Iraq MP accuses PKK of abducting Yazidis to fight in Syria

A Yazidi member of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament, Sheikh Shamo has accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of kidnapping more than 1,000 young Yazidi men and women from Sinjar district and sending them to conflict areas in Syria.

Shamo said the PKK has forced the young Yazidis to take up arms and fight among its ranks.

He stressed that the group’s presence in Sinjar is not to protect the area but to recruit young Yazidis to join the fighting.

The lawmaker pointed out that the organisation is sending Yazidis to their death.

“Like the organisation sent hundreds of innocent young people to their death in Manbaj, they are forcing our young people to fight and die in Afrin, and everyone knows that the Yazidis are opposed to involving their sons in the fighting,” he said.

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Head of Sinjar Mayoral Council, Wais Nawaf, said they had called on the Iraqi government to close the Iraqi-Syrian border to prevent their children “from being forced to fight alongside PKK in Syria”.

“The Iraqi government has not yet reconstructed the district, at least it could prevent the abduction of Yazidis,” he said.

Turkish and Free Syrian Army forces launched a military operation on 20 January against PKK and Daesh sites in Syria.

The PKK has been present in Sinjar district since 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh.