Yazidi

Yazidi fighters disarm in Iraq's Sinjar after a decade of division - what comes next? - analysis

Baghdad’s push to bring armed groups under state control is gaining traction with the YBS, unlike with Iraq’s more powerful, Iranian-backed militias.

|BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
An abandoned improvised mortar system is seen on the side of a road in Sinjar, Iraq, with a Kurdish flag flying in the background, January 26, 2016
Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags and chant against Israel’s and America’s war with Iran in front of the Israeli embassy in Portugal in May.

A new generation has risen, one that ‘does not know Joseph’ - opinion

Twenty-five years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Western youngsters, ignorant of the jihadist assault, have forgotten how dangerous Islamic extremism can be

|ByCHARLES JACOBS, WALID PHARES
A Yazidi woman holds a flame during the Charshama Sor Red New Year ceremony at the Lalish temple in Iraq in April. For a community repeatedly driven from its ancestral homes and subjected to forced conversions, religious tradition has become an enduring expression of survival and continuity.

From forced conversion to genocide: How Yazidis carry centuries of persecution into exile

MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS: The Islamic interpretation of the Yazidi faith is what members of ISIS used to justify the enslavement of over 6,000 women and children and the murder of more than 5,000 people.

|ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
SDF leader Mazloum Abdi (L) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) signing a deal to end the war between their two groups, March 2025.

Syrian President Sharaa hosts Kurdish SDF leaders to talk integration

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with Kurdish leaders to advance talks on the integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces into the national military.

|BySETH J. FRANTZMAN

Fire destroys shelter for hundreds of families in Yazidi camp

"People were evacuating their tents, faces of disappointments, ladies and women crying helplessly. Hundreds of families are homeless now."

JUNE 5, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A general view of the Yazidi refugee camp on Mount Sinjar

Search continues for missing Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS - analysis

As in 1945, when most Nazis who did this to Jews got away, many ISIS members melted back into society, or live in IDP camps today, and won’t reveal where the kidnapped Yazidis are.

MAY 26, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Mourners stand next to the coffins with the remains of people from the Yazidi minority, who were killed by Islamic State militants, after they were exhumed from a mass grave, to bury them in Kojo, Iraq February 6, 2021.

Dr. Nemam Ghafouri, activist who helped Yazidis in Iraq, Syria passes away

Everyone knew her. News of her death has case a shadow over many who worked quietly raising awareness about suffering of minorities across northern Iraq and Syria.

APRIL 2, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Dr. Nemam Ghafouri delivering humanitarian aid.

A secret operation to reunite Yazidi women and children after genocide

The secret operation in Iraq and Syria to help Yazidi women be reunited with children they had during captivity under ISIS was reported by the New York Times this week.

MARCH 18, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

Middle East needs to learn lessons from the Holocaust - opinion

One lesson is for sure: We must never see the unnecessary and brutal, inhumane deaths of millions of innocent human beings again. But we continue to, across the region, from the Kurds to the Yazidis.

MARCH 3, 2021ByDR. ALI AL NUAIMI
Thikran Kamiran Yousif, 22, visits his father's grave in Kojo, Iraq February 7, 2021.

Yazidis denounce Syrian ruling requiring them to follow Islamic law

Members of religious minority reportedly requested their own court for personal issues, say their faith is thousands of years old.

FEBRUARY 22, 2021ByKRISTINA JOVANOVSKI/THE MEDIA LINE
Mourners stand next to the coffins with the remains of people from the Yazidi minority, who were killed by Islamic State militants, after they were exhumed from a mass grave, to bury them in Kojo, Iraq February 6, 2021.

Yazidis' region is in Turkey and Iran’s crosshairs after genocide

Warmongering from Ankara appears to be in line with its need to keep attacking Iraq and Syria using “fighting terrorism” as an excuse.

FEBRUARY 20, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
A view of Mount Sinjar, where thousands of displaced Yazidis continue to live in displacement camps

Yazidis mourn genocide victims after bodies identified

It is believed almost 3,000 Yazidis are still missing.

FEBRUARY 8, 2021BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Yazidi activist Nadia Murad talks to people during her visit to Sinjar, Iraq December 14, 2018.

For Iraq's persecuted Yazidis, return plan is fraught with risk

The Yazidis have suffered since IS marauded into Sinjar in 2014, one of the Sunni extremist group's conquests that shocked the West into military action to stop it.

OCTOBER 16, 2020ByREUTERS
A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014

The world is continuing to ignore the sufferings of the Yazidis

No government is willing to step forward to help them rebuild their destroyed villages, not even their own governments.

AUGUST 1, 2020ByDAWOOD SALEH
A girl from the Yazidi sect fleeing the violence in Sinjar rests at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, in 2014