Iraqi Yazidis flee violence, cross into Turkey
- 10 years ago
It's a dusty mountain road that takes you from Iraq into Turkey.
Scores of Iraqi Yazidi refugees are making the long trek across this mountain route to escape the fighting in their ancient homeland.
Sunni militants advancing through northern Iraq consider this ethic minority devil worshippers.
They've threatened entire villages with execution if they don't convert to Islam.
Many Yazidis fled into Sinjar mountain within Iraq but many, too, have continued their journey on foot into Turkey, where they're sheltering in villages.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) FLEEING YAZIDI, DAVOUD SILO, SAYING:
"We have been walking for seven hours. Some prefer to stay but we came this far. We were told a car would drive here to pick us up and we waited for two hours but it didn't come."
Tens of thousands of Yazidis are now displaced.
This group traveled by tractor for days and they're still in Iraq.
So traumatized by their ordeal, they sit idle under the trees
Scores of Iraqi Yazidi refugees are making the long trek across this mountain route to escape the fighting in their ancient homeland.
Sunni militants advancing through northern Iraq consider this ethic minority devil worshippers.
They've threatened entire villages with execution if they don't convert to Islam.
Many Yazidis fled into Sinjar mountain within Iraq but many, too, have continued their journey on foot into Turkey, where they're sheltering in villages.
(SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) FLEEING YAZIDI, DAVOUD SILO, SAYING:
"We have been walking for seven hours. Some prefer to stay but we came this far. We were told a car would drive here to pick us up and we waited for two hours but it didn't come."
Tens of thousands of Yazidis are now displaced.
This group traveled by tractor for days and they're still in Iraq.
So traumatized by their ordeal, they sit idle under the trees