HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Activists and representatives of Syrian Yezidis believe that this month’s visit of Kurdish Yezidi figures living in Europe to the Turkish-occupied city of Sere Kaniye showed the absence of conditions for the safe return of the region’s IDPs, which include Yezidis.
The Yezidis, an ethnoreligious group separate from Muslim-majority Kurds in Syria, are one of the prominent minorities in northeast Syria’s Jazira region. They still live in the majority of Kurdish cities in Syria, but are no longer present in the Turkish-occupied Sere Kaniye.
There are 16 Yezidi villages in the Sere Kaniye area, which were home to about 1,000 people before the Turkish invasion of the region in 2019. The villages used to host about 3,000 people before the Syrian uprising in 2011, according to the Yezidi House in the Hasakah city.
Reality contrary to Turkish narration
Recently, Kurdish activists circulated news of the visit of some Kurdish Yezidi personnel residing in the German city of Vechta to Sere Kaniye, accompanied a Kurdish Yezidi figure from Turkey, on social media.
The visit raised many questions regarding the delegation’s motivations at a time when many Yezidis remain displaced and cannot return due to the Turkish occupation of the area.
A Yezidi organization in Vechta city prepared this visit for a year through coordination between the German and Turkish governments, Orhan Kamal, a media activist from Sere Kaniye, told North Press.
“According to the information received, Turkish forces asked the Yezidi delegation to appear at a press conference to urge the Yezidis to return,” Kamal, who works documenting violations in northeast Syria, added.
The delegation visited Yezidi villages and the Yezidi-majority Zardasht neighborhood within the city, according to Kamal.
“The delegation saw that the reality is unlike the Turkish narration, where they were surprised by the transformation of Yezidi villages into military headquarters for Turkish-backed factions, in addition to looting of residents’ properties; even the houses were without doors and windows.”
Kamal explained that families of ISIS who managed to flee Syria’s Hawl Camp and arrive in the city through smugglers now reside in houses of the Yezidis in Zar Dasht neighborhood.
Who are the figures?
The delegation consisted of three people; two are Syrian Yezidis and the other is a Turkish Yezidi.
“We, in the Yezidi House and the Yezidi Union in Syria, were not informed of this visit, and we have no relations with them,” member of the Yezidi House in the Jazira Region Mahmoud Resho told North Press via a phone call.
“The visit is likely an individual act through coordinating with the Turkish occupation, which we consider to be wrong,” he added.
“We support the return of forcibly displaced residents to their houses, but al-Nusra Front and the extremist factions that are no different from ISIS control the city of Sere Kaniye, and those who return are killed,” Resho added.
He believes that this visit was planned by Turkish intelligence services in order for Ankara to show that the minorities live well under their control, “which is not true at all.”
Resho said that some Yezidi people and families in Turkey, with whom the visit was coordinated, “later regretted it.”
“There are 60 Yezidi families in the Hasakah region. All of them have refused to return and criticized the initiative of returning the forcibly displaced people to Sere Kaniye under the Turkish flag,” Resho said.
“Any return of the displaced should be under the umbrella of the UN and international guarantees for their safety.”
He stressed that “returning to Sere Kaniye in light of the presence of those factions is like committing suicide, as the controlling factions are ISIS members who fled the battles towards Turkey.”
Former experience
With the Turkish invasion of Sere Kaniye, Yezidi villages were emptied of their indigenous citizens, who feared the violations committed by the militants loyal to Turkey.
There are only 14 Christians in Sere Kaniye, and 50 to 60 Kurds, most of whom are elderly, while there are no Yezidis left, according to statistics obtained by North Press.
Sources from the Yezidi House in the Jazira Region said they had a previous experience with the armed factions linked to al-Qaeda (later al-Nusra Front/HTS) during their first attack on the city in 2013.
At the time, al-Qaeda militants killed two Yezidi Kurds Ali and Murad Sa’do in al-Assadiya village, in addition to looting the Yezidi villages.
The Sultan Murad Division is currently controlling the Yezidi villages such as Tel al-Sakhr, Jan Tamr, and Shukriya.
Moreover, gunmen of the factions have excavated a Yezidi cemetery in the village of Jan Tamer in search of valuables that may have been buried with the dead, in addition to stealing the cemetery’s iron wall, according to sources in the city.
Kamal believes that the individual initiatives and the attempts of some personalities living abroad to act as representatives of Yezidi Kurds is due to “the fragmentation of the Yezidi community and the dispersal of Yezidi families in Europe, which prompted these people to coordinate with the Turks who occupy their homes.”