Author: Zhanna Nahapetian

Washington Examiner


By Michael Rubin


Last April, the Biden administration formally recognized the Armenian
genocide, more than a century after it began.

In the final years of the Ottoman Empire, Turks engaged in the
slaughter of upwards of 1 million Armenians and the displacement of
even more. Evidence of government direction belies the fog of war
explanation dominant in Turkey and among its scholars, as does the
fact Ottoman Turkish authorities evacuated communities in towns and
cities beyond the time and place of most World War I-era fighting.

As a result of the genocide, Turkey today possesses much of the land
President Woodrow Wilson proposed assigning to independent Armenia
after World War I. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s birthplace Rize is
well within this traditionally Armenian region.

Perhaps it was Ottoman Turks’ success at ethnic cleansing that have
led successive Turkish governments, both secular and religious, to
keep such tactics among their policy quiver. While Erdoğan seeks
international praise for hosting millions of Syrian refugees, his
actions are not altruistic. Not only does he weaponize the threat of
refugees to extract concessions from European states, but he also
selectively settles and bestows citizenship upon Sunni Arab refugees
to dilute Turkey’s Kurdish and Alevi populations. Sectarian Sunni
Islamists such as Erdoğan despise Alevism, a sect similar to Shi'ism
that is dominant in portions of eastern and central Turkey.

However, the victims of the genocide are Yezidi. Historically, the
United States has ignored the Yezidis, adherents to a pre-Islamic
religion whose population traditionally spans the area where Turkey,
Syria, and Iraq meet. Consciousness of the Yezidi rocketed to the
headlines in 2014 when the Islamic State overran traditional Yezidi
areas, slaughtering Yezidi men and raping and enslaving Yezidi women
and children. Celebrities, politicians, and diplomats rallied to the
cause of the Yezidis and celebrated when Iraqi forces, Shi’ite
militias, and Kurdish Peshmerga backed by U.S. airpower unraveled the
would-be caliphate. Politicians worldwide posed proudly with Nadia
Murad, a former Islamic State captive who received the 2018 Nobel
Peace Prize for her activism on behalf of her fellow Yezidis and
victims of sexual violence.

Still, many Yezidis remain in captivity. Visiting Sinuni, just miles
from the Syrian border, I met Yezidis who showed me proof-of-life
videos of relatives who remained in captivity in Turkey and Syria
regions controlled by Turkish proxy groups. However, U.S. diplomats in
Erbil dismissed the notion that any Yezidis remained in captivity as
"wishful thinking" on the part of the community — they refused to
interview Yezidis or view such videos.

The cost of such apathy goes beyond condemning Yezidi girls to suffer
years more rape. In recent years, Turkey has waged a relentless
bombing campaign against Yezidi villagers and farmers in the Sinjar
region of northwestern Iraq. While Turkish diplomats say their bombing
is rooted in a counterterrorism campaign, the reality is that the
targets are more often farmers and families. Turkish bombing, often
using U.S. warplanes or drones with American components, appears
motivated less by counterterrorism and more in the desire to prevent
any meaningful Yezidi return.

When I visited Sinjar in December 2019 as a guest of a United Nations
agency, security officials warned our group our convoy could be a
victim of Turkish bombardment if we remained in the area after dusk.
They explained the Turks did not differentiate in practice between
civilians, international organization workers, and terrorists. While
the bombing represents a near-daily violation of Iraqi sovereignty,
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s acquiescence to it remains a moral
stain on his record.

Turkish bombardment of Yezidi communities has increased as the Ukraine
crisis and the fight against the Islamic State distracts the world. On
Feb. 1 and 2, for example, 60 aircraft took off from air bases across
Turkey. Accompanied by drones, these aircraft hit almost two dozen
locations across Sinjar, killing numerous civilians across the region.
Too often, journalists accept Turkish claims such bombardment targeted
terrorists and was accurate.

Local officials are probably correct when they say the Turkish purpose
is more to terrorize the local population and prevent return of Yezidi
Kurds to a region where Turkish nationalists increasingly seek to
annex.

The weak response by Washington and the international community simply
encourages Turkey to increase its attacks. Biden may talk a good game
on human rights, but Erdogan assesses White House rhetoric as empty
and believes genocide works. For Turkey, the Yezidis are quickly
becoming this century’s Armenians.

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Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway
Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute.