Yazidism in Turkey

In the 1980s, there were 60,000 Yazidis situated in Beşiri, Kurtalan, Bismil, Midyat, Idil, Cizre, Nusaybin, Viranşehir, Suruç and Bozova.

Today, these places are almost empty due to exodus to Europe which was provoked by political, religious and economic difficulties.

[6] In 2004, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees reported that more than 2,000 Yazidis (mainly in south-eastern Anatolia) live in Turkey.

[10] In 1844, the Yazidis in Turkey, who were in the Tur Abdin region, were massacred by the Kurdish prince Bedirkhan Beg and his troops.

Before migrating, Yazidis formed an integral part of Kurdish tribal interactions during the Ottoman empire.

[13] Main causes of these migrations was war and religious persecution at the hands of Ottoman Turks and the Muslim Kurds who were trying to forcibly convert them to Islam.

Yazidis were recognized as a persecuted group for the first time by the administrative court of Stade and after the next few years, North-Rhine Westphalia followed suit as a federal state.