Persecution of Yazidis
The persecution of Yazidis has been ongoing since at least the 12th century.[1][2][3][4] Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking[5] minority, indigenous to Kurdistan.[6] The Yazidi religion is regarded as "devil-worship" by Muslims and Islamists.[1][2][7][8] Yazidis have been persecuted by the surrounding Muslims since the medieval ages, most notably by Safavids, Ottomans, neighbouring Muslim Arab and Kurdish tribes and principalities.[1][3][9][10] After the 2014 Sinjar massacre of thousands of Yazidis by ISIL, which started the ethnic, cultural, and religious genocide of the Yazidis in Iraq,[1] Yazidis still face discrimination from the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
20th century[edit]
During the Armenian genocide, many Yazidis were killed by Hamidiye cavalry.[36] According to Aziz Tamoyan, as many as 300,000 Yazidis were killed with the Armenians, while others fled to Transcaucasia.[37]
Despite the fact that the Yazidis hid 20,000 Christians from the Ottomans in the Sinjar Mountains during the Armenian genocide[38] and many Yazidis found refuge in Armenia as they fled from the Kurds and Turks,[37] the Yazidis were discriminated against in Armenia. Yazidi children tended to hide their identities in schools so they would not be discriminated against.[39] Furthermore, the term "Yezidi" is often used by non-Yazidis as an insult.[40]
In 1921, Yazidis in the Kingdom of Iraq under British rule were oppressed and attacked by the British army. The British Army attacked Yazidi villages between 1925 and 1935, killing over 100 Yazidis, including a Yazidi leader.[41] According to Arbella Bet-Shlimon, in 1935 the Iraqi Army attacked eleven Yazidi villages, placed Sinjar under martial law, and then sentenced many Yazidi prisoners to death or to long sentences because they had resisted mandatory conscription; some of the prisoners were even paraded in front of a jeering crowd in Mosul that killed one of the captives.[42]
Ideological basis[edit]
All of the massacres of the Yazidis were committed by the Muslim side.During their history, the Yazidis have mostly been under the pressure of their Muslim neighbors, which led to violence and massacres at times.
Kurdish muftis have given the persecution of Yazidis a religious character and they have also legalized it.[25] Also Kurdish mullahs such as Mahmud Bayazidi viewed the Yazidis as unbelievers.[2]
Yazidi view of the persecutions[edit]
Remembering persecution is a central part of Yazidi identity.[62] The Yazidis speak of 74 genocides of them in their history and call these genocides "Farman". The number of 72 Farman can be derived from the oral traditions and folk songs of the Yazidis.[63][64] The last Farman is number 74 and denotes the genocide of the Yazidis by the IS terrorists.[65][11][12][66]