Iraqi forces’ attempt to enter Sinjar on Tuesday afternoon was prevented by Yazidi community resistance led by Yazidi mothers.
Following the attempt to remove Yazidi security forces over an agreement signed on 9 October 2020 between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq’s central government, tensions in Iraq’s Sinjar region soared.
Iraqi armed forces yesterday attempted to enter Til Ezer and Gir Zerek in southwestern Sinjar. Yazidi mothers stood in the way of columns of troops and military vehicles, not allowing their entrance to their towns.
“Our daughters and sons have been protecting us here for six years. Kazimi government tries to enter our secure zones, but they cannot break our resistance,” said Nafya Meşo, one of the mothers from Gir Zerek who led the resistance against the Iraqi army in an interview with Nujinha.
Gir Zerek is a village in southwestern Sinjar connected to Til Ezer. On 3 August 2014, ISIS launched its attacks over the Sinjar region here. Gir Zerek, Siba Şex Xidir and Til Ezer villages were brutally attacked and destroyed by ISIS.
Yazidis are not only the most ancient and original communities of the Middle East, but also the most oppressed, who have witnessed and been subjected to a great number of massacres. They defined the massacres they have been subjected to as “Farman”.
Meşo stated that the Yazidi people, especially Yazidi women had been “Abandoned” when ISIS attacked the Sinjar region after they had taken over the city of Mosul in Iraq in 2014.
“We have been through such suffering. When there was the Farman (Yazidis call the last ISIS massacre targeting Yazidis ), we had to climb up to the mountains, we were left alone, abandoned. The noble women of these lands were sold to men by ISIS,” Meşo said.
“We will trust no force that left us alone. ISIS killed our people, there are still undiscovered mass graves here. ISIS still keeps thousands of women and children. If Iraq wants to save Yazidis as they claim, they should go save them.”
Meşo shared her message of resistance with the rest of the world. “Up until now, Iraqi forces have never attacked us and now it is happening with the Kazimi government,” she said.
“Today we resist here. We will continue to resistance every last one of us.”
