Bashiqa is historically an Assyrian and Muslim Kurdish town but is now home to predominately Yazidis and Sunni Arabs. Bashiqa is surrounded by farms of olives all around the town and there is a small mountain to the north. Bashiqa is famous for its olive trees, Rakı, olive oil, and soap. It is also famous for its onion, pickles. It used to be a tourist destination for the locals in Mosul and Iraqis in general. The Yazidis in Bashiqa and its twin village Bahzani speak Arabic as their mother language.
History
In the mid-1800s, Dr. Asahel Grant visited Bashiqa, which was largely inhabited by Yezidis or "Desani". He took notes on their spiritual practices and beliefs. Bashiqa is controlled by the Iraqi federal government but claimed by the Kurdistan Region since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. According to Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, a referendum should decide whether it should continue to be managed by the central government or the KRG. The status of the city is still not fully understood. According to reports by Human Rights Watch, UNHCR and other human rights organizations the townspeople are forced and threatened with violence if they should not vote for inclusion of the city in the Kurdistan Region. In the 13th century, historian, Yaqut al-Hamawi described Bashiqa as a village on the outskirts of Nineveh to the east of the river Tigris which is well known for its olive trees and having a majority Christian population. In the town square of Bashiqa, Du'a Khalil Aswad, a young woman from the Yazidi community who wanted to marry a Muslim, was stoned to death in 2007 by a large crowd of men in an "honor killing". by Mark Lattimer, December 13, 2007 in The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-10-23 As a revenge on the 22 April 2007 Muslims stopped a bus in Mosuland killed 23 Yazidi from Bashiqa. In 2012, car bombs went off in the town. In June 2014, ISIL militia took over the city, and changed the name to Du'a city. Yazidi civilians fled the city in 2014. The region had seen fighting between ISIL and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, but remained under ISIL control throughout 2015 and most of 2016. Turkish soldiers were deployed in a training mission in the Mosul District in 2015, without authorization of Baghdad, but with permission of Iraqi Kurdistan. However, Iraq called for help from Turkey when the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider Al-Abadi, spoke at a conference during his visit to Turkey in December 25, 2014. On 7 November 2016, during the Battle of Mosul, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters launched a massive offensive to liberate the town from ISIL control. Peshmerga had surrounded the town for two weeks. There were believed to be 100 to 200 ISIL militants left. Commander Kaka Hama said the Peshmerga descended from three fronts, and that coalition airstrikes played a large role in the assault. In the early afternoon, it was reported that Bashiqa was liberated and that the Peshmerga were in full control.
