Hello, I am Farhad Barakat, a Yezidi activist, translator and interpreter from Sinjar in the north of Iraq.
As everyone knows, last month a group of Sunni Muslims wanted to go back to Sinjar city in Iraq. The group returned to Sinjar city without their families, and headed directly to a mosque, which is called Abdul Rahman Mosque, inside Sinjar city.
The people of Sinjar, the Yezidi people and also Shia Muslims, were not happy about this decision. Because when the Yezidi people in Sinjar were attacked by ISIS in 2014, some of these Sunni Muslims from Sinjar city helped ISIS. They joined them. They identified Yedizis to ISIS fighters as “infidels” and “devil-worshippers.” That is why the decision to return them to Sinjar city did not make the Yezidi people happy.
So, many of the mullahs, the religious men in Kurdistan and other Iraqi provinces, began to give hate speeches against the Yezidi community. They accused Yezidis of burning the mosque, which was not true. We saw that, which everybody saw. It was not true. Despite that, these people continued with their hate speeches, comments, threatening posts, and they opened spaces on Twitter and other social media for such hateful talk.
So it was very complicated for the Yezidi community, especially for those living in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps. They were so worried about the situation. Because some of the Kurdish youth inside Zaxo city, in Dohuk, in Kurdistan region, they were having a broadcast, a livestream, saying that “we will attack the Yezidi people in Chamishko camp.”
These things are making the Yezidi people in the IDP camps very worried. Somehow, now it is very complicated for the Yezidi people and other minorities to live in Kurdistan and in Iraq.
