Serious allegations against the Turkish Air Force

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is deeply shocked to hear that the Turkish Air Force recently attacked a convoy of Yazidis in the Sinjar region in the north-west of Iraq. “Among the victims are – according to Yazidi sources – several high-ranking members of the Kurdish PKK (which is banned in Germany) who played a key role in driving the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) out of the settlement areas of the Yazidi people in 2014,” said Kamal Sido, the STP’s Middle East Consultant, in Göttingen on Friday. The Yazidis had attended a memorial service for the victims of a massacre IS carried out in the village Kocho on August 15, 2014. Back then, the terrorists had killed over 300 men within one hour. Many women were abducted and enslaved. Today’s UN Special Envoy and human rights activist Nadia Murad was one of the abductees.

“Many Yazidis are in deep shock. The PKK members who got killed in the recent attack had protected Yazidi women and children from IS, saving the lives of thousands of Yazidis,” Sido emphasized. Further, he condemned the Turkish air strikes on the 4th anniversary of the massacre of Kocho: “This attack by the Turkish Air Force is a clear violation of international law. For the Yazidi people, this awakens memories of the centuries-long bloody oppression and expulsion by the Turkish state and other Islamic actors in the Middle East.”

The STP has always condemned the human rights violations of the Kurdish PKK. “However, the inhumane policy of the Turkish President towards the Kurds, Yazidis, and other minorities cannot be justified,” Sido criticized. “These and other attacks will not solve the Kurdish question inside and outside Turkey. With this new escalation of violence, Erdogan is trying to distract from the real political and economic problems of the country.”

On August 3, 2014, IS had attacked several Yazidi villages in northern Sinjar, as an attempt to kill or drive away the approximately 400,000 Yazidis from their main settlement area. According to the United Nations, about 5,000 Yazidis were killed, and many more were abducted. All Yazidis had to flee. It must be feared that many of the missing persons were murdered. Of the more than 5,000 abducted women and girls, at least 3,000 are still held hostage by IS. The women were raped, forcibly married or sold on slave markets.

Header Picture: Meg Sattler WVI/Iraq via Flickr