Turkey contributed to Yazidi genocide, report says
Jul 06 2022
An investigation launched by a group of prominent human rights lawyers said that Turkey should face charges in front of the international court of justice for being complicit in acts of genocide against the Yazidi people, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
A group of prominent human rights lawyers led by British human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy released a ground-breaking report which investigated into “the binding responsibility states have to prevent genocide on their territories, even if they are carried out by a third party such as Islamic State (IS)”, the Guardian said.
The lawyers who clustered around the title of the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) said that states have to prevent the crime of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
“Mechanisms in place could have saved the Yazidis from what is now part of their past, and part of their past partial destruction,” Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, chair of the YJC said.
The genocide of the Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2013 has been recognized by several bodies of the United Nations and national and multi-national organizations.
The Yazidis are a minority religious group that predominantly live in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
The 278-page report that investigated the conduct of 13 countries revealed that three countries failed to take steps to prevent the genocide.
The report accused Turkish leaders of being complicit in the massacres since they failed to control its borders to stop the flow of ISIS fighters. However, Turkish officials have repeatedly denied the allegations.
From April 2014, Turkish officials overlooked the enslavement of Yazidi women and children and helped training of ISIS fighters against Kurdish forces in Syria. Turkey thus strengthened the perpetrators of the genocide,” the report found out.
“Turkish officials knew and/or were wilfully blind to evidence that these individuals would use this training to commit prohibited acts against the Yazidis,” the Guardian cited the report.
The report also accused the Iraqi government of not coordinating with Kurdish authorities or taking measures to save the Yazidis.
Syria's government failed to prevent the transfer and detention of enslaved Yazidis on its territory.
In report’s foreword Lady Kennedy pointed to “an ocean of impunity concerning the Yazidi genocide”.
States had “failed to in their duty to address their responsibilities to prevent the genocide for a variety of inhumane reasons”. If they are not held accountable “then the promise of 'never again' rings hollow”, she wrote.
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