Ever since the US withdrew from Syria, the local rebels have committed a series of human rights abuses. They have murdered prisoners, looted homes and mutilated dead bodies.
According to Dr. Seth Frantzman of the Jerusalem Post, one of the victims of Turkey's invasion was a volunteer medic who went to Syria in order to assist civilians.
Another victim was Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf, who was "pulled from her car by the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya, shot to death and then dragged by her hair."
These Syrian rebels that are backed by Turkey have been adopting Islamic State rhetoric, referring to Kurdish women as "whores" and Kurds in general as "infidels."
Yet sadly, while many people have discussed how the US withdrawal from Syria has adversely affected the Kurds and the Christians, very few are discussing the implications of Turkey's actions in Syria for the Yezidis.
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There is actually much to be said regarding how the Turkish invasion has adversely affected a nation, which just survived a horrific genocide by ISIS, one of the world's most brutal terror organizations.
According to Yezidi journalist Dakhil Shammo, there are around 53 Yezidi villages in the areas of Syria that were captured by Turkey: "There are hundreds of people that took refuge in other places and some of them left and went to Iraqi Kurdistan. Some 80% of the Yezidis in the area now either live in refugee camps or moved to Iraqi Kurdistan. The affected villages were evacuated prior to the Turkish invasion. There are some causalities among the Yezidis. There was a person who was executed just for being Yezidi and not Muslim. There were 20 Yezidi religious sites and temples in the area. They were destroyed by Turkey and its allies. Even the graves of Yezidis they destroyed. Whenever they see a non-Muslim site, they want to destroy it. It is very unfortunate. They poke fun of the Yezidis, calling them 'devil worshippers' and all sorts of names. They have built mosques in some of the Yezidi villages in order to indoctrinate the children. Plus, they ruined almost all of the homes of the Yezidis. The people are scared and terrified."
Yezidi leader Sheikh Mirza Ismail, chairman of the Yezidi International Human Rights Organization, concurred with Shammo: "The Yezidis in Syria are severely affected because most of the Yezidi towns and villages border Turkey. About 800 ISIS members were able to escape the Ain Issa Camp. These ISIS terrorists can end up in Turkey and other Muslim states. They will never face any justice. The international community will do nothing about those ISIS terrorists because they allowed this to happen. If the international community is serious about ISIS crimes against humanity, they would have prevented it from happening. They would have transferred those ISIS terrorists to a prison outside the Middle East."
According to Sheikh Ismail, the Ain Issa Camp is not the only place that ISIS terrorists are in danger of escaping from: "The Hol Camp, which holds hundreds of Yezidi slaves among ISIS families, is at risk of collapsing because of the continued Turkish military operations in Syria. If the Hol Camp is not controlled by international forces, then the ISIS families will take the Yezidi slaves and flee because the Hol Camp is surrounded by ISIS supporters. We warned the UN and the US State Department about these possibilities but unfortunately, no actions have been taken in order to rescue the Yezidis from the Hol Camp. According to some inside sources, there is a Sharia court in the Hol Camp, which enables ISIS followers to torture and kill whoever they wish to."
Shammo added: "The Hol Camp was built in the 1980s and was originally used for Iraqi refugees running away from Saddam Hussein's regime. But after ISIS, they used that camp in order to control the families of ISIS that were taken by the Kurdish forces. There was a large number of them. Now, we learned that many Yezidis, children and girls, were taken by ISIS from Sinjar and moved to the Hol Camp. But because these people were so aggressive, they hide the Yezidis. We have confirmation that hundreds of them are in the camp but no one can reach them. There were some who were able to run away. They knew the Kurdish forces controlled the area and ran away. But there are still many in the camp. Two weeks ago, there were reports that hundreds of ISIS members ran away from the camp. However, there were also reports that Kurdish forces recaptured them. Nevertheless, the camp is still under the administration of the UNHCR in cooperation with the Kurdish forces. But now, Turkey says that they will take control of the camp. "
If Turkey takes over the Hol Camp, what will happen to the ISIS terrorists imprisoned there and the Yezidis within the Hol Camp remains an open question. One can argue that Turkey prefers to have ISIS as a neighbor rather than the Kurds, the Christians or the Yezidis.
Either way, ISIS is likely to be strengthened in the wake of recent developments. As Sheikh Ismail proclaimed, "The US withdrawal has created a power vacuum that leads to chaos. In this atmosphere, ISIS will re-emerge. After the fall of ISIS in Iraq, many of the ISIS members became members of the Free Syrian Army that is supported by Turkey. The Free Syrian Army also regulates organizations such as Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam that includes many Muslims from around the world. They will return to terrorism after strengthening their influence in the region."
However, the international community does not seem especially bothered by these developments. Both Russia and the US vetoed a UN Security Council that would have condemned Turkey's invasion of Syria. NATO even effectively endorsed Turkey's invasion under the pretext that they had legitimate "security concerns," even though there is no proof that Turkey was ever threatened by the Syrian Democratic Forces prior to their invasion.
Thus, the persecution of the Yezidis in the wake of the Turkish invasion has not led to the international community changing their non-interference policy on the issue. As a result, the Yezidi people, who suffered from 74 genocides, are condemned to be persecuted and uprooted all over again.
