HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Ten kilometers from the bustling city of Hasakah, in northeast Syria, sits the small village of Barzan.
An old village dating back to the 1940s and the largest Yazidi village in the region, about 120 Yazidi families lived here, according to Abdo Darwish Ajam, one of the original residents of the village. With the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, however, the population started to dwindle.
“Groups like al-Nusra Front and ISIS emerged, and created fear. The people ran…they locked their doors and left,” Ajam told North Press. According to him, the majority of Yezidi families fled amid the growing crisis, emigrating to European countries.
“There are only five Yezidi families left now,” he added. “There are five original families left; the others are from Sere Kaniye, around 20, 24 families.” Arab and Kurdish Muslim families came from Sere Kaniye after the 2019 operation launched by Turkey and their affiliated armed factions, which ended in Turkey occupying the cities of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad.
Though many Yezidi families fled to northeast Syria during ISIS’ attack on and massacres committed in the Yezidi homeland of Shengal, in northern Iraq, there are no Yezidi families from Shengal in Barzan, as Barzan was close to the front lines with ISIS in 2014.
Those refugee families, Ajam stated, mostly went to Newroz Camp, near Derik in the far northeast of Syria, far from any front lines or war. Ajam added that there were two women from Shengal who were ISIS prisoners who are now being taken care of by Yezidi House, an organization in northeast Syria that aids Yezidis.