Country: Syria

Group: Yazidi

Date Finalized: 04/21/21

Team: Abi Pentecost (lead), Thomas Chia, Hannah Goldman

Content Warning: war, physical violence, genocide, discrimination, racism

Approximate Time Period: 2018-present

There is sufficient evidence to show that both ISIS and Turkish militias have forcibly and violently removed the Yazidi people from their homes in Syria.

          The Yazidi people are a small minority originating from parts of Iraq and Syria. Members of this ethnic group are connected by a 4,000 year-old religion that combines elements of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and other tribal religions (Minority Rights Group, 2017). A number of different Muslim organizations and governments attempted to force Islam onto the Yazidi people and thus this group has faced consistent discrimination since the Ottoman Empire (Holmes, 2020). At the peak of their regime across Iraq and Syria, ISIS militants carried out violent and targeted attacks that included the “mass forced displacement” of Yazidi people living in Syria (Holmes, 2020). There are still thousands of Yazidi people that are missing and thought to be held captive in ISIS strongholds (Human Rights Council, 2016). During this same time period, the Yazidi also faced pressure and violence from Turkish militant groups to leave their homes. In 2018 and 2019, Russia supported and approved the movement of Turkish forces into the Afrin and Ras-al-Ayn region of Syria. Due to the ruthless expansion of the Turkish militant groups into these areas, as many as 500 Yazidi people fled their homes to seek safety. Between 8 and 15 Yazidi villages “have been deserted” completely (Ahmado, 2019; Holmes, 2020).

The data quality of this group can be ranked as a 2. Information about the topic of the forced displacement of Yazidi people from Syria can be found in scholarly sources and reports from organizations such as the Human Rights Council. However, there was a limited number of specific sources about the Yazidi in Syria.

Sources

  1. Ahmado, N. (2019, October 16). Hundreds of Yazidis Displaced Amid Turkey’s Incursion in Northeast Syria | Voice of America—English. https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/hundreds-yazidis-displaced-amid-turkeys-incursion-northeast-syria
  2. Holmes, A. A. (2020). Syrian Yezidis under Four Regimes: Assad, Erdogan, ISIS, and the YPG. Wilson Center, 37, 20.
  3. Human Rights Council. (2016). “They came to destroy”: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_32_CRP.2_en.pdf
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2017, November). Yezidis. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/yezidis/