In countries far away from the horrors and misery that the peoples of Iraq and Syria are experiencing, public indifference can be attributed to ignorance or even compassion fatigue.<\/p>\n
In a world weary of violence, others may take their time to wake up to fact that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the mountains of northwest Iraq, but Turkey next door cannot\u00a0 afford to do the same.<\/p>\n
Having ethnically-cleansed the 2000 year long Christian inhabitants of the land without much protest from the outside world, the Sunni extremist\u2019s self-declared Islamic State is now \u00a0destroying the Yezidis of Iraq \u00a0through slaughter, rape and starvation.<\/p>\n
An ancient religious minority in Iraq and modern Turkey, originating in Sumeria and Assyria, \u00a0Yezidism is much older than Islam and Christianity. Today, their numbers are estimated to be between 300 thousand and 700 thousand, with a small diaspora community in northern Germany.\u00a0 Having survived discrimination and marginalization over 6 thousand years, they are about to be wiped out by the jihadi extremist ISIS.<\/p>\n
The Yezidi population in Sinjar, between Mosul and Syrian border has been under attack by ISIS since June. More than a month ago, \u00a0Amnesty International<\/a>\u00a0 drew attention to their plight along with ISIS attacks on other minority communities including Turkmen and Shabak Shi\u2019a, Yezidi and Christians but very few have taken any notice.\u00a0 As one \u00a0Yezidi member of the Iraqi Parliament\u00a0 Feyyan Dahil described it\u00a0 in an emotional speech<\/a>, during the last four days \u00a0ISIS has already killed 500 people and abducted 500 Yezidi women as sex slaves.<\/p>\n According to the UN, at least 40 thousand Yezidis, many of them women and children have fled to the mountains nearby.\u00a0 There, they face starvation and death due to having no access to water. Around 130 thousand \u00a0people have taken refuge in Dohuk or Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.\u00a0 Thousands of them have already crossed the Habur border post into Turkey.<\/p>\n Turks who took to street in their thousands protesting Israel\u2019s attacks on Gaza do not seem to be moved by the plight of Iraq\u2019s minorities. Apart from a handful of small gatherings in Istanbul and in the south east, the public seem to turn a blind eye to what is going on next door.<\/p>\n Politicians, too, have been making scarce and generalized comments.\u00a0 Announcing the details of a further humanitarian aid to Gaza and \u00a0to evacuate potentially thousands of injured Palestinians for treatment to Turkey, Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Reuters<\/a>\u00a0 that the turmoil in Iraq was another threat to regional stability and Turkey would take all necessary measures to keep stability around its borders.<\/p>\n Davutoglu again put the blame squarely on sectarian policies adopted by previous Iraqi and Syrian administrations for the radicalization we witness today.<\/p>\n Salih Muslim, the co-chairman of the Syrian\u00a0 Kurdish organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told the independent news network Biane<\/a>t that it has now become obvious that ISIS is getting out of control; \u00a0yet Turkey does not seem to be prepared to take a firm stand.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Turkey has other plans, it should wake up. These people can destroy the peoples and histories of a thousand year-old land. Turkey is under threat, too. Turkey should be the first one to stand against it.\u201d Muslim said.<\/p>\n Sebahat Tuncel , the Istanbul deputy of the People\u2019s Democracy Party (HDP)\u00a0 has also warned against Turkey\u2019s\u00a0 inaction against ISIS. In a press conference<\/a> at the Turkish Parliament,\u00a0 Tuncel\u00a0 expressed growing concern about ISIS becoming a major force in the Middle East; first going on a killing spree in Mosul and now in Sinjar where Yezidis live. Criticizing the Turkish government\u2019s Turkmen-centric nationalist policies, Ms Tuncel called the Parliament to meet in an emergency session to discuss how to stop ISIS\u2019 growing control and violence in the Middle East.<\/p>\n With 49 of its citizens held hostage by ISIS since June 11, the government in Turkey actively encourages indifference on what goes on in Iraq.\u00a0 With a news blackout in place, there is little reporting of the developments in Iraq. Prime Minister Erdogan again accused the main opposition party for putting the lives of 49 Turkish hostages at risk by raising the issue.<\/p>\n However, it is not just the leader of the opposition who claims the government is not doing enough to free the hostages. A relative of three of the hostages kept by ISIS, together with an opposition deputy have filed a criminal complaint against the Prime Minister, the Foreign minister and a senior civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, alleging ,malpractice and neglect.<\/p>\n