Will there be many of these people left after the fighting has been stopped?
IRAQ: SINJAR WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING EYEWITNESS
AUGUST 9, 2014 SYRIA COMMENT - JOSHUA LANDIS
By Matthew Barber for Syria Comment
The calm is slowly unraveling in Kurdistan, and a growing, pervasive anxiety is beginning to afflict us all.
We know that the fighting between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Islamic State jihadis continues to develop and move from place to place, but were never exactly sure whats happening, where the fighting is occurring, or who has the upper hand. Newsboth local and internationalhas proved highly unreliable since this crisis began on Sunday.
If its not happening on your block, you probably dont really know whats going on.
The Case of Shariya
This photo is of one of the rebuilt villages in-progress, taken some time before this crisis. Many families have taken shelter inside such structures. A Yazidi village, previously destroyed by Saddam Hussein, in the process of being rebuiltPhoto: Matthew Barber/Syria Comment
The Yazidi town of Shariya, located a few miles south of Dohuk, is a collective village created by Saddam Hussein during his Arabization program in the 1970s. Saddam bulldozed countless Yazidi towns until there was nothing left but gravel, and then forcibly moved their former inhabitants into collectives situated in locations that served his strategic interests. Shariya lies in the center of a valley ringed by hills, along the bases of which were originally a number of Yazidi villages. Saddam destroyed all of these villages (fearing that their proximity to the mountains would facilitate the harboring of Peshmerga fighters) and huddled all the villagers together in the center of the open plain between the mountains, where they would be much easier to keep an eye on.
Read more at:
Iraq: Sinjar Was Only The Beginning - Eyewitness | Eurasia Review
IRAQ: SINJAR WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING EYEWITNESS
AUGUST 9, 2014 SYRIA COMMENT - JOSHUA LANDIS
By Matthew Barber for Syria Comment
The calm is slowly unraveling in Kurdistan, and a growing, pervasive anxiety is beginning to afflict us all.
We know that the fighting between the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Islamic State jihadis continues to develop and move from place to place, but were never exactly sure whats happening, where the fighting is occurring, or who has the upper hand. Newsboth local and internationalhas proved highly unreliable since this crisis began on Sunday.
If its not happening on your block, you probably dont really know whats going on.
The Case of Shariya
This photo is of one of the rebuilt villages in-progress, taken some time before this crisis. Many families have taken shelter inside such structures. A Yazidi village, previously destroyed by Saddam Hussein, in the process of being rebuiltPhoto: Matthew Barber/Syria Comment
The Yazidi town of Shariya, located a few miles south of Dohuk, is a collective village created by Saddam Hussein during his Arabization program in the 1970s. Saddam bulldozed countless Yazidi towns until there was nothing left but gravel, and then forcibly moved their former inhabitants into collectives situated in locations that served his strategic interests. Shariya lies in the center of a valley ringed by hills, along the bases of which were originally a number of Yazidi villages. Saddam destroyed all of these villages (fearing that their proximity to the mountains would facilitate the harboring of Peshmerga fighters) and huddled all the villagers together in the center of the open plain between the mountains, where they would be much easier to keep an eye on.
Read more at:
Iraq: Sinjar Was Only The Beginning - Eyewitness | Eurasia Review
