{"id":21422,"date":"2014-10-05T20:46:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T00:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=21422"},"modified":"2014-10-06T04:04:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T08:04:35","slug":"yazidis-getting-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Matthew Barber\"Matthew<\/p>\n

with a translated statement from the Yazidi Prince, Mir Tahsin Beg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the Islamic State attacked Iraq\u2019s Sinjar Mountain range\u2014home to the largest population of the Yazidi minority\u2014on August 3, they arrived in only a few convoys, estimated to be carrying around 1,000 jihadist fighters. According to a new, private report by an Iraqi with military knowledge (yes, it will become public, hopefully soon), the mountain had a defense force consisting of 16,000 Kurdish Peshmerga and the 11th<\/sup> brigade of the 3rd<\/sup> division of the Iraqi army\u2014led by a Kurdish general. None of the military leaders responsible for defending Sinjar were Yazidis, despite the mountain having a Yazidi majority population estimated at over 84%.<\/p>\n

\"Yezidi

A Yazidi member of the Sinjar Protection Forces poses with a child whose family never left Sinjar. The family hid until local Yazidi defenders reached them and now remain under their protection.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Though vastly outnumbering the attacking jihadists\u2014and maintaining the high-ground advantage\u2014the Peshmerga defenders fled the IS attack without a fight. In mid-August, Christine van den Toorn documented<\/a> this ignoble abandonment of perhaps the Middle East\u2019s most vulnerable minority group, but only now are we getting a sense of the numbers of Peshmerga who could have successfully defended them and prevented the displacement of several hundred thousand people.<\/p>\n

Though as many as 16,000 Peshmerga fled the IS attack on Sinjar\u2014supposedly for not having adequate defenses against the more up-to-date weaponry of the vastly smaller IS force\u2014a group of just 3,000-4,000 local Yazidis with no support has continued to defend a few parts of Sinjar until this very day\u2014embattled but remaining unconquered by the jihadists.<\/p>\n

Theories that verge on the conspiratorial circulate among Yazidis who believe the KRG (Kurdistan Regional Government) threw them under the bus in order to elicit greater US military support. Yazidis see Sinjar\u2014an outlying area not contiguous with the three governorates that make up Kurdistan Province\u2014as a sacrifice made by the KRG for longer-term political goals. Perhaps simple cowardice is a better explanation, though one that runs against the grain of the lionized Peshmerga\u2019s popular reputation.<\/p>\n

Regardless of why the Peshmerga forces didn\u2019t remain to defend Sinjar against IS for even one day, all of the claims\u2014by Kurds and Iraqis alike\u2014that it would be soon retaken have failed to materialize. Even after two months of US airstrikes in Iraq, IS still maintains control of almost every area that they took from Iraq and Kurdistan, including Sinjar, Tel Afar, and the Yazidi and Christian towns of the Nineveh Plain near Mosul.<\/p>\n

Kurds finally captured Rabia from IS this past week, but were unable to continue to Sinjar, and their offensive prompted severe retaliatory attacks from IS that continue today\u2014against Yazidi targets in Sinjar.<\/p>\n

One would expect that the US airstrikes would be conducted in coordination with Kurdish ground forces in order to retake important Yazidi homelands\u2014especially since the refugee crisis is choking the Dohuk governorate so badly that schools cannot open, their classroom floors being the new homes for thousands of expelled Yazidi families. But the particular IS bases on and near Sinjar that Yazidis have repeatedly requested be targeted by US airstrikes remain untouched.<\/p>\n

Yazidis have given up all confidence in the KRG, most now self-referring as \u201cYazidi, not Kurdish.\u201d With almost no arms\/munitions support from the Iraqi or Kurdish governments, local Yazidi defenders in Sinjar (calling themselves the Sinjar Protection Forces) are trying to stave off IS attacks into the few areas unconquered by the jihadis. Thousands of kidnapped women being held in locations near the mountain\u2014whose presence is confirmed by the UN<\/a> and whom Yazidi volunteers are keeping track of\u2014could be liberated by the Yazidi Sinjar Protection Forces, if they could just get US airstrikes to hit the IS bases and provide cover for the fleeing women.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written<\/a> and spoken<\/a> on international media about this problem as have many journalists and others (0<\/strong><\/a>, 1<\/a><\/strong>, 2<\/strong><\/a>, 3<\/strong><\/a>, 4<\/strong><\/a>, 5<\/strong><\/a>, 6<\/strong><\/a>, 7<\/strong><\/a>, 8<\/a>, 9<\/a><\/strong>, 10<\/strong><\/a>, 11<\/a><\/strong>, 12<\/a><\/strong>, 13<\/a><\/strong>, 14<\/a><\/strong>, 15<\/a><\/strong>). Yazidi representatives have begged the State Department and Department of Defense to work directly with local Yazidi defenders in Sinjar. Instead, a pattern of sporadic and occasional US airstrikes continues in Iraq, more than two months since IS began a genocidal campaign of forced conversions, massacres, and sexual enslavement.<\/p>\n

Less than one airstrike per day is occurring on IS targets in Sinjar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A statement from the Prince\u2014the highest figure of Yazidi leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Yazidi plight has become so dire that it has shaken the Yazidi Mir<\/em>, or Prince\u2014the spiritual leader of the community\u2014from his usual sleepy state of towing the Kurdish political line. Mir Tahsin Beg has issued the following statement in Arabic<\/a>, which we have translated into English, below:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

An Urgent Call to the Iraqi Government of Baghdad and the Kurdish Government of Erbil<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the 3rd<\/sup> of August our Yazidi people have been exposed to the fiercest campaign of genocide [that they\u2019ve experienced] in this century which has taken the lives of more than 5,000 innocent people through the violence of the Da\u2019esh [Islamic State] terrorist organization. More than 7,000 have been kidnapped\u2014mostly women & children\u2014and around 350,000 are now displaced and expelled into the Kurdistan Region, Syria, Turkey, and other countries, and living in very poor conditions, without access to the minimum requirements for basic human needs.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the passing of more than two months of the Yazidi tragedy, and the IS occupation of Sinjar and other Yazidi areas such as Ba\u2019shiqa and Bahzany, and the presence of a Yazidi resistance defending with a patriotic spirit the very existence of the Yazidis\u2014which is simultaneously a defense of the existence of Iraq, of an integral part of Iraq, and its people, honor, and dignity\u2014until now we haven\u2019t seen any serious attempt to support this resistance in order to free Sinjar and other Yazidi areas, and to save those that can be saved from among the kidnapped and expelled Yazidis who are headed for an unknown destination, without the slightest concern of the central [Iraqi] and regional [Kurdistan] governments, as though the Yazidis were part of neither Iraq nor Kurdistan.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the face of this horrific and catastrophic situation, we are filled with surprise at the Iraqi and Kurdish Regional Governments\u2019 ignoring of our Yazidi tragedy as though this tragedy is not an Iraqi one.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few days ago, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces announced the beginning of a battle liberate Sinjar via Rabia in coordination with Iraqi forces and with the support of coalition airstrikes led by the U.S., but these forces have not achieved as great an advance as had been expected. This has prompted the IS forces to start fierce attacks on more than one front in Sinjar to tighten the noose on the Sinjar Protection Forces [local Yazidi volunteer defenders] by closing in on them from all sides.<\/em><\/p>\n

We call on officials of the central and regional governments to bear responsibility\u2014national, political, humanitarian, and moral\u2014for the deterioration of the Sinjar situation and the consequences of it. We urge them to carry out their national duties to our besieged people in the Sinjar mountains, ask them to support the Sinjar Protection Forces logistically and militarily, and to facilitate the prompt delivery of weapons, equipment, and supplies\u2014immediately.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Prince Tahsin Sa\u2019eed Ali, Head of the Yazidi High Spiritual Council of Iraq and the World<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support by Matthew Barber with a translated statement from the Yazidi Prince, Mir Tahsin Beg   When the Islamic State attacked Iraq\u2019s Sinjar Mountain range\u2014home to the largest population of the Yazidi minority\u2014on August 3, they arrived in only a few convoys, estimated to be carrying around 1,000 jihadist fighters. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[50,205,30,5,120,48,321],"tags":[332,456,320,450,331,323,462,477],"class_list":["post-21422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extremist-groups","category-intervention-2","category-iraq","category-kurds","category-matthew-barber","category-weapons","category-yazidis","tag-airstrikes","tag-iraq","tag-kurdistan","tag-kurds","tag-shingal","tag-sinjar","tag-weapons","tag-yazidis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-06T00:46:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-06T08:04:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Barber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Matthew__Barber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@joshua_landis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Barber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/\",\"name\":\"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-06T00:46:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-06T08:04:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2905aac6c55cbf3a9dede19e41b94c7e\"},\"description\":\"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Syria Comment\",\"description\":\"Syrian politics, history, and religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2905aac6c55cbf3a9dede19e41b94c7e\",\"name\":\"Matthew Barber\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.joshualandis.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Matthew__Barber\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/author\/matt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment","description":"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment","og_description":"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.","og_url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/","og_site_name":"Syria Comment","article_published_time":"2014-10-06T00:46:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-06T08:04:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Matthew Barber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Matthew__Barber","twitter_site":"@joshua_landis","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew Barber","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/","url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/","name":"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support - Syria Comment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-06T00:46:38+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-06T08:04:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2905aac6c55cbf3a9dede19e41b94c7e"},"description":"After thousands of Peshmerga soldiers fled, a small group of Yazidi forces continues to defend Mt. Sinjar against the Islamic State, with no support.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matthew-Barber-3.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/yazidis-getting-support\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Yazidis Are Not Getting Support"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/","name":"Syria Comment","description":"Syrian politics, history, and religion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2905aac6c55cbf3a9dede19e41b94c7e","name":"Matthew Barber","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.joshualandis.com","https:\/\/x.com\/Matthew__Barber"],"url":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/author\/matt\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38J3A-5zw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21422"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21434,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21422\/revisions\/21434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}