The deep scars left by IS terror
"Daughters of the sun" is the phrase Mirza Dinnayi uses when he talks about the Yazidi women of Sinjar. They've had to endure so much, he says: they were brutally tormented by Islamic State (IS) thugs and sold like cattle at a Mosul slave market set up especially for Yazidis. To this day, around 3,000 women are still missing and no one knows where they are. "There's not a single family here that hasn't lost members," he says. Many were murdered.
In 2020, Dinnayi donated funds to build the Dar Al-Taayesh (House of Coexistence or HOC) in Sinun, in one of the 11 districts in the Sinjar region. He dedicated a fountain to the women; the inscription on the memorial plaque reads "Daughters of the sun – in honor of all Ezidi women survivors".
"The sun is important for us Yazidis; it determines our daily life and our culture," says Dinnayi. That's why for Yazidis, Wednesday is a day of rest, because in the book of Genesis, God created the sun on a Wednesday. "Wednesday is sacred to us," he says.
The horrors of 3 August 2014
A powerful storm is sweeping over Sinjar. The young olive tree planted at the HOC on a recent visit by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock struggles to hold its ground. A few flowers, as yet unable to take root, are abruptly torn from the arid ground. Just like everywhere else in Iraq, water is in short supply here.
"It was still dark when IS attacked us," says Dalia at the HOC, speaking of the horrors of 3 August 2014. "They came from the neighbouring Afar valley." The jihadists brought immediate carnage to areas in the south of Sinjar. Few people were able to flee. Most were killed, buried in mass graves or abducted.
In a stroke of good fortune for the town of Sinun, PKK fighters living there warned people to leave everything behind and flee. Accompanied by the PKK, Dalia and her family reached the safety of Duhok in the Kurdish territories. "They saved our lives," she says today.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is a Kurdish underground organisation that employs militant methods and is categorised as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the US. The PKK was founded in Ankara but later based in Kurdish-settled areas of south-east Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan retains a hard-line stance on the group and regularly orders military strikes on PKK positions, including those in Iraq.
Posters of fallen PKK fighters are a common sight on the streets of Sinun. Here, no one draws any distinction between the PKK and its sister party the YPG, as the Americans refer to their allies in the fight against IS. The people in Sinjar speak only of the PKK. Sinjar is a large district: 65 kilometres long and 40 kilometres wide. In between are mountains, where many, many people fled when IS arrived.
Few residents have returned
Sinun is nine kilometres from the Syrian border. When the jihadists seized control of the small town, it was empty, all its residents had gone. In 2016, IS was driven from the town and the entire region of Sinjar. Nevertheless, only a few residents have returned. About a third in total, according to Mirza Dinnayi. Women are an especially rare sight. Many emigrated to Germany, to Baden-Württemberg, a state that took in a large number of Yazidi women, so as not to leave them to deal with their trauma alone.
Many are in the camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, where they found refuge over eight years ago. According to the Kurdish regional government in Erbil, some 40,000 are there still. Suddenly, the door of the HOC opens and two young couples enter in their wedding outfits. It happens all the time, says Dinnayi. "They want their picture taken on our steps." It's the only suitable setting for wedding photos in Sinun.
From Sinun, it takes a good 20 minutes to reach the Jabal Sinjar, or Sinjar Mountains. A breath-taking landscape opens up before the beholder's eye. But in mid-summer nine years ago, this was the scene of one of the biggest tragedies ever inflicted on the Yazidi religious community. For weeks, people held out in the mountains, in the fierce heat, without water, food or tents. "It was hell," says Mazen, the driver, who spent seven weeks in the Jabal Sinjar: "IS lay in wait down below, and we were up here, quaking with fear."
Mirza Dinnayi points out the spot where a helicopter crashed. It was carrying water and food for the people. The refugees stormed the aircraft in the hope of being rescued. "We were hopelessly overloaded," says the 50-year-old, who was on board at the time, explaining the reason for the crash.
The Iraqi government in Baghdad had made three helicopters available. Dinnayi organised supply flights. "My life flashed before my eyes like a film," he reflects on the moment of the crash. He woke up with broken legs in a hospital in the Kurdish city of Erbil. His reaction at the time: "I'm still alive."
"We want to take control of our destiny"
Khodeeda Hammo receives visitors in a stone house in the mountains. The Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress is called "Horaka jesidija". Hammo is the leader of the movement, which is one of four Yazidi political parties. Over the course of two tenures, he served on the council of Nineveh Governorate, which comprises nine districts including Sinjar and meets in Mosul.
He's now waiting for the next round of provincial elections, which should have taken place last year but were postponed due to political unrest, primarily in Baghdad. It's the first time that the Yazidis in Iraq have been represented on the political stage. The protection of minorities is enshrined in the constitution of Iraq, adopted in 2005 following the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
As well as seats in the provincial council, the Yazidis are also entitled to seats in the parliament in Baghdad. "Now we want a Yazidi self-administration; we want to shape our future ourselves, take control of our destiny," he says. The main reason why so few Yazidis have returned to Sinjar, he continues "are the uncertain political conditions".
Because Sinjar is a crossroads on the trading routes between Iraq and Syria, many have wanted to control the region over the years, says Hammo: the Iranian-backed militia of the Popular Mobilization Forces Hashd al Shaabi, the PKK, the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous government in Erbil.
Above all, people in Sinjar are most upset with the Kurdish security forces (Peshmerga). Everywhere you hear the claim that when IS came, they fled. There was some significant Peshmerga involvement in the liberation of Sinjar from IS, people concede. But, they add, the madness should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.
"The Kurds are driving a wedge between us," says Khodeeda Hammo. "They're doing everything to ensure they gain control of Sinjar." But Hammo and his party don't want to let this happen. Mirza Dinnayi also admits that the Kurdish Regional Government would like to expand its influence and annex the Sinjar region, which is among what are known as the disputed territories of Iraq between Baghdad and Erbil. He is himself employed by the Kurdish autonomous authority as an adviser on the disputed territories, working three days in Erbil and the rest of the week in Sinjar. Dinnayi was awarded the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity in 2019.
Many Yazidis are skeptical of the Kurds
But he remains skeptical of the Kurds. "They're buying the Yazidis," he says, adding that he maintains sufficient distance to know that the residents of Sinjar lean towards Baghdad rather than Erbil and will never accept Kurdish dominance.
It's clear from the city that gives the region its name just how much this political uncertainty is hampering Sinjar's recovery. In downtown areas it looks as though the war with IS ended only yesterday and not eight years ago. The city centre is still in ruins. It is a picture of complete destruction; the rubble of destroyed buildings not yet cleared away. There's hardly anyone around.
The only people to be seen are a young girl and boy hammering on one of the last walls still standing. They are trying to remove nails and iron hooks to sell for a bit of cash. The two children are unwilling to talk. Their empty eyes and unsettled gaze belie their psychological state.
The Iraqi government recently issued a decree allowing Yazidis to acquire land and property, something they have been prohibited from doing since 1975. The UN organisation Habitat is in the process of registering homes and families in Sinjar. On this basis, property acquisition applications can then be made. Baghdad hopes the measure will incentivise Yazidis to return to their homeland.
© Qantara.de 2023
Translated from the German by Nina Coon