August, 8 2018
There has been a steady increase in the targeting of Yazidis in Afrin, in an attempt to displace those who remained. Syrian pro-Turkish factions force them to convert to Islam, and impose on them to go to Islamic mosques to pray. These mosques were houses confiscated and converted to mosques.
Since Turkey occupied Afrin area, dozens of human rights violations against Yazidis people have been recorded, including the destruction of religious sites and shrines, stealing their contents, displacement and detention of the population.
Faylaq Al Sham (Sham Corps) fighters forced Basofan Village children to go to mosques, convert to Islam and read Quran.
Al Hamzat Division transformed the school of the village Kakhra in Mubata district to Sharia school for teaching Islam religious.
Yazidis distributed in Afrin within 22 villages, there are no accurate census of their numbers in Syria, but according to unofficial census the population of Yazidis in both Afrin and Aleppo about a hundred thousand people, this numbers have decreased in recent years as a result of repeated targeting of their villages, which led many of them to flee or to seek refuge outside Syria.
Despite of Yezidi community is a peaceful community but has been subjected to a lot of persecution and ethnic cleansing, in the past the Ottoman Empire had persecuted them and under the rule of Saddam Hussein, and by “Daesh,” the most recent violations of the Syrian opposition fighters loyal to the Turkish army in a battle called “olive branch,” most These militants belong to radical Islamic factions fighting from an extremist religious ideology. Since their entry into Afrin, many violations have been committed against the Yezidis, who are only about 15%, as a result of their displacement from their villages, mockery of their religion, forced conversion to Islam, kidnapping and building mosques in the Yazidi villages, and other violations of long dead and neighborhoods and detainees, as well as religious Yezidis shrines.
“What happened in Shangal in 2014 is repeated today in Afrin, where Yazidis are forced to go to the mosques and change their religion,” says Ziad Rustam, a member of the Yazidi House. The “Islamic State” invaded the Shangal region of Iraq with a Yazidi majority and committed a massacre that killed thousands of civil people. The Yazidi Council announced in August 2016 that 10,000 people had been killed and 6,000 women and girls had been raped in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State”.
With the start of the Turkish attack on Afrin, Islamic groups accompanying Turkish army began to threaten them for death, slaughter and captivity, and that they would complete what they have started from Shangal. When they entered Yazidi villages, they destroyed Yazidi shrines and tried and continue to force Yezidis to abandon their religion and imposed Islamic cloth on women.
We, as a violation documenting center, observing and recording some of the violations that we are able to get, because the armed groups and the Turkish army impose strict control over the population to prevent them from publishing what is happening in Afrin, especially those that affecting Yazidi component.
We will mention some violations that committed by Turks and their mercenaries in Afrin:
A woman named Fatima Hmki, wife of Hanan Prem of Yazdi village of Qatima, was killed at age 66 after a hand grenade was thrown at their house at 2 am.
– Hanan Prem was kidnapped and tortured and the family was subjected to repeatedly harassment by armed men and settler families in the village.
– Qibar Village:
– A civilian Abdo bin Hamo Fouad Nasser, was targeted by the gunmen in his house by a mine, in addition arresting and torturing and then took ransom from victim’s father to release him on 1-4-2018.
– The kidnapping of 6 members of “Irfo” family from Qibar village and taking them to an unknown location.
– A civilian from the Yazidi component, “Omar Mamu Shammu,” was killed in Qibar village at his home after he refused to pronounce the Islamic certificate.
– Hanan Ali was arrested from Qibar village on 31/5/2018 and his fate is still unknown.
Qatma village:
– Abduction of the following persons: Haj Ahmed 70 years – Hussein Ibo 70 years – Hamid Qassem – Adnan Qassem – Nidal Qassem with his son Hamdoush 15 years. – Fawzi Mohammed Shamo with his 15 and 16 year old children – Ayman Hamadeh – Hanan Hassan Prem And his son Azad, where they were subjected to severe torture in their detention centers, and demanded that they should pay 25,000 dollars.
– Sheikha Juma, still unknown his fate and his place.
Qastal Jendu Village:
– Infringement on the property of Qastal Jendu village, steal their cattle, and seize the entire cherry harvest.
– Ali ‘Ali’ Ebo75 years old was abducted and taken to an unknown location.
– Hassan Abdo family, known as Abdouka from Qastal Jendu village , who fled to the areas of Shahbaa to escape the oppression of the mercenaries, then his entire family was killed as a result of a mine explosion in the car that was carrying them to Aleppo. Names of the family are: Hassan Abdo, 90, and his wife, Sulaiman Bint Musa, 65, Yasser Abdu Hassan, 32, and his wife Hamida Hassou Bint Khalil, 22, and their daughter Ruheen Abdo Bint Yasser, 7 months.
– Two women were killed from Hamdou family: Fidana Rasheed bint Khalil, 60, and her daughter Shirin Semo bent Hamdo 26.
– Saydo Omriko son of Bashar 24 was arrested.
– Musa Nabi, 32, was arrested from Jekli Jum village.
– Abdurrahman Qazqali Hassou from Jekli Jum village.
– The abduction of Zardasht (Dashti) Majid Esso 40 years from Faqira village in late May and taken to an unknown place.
Bousofan Village:
– Kidnapping of men and young men in the village of Basoufan continues daily and interrogating them after being brutally tortured and falsely accused of baseless charges in order to terrorize people.
– Imposition of Islamic dress away from the habits and culture of Yazidis, on women and girls.
– start of construction of mosque in Yazidi village of Basoufan, although there is no one Muslim in the village.
the missings:
– Joan Said Rash 22 years, from Qibar.
– Hassan Darwish Shumo, a 75-year-old from Qibar, was kidnapped from his home in Afrin.
– Idola Humaid Safar 63 years was kidnapped and taken to a prison in Mareh.
Shrines were Targeted:
– Emptying the shrine of Sheikh Ali in Basuofan village and messing up with its contents.
– Destroying Sheikh Gharib shrine in Sinka village in Shara district, and mockery of the Yazidi village.
– Destroying a shrine Jurna village near Medanki.
– Destroying king Adi shrine in Qibar village.
– Destroying Yezidi shrines in Qastal Jundu village (the shrine of Barsa Khatoun and Sheikh Humaid shrine).
– In Afrin city center the Union Of Yazidis cultural and social headquarter was destroyed, was the Prophet Zoroaster’s statue was also destroyed, and the dome of Lalish.
