Оккупация и освобождение территории курдов-езидов в Ираке от боевиков "Исламского государства Ирака и Леванта" в 2014–2015 гг.

Abstract

This article examines the circumstances of the occupation of the town of Sinjar (Shengal) in the north-west of Iraq by the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State (ISIS). Sinjar is the center of a vast territory inhabited by the ethno-confessional group of Yazidi Kurds. In August 2014 this territory was surrendered to ISIS militants by the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish Autonomous Region without serious resistance. The defense of the area and the refugee escape routes were provided only by weak detachments of the local militia and the arrived People’s Defense Units of the Syrian Kurdistan and Kurdistan Workers’ Party. ISIS militants considered Yazidis as devil worshipers and demanded Yazidis to renounce their faith. During the occupation of Sinjar, they practiced massacres, destruction of shrines, and abductions of women and children for sale into sexual slavery. The ISIS policy towards Yazidis during the occupation was recognized by many states and international organizations as genocide. The aim of this article is to assess the reasons for the surrender of the territories of the Yazidi Kurds to the Islamic State in the context of the political struggle of various parties and groups for power and influence in the area. The author examines the occupation of Sinjar from two perspectives. First, it was a result of a difficult political situation: the interest of local authorities to subordinate the clergy and secular elite of the Yazidi Kurds to the family clan of President M. Barzani, and the weakness of the central government of Iraq, which in difficult conditions did not have the ability and desire to protect the people of their country from militants of the Islamic State terrorist organization. Second, it was a reason for the organization and unification of various resistance forces in Sinjar and the surrounding territories: Yazidi militias, PKK-affiliated units, the Peshmerga and the international coalition forces providing air support. The general course of military operations against the Islamic State made it possible to begin the liberation of Sinjar only a year and a few months after its occupation. The author of the study concludes that the attempts of the leaders of the Kurdistan Region, M. Barzani and his nephew, Prime Minister N. Barzani, to justify the undue withdrawal of the Peshmerga armed forces from the Sinjar region on the eve of the ISIS militants’ invasion with the excuse to protect the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, the city of Erbil, do not call for any trust and leniency. Behind this excuse lies the desire of the ruling elite of Southern (Iraqi) Kurdistan to veil their careless and criminal actions without any serious grounds to justify them.