The Yazidis
Finding new friends
In their desperate search for sanctuary, Iraq’s Yazidis ask Turkey for salvation
Aug 23rd 2014 | YOLVEREN, TURKEY | From the print edition
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A CENTURY ago, the Yazidis of Sinjar saved hundreds of Armenians and Assyrian Christians as they were being slaughtered by the forces of the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish proxies in what a growing body of scholars considers the 20th century’s first genocide. “They built a colony for these people, with houses, a church and a clinic,” says David Gaunt, a British historian. In 1918 the Ottomans retaliated by sending a small army to Sinjar, destroying the buildings and capturing a revered Yazidi leader, Hamo Sharro, who was sentenced to five years of hard labour.
More:The Yazidis: Finding new friends | The Economist
