Shariya was created by Saddam Hussein in the 1970's when he targeted the Yazedis.
Saddam bulldozed countless Yazidi towns until there was nothing left but gravel, and then forcibly moved their former inhabitants into collectives situated in locations that served his strategic interests. Shariya lies in the center of a valley ringed by hills, along the bases of which were originally a number of Yazidi villages. Saddam destroyed all of these villages (fearing that their proximity to the mountains would facilitate the harboring of Peshmerga fighters) and huddled all the villagers together in the center of the open plain between the mountains, where they would be much easier to keep an eye on.
He doesn't use the word "pogram" but that's what came to my mind. Anyway, back to the present:
Shariya had a population of 17,000 until Sunday’s crisis in Sinjar began compelling families to flee for the Dohuk governorate. By Wednesday, Shariya had a population of over 80,000 people.
When I visited the community on Monday, it was already bursting at the seams, and it wasn’t even close to the peak it reached on Wednesday.
An intense aid effort ensued which was pretty successful for the 86,000. Here's a photo he took of how crowded it was.
Barber returned a day later, Thursday, and Shariya was a ghost town. Everyone had fled, fearing ISIS would attack them there. Here's his photo.
Here's a photo of the water bottles left behind. But, where would they go? Thousands had gone to Turkey, but Turkey has now closed its border when the number of refugees grew too large for it to accommodate.
The Yazidi rationale was: We need to get out now before something bad happens and people storm the border, prompting the Turks to close it. These fears were justified: the Turks have allegedly closed the border crossing near Zakho at 8:00 pm last night after receiving a huge influx of fleeing people.
The result:
When the people were concentrated in one place, it was possible to coordinate relief efforts. Now that people are spreading across the governorate and beyond in panic, it will be even more difficult to meet the humanitarian need.
Yesterday morning (Friday), with no place to escape to, the Yazidis began streaming back to Shariya.
Beginning this morning, the same refugees that fled Shariya yesterday have started to stream back in. What we’re seeing now is the frantic movement of people from one place to the next, running in circles like a panicked hiker lost in the woods.
Barber says:
I’ve followed terrorism-related issues for years, but this environment has schooled me anew in the realities of terror. The local contagion of fear demonstrates what a potent weapon terror is, when instrumentalized by an entity like IS.
