İbrahim Êzidî, a journalist from Sinjar, where the tension between the locals and the Iraqi forces have been increasingly soared after the Sinjar Agreement shared his evaluations with Mesopotamia Agency on the current situation in Sinjar.
The agreement between the Iraq government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which was signed on 9 October to Sinjar has provoked strong reactions.
Whilst Hewler (Erbil) and Baghdad imposes the removal of Yazidi Asayish (Yazidi public security forces), Iraqi soldiers have been deployed in the town.
As tensions in the region soared after the attempt to remove Yazidi Asayish forces (Yazidi Security forces), local citizens launched a vigil action against both the agreement and the removal of Yazidi Asayish forces 112 days ago
No more secret plans
İbrahim Êzidî stated that the plans of the Iraqi government and the KDP used to be held in secret before.
“However, they are not trying to hide anything now. They know that the world will remain silent about their plans and do nothing. They signed the agreement with pressure from Turkey. Turkey nor the Iraqi government does not respect the will of the local residents, they signed the agreement but residents do not want the Yazidi Asayish to leave the region, they will resist,” Êzidî said.
“They are trying to force the local people to accept the agreement, but people do not and will not accept that. The Yazidi Asayish consist of youth from the region. There are no outside forces and people accept them as their legitimate security forces,” he added.
‘They aim to destroy other institutions of the Autonomous Administration’
Yazidi Asayish Forces established by the local people underlined, “Due to the security concerns of the Yazidi people they want to organize their own self-defence.”
“If the Yazidis have been able to manage themselves for 6 years, it is thanks to the Asayish forces. One of the most important structures of democratic autonomy is security. Therefore, first, they want to attack it and, later they aim to destroy the other institutions of the Autonomous Administration,” Êzidî said.
“There are thousands of tribal armed forces in Mosul and Baghdad,” he noted, “Thousands of Hashdi Shabi forces operate in Iraq. There are armed forces in the name of tribes. Why does the Iraqi government not target these forces? Why is only the local Yazidi security being targeted? They put aside all the problems in their own internal affairs and attack Sinjar on purpose.”
Insistince on dialogue
He also stated that despite the attempts to trigger a conflict the Yazidi Asayish “remains calm and call on all forces for a solution with dialogue.”
“The Autonomous Administration is always open to dialogue. Iraq asked them to leave in 24 hours, but they did not. There are negotiations going on now as the Autonomous Administration wants problems to be resolved through dialogue,” the prominent journalist said. “The Iraqi government officials also know this for a fact. The region is calm now but it does not mean that Iraq will not attack the Asayish one day. The protests of people stopped the Iraqi government attacking the Asayis. People here will continue to resist and support the Asayish.”
