Extremist group begins constructing mosque on former Yazidi cemetery

A Jihadist group loyal to Turkey began to build a mosque on a Yazidi cemetery in Basofan, a Yazidi village in Syria’s Afrin region, on 6 October.

Mrs. Mesgin Josef, Chair of the Syrian Yazidi Council, told CSW: “Yazidi people are very peaceful and respectful of other religions. We have suffered a lot over centuries and what is happening to us now is no different from what IS (Islamic State) did in 2014. There is no justification for this provocative action.”

In March 2018 the Turkish army captured the city of Afrin with the help of several Syrian Islamist groups. Amnesty International reports that since then “Afrin residents [have been] detained and tortured, with houses and businesses looted and confiscated, and schools destroyed or taken over.”

CSW has received regular reports of grave human rights violations being perpetrated against local people, and particularly against Yazidis, by jihadists groups loyal to Turkey. These violations include rape, assassination, kidnaping for ransom, confiscation of property and desecration of cemeteries and places of worship.

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “Building over a sacred Yazidi site is an inflammatory and insensitive act. 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.”