Turkmens, Yazidis flee fearing jihadist push

Thousands of Yazidis and Turkmens have fled jihadist depravity only to face death from starvation and lack of water in Iraq’s searing summer heat Thousands of Yazidis and Turkmens are marooned in the Sinjar Mountain area without food and water after the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL) captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar following the retreat of the peshmerga.

“Thousands of people have taken shelter in the Tartar Valley on Sinjar Mountain. They have been waiting there for three days with thirst and hunger. There is no drinkable fresh water there, so they drink sour water. Turkmens have been dispersed and wiped out from the region, there is absolutely not a single Shiite Turkmen left in the region,” the vice chairman of the Tal Afar Iraqi Turkmen Front, Kasım Kara, told daily Hürriyet in a phone interview.   

Kara is one of the Turkmens who fled the ISIL violence first in Tal Afar and then in Sinjar. Thousands of Turkmens had fled to Sinjar after the militant group took over the control of Tal Afar, which was known as a Turkmen city before, on June 15. Thousands of them have now fled the violence in Sinjar after the town was captured by the jihadists over the weekend.

Kara said thousands of Yazidis and Turkmens were stuck on Sinjar Mountain. “They are in a very bad condition. Everybody has left their cars and escaped to the mountain by foot. Thousands of people have been staying inside the Tartar Valley now. There are some Yazidi villages there, but it is impossible for them to help all of these people. I cannot reach many Turkmen families. The ones that I could talk to said they haven’t received any fresh water and food for three days.  Children are dying...