https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16154/iraq-turkish-airstrikes
“On June 20, they even bombed the safe spot where the other villagers could go.” — Athra Kado, Assyrian rights advocate in Alqosh, Iraq, to Gatestone.
“We have been informed by the Turkish forces that ‘we’ll bomb whenever we want to’… But nobody seems to be concerned about our struggles or wants to help us.” — Younan Youkhanna, Assyrian journalist in Challik, Iraq, which is affected by Turkish bombings.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced on June 17 that the country had “launched a military operation against the PKK” (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) in northern Iraq after carrying out a series of airstrikes. Turkey has named its assaults “Operation Claw-Eagle” and “Operation Claw-Tiger,” the Turkish government-funded Anadolu Agency reported.
The Yazidi and Assyrian Christian communities in the area had already been terrorized when they were targeted in a genocidal attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) beginning in 2014.
The Yazidi and Assyrian natives of the area have expressed their condemnation of the bombings.
On June 16, the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) issued a statement, in which it “condemns in strongest terms the Turkish airstrikes conducted in Sinjar, Iraq.”
“In 2014, Daesh (ISIS) terrorists swept through vast areas in Syria and Iraq, committing genocide against the ethno-religious minority Yezidi community in Sinjar. Yezidis have been displaced since that time and are slowly beginning to return back to their areas of origin. These airstrikes, in violation of Iraqi sovereignty, heighten the risk to Yezidi civilians and jeopardize the safe, voluntary return of a fragile and severely traumatized minority population…
“Now, the recent airstrikes conducted by Turkey have not only endangered the lives of Yezidis in Sinjar but have also dimmed the prospect of the return of civilians to their areas of origin. This places further hardship upon the more than 300,000 displaced Yezidis living in grim conditions in IDP camps.”