‘Freedom for Öcalan, Autonomy for Shengal’ campaign  one year later

As part of the campaign led by the Shengal Autonomous Administration and the Free Yazidi Women's Movement (TAJÊ), Yazidis and Arabs living in Shengal expressed their demands through various actions and events.


ANF
SHENGAL
Monday, 21 October 2024

The ‘Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and Autonomy for Shengal’ campaign has left one year behind.

Within the framework of the campaign that started on 21 October 2023, Yazidis and Arabs living in Shengal (Sinjar) expressed their demands through various actions and events.

As part of the campaign led by the Shengal Autonomous Administration and the Free Yazidi Women's Movement (TAJÊ), a tent action was launched on 25 October 2023 under the leadership of the Shengal Arab Councils.

On 28 October, Arab women staged a march to express their demands for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and the autonomy of Shengal.

On 11 December, the Young Women's Union of Shengal and the Êzidxan Youth Union supported the campaign by setting up a book stand with the slogan ‘Read Leader Öcalan's Books, Know Yourself’.

Within the framework of the initiative, which continued uninterruptedly in 2024, marches, workshops, seminars, panels and reading events were organised and the demands for the physical freedom of Abdullah Öcalan and the autonomy of Shengal were expressed. The events organised in this process brought support to the Yazidi struggle through participation from different segments of society.

The campaign continues with determination in order to bring the demands of the people of Shengal to the international arena and to call for freedom for Abdullah Öcalan and status for Shengal.

The Yazidi settlement area Shengal (Sinjar) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is the last contiguous settlement area of the Yazidi community. Thousands of Yazidis were murdered and thousands of women and children were taken prisoner in the 3 August 2014 onslaught on Shengal by ISIS militants. While ISIS gangs began murdering Yazidis in Shengal, the Peshmerga left, leaving the Yazidis behind, unprotected. The guerrillas of HPG (People’s Defense Forces) and YJA Star (Free Women’s Troops) and fighters of the YPG (People’s Defense Units) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) came to the Yazidi people's aid in the face of ISIS aggression. Thanks to a months-long selfless struggle, the city was liberated on 13 November 2015. After the liberation of the city, the HPG/YJA Star and YPG/YPJ subsequently withdrew in 2017. People who returned to their land after Shengal's independence reformed, established defensive units and built their institutions.