The Yazidi Quest for Protection in Sinjar in the Post-ISIS Iraq
The Yazidi Quest for Protection in Sinjar in the Post-ISIS Iraq

Author(s): Arzu Yılmaz, Bayar Mustafa Sevdeen
Subject(s): Politics, Geography, Regional studies, Security and defense, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Ethnic Minorities Studies, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Iraq; ISIS; Yazidi; Sinjar; minorities; identity;
Summary/Abstract: This paper considers the future of Sinjar (Kurdish: Shingal) in the current context where local, regional, and international actors shape the political setting in Iraq after the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). It traces primarily the political and military dominance of the two prominent Kurdish political parties, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sinjar; and, in turn, it explores the newly emerging parameters of the Yazidis’ self-understanding which reshapes their political identity and even their perceptions of ethnic belonging vis-a-vis the efforts for centralisation and decentralisation dictated from above. It argues that regardless of whether or not the geopolitical equilibrium in post-ISIS era would favour the Yazidi aspirations for self-rule in Sinjar, the vibrant Yazidi activism will not vanish soon and will add new dimensions to the Kurdish and Iraqi political landscape.

• Details
• Contents