Persecution of Yazidis

The Persecution of Yazidis has been ongoing since at least the 10th century.[1][2] Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking[3] minority, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia.[4] The Yazidi religion is regarded as devil worship by Islamists.[5] Yazidis have been persecuted by muslim Kurdish tribes since the 10th century,[1] and by the Ottoman Empire from the 17th to the 20th centuries.[6] After the 2014 Sinjar massacre of thousands of Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Yazidis still face violence from the Turkish Armed Forces and its ally the Syrian National Army, as well as discrimination from the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Yazidi refugee children from Sinjar in Newroz Camp, Al-Malikiyah District, August 2014, after the Sinjar massacre
Yazidi demonstration in front of the White House in Washington DC. (March 15, 2019)

Early persecution

After Kurds had Islamized in the 10th century, they joined in the persecution of the Yazidis in the Hakkari mountains.[1][7] Kurds persecuted the Yazidis with particular brutality.[8] Kurds attacked Yazidis due to religion.[1][7][8][9] Sometimes, during these massacres, Kurds tried to force the Yazidis to convert to Islam.[10][11][7] Almost the whole Yazidi population were nearly wiped out by massacres carried out by Turks and Kurds in the 19th century.[12][13] According to historical reports from 1855, Kurds have been mortal enemies of the Yazidis in the past and they have killed more Yazidi men and captured more Yazidi women, than even the Turks themselves.[14][15]

15th century

In 1414, Kurds destroyed the holy Lalish temple and desecrated the tomb of Sheikh Adi. The Yazidis later rebuilt their temple and the tomb of Sheikh Adi.[16][17]

The Geli Ali Beg Waterfall in Iraqi Kurdistan is named after the Yazidi leader Ali Beg who was killed there in 1832 by the Kurdish prince Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz.[18]

Bedir Khan Beg and Muhammad Pasha massacres

In the year 1832, about 70,000 Yazidis were killed by the Kurdish leaders Bedir Khan Beg and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz.[19] During his research trips in 1843, the Russian traveller and orientalist Ilya Berezin mentioned that 7,000 Yazidis were killed by Kurds of Rawandiz on the hills of Nineveh near Mosul, shortly before his arrival.[20] According to many historical reports, the Bedir Khan massacres can today be classified as a genocide.[21]

In 1831, Muhammad Pasha massacred the people of the Kellek village. He then went northward and attacked the entire Yazidi-inhabited foothill country which was located east of Mosul. Some Yazidis managed to take refuge in the neighboring forests and mountain fastnesses, and a few of them managed to escape to distant places.[22]

Many Yazidis from Sheikhan, who had fled from the Kurds but could not cross the Tigris river, gathered on the great mound of Kouyunjik, where they were persecuted and killed by Muhammad Pasha's men.[23]

In 1832, Muhammad Pasha and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Khatarah. Subsequently, they attacked the Yazidis in Shekhan and killed many of them.[24] In another attempt he and his troops occupied over 300 Yazidi villages. The emir kidnapped over 10,000 Yazidis and sent them to Rawandiz and gave them the ultimatum of converting to Islam or being killed. Most of them converted to Islam and those who refused to convert to Islam were killed.[25]

In 1832, Bedir Khan Beg and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Shekhan. His men almost killed the whole Yazidi population of Shekhan. Some Yazidis tried to escape to Sinjar.[26][27][28] When they attempted to escape towards Sinjar, many of them drowned in the Tigris river. Those who could not swim were killed. About 12,000 Yazidis were killed on the bank of the Tigris river by Bedir Khan Beg's men. Yazidi women and children were also kidnapped.[29]

In 1833, the Yazidis who lived in the Aqrah region were again attacked by Muhammad Pasha and his soldiers. The perpetrators killed 500 Yazidis in the Greater Zab. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha and his troops attacked the Yazidis who lived in Sinjar and killed many of them.[30]

In 1844, Bedir Khan Beg and his men committed a massacre against the Yazidis in the Tur Abdin region. His men also captured many Yazidis and forced them to convert to Islam. The inhabitants of seven Yazidi villages were all forced to convert to Islam.[29]

In the picture in the middle you can see Ali Beg II. (the grandson of the Yazidi leader Ali Beg and the grandfather of Tahseen Said)

Many Yazidis also defended themselves against the attacks. So did Ali Beg, the Yazidi leader in Sheikhan. The Yazidi leader Ali Beg mobilized his forces in order to oppose Muhammad Pasha, who mobilized the Kurdish tribes which lived in the surrounding mountains in order to launch an attack against the Yazidis. Ali Beg's troops were outnumbered and he was captured and killed by Muhammad Pasha.[23]

Late 19th century

After the Ottomans had given the Yazidis a certain legal status in 1849 through repeated interventions by Stratford Canning and Sir Austen Henry Layard,[31] they sent their Ottoman general Omar Wahbi Pasha (later known as "Ferîq Pasha" in the memory of the Yazidis)[31] in 1890[32] or 1892[31] from Mosul to the Yazidis in Shaikhan and again gave the Yazidis an ultimatum to convert to Islam. When the Yazidis refused, the areas of Sinjar and Shaykhan were occupied and another massacre committed among the residents. The Ottoman rulers mobilized the Hamidiye cavalry, later founded in 1891, to take action against the Yazidis. Many Yazidi villages were attacked by the Hamidiye cavalry and the residents were killed. The Yazidi villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani were also raided and many Yazidi temples were destroyed. The Yazidi Mir Ali Beg was captured and held in Kastamonu. The central shrine of the Yazidis Lalish was converted into a Quran school. This condition lasted for twelve years until the Yazidis were able to recapture their main shrine Lalish.[32]

20th century

During the Armenian genocide, Yazidis were killed by some Kurdish tribes.[33] More than 300,000 Yazidis were killed, while others fled to Transcaucasia.[34] Some have taken refuge in Georgia, afraid to avoid the persecution of the Kurds.[35]

Despite the fact that the Yazidis hid 20,000 Christians from the Ottomans in the Sinjar Mountains during the Armenian genocide[36] and that many Yazidis found refuge in Armenia as they fled from the Kurds and Turks,[34] there was discrimination against the Yazidis in Armenia. Yazidi children tended to hide their identities in schools to avoid discrimination.[37] Furthermore, the term "Yezidi" is often used by non-Yazidis as an insult.[38]

In 1921, Yazidis in the Kingdom of Iraq under British rule were oppressed and attacked by the British army. The British Army attacked Yazidi villages between 1925 and 1935, killing over 100 Yazidis, including a Yazidi leader.[39]

21st century

In the 21st century, Yazidis faced violence from Islamists during the Iraq War, including the April 2007 Mosul massacre, and the 2007 Yazidi communities bombings which killed 796. The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) was set up to defend Yazidis in the aftermath of these attacks. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) attempts to extend its influence have also caused tension, prompting renewed accusations of Kurdification.[40]

Yazidi commemoration of the genocide on August 3, 2014 in the Turkish city of Diyarbakır (2015)

The genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, which began with the 2014 Sinjar massacre, led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their ancestral lands in Sinjar. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Sunni fundamentalist majority-Arab Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and thousands of Yazidi men were killed.[41] Five thousand Yazidi civilians were killed[42] during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign"[43][44] being carried out by ISIL in Northern Iraq. The genocide began after the withdrawal of the KRG's Peshmerga militia, which left the Yazidis defenseless.[45][46] Among the reasons for the Peshmerga's retreat was an unwillingness to fight fellow Muslims in the defence of Yazidis.[47] ISIL's persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and led to another American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIL. Kurdistan Workers' Party, People's Protection Units, and Syriac Military Council fighters then opened a humanitarian corridor to the Sinjar Mountains.[48][49][50][51]

Since 2016, Yazidis in Syria have been forced to flee from the Turkish occupation of northern Syria to the relative safety of the secular Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria,[52] because of the war crimes committed against Yazidis and other minorities by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, an overwhelmingly Sunni militia with strong jihadist influence.[53][54]

Kurdistan Region

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the Kurdish authorities have used heavy-handed tactics against the Yazidis and was accused of kidnapping and beating two Yazidi men belonging to the Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress who criticized the actions of the authorities. After the Kurdish authorities kidnapped them, they gave them two options, either they would accept that they were Kurds or they would confess that they were "terrorists". In addition, the Kurdish officers asked which language they speak. When the Yazidis replied "Yazidi", they were further tortured.[55]

There have also been some demographic changes in Yazidi-majority areas after the fall of Saddam. In the Sheikhan area, which is considered a historic Yazidi stronghold, the Kurdish authorities have settled Sunni Kurds to strengthen their claim that it should be included within the Kurdistan Region.[56] In modern times, Kurdistan Region is accused of taking over traditional Yazidi settlements.[57][58]

According to Yazidi activists reports, since 2003 about 30 Yazidi women and girls were kidnapped and forcibly married with members of the Kurdish security force Asayish.[59]

Ideological basis

All of the massacres of the Yazidis were committed by the Muslim side. During their history, the Yazidis have mostly been under the pressure of their Muslim neighbors, which led to violence and massacres at times.

Kurdish muftis have given the persecution of Yazidis a religious character and they have also legalized it.[22] Also Kurdish mullahs such as Mahmud Bayazidi viewed the Yazidis as unbelievers.[8]

Yazidi view of the persecutions

Remembering persecution is a central part of Yazidi identity.[60] The Yazidis speak of 74 genocides of them in their history and call these genocides "Farman". The number of 72 Farman can be derived from the oral traditions and folk songs of the Yazidis.[61][62] The last Farman is number 74 and denotes the genocide of the Yazidis by the IS terrorists.[63][7][9][64]

See also

References
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  2. Acikyildiz, Birgul (2014-08-20). The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-78453-216-1.
  3. Allison, Christine (20 February 2004). "Yazidis i: General". Encyclopædia Iranica. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
  4. Nelida Fuccaro (1999). The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq. London & New York: I. B. Tauris. p. 9. ISBN 1860641709.
  5. Jalabi, Raya (2014-08-11). "Who are the Yazidis and why is Isis hunting them?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-12-01.
  6. Evliya Çelebi, The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588–1662), Translated by Robert Dankoff, 304 pp., SUNY Press, 1991; ISBN 0-7914-0640-7, pp. 169–171
  7. Kizilhan, Jan Ilhan; Noll-Hussong, Michael (2017). "Individual, collective, and transgenerational traumatization in the Yazidi". BMC Medicine. 15 (1): 198. doi:10.1186/s12916-017-0965-7. ISSN 1741-7015.
  8. Asatrian, Garnik S.; Arakelova, Victoria (2014-09-03). The Religion of the Peacock Angel: The Yezidis and Their Spirit World. Routledge. ISBN 9781317544289.
  9. Hosseini, S. Behnaz (2020). Trauma and the Rehabilitation of Trafficked Women: The Experiences of Yazidi Survivors. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-07869-5.
  10. Orient-Institut, Deutsches; Franz, Erhard (1994). Population policy in Turkey: family planning and migration between 1960 and 1992. Deutsches Orient-Institut. p. 332. ISBN 9783891730348. Throughout history, there was no shortage of attempts by Kurdish Muslims to violently convert the Yazidis to Islam.
  11. Non-State Violent Actors and Social Movement Organizations: Influence, Adaptation, and Change. Emerald Group Publishing. 2017-04-26. p. 75. ISBN 9781787147287.
  12. Travis, Hannibal (2010). Genocide in the Middle East: The Ottoman Empire, Iraq, and Sudan. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 9781594604362. The Yazidis were nearly wiped out in massacres which were committed against them by Turks and Kurds.
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