Two Yazidi men have been forcibly converted to Islam by a Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) faction in Afrin, indicating a continued “genocidal policy” against the region’s community.
Shekho Aref and Haider Aref, residents of Qibar (Qîbarê), have been filmed at Ahrar al-Sharqiya’s headquarters in the region of Syria under Turkish control, being intimidated by sheikhs into renouncing their faith.
When the video was released on social media, the Democratic Autonomous Administration Council of Shengal (Sinjar) responded. “Today the Yazidis in occupied Afrin are being subjected to another genocide at the hands of the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries,” quoted Hawar News.
“The Yazidis are being forced to convert to Islam, and we reject this policy”, the council continued.
President of the International Religious Freedom Secretariat and former head of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Nadine Maenza told Syria’s North Press Agency, “Once again, we are seeing Turkish-backed Islamist militias target Yazidis in Afrin as well as in other areas that Turkey invaded and occupied in 2018 and 2019.”
Some 300,000 of Afrin’s residents have been displaced since Turkey and the armed SNA opposition factions took control of Afrin in 2018.
Turkish forces are using a policy of intimidation and excommunication against the remaining Kurdish Yazidis to convert them to Islam, Afrinpost reported.
The Democratic Autonomous Administration Council of Shengal, who have seen similar atrocities in Sinjar (Shengal) itself, urge the international community to act and protect the indigenous population of Afrin from the “genocidal policies of the occupying forces”.
