. Turkish fighter jets
are bombing multiple locations. Over 150 Yazidi families had just
returned to their homes. When will @IraqiGovt & the international
community apply some courage & political will to resolving security
challenges in Sinjar?”
On June 19, the United States Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) condemned Turkey’s latest round of airstrikes and
ground operations near civilian areas in northern Iraq, calling on
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to order an immediate end to this
incursion.
Continued violations inside Syria
Unfortunately, these attacks against civilians belonging to these two
persecuted religious minority groups are not limited just to Sinjar
and the Makhmour refugee camp in Iraq. Both Kurds and Yazidis are
suffering inside Syria, as well. Yazda, a global Yazidi organization
devoted to preventing future atrocities against the Yazidi community,
reports that “due to their religious identity, Yazidis in Afrin [in
Syria] are suffering from targeted harassment and persecution by
Turkish-backed militant groups. Crimes committed against Yazidis
include forced conversion to Islam, rape of women and girls,
humiliation and torture, arbitrary incarceration, and forced
displacement.” The organization further identified that nearly 80% of
Yazidi religious sites in Syria have been looted, destroyed, or
otherwise desecrated and their cemeteries defiled.
Murad, in another chilling tweet, on May 29, warned that
“Turkish-backed militias are silently carrying out a campaign of
ethnic cleansing against Yazidis in Afrin, Syria. They are kidnapping
women, killing civilians, and destroying houses and shrines.”
The current situation in Afrin is not a new phenomenon, but a
continuation of protracted persecution of both the Yazidis and Kurds.
The Kurdish-majority region came under the control of Turkish-backed
militias in 2018 following a major operation that ousted the
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who had eradicated the
Islamic State from the area. Since then, Turkish forces and proxy
fighters who are armed, trained and paid by the Turkish government,
have committed widespread kidnapping for ransom, arbitrary arrests,
seizure of properties, and even torture and rape. In October 2019,
Turkey and its allied Syrian militias launched another military
operation against the SDF in northeast Syria, which led to the
displacement of thousands of civilians in the region and reports of
full-blown ethnic cleansing of the civilian population. Rights groups
are concerned that these abuses are ramping up and continuing to be
perpetrated with total impunity.
Amid a global COVID-19 pandemic—and in violation of the global
ceasefire called for by the United Nations—Turkey is engaging in
active combat, bombing Kurdish and Yazidi areas in Iraq and pressing
on with occupation and ethnic cleansing in northern Syria. Syria, of
course, is still reeling from nearly a decade of civil war during
which the civilian population has been mercilessly targeted. Syria
and Iraq are both suffering in the face of this global health crisis.
And, just days ago, on July 7, Russia and China jointly vetoed a
United Nations draft resolution to renew the mandate for UN
cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries to millions of vulnerable
Syrians, effectively cutting off their lifeline during a public health
catastrophe.
These atrocities cannot go on with such abject impunity. The Trump
Administration must exert pressure on its ally Turkey to immediately
end its operations in northern Iraq and provide a timeline for its
withdrawal from Syria. Turkey’s claim that its military actions are
geared toward eradicating a terrorist threat does not justify its
utter disregard for and abuse of Kurdish and Yazidi civilian
populations in Iraq and Syria. Turkey must also be held accountable
for the atrocities perpetrated by its rogue proxies in northeastern
Syria. Aykan Erdemir, senior Turkish analyst at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, told Voice of America, “the international
community needs to remind the Turkish government that it urgently
needs to take steps to prevent the crimes against humanity committed
by its proxies, bring perpetrators to justice and offer effective
remedies, including compensation and restitution, to victims and their
family members.”
While it’s crucial that the US government established the Commission
on International Religious Freedom to speak out against threats faced
by religious minority groups around the world, words alone are not
enough. The United States has turned a blind eye to Turkey’s abuses
for far too long, even going as far as to give President Erdogan the
green light to unleash violence upon those very Kurds. They led the
charge in defeating the Islamic State in Syria. Now, in a global
health crisis, the Kurds and Yazidis are exponentially more vulnerable
and deserve our government’s protection.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the continued threats against these
minority groups’ rights, dignity, and survival. The United States
must ensure that neither Turkey’s military nor its proxies expand
their area of control in northeast Syria, continue any type of
religious or ethnic cleansing of this area, or otherwise abuse the
rights of religious and ethnic minorities.
There is currently no legislation in either chamber of Congress
addressing the rights-effacing effects that unchecked Turkish
aggression is having on ethnic and religious minority groups in the
Middle East. It is unconscionable that the Yazidis – genocide
survivors who have endured so much – are being subjected to
indiscriminate bombings and other violations when they finally thought
it was safe to go home. And, Turkey should not be able to continue
mercilessly persecuting all Kurds because of the threat it perceives
from one particular sub-group. We cannot stand idly by in the face of
these under-reported and overlooked atrocities. That’s why, in the
absence of existing legislation, we must demand that our elected
officials take action. Send a letter to your Representatives and
Senators today to draw their attention to Turkey’s role in the
violations being perpetrated against Yazidis and Kurds in Iraq and
Syria. Demand that they pressure the Trump Administration to put
people before politics and hold its ally Turkey to account.
Ann Strimov Durbin is a human rights attorney and the Director of
Advocacy and Grantmaking at Jewish World Watch.