Christians, Yazidis, Shabak and Turkmen are some minorities who have long lived with Muslims in Iraq, where now they are persecuted by Islamic Jihadist State (EI).
Most of these groups in the country for hundreds and some even thousands of years, living in Nineveh province, an area of history and ancient culture crossed by the Tigris River and located about 400 kilometers northwest of Baghdad.
Accustomed to intolerance and prejudice, and these minorities were persecuted by the Ottoman Empire, the regime of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terrorists, but never before had proclaimed an "Islamic caliphate" in their territory.
After the capture of Mosul, capital of Nineveh, on 10 June by the EI, which leaves behind a trail of killings, beheadings, rape and other brutalities, civilians of these minorities have been abandoning their homes en masse seek refuge in Kurdistan, although some have not succeeded.
Some 30,000 civilians are trapped Yazidis since last Saturday in the mountains near Sinjar, a town from which they fled before the advance of EI, which wrested control to "peshmerga" or Kurdish forces.
Today, tens of thousands of Christians have fled desperately Qaraqosh, most Christian city in Iraq, and other locations nearby, a rout-tinged humanitarian tragedy.
Thousands of Christians had left in late June Qaraqosh, a historic Assyrian town of about 50,000 inhabitants also known by the name of Al Hamdaniya Bajdida or because of the violence of the fighting.
Besides killing and terrorizing civilians, EI terrorists have destroyed dozens of historical and religious sites in the same area where for centuries the Assyrian capital, considered heretical by the "Sharia" or Islamic law was lifted.
- Christian:
It is estimated that the number of Christians in Iraq, mostly Chaldeans and Assyrians, has been declining in recent years. In 2003, it was estimated at about 1.5 million and today the number is difficult to establish, even before the outbreak of EI contained about 400,000.
Most were located in Qaraqosh, Bertala, Al and Tel Kuir Kif, today all localities under control of the Islamic State.
- Yazidis
An estimated 500,000 Yazidis live in Iraq, mostly in Nineveh, while the Diaspora is concentrated mainly in Germany (50,000).
Ethnic Kurds, the origins of this religious minority, which is based in Zoroastrianism, dating back centuries. His belief in the Fallen Angel as God's representative has to be known as "Devil worshipers", which has led them to be considered heretics by other religions.
- Shabak
Between 250,000 and 350,000 members of the minority ethnic group with their own language and customs, living in Iraq, most also in Nineveh.
Islamic religion, mostly Shiites and some Sunnis accuse them of being an extremist cult.
- Turkmen
They are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds, with a population of around 2.5 million.
Muslim, most are Shia, although there are also Sunnis and Christians.
They have their own language and living in the border area of Iraq in Kurdistan, particularly in Kirkuk and Diyala, Nineveh but also and especially in Tel Afar
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