IAI COMMENTARIES 21 | 10 - MARCH 2021 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2021 IAI 1 occupies a unique placeintheethnic , andGnosticism, uncertain origins with elements from , amonotheistic of remains bleaker thanever. slowly returned home, the Yazidi future militants. While otherminorities have slaughtered by thethousandsbyIS –but none asmuch astheYazidis, years. All minorities have suffered in and religious cleansing over the past zero for somuch violence andethnic in a province which has been ground enclave of ,innorthern Iraq, include stops inMosul andtheChristian The first-ever Pontifical visit will also December 2017. the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS)in their homes aftertheofficial defeat of have returnedor areyet toreturn to thousandsof Iraqi Christianswho promote amessageof hope andsupport three-day visit. TheHoly Father aimsto in Iraq on 5March 2021for ahistoric Pope Francis isscheduled toarrive Affairs of the . and former Director of theMiddle Eastand West Asia in theDepartment of Political Antonella Caruso isfounder of LAMEDINA Institute for International Dialogue, LosAngeles by Antonella Caruso Most Threatened Minorities Iraq’s : Among theWorld’s extremist Islamists or worshippers deserving of execution intheeyes of makeup of theMiddle East. Washington Post Washington in ”, U.S. following into Iraq Flood 2 -history article/140809-iraq-yazidis-minority-isil- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/ News Geographic National Iraq?”, in in to Survive Struggling Minority Religious Persecuted Ancient, the Yazidis, the Are “Who Avi Asher-Schapiro, for instance, See of Yazidism. feature a strong is land to this Belonging Taws descended. Malek and born was temple, where sacred most the is Lalesh them. built above are shrines holy and are appearance of their places The history. human across on earth descend and forms human also assume The it. governs and of the creation the completed who , as identified wrongly , Peacock or the Taws, Malek is them among rank in highest and first The or Angels. emanations, divine its through beings human 1 and occupation of thecountry. in Iraq sincethe2003US-led invasion outcry aswell asthefirstUSairstrikes Yazidis in2014sparked aninternational for many others, the brutal massacres of

Yazidis believe that communicates to communicates God that Yazidis believe Liz Sly, “Exodus from the Mountain: Yazidis Mountain: the from Sly,Liz “Exodus . , 10 August 2014, 2014, , 10 August , 11 August 2014, 2014, August , 11 https://www. 1 Heretics 2 The The Iraq’s Yazidis: Among the World’s Most Threatened Minorities

The Yazidis continued to be massacred, to remain today.5 About one third live tortured, enslaved and displaced over in makeshift refugee camps, with the three years. The violence ended when hope of one day joining the ones who IS was defeated in 2017 by the combined have emigrated to Europe, Canada and onslaught of a US-led international the US. Others have either returned coalition along with the Iraqi , home or have settled down in Iraqi Kurdish forces and a vast cities, mainly in Iraqi array of . The Yazidi and . Nearly 2,800 women are 6

© 2021 IAI “must never happen again”, Barham still missing. Salih, the Iraqi president, solemnly intoned at a recent official tribute in Recognition of their genocide from Baghdad for Yazidi victims whose the Iraqi government in November remains were discovered in .3 2014 was an important step forward7 – but it is clear that weak Iraqi state The Yazidis, among the most fragile of institutions are failing the Yazidis and Middle Eastern minorities, are a litmus other minorities. Almost none of the test to understand if coexistence and Islamic State perpetrators of the Yazidi ISSN 2532-6570 diversity will have any role in a future genocide have been brought to justice. Iraq. This ethno-religious minority Security and reconstruction of Yazidi now risks disappearing. From a Yazidi villages should have been speeded population estimated at between up, together with the rehabilitation of 500,000 to 700,000 before 2014, of services and job creation. Instead, 60 to whom around half lived in the Shekhan 80 per cent of Sinjar city remains badly and Sinjar districts of the damaged, as the Nineveh governor Governorate in northern Iraq,4 just Najim al-Jabouri denounced,8 and 60 over 300,000 Yazidi are thought per cent of its inhabitants unemployed. In the unpretentious rooms of the Iraqi washingtonpost.com/world/2014/08/10/f8349f2a- parliament in Baghdad, the law on 04da-4d60-98ef-85fe66c82002_story.html. Yazidi women survivors, that would 3 Iraqi Presidency, Iraqi President at Burial Ceremony for Yazidi Victims at Kocho: All provide reparation and integration, Must Work Together to Create a Country Where has only now been passed, after close such Inhumane, Heinous Acts can Never Occur to two years of stalemate due to the Again, 6 February 2021, https://presidency.iq/ EN/Details.aspx?id=3204. 4 Yazidi population figures vary. See for 5 IOM Iraq Mission, Six Years After Yazidi instance, Peter Henne and Conrad Hackett, Genocide, Investment in Services is Crucial for “Iraqi Yazidis: Hazy Population Numbers Returning Yazidi Families, 16 July 2020, https:// and a History of ”, in Fact Tank, iraq.iom.int/node/1507. 12 August 2014, https://www.pewresearch. 6 Sura Ali, “Baghdad Holds First Ceremony org/?p=262316; Otmar Oehring, Christians And for 104 Yazidi Victims of ISIS”, in Rudaw, 4 Yazidis in Iraq: Current Situation and Prospects, February 2021, https://www.rudaw.net/english/ Sankt Augustin/Berlin, Konrad-Adenauer- middleeast/iraq/040220214. Stiftung, 2017, https://d-nb.info/1141052792/34; 7 Nisan Ahmado, “Tracking Missing Yazidis Yazda website: Genocide Recognition, https:// Increasingly Harder Six Years After IS Genocide”, www.yazda.org/genocide-recognition. in VOA News, 8 August 2020, https://www. 8 Najim al-Jabouri, “Mosul Not Getting the voanews.com/extremism-watch/tracking- Funds Needed to Rebuild: Nineveh Governor”, missing-yazidis-increasingly-harder-six-years- in Rudaw, 9 October 2020, https://www.rudaw. after-genocide. net/english/interview/09102020. IAI COMMENTARIES 21 | 10 - MARCH 2021 21 | 10 - MARCH IAI COMMENTARIES

2 Iraq’s Yazidis: Among the World’s Most Threatened Minorities

fractiousness of Iraqi political parties.9 on expelling the PKK from Iraq.10 This Arab-Kurdish effort aims primarily As if that were not enough, the security at appeasing and ultimately situation remains complex – and allowing a safe return of thousands menacing. Mount Sinjar, where much of Yazidi refugees to the district. of the Yazidi genocide took place, is Unsurprisingly, the agreement was strategically located along the border immediately rejected by the PKK – as with , on lands that are disputed well as a number of pro-PKK Yazidi

© 2021 IAI between the central Iraqi government militias and some of the Iraqi Popular and the Kurdish Regional Government. Mobilization Forces (PMFs). It has been a thoroughfare for the smuggling of weapons, goods and The implementation of the agreement fighters to and from war-torn Syria remains opaque, to say the least. for years – and the spill-over effects of In early December, Kurdish Prime the long have deeply Minister Masrour Barzani declared that affected the security of the entire area. no forces had withdrawn from the city and from the district. Turkish military ISSN 2532-6570 Turkey’s on-going war against the incursions resumed along the Turkish- Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – which Iraqi border early this month. In are also embedded in Mount Sinjar – are response, Baghdad has now deployed making the situation worst. The Sinjar three PMFs brigades to Sinjar, in an district has been witnessing airstrikes effort to keep the Turkish army away by the US-led anti-IS international from the area and “combat terrorism”, as coalition forces, intra-Kurdish clashes, reported by the PMFs media directorate military confrontations between - after the meeting of their leader Abd backed Iraqi militias and Kurdish armed al-Aziz al-Muhammadawi (himself on forces, the return of the and the US terrorist list) with Iraqi president federal police and, last but not least, Barham Salih on 17 February.11 intensified Turkish bombardment of PKK positions. The Turkish president has not hidden his intentions to use Iraqi soil in its fight A glimmer of hope occurred last against the PKK – with or without Iraqi October, with a landmark security approval – “until we crush the head of agreement between the central terrorism”, as Erdoğan emphatically government in Baghdad and the declared in mid-February.12 Turkey, autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq 10 “Content of the Baghdad- Agreement on Shingal”, in KirkukNow, 10 October 2020, 9 Kristin Smith and Sonali Dhawan, “‘Yazidi https://kirkuknow.com/en/news/63613. Female Survivors Law’ in Iraq Is Groundbreaking 11 But Not Enough”, in OpenGlobalRights, 13 Sura Ali, “President Salih Discusses October 2020, https://www.openglobalrights. Paramilitary Movement in Shingal, org/yazidi-female-survivors-law-in-iraq-is- with PMF Leader”, in Rudaw, 17 February 2021, groundbreaking-but-not-enough ; Sura Ali, https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/ “Iraqi Parliament Passess Yazidi Survival Bill iraq/17022021. after Years of Delays”, in Rudaw, 2 March 2021, 12 “Turkey’s Anti-Terror Operations Will https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/ Continue: Erdoğan”, in Hürriyet Daily News, 17 iraq/010320214. February 2021, https://www.hurriyetdailynews. IAI COMMENTARIES 21 | 10 - MARCH 2021 21 | 10 - MARCH IAI COMMENTARIES

3 Iraq’s Yazidis: Among the World’s Most Threatened Minorities

after all, maintains some 20 “temporary” organisations, that promote a bottom- military bases in the country, despite up approach and strengthen civil regular Iraqi protests at the UN Security society. Much more is needed, however, Council. and political pressure on the Iraqi government to follow through on its Under these difficult political,commitment to protect minority rights administrative and security must be sustained. circumstances, it is hard to predict

© 2021 IAI how many more Yazidi refugees Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq can do this might return to Sinjar in the near from the height of his moral authority. future. Beyond IS violence and Iraqi The Pope has tirelessly called on world negligence, the Yazidi community is leaders to protect minorities in Iraq and geographically dispersed, militarily in the . In particular, he has fragmented and now internally divided. asked the Iraqi government to create The selection last year of Mir Hazim the security, economic and social Tahsin Beg as the successor of his conditions for Christians to remain and late father and the religious-political prosper in their ancestral lands. On the ISSN 2532-6570 leader of the Yazidi community, did ground, he has supported a network not find unanimous consensus among of Christian NGOs to help Christian Yazidi notables. In Sinjar, some of them and non-Christian communities in claimed to have not been sufficiently the fields of education, health and consulted and proclaimed another reconstruction: the Papal visit does Yazidi as their leader.13 This have a strong inter-faith component as risks further weakening traditional well.14 leadership and the Yazidi community’s social and spiritual ties. The Yazidis’ hope is that the international visibility brought about Against this backdrop, a sustained by the Pope’s visit will help open the international effort should be mounted eyes of the world to the plight of Iraq’s to help Iraq protect its precious religious minorities – and that those tradition of ethnic and religious eyes will not shut once again as the diversity – and save the Yazidis. The Pope departs Iraq on 8 March. 389 million US dollars which the has spent on minority assistance in the since 2017 is a 3 March 2021 step in the right direction. Even more so is US direct support, in small grants 14 Robin Gomes, “Chaldean Patriarch: It Is to local faith-based and community Wrong to Expect Pope to Solve Iraq’s Problems”, in Vatican News, 19 February 2021, https://www. com/turkeys-anti-terror-operations-will- vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2021-02/ continue-erdogan-162488. iraq-pope-francis-visit-chaldean-patriarch- 13 Saad Salloum, “New Yazidi Prince Appointed positive-media.html; “Pope Francis’ Programme in Iraq Amid Sharp Divisions”, in Al-Monitor, 3 for Apostolic Visit to Iraq Announced”, in August 2019, http://almon.co/38lc; “Coronation Vatican News, 8 February 2021, https://www. of Yazidi Chief Prince Naif bin Dawud by Sinjar vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-02/pope- Tribal Leaders”, in YouTube, 25 August 2019, francis-programme-for-apostolic-visit-to-iraq- https://youtu.be/QEZuyaqFuNk. announced.html. IAI COMMENTARIES 21 | 10 - MARCH 2021 21 | 10 - MARCH IAI COMMENTARIES

4 Iraq’s Yazidis: Among the World’s Most Threatened Minorities

Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) is a private, independent non-profit think tank, founded in 1965 on the initiative of Altiero Spinelli. IAI seeks to promote awareness of international politics and to contribute to the advancement of European integration and multilateral cooperation. Its focus embraces topics of strategic relevance such as European integration, security and defence, international economics and global governance, energy, climate and Italian foreign policy; as well as the dynamics of cooperation and conflict in key geographical regions such as the Mediterranean and Middle East, Asia, , Africa and © 2021 IAI the Americas. IAI publishes an English-language quarterly (The International Spectator), an online webzine (Affarinternazionali), three book series (Global Politics and Security, Quaderni IAI and IAI Research Studies) and some papers’ series related to IAI research projects (Documenti IAI, IAI Papers, etc.).

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