Reports say that the cemetery in the Yazidi village of Basofan in northwest Syria near Afrin has been vandalised by Islamist elements believed to belong to Faylaq Al-Sham.
The incident took place on 16 December, and coincided with the Yazidi feast of Ezi, which marks the ending of a three-day fast.
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When the villagers went to visit their family graves on the morning of the Ezi feast, they discovered that the cemetery had been vandalised and desecrated.
CSW’s sources report that similar incidents had occurred in three other villages in the region, namely, Qeebar, Ghazzaweh and Qastal Jando.
Mrs Mesgin Josef, Chair of the Council of the Syrian Yazidis, told CSW: ‘The Yazidis are very peaceful people. We have suffered a lot over centuries, and we just want to live in peace with our Muslim neighbours. Our situation started to deteriorate rapidly following the Turkish invasion of the region in March 2018 and the takeover by Jihadist groups loyal to Turkey. Killing, kidnapping, forced marriages and conversions and looting have become part of daily life. Many Yazidi families have stopped sending their children to schools because the Islamist groups supported by the Turkish authorities imposed obligatory Islamic education on non-Muslim students, where students have to take subjects and exams in Islamic education, Qur’an and Sunnah.’
CSW regularly receives reports of grave human rights violations being perpetrated against local people in Syria, and particularly against Yazidis, by jihadists groups loyal to Turkey. Violations include rape, assassination, kidnapping for ransom, confiscation of property and desecration of cemeteries and places of worship.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘It is disturbing that flagrant and recurrent violations of the right of Yazidi people to freedom of religion or belief are taking place in areas controlled by the army of a NATO member state. CSW calls on the Turkish government to restrain the extremist groups functioning under its command, and to ensure the sanctity of religious and cultural locations and objects is respected in areas under its control. The Turkish authorities must end sectarian violence, human rights violations and religious extremism in Afrin and surrounding areas and should be urged by international partners to comply with international human rights standards and humanitarian law.’
