Yazidis, who were displaced by the Daesh terrorist group, are unable to return to their homes in Iraq's Sinjar province due to the threat posed by PKK terrorists, Türkiye's Consulate-General in Irbil said Thursday.
"We remember with deep sorrow the suffering of the Yazidi community on the anniversary of the massacre committed by the DEASH terrorist organization against Iraqi Yazidis 9 years ago," the Consulate General said on Twitter.
"Yazidis, who were displaced from their homes due to DAESH terrorism, cannot return to Sinjar today due to PKK terrorism. Our country will continue to stand by the Yazidi community against the atrocities and threats it faces," it added.
In an Aug. 3, 2014 attack on the Sinjar district, where Yazidis live, Daesh terrorists kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas they controlled.
Approximately 300,000 people lived in Sinjar before the attacks, with two-thirds of them being Yazidis and the remaining population consisting of Sunni Kurds and Arabs.
The PKK terrorist organization managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Yazidi community from Daesh terrorists.
The terrorist group was accused of blocking aid to the Yazidi minority in Iraq while hindering their return to the Sinjar region.
Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis, who had to flee their homes after the Daesh attack, have been living in the camps in northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) under harsh conditions.
Sinjar holds a strategic position as it is located approximately 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul and is close to the Turkish-Syrian border.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S., and the EU — has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
