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Matthew Travis Barber

16 Aug, 11 tweets, 5 min read

1) The first ever visit of an Iraqi prime minister to #Sinjar in the post-Saddam era is occurring now. In a telling gesture of dominance over Iraqi PM al-Kadhimi, Turkey has today assassinated a key #Yazidi leader inside Sinjar City who had arrived there as the PM was en-route.

2) Prime Minister al-Kadhimi is in Kocho at this moment. Yesterday was the anniversary of the #Kocho Massacre. As the PM was about to arrive in Sinjar, a Turkish airstrike inside Sinjar City killed Saeed Hasan Saeed, a #YBŞ leader who played a major role in the fight against IS.

3) Saeed Hasan was an Iraqi Yazidi who had no political agenda or activity inside Turkey. He is from Zumani on the south side of Sinjar Mountain, now the site of three large mass graves of Yazidis killed by jihadists.

4) For years he saw tremendous bloodshed as many of his friends died defending the Yazidis against IS. He became the administrative head of the YBŞ, a role that did not include military command but rather involved interfacing with Iraqi bureaucracies and government bodies.

5) As the YBŞ is a defensive entity recognized by Baghdad & registered under the PMU umbrella institution, Saeed dealt with interactions with government. He also handled public relations, media inquiries, and represented the YBŞ in international forums dealing with Yazidi issues.

6) One by one, #Turkey continues to pick off the most significant figures of the post-Genocide struggle against the same #IS whose ascent Turkey repeatedly aided.

7) This pattern began in 2017, when Erdogan believed his objectives were greenlit by the Trump administration, and has continued with almost no resistance from Iraq and almost no pushback or condemnation from the US.

8) Each strike has been an assault on the Yazidi people, but also a violation of Iraqi sovereignty; today's attack, however, amid the PM's visit, represents an unprecedented snub against the Iraqi state. But as Afghanistan burns, in all likelihood, few will notice or care.

https://twitter.com/EzidiPress/status/1427250397232631813

1) facebook.com/watch/live/?v=…
2)

https://twitter.com/EzidiPress/status/1427250397232631813

https://twitter.com/nadinemaenza/status/1427237084096499714

9) Update: I have learned that Saeed Hasan Saeed was on his way to meet with the PM. He had been contacted by the Iraqi army two days ago and asked to attend a meeting. They called him again today ahead of the meeting.

10) So Turkey, inside of Iraq, assassinated an Iraqi leader of a registered militia who was on his way to meet with the prime minister.

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More from @Matthew__Barber

Matthew Travis Barber

@Matthew__Barber

12 Jun 20

1) Reports today of #KDP secret police preventing displaced #Yazidi families from returning to their homes in #Sinjar.
facebook.com/ezidxantv.tv/p…
#Iraq #Kurdistan #KRG

2) This is a sick game the KDP has played since Jan. 2016—a deliberate political strategy that prevents genocide survivors from recovering until KDP powers can unilaterally reassert control and regain hegemony in Sinjar.

3) There have been moments of temporary softening of this policy—during instances when Western pressure on the KDP to end this flagrant abuse of Yazidi human rights has occurred—but KRG allies are habitually quick to forget about the problem and the KDP always resumes the policy.

Read 11 tweets

Matthew Travis Barber

@Matthew__Barber

9 Jan 19

@CrisisGroup

1) Important: The #KDP has rejected sensible recommendations from the International Crisis Group @CrisisGroup on returning stability to #Sinjar so that the #Yazidi people can return home, rebuilding, and have a future. This affair deserves comment.
#KRG #Kurdistan #Iraq

@CrisisGroup

2) The @CrisisGroup is one of the few analyst entities to produce reasonable suggestions that, in fact, reflect what the Yazidis have been demanding for the past 4 ½ years. They recently recommended that the #Yazidi people choose their own administrative leaders for #Sinjar.

3) Dindar Zebari (pictured in 1st tweet), whose lovely job it is to craft responses to the many reports from around the world that criticize KDP policy and HR record, responded, stating that Sinjar already has a mayor (qaymaqam)—Mahama Khalil—who has been elected by the people.

Read 42 tweets

Matthew Travis Barber

@Matthew__Barber

16 Aug 18

1) Today—on the 4th anniversary of the Kocho Massacre, when #IS slaughtered an entire town as part of the Yazidi Genocide—#Turkey bombed a #Yazidi convoy in #Sinjar that was returning from the Kocho Massacre memorial ceremony, killing Mam Zaki, an important Yazidi #PKK leader.

2) The convoy contained leaders & members of the Yazidi #YBŞ defense force and affiliated political institutions, including Mazlum Shingal, the military commander of the #YBŞ, who—like Mam Zaki—is also a #Yazidi. Mazlum (shown in photo) was injured but not killed in the attack.

3) A #Yazidi from #Sinjar (Tel Ezeir) named Harbo, a member of the Self-Administrative Council (a local governing institution that is a civilian political counterpart to the YBŞ defense force), was injured in the attack. Two others were killed; their identities are not yet known.

Read 39 tweets

Matthew Travis Barber

@Matthew__Barber

1 Aug 18

@HudsonInstitute

1) The KDP is the most responsible actor for inhibiting #Yazidi post-genocide recovery & preventing resettlement/reconstruction in #Sinjar. The @HudsonInstitute should be cognizant of these well-documented issues before featuring a mouthpiece who routinely defends these abuses.

2) A perusal of any number of articles/reports would enlighten event organizers as to the reaction of incredulity that such an embarrassing choice engenders on the part of Iraqi minorities and those involved in advocacy, humanitarian endeavors, and human rights work.

3) A good place to start for essential background is "The KRG’s Relationship with the Yazidi Minority and the Future of the Yazidis in Shingal (Sinjar):"
joshualandis.com/blog/krgs-rela…

Read 13 tweets

Matthew Travis Barber

@Matthew__Barber

19 Jul 18

@RichardDawkins

@RichardDawkins 1) Some church bells sound nice. Others clang annoyingly and sound like a hammer smacking a cooking pot. Sometimes the adhan (Muslim call to prayer) is delivered in an aurally pleasing way by the muadhan (the man who calls). At other times it can be a terrible affront to the ear.

@RichardDawkins

@RichardDawkins 2) Muslims don't like to think of the adhan as "singing," but in fact in many countries the adhan is delivered in one of the Arabic maqams—musical scales used in traditional music of the Middle East/Arab World. It can have a very musical quality, depending on the muadhan's skill.

@RichardDawkins

@RichardDawkins 3) In Syria one can commonly hear, for example, an adhan chanted in the "bayat maqam," the same musical scale that you would hear in many typical Fayruz songs. In more puritanical contexts, like in Saudi Arabia, the adhan can be simply spoken rather than chanted.

Read 24 tweets