Recently, after the Turkish government announced the resumption of its military operations in northern Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt down the PKK, the war returned again, also to Sinjar City. This war caused the displacement of more than 10 thousand people from their homes so far.

At the same time, the Iraqi army announced its will to regain control of Sinjar and expel the PKK. This is in accordance with the aims and actions of the Turkish government and results in a situation of perpetual war. As a result of this, the people of the city of Sinjar came out demanding to stop the war, end the military interventions in their city by from all sides, by Kurdish parties, the Turkish state, and the Iraqi army. The demonstrators demanded the removal of the military forces from the city, regardless of their sources, except for the internal security forces. Journalist Yasser Al-Shankali, one of the independent protesters, says:

“The Yazidi people have suffered from wars and displacement throughout these past years. All these military forces must understand that we do not want war, we want to live in peace. Enough, we will not ask you for anything anymore, we do not want reconstruction, services, the return of the displaced to their homes. Just take your weapons and leave from our areas and let us live in peace.”

_{Yasser Al-Shankali}

Other demonstrators affiliated with the “Independent Youth Movement”  (which is a group of activists from Sinjar who decided to form this independent political alliance based on a civilian, non-sectarian and non-nationalist basis in order to stop the movements of the military parties that want to turn their city into a battlefield) raised banners calling for: “End the war!”, “Bring life back to the city”, “restore services”, “return the displaced to the city”, “Sinjar wants reconstruction, not destruction”.

The independent youth movement has given a five-day deadline, starting from May 13, for all military forces to leave the city of Sinjar while keeping the official internal security elements, otherwise they will escalate their popular protests against all other military forces.

It is important to know that Sinjar is located in northern Iraq, west of Mosul. The majority of the inhabitants follow the Yezidi religion with a minority of Muslims. These intersect with Arabic-speaking, Kurdish-speaking and Turkmen-speaking communities. Sinjar has been heavily attacked by ISIS in 2014 who committed a genocide and countless massacres against Yazidis.

Since war against ISIS is over, the city continues to live in an unstable security and economic situation. This is mainly due to the policies of the Turkish and Iraqi government as well as the Kurdish governing parties to control the city. This did not encourage the people of the region to return to their villages and cities from the displacement camps in Dohuk Governorate, which has been hosting about 200,000 Yazidis displaced since 2014. The area is now controlled by a number of military groups and organizations with different loyalties. There are many factions affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd-Al Shaabi) as well, including a number of factions close to Iran, such as Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.

The demands of the youth movement in Sinjar aroused wide sympathy among all Iraqis who went out and organized demonstrations in the city of Babylon and Baghdad calling for the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation, stopping of the military operations of the Iraqi army and suspending military operations in the city of Sinjar. The demonstrators in Baghdad raised solidarity banners in support of the “independent youth movement” saying: “Sinjar is not for sale”, “Sinjar is for its people, no to fight, yes to peace in Sinjar”, “Do not destroy what is left of Sinjar”.

These protests were also followed by another stand in solidarity with the independent youth movement of the Iraqi community in Berlin, which demanded an end to the military presence and war in the city of Sinjar. Other previous demonstrations also took place in Babylon, calling for Turkey to withdraw from northern Iraq and not to infringe on Iraq’s sovereignty.

Sinjar is a small example of the reality of cities in Iraq, where political Islamic parties, militias and other nationalist parties grapple every day with a mortal struggle over political and financial gains in every city. All of this is due to the way this sectarian system was installed and operated since the 2003 US occupation of Iraq.

All solidarity and support with the people of Sinjar. No to war, Yes to peace! No to sectarian, national and political, religious parties!

Fallow us on Instagram / Telegram