Iraq's Ezidis resist PKK calls to support PYD in Afrin

Cracks have appeared in the relationship between armed Ezidi groups and PKK terrorists in Iraq’s northern Sinjar region after the latter demanded Ezidi support for the PYD -- the PKK’s Syrian affiliate -- in Syria’s Afrin, an Ezidi official said Thursday.

Qasim Shasho, an Ezidi Peshmerga commander, told Anadolu Agency that Ezidis rejected the PKK’s calls to send young Ezidis to conflict zones in Syria.

A religious minority based mainly in Iraq, the Ezidis have been frequent targets of persecution, especially by the Daesh terrorist group, which had accused them of being “devil worshipers”.

Qadir Kachak, a Kurdistan Democratic Party official in Sinjar, for his part, believes PKK terrorists should be expelled from the region.

“More than 80 percent of the villagers displaced by Daesh cannot return to their homes because of the PKK,” Kachak said.

He went on to condemn the PKK’s practice of forcing local Ezidi youth in the area to fight for the terrorist group.

The PKK established a foothold in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province (in which Sinjar is located) after Daesh was expelled from the region in 2015.