Yazidi institutions' representatives: We must unite to prevent new massacres

The Yazidi institutions representatives said that the Yazidi people should be united so that new massacres do not happen, and that the only solution is to govern themselves.

ÎBRAHÎM ÊZIDÎ
SHENGAL
Saturday, 23 Jul 2022, 

It has been 8 years since the massacre of the Yazidi community by ISIS mercenaries in front of the whole world. Despite this, thousands of Yazidis are still far from their lands, and the fate of thousands remains unknown. The Iraqi government has not taken any steps for the rights of the Yazidi people, either. For this reason, Yazidi institutions and organizations say that they do not trust anyone and that the only solution for the Yazidi people is to govern themselves.

On 3 August 2014, the Yazidi community were subjected to a great massacre. While the whole world remained silent, the PKK guerrillas rushed to save the Yazidi people. After Shengal was liberated by the guerrillas, the Yazidi people established their own defense force and institutions. The Yazidi people, who said that they would not allow a similar massacre to happen again, added that they would increase their struggle.

We can prevent new massacres by organising ourselves

Wetha Reşo, a member of the Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ), commemorated those who lost their lives in the 3 August 2014 massacre and said: "We need to know well who sold us out. Eight years have passed since the massacre, yet the fate of thousands of our people is still unknown. We must increase our struggle to save the Yazidi women and girls who are still held in ISIS hands. We must do whatever we can for them. As the Yazidi people, we know ourselves now, so we will not rely on those who allowed the last massacre."

Reşo continued: "We will organize even more so that new massacres do not occur. We know that if we organize, we can prevent new massacres. We now have power and will. We built our institutions, we established our defense force. When the massacre was carried out, neither Iraq nor the South Kurdistan government took care of us. Because we are Yazidis, the whole world remained silent to our cries. Thanks to our heroic martyrs who rushed to save us, we survived the massacre. We will never forget those who gave their lives for us. They will always live in our hearts."

Yazidi people should be united

Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly member Xelef Qasim underlined that the Yazidi people were also attacked for their faith, and added: "They wanted to massacre and destroy the Yazidi community. This is the reason why thousands of Yazidis were killed. The Yazidi people should unite wherever they are. We need to be united. The conspiracy against the land, language, culture and faith of the Yazidi people still continues. Every Yazidi should know this. We need to put up a common struggle to stand up to these conspiracies. Many Yazidis lost their money financially at the time of the massacre. Our situation was very good, but we saw that it did not save us from the massacre. The only solution to prevent these massacres from happening again is to govern ourselves."

How will those who do not respect our religion give us rights?

Saleh Êzdîn, a member of the Yazidi Freedom and Democracy Party (PADÊ), said that the Yazidi people have been living in these lands for 5,000 years.

Saleh Êzdîn, who criticized the Iraqi government's approach to the Yazidi people, said: "The Iraqi government must accept the rights of the Yazidi people. We have suffered tens of massacres and been subjected to genocide. Despite all this, Iraq does not accept our religion. How will those who do not respect our religion give us our rights? If there were a government in Iraq it might have prevented the violations of our rights. But how will Iraq, which is heading towards disintegration, give us our rights? South Kurdistan has been occupied by the Turkish state. If we wait for the Iraqi government, we will not get our rights."

Iraq: After tragedy, new freedoms, opportunities for Yazidi women

Historically Iraq's Yazidi community was isolated, under-resourced and very conservative. Seven years after the "Islamic State" tragedy, the community is more open to the world — and Yazidi women are benefiting.

Yazidi women have taken a leading role as advocates for their community

"We really appreciate your visit," Luqman Suleiman told a group of tourists from around Iraq and Germany recently, when he met them at the entrance of the Yazidi temple, Lalish. For the ethno-religious Iraqi minority this site in northern Iraq is the equivalent of the Vatican to Catholics, or Mecca to Muslims. Every Yazidi is expected to come here at least once in their lifetime. And these days, more outsiders are coming here too.

"It is really so important that people come here and listen to the Yazidis," Suleiman, a spokesperson and guide at the temple, said. "You shouldn't listen to other people. They may speak falsely about us."

Suleiman was talking about long-standing prejudices against his community in Iraq. Their highly secretive and ritualistic religion — traditions and rules are passed on orally and outsiders are prohibited from knowing most of them — has made the minority a target of the Muslim majority in the country.

Luqman Suleiman (second from right) at a small souvenir stand inside the Lalish compound

The Yazidi faith has been described as "dualist" because they believe that good and evil are part of the same divinity. This is also why some Iraqis have described them as "devil worshippers" and, for example, won't eat any food prepared by Yazidi hands.

It is the same sort of prejudice that made the small religious community, which is thought to number around half a million inside Iraq, a target for the extremist group known as the "Islamic State (IS)."  As the extremists took over swathes of the country in 2014, the minority's marginal status was part of the reason why the IS militants felt they could kill, rape and enslave thousands of members of the community with impunity.

Unexpected outcomes

The Yazidi minority was forever changed by the IS group's brutal assault on them. By the time the extremists were more or less pushed out of northern Iraq in 2017, thousands of Yazidis had been killed or kidnapped. Several international bodies now classify the events as a genocide. Today, around 240,000 are still living in camps for the displaced, many in grinding poverty.

But the community has also changed in some ways that were perhaps not quite so predictable.

Outsiders can tour the Lalish temple compound but many areas are only open to Yazidis

"The Yazidi community has transformed toward more openness," said Murad Ismael, head of the Sinjar Academy, an institute in northern Iraq providing education to locals in the area. "The Yazidi community has nothing to hide but I believe, in the past, many thought it was better to not discuss identity or faith. I also think the world today is more passionate and supportive to the Yazidis, which encourages them to be more open."

Newfound freedoms

One noticeable change has come in Yazidi women's rights, Suleiman told his curious visitors.

"Before the IS group came, a woman was not free to leave her village without a male guardian," Suleiman said. "But after the IS time, people have more of an open mind. Women can leave their village and catch a plane to Europe, if they want to," he said, smiling and gesturing at the sky above the hills surrounding the 4,000-year-old temple.

Previously Yazidi women had a much lower literacy rate than Yazidi men or local Muslim women

"In the past, the community would not have accepted that," confirmed Naven Symoqi, a Yazidi activist and journalist from Sinjar, the district where many Iraqi Yazidis reside. " But after many Yazidis became displaced, they ended up in different parts of Iraq and they saw different ways of doing things."

That experience, said a local in northern Iraq, who worked with Yazidis in a displaced persons' camp, has had impact. "Imagine if you come from a really isolated agricultural community without many resources, where many people were not educated beyond primary school level. And then you've been displaced, you're in a camp, and there are all these NGOs running programs on education and women's rights," the source told DW. The person requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about the community with which they still work.

Women drivers

Symoqi marvels at the fact there are now driving schools for women in town. She also knows of Yazidi women studying at universities and praises Amera Atto, a Yazidi who competed in 2021's Miss Iraq contest.

Yazidi women involved in local survivor networks are also doing things they never would have before, such as traveling to cities to meet male politicians to discuss justice and compensation.

 

Because of the murders of their male relatives, many Yazidi women became heads of their own households, pointed out Abid Shamdeen, executive director of Nadia's Initiative.

His nonprofit organization, founded by Nadia Murad, a Yazidi survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has been able to help Yazidi women set up their own small businesses, rebuild homes and access education. "We have seen that these kinds of projects have a profoundly positive impact on Yazidi women," Shamdeen told DW. "After IS' destruction, Yazidi women have very much taken the lead in advocating on behalf of their community, both locally and globally."

Yazidi women are also benefiting from better access to education and job opportunities, the Sinjar Academy's Ismael added. "There are more women employed and some even own small businesses or lead NGOs. This is really something new to the Yazidis of Iraq."

Underage marriage

Despite it's awful origins, this new attitude could be seen as a positive development. The Yazidi religion has strict rules. You cannot convert into it, nor can you leave it. Adherents may not even marry out of their own caste within the community, let alone outside of the religion.

Previously many Yazidi women were not able to travel independentl without being harshly judged

In one high-profile case from 2007, Dua Khalil Aswad, a young Yazidi woman, who was thought to have converted to Islam for love was beaten to death in public, including by members of her own family. 

In 2011, after a growing number of suicides among young Yazidi females, researchers from the International Organization for Migration conducted community interviews to find out why this was happening. They concluded "the marginalization of women and the view of the woman's role as peripheral" were to blame, alongside isolation, unhappy arranged marriages, unemployment among females and community and sectarian tensions.

More to come

Still, community members told DW that, despite recent changes, much remains to be done.

For one thing, the former camps worker explained, there's still a big difference between the way Yazidi survivors and other women in the community are treated.

In early December, Yazidis held a ceremony to bury 41 community members killed by the IS group

"Some are welcomed back by their families, others are not. Although the community doesn't like to talk about it like this, it's a bit of a disaster," the source said. "And all this [the new rights Yazidi women have] is still only possible with the permission of male family members. It's still deeply patriarchal here. Then again," they concluded, " these things take time. And once people are given opportunities, it's very hard to take them away again."

"Definitely there is still some social friction," Ismael agreed. "It will take time and education," he argued. "But I think in many ways Yazidi women led by example, during and after the genocide. [They] were at the forefront of everything that happened and in many ways became symbols of the people."

Kholoud al-Amiry assisted with this report in Iraq.

 

AFTER 'ISLAMIC STATE,' YAZIDI WOMEN LEARN TO BOX

The warm-up

The "Boxing Sisters" program was launched in late 2018 by Lotus Flower, a British NGO in Iraqi Kurdistan. Five days a week Yazidi women and girls gather for a two-hour training session in the Rwanga IDP camp. Many of these women were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual violence while held captive by the "Islamic State" (IS) before arriving at the camp.

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Iraq's Yazidis warn of ongoing threats from extremists

A new law to aid Yazidi female survivors isn't enough. The Yazidi community says it's only a matter of time before they are attacked again.


Yazidi women burn incense while participating in a mass funeral for those slain by the Islamic State terror group in Sinjar

In a landmark decision this month, Iraq's parliament passed the Yazidi Female Survivors Law, recognizing the atrocities committed by the extremist group known as "Islamic State," or "IS," against the ethno-religious group as genocide.

When "IS," an Islamist terror group, took control of swathes of northern Iraq between 2014 and 2017, it killed, kidnapped and enslaved thousands ofYazidis, while tens of thousands more were forced to flee their homes.

"The passage of the law represents a watershed moment," the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement after the law was passed on March 1. It makes Iraq one of the first Arab countries to focus "institutional attention on female survivors of conflict-related sexual violence."

The bill was hailed by Iraqi President Barham Salih as "an important step."

But even while the law aims to "prevent the recurrence of violations," not everyone is convinced it will live up to its promises. Yazidi survivors say the existential threats that fueled "Islamic State's" genocidal campaign against them still persist in Iraq.
How does the law help survivors?

The law pledges to provide assistance to victims of "IS," primarily Yazidi female survivors who were kidnapped and later freed — but also members of other minorities who suffered the same fate, including Turkmen, Christian and Shabak Iraqis.

Under the new law, Iraq will provide a monthly stipend, residential land or free housing and psychological support to victims. Survivors of "IS" attacks will also be granted hiring priority for 2% of all public sector jobs.

 

A Yazidi survivor holds portraits of IS victims from her village of Kocho located near Sinjar, Iraq

Kidnapped Yazidi children will also receive support and the legal status of children born of survivors will also be addressed.

Moreover, the legislation marks August 3 — the day of a major "IS" attack on Yazidi communities in 2014 — as a national day of remembrance and establishes a special government office for Female Yazidi Survivors' Affairs, which will open in northern Iraq's Ninawa province. Ninawa is home to the Sinjar district, where the majority of Yazidis once lived.

Survivors have nobody

Ghazala Jango, a Yazidi woman from Sinjar, said the bill was, "essential for female survivors, given that the majority of them had no one to support them. All their family members were killed."

Jango was 18 when the extremist group attacked Sinjar in 2014. Researchers say that some 10,000 Yazidis were killed or kidnapped during the assault and tens of thousands more were forced to flee into the nearby mountains. Jango was among them, having escaped on foot.

In August 2020, Sinjar was still in ruins, never having recovered from an attack by the Islamist terror group Islamic State (IS)

Six years later, she is back in Sinjar, where she works with the Yazidi-run Youth Bridge Organization, helping Yazidi families return to their homes. Even though it has been four years since then Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over "IS," the Yazidi community is still suffering, Jango told DW.

The new law will help improve the financial situation of Yazidis, "who have been living in poverty for almost seven years," she added. But, she says, it can't help survivors feel safer, "It is only financial support … it does not guarantee protection,"¨Jango argues.
Many broken promises

Other Yazidis interviewed by DW echoed this sentiment. They are skeptical that the Iraqi government will deliver on the promises it has made.

"I hope this law will not just be a law on paper but will be a practical solution to help them," said Ahmed Khudida Burjus, deputy director of Yazda, a multi-national, Yazidi-led organization that aims to assist the community in the aftermath of the genocide.

"In the past six years, many promises have been made and very little has been done. Yazidi villages and towns ravaged by Daesh [IS] still lie in ruins," he noted, using the colloquial term for the group.

THE ISLAMIC STATE ATTACK ON YAZIDIS ON IRAQ'S MOUNT SINJAR

In search of protection

Thousands of Yazidis fleeing the brutality of IS militants sought refuge on Mount Sinjar. Many have since found shelter in a camp in northern Iraq, but around a thousand are still reportedly trapped on the high terrain. PHOTOS 12345678910

It's about more than just rebuilding, Burjus argued, "Everything is related — security, justice and rebuilding and development."

And this is why the new Yazidi Female Survivors Law, while positive, is not enough. Burjus and other advocates for the community explain that the real problem is how the majority of Iraqis feel about the local Yazidi minority.

Devil worshippers

Thanks to misconceptions about their religion among Iraq's Muslim majority, Yazidis have long been labelled "devil worshippers."

The community has a long history of persecution dating back to the 16th century, and many groups, from invading Turks to local Kurds, have tried to convert them to Islam. "I am the descendent of 72 genocides," is still a common phrase among Yazidis.

The Lalish Temple in Iraq's Ninawa province houses the tomb of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir and is the Yazidis' holiest site

"Yazidis lost everything and they trust neither the Kurdish nor the Iraqi government," 26-year-old Saud, a Yazidi man originally from Sinjar, said. Saud requested DW not use his real name because speaking out against the local Iraqi-Kurdish military could put him in danger.

In 2014, Iraqi-Kurdish forces were supposed to be in charge of security in the Sinjar area — which is adjacent to the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan — but when "IS" attacked, Iraqi-Kurdish soldiers withdrew, leaving civilians to fend for themselves.

"Our neighbors are Sunnis and Kurds. We were betrayed by all these tribes," said Saud, who lived in Iraqi displacement camps for 18 months before being granted asylum abroad. Saud says he'd like to return home to Iraq but believes there are no guarantees of his safety.

Broader reconciliation required

According to German psychologist Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, a professor at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) who has worked with more than a thousand Yazidi survivors in Germany, the medical, financial and psychological support the law promises will not suffice. True change will require "reconciliation between Yazidis and Muslims, who supported the 'IS' group," Kizilhan told DW.

Yazda's Burjus says negative attitudes towards Yazidis persist and permeate all aspects of society in Iraq.

"The majority of the population of Iraq sees Yazidis as infidels," he explains. "When they work in restaurants, no one eats their food — because it's made by a Yazidi."

"That's why we never feel safe," the community advocate concludes. "And because there is no plan to eradicate these threats against Yazidis, whenever the opportunity arises, another extremist group will do it again [attack the Yazidi community]. It's only a matter of time."

Watch video 04:37 Woman in Iraq searches for kidnapped Yazidis

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for YEZIDI 

Nine years ago the Yazidis genocide in Shengal

The 74th genocide arrived at the doors of the Yazidi community on 3 August 2014. The Islamic State killed, raped, kidnapped thousands in Shengal.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 3 Aug 2023, 07:49

The Yazidi (Êzidî) Kurds, who have been living in the Mesopotamian region for thousands of years, have, throughout history, always been subjected to genocides and cruel betrayals and massacres and, on 3 August 2014, suffered the 74th genocide (or Ferman as they call it).

The Yazidi Kurds, who call the genocides perpetrated on them 'Ferman', the Kurdish term for decree, fell this time into the grip of almost total annihilation, captivity and enslavement by the ferocious ISIS gangs. But what was more suffocating for the Yazidis than the stranglehold of ISIS, was the betrayal that clad itself in a black garment.

A WELL-PREPARED GENOCIDE

When the ISIS gangs stood at the doors of Shengal, thousands of Peshmerga and asayish members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) chaired by Masoud Barzani, who until that very moment controlled the Shengal town, made a quick getaway without shooting even one single bullet. As a result of the flight of the KDP Peshmerga, thousands of Yazidis were slaughtered by the ISIS gangs, thousands more were abducted, predominantly women and children, and sold at markets into slavery. Interestingly, shortly before the genocide took place, the KDP forces seized all the arms and weapons the Yazidis had at that time and took into custody three of the twelve guerrillas of the People's Defense Forces (HPG) and the Free Women's Troops (YJA-Star), who came to the rescue of the fleeing Yazidi people. All this made it indeed very clear, how well prepared and organized this extensive genocide actually was.

THE UN REPORT ON THE GENOCIDE

According to the investigations of the High Commissioner of Human Rights of the United Nations, which were made public in October 2014, the results of the attacks launched on 3 August 2014 were as follows:

- around 5000 Yazidi men were massacred

- around 100 Yazidi men were beheaded

- 7000 Yazidi girls and women were abducted and sold at slave markets

- A number of Yazidi girls and women were raped

- Some Yazidi women were forced to marry ISIS commanders

The estimated number of unknown cases was much higher than what was written in the report of the United Nations.

GENOCIDES AGAINST YAZIDIS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

The Yazidis, who follow one of the most ancient faiths of Mesopotamia, have suffered in the course of history 74 genocides. Most of those mass murders were perpetrated by the Ottoman empire. Because most of these genocides to wipe out the Yazidi community were ordered by the leading Ottoman Shahs via a fiat, the Kurdish Yazidis dubbed those genocides, therefore, with the Kurdish term for "decree". The first genocide was ordered in the year 1246 by the lord of Zengi of Mosul, Bedreddin Lulu, the last one by the Neo Ottoman AKP and its ally KDP and perpetrated by the ISIS gangs. In each and every genocide, the name of Islam was used.

Some of the genocides that were perpetrated in the course of history against the Yazidi community and mostly ordered by the Ottoman Shahs, are listed here:

* In 1246 the massacre of Lalesh, directed by the lord of Zengi of Mosul Bedreddin Lulu

* In the 16th century mass murder of the Yazidis in Shêxan was ordered by a fatwa of Shekhulislami Osmani Ebu Siud Efendi and by a decree given by Sultan Suleyman

* In 1638 the governor of Amed, Melek Ahmed Pasha had a massacre executed in Shengal

* In 1650 mass killing of the Yazidis was decreed by Murad IV, perpetrated by Governor of Van, Shemsi Pasha in Mosul

* In 1715 a massacre was committed in Shengal by the Governor of Baghdad, Hasan Pasha

* In 1733 mass murder of the Yazidis in Shexan by the Governor of Baghdad Ahmed Pasha

* In 1752 mass murder in Shengal by the Governor of Baghdad, Suleyman Pasha

* Between 1732-1733 Nadir Shah ordered a massacre of the Yazidis in between Surdash and Kirkuk

* In 1733 the mass murder of the Yazidis at the shore of Lake Zap by the Celiliyan

* In 1735 Nadir Shah commanded the mass killing of the Yazidis in Mahabad, Saldûz and Meraxi

* In 1742 Alî Takî Han, one of Nadir Shah's loyalists, committed a massacre of the Yazidi people in Saldûz

* In 1743 Nadir Shah perpetrated a mass killing of the Yazidi Kurds in Kirkuk, Hewler and Altunköprü

* In 1773 Nadir Shah ordered a massacre of Yazidis at the shore of Lake Zap

* In 1787 the Celiliyan committed a mass murder against the Yazidis in Shexan

* In 1798 Deputy Governor of Baghdad Abdulazaz Bin Abdullah Beg had a massacre against the Yazidis perpetrated in Shexan

* Between 1753 and 1800 Ottoman Shahs ordered the pillaging, imposition of heavy taxes, enslavements and genocides of the Yazidi Kurds (about six major attacks were conducted in Shengal, Shexan and Mosul)

* In 1809 Governor of Baghdad Suleyman Pasha ordered a mass killing of the Yazidis in Shengal

* In 1824 massacre against the Yazidis in Shengal ordered by the Governor of Baghdad Ali Pasha

* Between 1832-1834 mass killings were commanded by the Lord of Soran Muhammed Pasha

* In 1835 Governor of Mosul Muhammed Ince Bayraktar had a massacre perpetrated in Shengal

* In 1836 Reshid Pasha had a massacre committed in Shengal

* In 1837 Hafiz Pasha had a massacre committed in Shengal

* In 1844 mass killing of Yazidis took place in Botan

* In 1892 the Islamisation politics of Abdulhamit the 2nd on the Yazidi community led to mass murders of the Yazidis

For more detailed information, one is advised to read the book "Yazidis in the clutches of fatwas, genocides and massacres" written by Prof. Dr. Kadri Yildirim and the book titled "A people defying genocides, the Yazidis" by journalist Mazlum Özdemir.

THE MASSACRE OF 2007

One of the more recent mass killings against the Yazidi Kurds took place in 2007. On the 14th August 2007 attacks were carried out by four bomb laden trucks in the villages of Siba Shex Xidir and Til Izer of Shengal. As a result, 300 people were killed. No investigations were launched in this case whatsoever. It was reported that this massacre was perpetrated by a group of gangs called Ensar El Sune affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which tried at that time to get some foothold in Southern Kurdistan. However, many sources say that the Turkmen Front of Iraq (ITC) was involved in the attack, which was forged by the Turkish secret service in Southern Kurdistan.

The Yazidis called this attack until the 3rd August 2014 "the last decree".

SHENGAL’S STATUS BEFORE 3 AUGUST GENOCIDE

The Kurdish Yazidis were predominantly living in the Shexan district of Duhok, Shengal district of Mosul and the villages of surrounding districts. In 1975 under the Iraqi Ba'ath regime, the Yazidis were forcibly resettled. In each and every genocide they faced, the Yazidi people saved themselves from the protective arms of Mount Shengal. But in 1975 they were removed by force from the villages of the mountains and resettled in Khanasor, Til Izer, Sinune, Siba Shex Xidir, Kocho and Dugurê and around 15 other villages on the foothills of the mountain.

When, in 2003, the US intervened in Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, a new constitution was prepared for Iraq. According to article 140 of this constitution, Shengal was left as a so called "disputable area" between the government of Southern Kurdistan and the central government of Iraq. A referendum was planned for 2007 to be held in Shengal as well, but until today that referendum was never realised.

However, unlike the cities of Kirkuk, Jalawla, Khanaqin and Tuz Khurmatu, the KDP established its monocracy in Shengal. The city was allegedly "under the protection" of the Peshmergas and asayish of the KDP and the federal police of Iraq.

SHENGAL’S SITUATION PRIOR TO AUGUST 3 GENOCIDE

After imposing its absolute rule on Shengal in 2003, the KDP promoted backward traditions of society and profited until the end from the caste system of the Sheiks, through which it kept the Yazidi people under its control. The KDP even used the faith of the Yazidis for its own advantage and supported this sheikh system, keeping tabs on the entire Yazidi people.

One of the commanders of the Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) Tîrêj Şengal talked with the ANF about the latest genocide of the Yazidis and the system, which the KDP had established in Shengal, saying: "They made everyone who went to them into one of their Peshmerga and paid them a wage. They told them, go eat and drink and get your money, but do not think. They did not appreciate it when people were talking about things like honour, freedom and values. So the people stayed unorganised and uneducated until the end."

PRESSURES ON WOMEN IN THE YAZIDI SOCIETY

Member of the Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ) Xoxê Dexîl talked about the Yazidi society before the outbreak of the genocide and drew attention to the violence and pressure the Yazidi women were subject to in society, saying: "The status of the women was very weak in the Yazidi society, almost not existent. To put it in other words, a woman was as good, as much as the pressures she was subject to and as much as she was silenced! But one must not let out the continuous resistance of women against this. Yet those struggles were mostly constricted to some private people. However, when we saw after the genocide the women from Rojava and those in the guerrillas, we started to organise ourselves with their help."

TOWARDS 3 AUGUST GENOCIDE

On the 10th of June 2014 when ISIS invaded Mosul, Shengal ran into danger more than any other district of Mosul. The Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan issued many warnings for Shengal's protection. In the context of those foresights of Öcalan, the PKK sent a unit of 12 guerrillas to Mount Shengal. On the growing imminent threats that were hovering over Shengal, the leadership of the PKK got in contact with the KDP and called attention to the grave situation. The PKK made clear that it could send some of its forces to Shengal, but the KDP did not answer this call made by the PKK.

A FORCE OF 11000 WELL-EQUIPPED MEN WERE ON SITE

After invading Mosul, the ISIS gangs charged Tal Afar, a district of the Turkmen community in the immediate vicinity of Shengal. A great number of the Shia Turkmen people here fled to Shengal. The gangs were now very close to attacking Shengal next. However, instead of commencing the necessary preparations, the KDP suddenly began to seize the arms and weapons of the Yazidi people, telling them: "We will protect you". According to official statistics that were revealed afterwards, prior to the barbaric attacks of the ISIS gangs on Shengal, the number of the Peshmerga and asayish members of Southern Kurdistan and the Iraqi Federal Police, traffic police and armed units that were affiliated with some other political parties comprised altogether 11000 personnel positioned in Shengal and the surrounding villages.

“THEY WERE HERE FOR MONEY, AND FLED WHEN DANGER APPROACHED”

YBŞ Commander Tîrêj Şengal gave the following information about the military force in Shengal: "At that time, when the ISIS gangs took over all the areas around Shengal one after another, we still did not believe that we could be next. Because we were surrounded by a massive army of Peshmergas and even Iraqi soldiers. And we trusted them. They used to tell us: 'We will protect you'. But unfortunately, they fled when the attacks started. Only when we asked them why they ran away, did we understand that they did not consider this place their soil and had been conscripted for the "duty to defend" only for the money. As they saw the danger approaching, they fled as soon as they were ordered to do so, without even looking back once."

THEY SEIZED THE ARMS OF YAZIDI YOUTHS

Shengal Autonomous Council Deputy Co-chair Qehtan Xelîl recalled that the Peshmerga of the KDP seized all the weapons and arms of the young Yazidis shortly before the start of the genocide and stated: "On the crossing from Shengal to Tal Afar, the KDP had set up a checkpoint. When ISIS swept over ravaging, all the arms of the Yazidi youth were taken away from them here. They assured us with words like: 'We will protect you, don't worry, you don't need to take up arms'. And they seized all the weapons there. However, during the genocide they did not even shoot a bullet, they did not give one martyr and had not even one of their fingers bleed. They all ran away."

YPG: We will always stand with our Yazidi people

“In the event of an attack against our Yazidi people, we will take it as an attack directed against us and act accordingly. Our heroic martyrs entrusted us with the defence of Shengal,” said the YPG.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Thursday, 3 Aug 2023, 16:34

The General Command of People’s Defense Units (YPG) released a statement marking 3 August, the ninth anniversary of the beginning of the ISIS genocide against the Yazidi population of the Shengal (Sinjar) region of southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) in 2014.

Calling the Yazidi genocide one of the most tragic and traumatic massacres in human history, YPG stated: “The forces responsible for the Shengal region at the time, as well as all regional and international states remained blind, deaf and dumb about this genocide, which was a great shame not only for the region but the entire humanity. All world powers are responsible for defending the rights of the Yazidi community and supporting their freedom struggle to make sure that they are not subjected to similar massacres again.”

Pointing to the heroic resistance put up by the HPG (People’s Defense Forces), YPG (People’s Defense Units) and YPJ (Women’s Defense Units) to defend Shengal, YPG noted that young women and men in Shengal took part in the resistance alongside the YPG-YPJ fighters and prevented a terrible genocide.

The YPG stressed that the invading Turkish state seeks to complete the Yazidi genocide that ISIS left unfinished, calling on the international powers and states to intervene in the Turkish state that collaborates with ISIS and to call it to account.

The YPG statement concluded: “We will always stand with our Yazidi people as we did in the past and do today. In the event of an attack against our Yazidi people, we will take it as an attack directed against us and act accordingly. Our heroic martyrs entrusted us with the defence of Shengal.”

US STATE DEPT.

The 9th Anniversary of the Yezidi Genocide

PRESS STATEMENT

MATTHEW MILLER, DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON

AUGUST 3, 2023

Today we remember the victims and stand in solidarity with survivors of the Yezidi genocide perpetrated by ISIS terrorists. ISIS abducted and killed thousands of Yezidis, forcing boys to become child soldiers and selling women and girls into sexual slavery. The number of people killed remains unknown, and discoveries of mass graves continue. The scars of that experience are borne by Yezidis around the world to this day.

Our support for the Yezidi community is unwavering. As we reflect on this day, we continue to press for justice and accountability for victims and survivors and respect for the human rights of all Yezidis, including the freedom of religion or belief. We urge full implementation of the Yezidi Survivors’ Law, as well as the 2020 Sinjar Agreement, in consultation with the communities that call Sinjar home. Governance and security officials should reflect the diversity of the communities that they serve.

By pursuing justice and accountability, addressing the drivers of violence, and preventing genocide and other atrocities in the future, Iraq has the opportunity to embark on a new path that leads to greater peace, stability, and prosperity for all of its communities. With this approach, Iraq can serve as an example of mutual respect and coexistence for the region and the world. Yezidis are crucial in this effort. So while we keep alive the memory of the victims and recognize the survivors and their suffering, we also honor the strength, resilience, and determination of Yezidis.

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Documentary 'Sabaya' shows rescue of 'IS' sex slaves

Hogir Hirori's award-winning documentary portrays the struggles of activists determined to save Yazidi girls and women who were captured by the "Islamic State."



The niqab makes it difficult to identify Yazidis living in the camp

Right at the beginning of the film Sabaya, the defeat of the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group in Syria is announced on the radio.

But the news doesn't have much impact on the task undertaken by Mahmud and Ziyad, volunteers of the Yazidi Home Center. They are on their way to the notoriously dangerous internment camp al-Hol, where an estimated 73,000 individuals from 58 countries — most of them suspected supporters and families of IS militants — are living in tents.

Hidden among them are Yazidi girls and women who were kidnapped by IS to serve as sex slaves, called "sabaya."

The abductions took place five years earlier, when IS captured the province of Sinjar in Iraq. The 2014 massacre against the Yazidis in the region marked the beginning of the genocide of the ancient religious minority.

Watch video 12:03 Aftermath of a genocide: Yazidis of Sinjar Immersive cinema

Mahmud, Ziyad and the small team of the Yazidi Home Center work to locate and save the captive Yazidi — and filmmaker Hogir Hirori joined them to document their dangerous rescue missions.

As one expedition leads to a car chase and a shoot-out on a bumpy road, Hirori's camera stays still, not missing a second of the action. "But I didn't expect to survive that," the filmmaker told DW through an interpreter at the German premiere of his film.

Sabaya opened the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin, held as a hybrid online and on-site event from September 16-25. Even though the Berlin event was the first the director could personally attend due to COVID, Sabaya has already been shown at 30 international festivals, winning the 2021 World Documentary Directing Award at Sundance among other prizes.

Documentary filmmaker Hogir Hirori

The director, who has been living living in Sweden since 1999, was born in Kurdistan, not too far from Sinjar. Sabaya is his third film in a trilogy on the impact of war in the region, following The Girl Who Saved My Life (2014) and The Deminer (2017).

Through his immersive filmmaking style, Hirori offers the audience rare access to the al-Hol camp. Even though many of the detainees have since been relocated, it is estimated that there are still more than 60,000 refugees in the overcrowded camp controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led military alliance that served as a partner of the US in the war on IS in Syria.

To gain the trust of the Yazidi Home Center team and the people they rescue, the documentary filmmaker spent a long period with them: "When they accepted to let me film, they expected me to stay a day or two, or maybe a week, but I was with them for a year and a half," Hogir said.

Children sold from one violent man to the other

What makes the documentary particularly poignant is the stories shared by the women and girls following their rescue from al-Hol.

Some of them were only 12 when they were abducted, right after they had to witness the killing of their entire family.

One survivor recounts how she was sold to 15 different men, who beat her up so badly she ended up with a hole in her head and missing teeth.

Another rescued Yazidi child shown in the film was taken as a 1-year-old baby.
Mothers separated from their rape-born children

Before they return to Sinjar, the rescued women and children are temporarily taken care of by Mahmud's family. His mother cooks for them and his young son plays with them, offering a calming refuge from years of atrocities, but the survivors are caught between dealing with their past trauma and facing bleak perspectives for the future. Not only their family has been decimated, they fear being stigmatized as a former sabaya.

The situation is particularly wrenching for women with children born from IS fathers, since they cannot return to their community with the kids; the Supreme Yazidi Spiritual Council has determined they could not accept children born from rape.

Yazidi women cannot return to their community with a rape-born child

Complicating matters, as Hirori points out, according to Iraqi laws, those children are automatically born as Muslims and must therefore be raised as Muslims. For now, the filmmaker says, the only available solution is to relocate the Yazidi mothers and their children to another country.

Risking his life to make this film even though he also has young children, one of Hirori's main motivations was to reactivate the calls for action from the international community: "I wanted to make this documentary so no one could say I didn't know or never heard of it," he said at the film festival in Berlin.

Also risking their life are the volunteers of the Yazidi Home Center, which includes former sabaya agreeing to work as infiltrators in the al-Hol camp to track down Yazidi detainees amid the mass of IS women who are instrumental in keeping them captive.

Adding to the challenge of identifying the captive Yazidi, the women are to wear a niqab, the dress ultra-conservative female Muslims wear to cover the faces.

Activists collect photos of the missing Yazidi in their efforts to rescue them

In the film, Mahmud and Ziyad are in constant communication with the infiltrators, spending their days and nights preparing the next rescue mission, comparing pictures of the captive Yazidis, equipped only with a cell phone with a bad internet connection.
Still thousands missing

The Yazidi Home Center managed to save 206 people. Of the estimated 7,000 Yazidi girls and women who have been enslaved by IS since 2014, there are between 2,000 - 2,800 still missing, according to various estimates.

Since the completion of the film, Ziyad, the director of the Yazidi Home Center had to flee Syria due to increased IS attacks, but he keeps on working on reuniting Yazidi mothers with their children from abroad. Mahmud's home is also a target and can no longer serve as a shelter for the girls.

Hirori hopes that larger government bodies will get involved to save these women who have been largely forgotten by the international community amid other crises: "If individual activists, only equipped with a mobile phone with a poor connection and a small gun can achieve so much, then a major organization can do much more."

THE PLIGHT OF THE YAZIDI MINORITY IN IRAQ

The Yazidis: A history of persecution

For hundreds of years, the Yazidi community has been persecuted for its religious views, an amalgamation of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam. Throughout their history, they have been killed, forced to convert to other religions and even taken as slaves. While the Kurdish-speaking minority community in northern Iraq had been attacked before, 2014 marked a tragic turning point in history.

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Adrift after enslavement, Yazidi teen says she can’t go home
By SAMYA KULLAB

1 of 3

Roza Barakat poses for a portrait in a safe house in Hassakeh, Syria, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. Barakat was 11 years old when she was taken by IS militants, along with thousands of others, when the extremists overran her hometown of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq. Eight years later, she is living in the shadows, afraid to go home and fearing her community won't accept her. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)


BARZAN, Syria (AP) — Roza Barakat’s tormentors have been defeated, but the horrors she endured still hold her captive.

She was 11 years old when she was captured and enslaved by the Islamic State group, along with thousands of other Yazidi women and girls taken when the militants overran northern Iraq in their brutal 2014 campaign.

Torn from her family in the town of Sinjar, the enclave of the ancient religious Yazidi minority, she was taken to Syria, sold multiple times and repeatedly raped. She bore a child, a boy she has since lost. Now, at 18, she speaks little of her native Kurdish dialect, Kurmanji.

With the defeat of IS in 2019, Barakat slipped into the shadows, opting to hide in the turmoil that followed the worst of the battles. As IS fighters were arrested, their wives and children were packed into detention camps. Barakat was free, but she couldn’t go home.

“I don’t know how I’ll face my community,” she told The Associated Press, speaking in Arabic, as she nervously played with the ends of her long dark braid, the red polish on her dainty fingers fading.

For years, her IS captors told her she would never be accepted if she returned. “I believed them,” she said.

Barakat’s tale, corroborated by Yazidi and Syrian Kurdish officials, is a window into the complicated realities faced by many Yazidi women who came of age under the brutal rule of IS. Traumatized and lost, many struggle to come to terms with the past, while the Yazidi community is at odds over how to accept them.

“What do you expect from a child who was raped at 12, gave birth at 13?” said Faruk Tuzu, co-chair of Yazidi House, an umbrella of Yazidi organizations in northeastern Syria. “After so much shock and abuse they don’t believe in anything anymore, they don’t belong anywhere.”

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission.

Barakat spoke to the AP from a safe house run by Tuzu’s group just a few days after the leader of the Islamic State group, believed to have played a key role in the enslavement of Yazidi women, was killed in a U.S. raid in northwestern Syria.

She shrugged off the news, saying it doesn’t make a difference.

IS first sold Barakat to an Iraqi from Tal Afar, a man older than her father. She shudders as she recounts how he “made me call his wife ‘mother.’” After a few months she was sold to another man.

Eventually, her IS captors gave her a choice: Convert to Islam and marry an IS fighter, or be sold again. She converted, she says, to avoid being sold. She married a Lebanese they chose for her, a man who ferried food and equipment for IS fighters.

“He was better than most,” she said. At 13, she gave birth to a son, Hoodh. At the peak of the militants’ self-proclaimed “caliphate,” they lived in the city of Raqqa, the IS capital.

Once, she begged her husband to find out what happened to her older sisters who had been taken just like her. She had lost hope that her parents were still alive.

Some weeks later, he told her he found one of her sisters, holding up a photo of a woman in Raqqa’s slave market where Yazidi girls were sold.

“How different she looks,” Barakat remembers thinking.

By early 2019 as IS rule was crumbling, Barakat fled with her husband first to the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, and then to the town of Baghouz, which became IS’s last stand. As U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces surrounded Baghouz, a safe passage was offered to women and children.

At this point, Barakat could have stepped forward and identified herself as a Yazidi and sought safety. But instead, she clutched Hoodh in her arms and walked out of the town with other IS wives.

Today, over 2,800 Yazidi women and children are still missing, said Tuzu. Some have cut ties and are building new lives outside the community, believing that if they return, they’d be killed. Others fear being separated from their children, fathered by IS members.

Iraq’s Yazidi community has forced women returning to Sinjar to give up their children as a condition to return. Many were told their children would be adopted by Syrian Kurdish families but dozens have ended up in an orphanage in northeastern Syria.

The fate of the children has been at the center of an ongoing debate within the Yazidi community. In 2019, the Yazidi Spiritual Council, the highest authority among Yazidis, called on members to accept all Yazidi survivors of IS atrocities. Days later, the council clarified the decision excluded children born of IS rape.

“This is our mistake, and we recognize that — we didn’t allow the children to stay with their mothers,” said Tuzu.

He confirmed that some Yazidi women are still at al-Hol camp, which holds tens of thousands of women and children, mostly wives, widows and children of IS members.

Many of the missing Yazidis scattered across Syria and Turkey, others live clandestine lives in the Syrian city of Aleppo and in Deir El-Zour. Tuzu expects the majority may have gone to the rebel province of Idlib, where al-Qaida is dominant but where IS also maintains a presence.

After walking out of Baghouz with other IS women in March 2019, Barakat slipped away to a nearby village rather than end up in a camp. With the help of IS sympathizers, she took a smuggling route and ended up in Idlib, in northwesten Syria, in a home for IS widows. Her husband was killed in Baghouz.

Here, Barakat’s story diverges from what she told officials. Initially, she told them she had left her son behind in Idlib to find work elsewhere. She told the AP that Hoodh died after an airstrike in Idlib.

When pressed to clarify, she said: “It’s hard. I don’t want to talk about it.”

With the help of a smuggler, she made her way to Deir el-Zour and eventually found work at a clothing market, saving up for a new life in Turkey.

She still dreamed of making it to Turkey when Kurdish internal security forces caught her last month, waiting in a house in the town of al-Tweinah to be taken by smugglers across the Syria-Turkey border.

She was held and interrogated for days.

“I did everything to hide that I was Yazidi,” she said. She told the investigators she was from Deir el-Zour, and was hoping to get medical treatment in Turkey, but they didn’t buy it.

One held up an old photo found on her mobile phone — a young Yazidi woman in an IS slave market — and asked her to explain.

“The words just came out: ‘That is my sister,’” Barakat said.

Once the truth was out, Barakat was taken to a safe house in the village of Barzan, in Syria’s Hassakeh province, where the Yazidi community welcomed her.

“I was in shock to hear their kind words, and to be welcomed the way I was,” she said.

She isn’t ready to go back to Sinjar just yet. Her entire family was either killed or is still unaccounted for.

What is there to go back to, she wonders. “I need time, for myself.”

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German parliament recognises Yazidi 'genocide' in Iraq

Deborah COLE
Thu, 19 January 2023 


Germany's lower house of parliament recognised on Thursday the 2014 massacre of Yazidis by Islamic State group jihadists in Iraq as a "genocide", and called for measures to assist the besieged minority.

In a move hailed by Yazidi community representatives, deputies in the Bundestag unanimously passed the motion by the three parliamentary groups in Germany's ruling centre-left-led coalition and conservative MPs.

Thursday's vote followed similar moves by countries including Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The chamber "recognises the crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, following the legal evaluations of investigators from the United Nations", the resolution said.

The text condemns "indescribable atrocities" and "tyrannical injustice" carried out by IS fighters "with the intention of completely wiping out the Yazidi community".

It urges the German judicial system to pursue further criminal cases against suspects in Germany. And it calls on the government to increase financial support to collect evidence of crimes in Iraq and boost funding to help rebuild shattered Yazidi communities.

It also calls for Germany to establish a documentation centre for crimes against Yazidis to ensure a historical record, and to press Baghdad to protect the minority group's rights.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi rights activist, said she hoped the resolution would inspire other countries to follow suit. "Survivors deserve no less."

- 'Prevent future genocides' -

Islamic State jihadists in August 2014 massacred more than 1,200 Yazidis, members of a Kurdish-speaking community in northwest Iraq that follows an ancient religion rooted in Zoroastrianism. IS sees them as "devil worshippers".

The Yazidi minority has been particularly persecuted by the jihadist group, which has also forced its women and girls into sexual slavery and enlisted boys as child soldiers.

A special UN investigation team said in May 2021 that it had collected "clear and convincing evidence" that IS had committed genocide against the Yazidis.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recalled speaking to Yazidi women in Iraq who had been raped and held captive by IS fighters. The motion was being passed for them and "in the name of humanity", she said.

"We must call out these crimes by their name," she told the chamber. "We must ask what we can do to prevent future genocides."

Around two dozen Yazidi community representatives attended the debate at the glass-domed Reichstag parliament building in central Berlin.

Mirza Dinnayi, head of NGO Air Bridge Iraq which assists Yazidis, told AFP the measure was "pioneering" for addressing "the consequences of the genocide".

He welcomed the inclusion of "practical steps the German government can take to support the Yazidi community in Iraq as well as the diaspora".

A Yazidi MP in the Iraqi parliament, Nayef Khalaf Sido, called it a "historic turning point" that would bring "positive effects for Yazidis" on the ground.

Kurdish regional president Nechirvan Barzani thanked Germany for its "continued support" and encouraged other nations to take similar steps.

- 'Silence cost lives' -

Green lawmaker Max Lucks said Germany was home to what is believed to be the world's largest Yazidi diaspora of about 150,000 people, meaning the country had a particular responsibility to the community.

"Their pain will never go away," he told the Bundestag.

"We owe this to the Yazidis because we did not take action (in 2014) when we were needed. Our silence cost lives."

Derya Turk-Nachbaur, a Social Democrat and one of the sponsors of the measure, noted there was "no statute of limitations on genocide.

"It was impossible for us to close our eyes any longer to their suffering," she said of the Yazidis.

"The indescribable atrocities of IS militias must not go unpunished -- not in Iraq and not in Germany."

While the Bundestag motion on genocide has no bearing on criminal trials, human rights advocates say it carries important symbolic and political weight.

Germany is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against IS.

In November 2021, a German court convicted an Iraqi jihadist of genocide against the Yazidi, a first in the world that Murad hailed as a victory in the fight for recognition of the abuses committed by IS.

And last week, a German woman went on trial in the southwestern city of Koblenz accused of aiding and abetting war crimes and genocide with IS in Syria by "enslaving" a Yazidi woman.

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Yezidism is syncretistic: it combines elements of many faiths. Like Hindus, they believe in reincarnation. Like ancient Mithraists, they sacrifice bulls. They practise baptism, like Christians. When they pray they face the sun, like Zoroastrians. They profess to revile Islam, but there are strong links with Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

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IRAQI KURDISTAN
KCK calls on Baghdad to establish a dialogue with Yazidis in Shengal

The KCK Foreign Relations Committee called on Baghdad to establish a dialogue with the Yazidi people and said, "As the Freedom Movement, we would support any constructive democratic process that leads to a solution to the current situation."

ANF
BEHDINAN
Friday, 22 Apr 2022,

In a written statement regarding the Turkish state's invasion attacks and the tension in Shengal, the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Foreign Relations Committee called for the Iraqi state to remove weapons and violence from the dialogue process it will develop with the Yazidi people, stating that discussion should serve as the foundation.

The KCK Foreign Relations Committee statement released on Friday is as follows:

“On April 17, 2022, the fascist Turkish regime launched a new attack in its genocidal war against our people. Stuck in a corner with his past crimes, having his economy hit rock bottom since it was spent against the Kurds and dominated by theft, and society demonstrating its opposition to this fascist regime everywhere, fascist Erdogan attempted to alter the agenda. These efforts, though, were ineffective in extending his time and the fascist dictatorship. As a result, he is trying to expand his lands and destroy our people's achievements by utilizing collaborating groupings and families such as the KDP, trying to leave not a singular focus to oppose on behalf of Kurdistan.

While the fascist regime's attacks to this end continue, the courageous and innovative resistance of the Kurdistan freedom guerrilla frustrates many schemes. Calling the fascist Turkish regime's actions exclusively opposed to the PKK suggests that either nothing is understood from history or that there is a partnership in these schemes. The Turkish state has a long history of anti-Kurdish sentiment.

THEY WANT TO REALIZE THEIR NEO-OTTOMAN DREAMS

The Turkish state views any Kurd resisting in the name of the Kurdistan freedom struggle to be dangerous and will do all in its power to destroy it. Furthermore, the same fascist state is working hard to actualize their Neo-Ottomanist dreams. Designating Mosul and Kirkuk as Turkish territories, it organizes agents and carries out activities. Again, it sees no harm in interfering in Iraq's domestic affairs and engages in a variety of initiatives to make sure that political stability is not maintained. The Turkish state’s role is crucial in Iraq's inability to establish stability. The fascist Turkish state continues to carry out its plan to break up Iraq and occupy the area up to Mosul and Kirkuk with this strategy. The KDP is the plan's most important proponent. The KDP is the most supportive of the invaders against the Kurdistan freedom guerrillas' resistance against the Turkish army.

DIALOGUE WITH YAZIDI PEOPLE IS NECESSARY

The fascist Turkish dictatorship has recently increased its attacks on Shengal and our Yazidi people who have just recently experienced genocidal attacks by ISIS. Thousands of women and children were taken prisoner during the 73rd massacre, and their fate is still unknown. While rebuilding their lives following the defeat of ISIS, our Yazidi people also wanted to develop measures to prevent future genocides. For this goal, they established the autonomous administration model while keeping in mind federalism, which is also the spirit of the Iraqi constitution. This endeavor by the Yazidi people largely irritated the KDP, which had handed over Shengal to ISIS, as well as the Turkish state, which was in charge of ISIS. Once again, the Yazidis tried to develop this process in coordination and dialogue with Iraq.

The media has reported tensions between the Iraqi army and the Yazidi population in Shengal in recent days. When the ISIS attacks began, we as a movement intervened in the 73rd massacre. We defended our Yazidi brothers and sisters against these attacks. Following that, a substantial number of ISIS attacks were defeated in the Shengal region, particularly by the YBŞ-YJŞ and Asayiş which are the defensive forces of Yazidis, with the cooperation and assistance of the Iraqi state. Following this process, the Yazidi people in Shengal established their autonomous administration. This procedure was conducted in order to prevent any possible attacks on the Iraqi peoples via Shengal. As a result, the Yazidi defense force in Shengal is not a problem for Iraq, but rather a solution.

It is understood that a plan is in effect, to bring the Iraqi state and the Yazidis face to face at a time when the Turkish invasion attack on South Kurdistan and Iraq has intensified. The Yazidis are a folk that has been subjected to genocides. Iraq must treat the Yazidis and their political will with greater sensitivity and responsibility.

The forces pointing guns at the Yazidis were ISIS, KDP, and Turkey recently. The Iraqi state, on the other hand, should exclude guns and violence from the dialogue process it will develop with the Yazidi people. Agreements made against the will of the Yazidis, the construction of the Turkish wall, and disregard for the values of the people do not address the problems.

Advancing upon the Yazidi people and their children with military vehicles leads to conflict, not dialogue. Neither the Yazidis nor the Iraqi state should get to that point. Similarly, the Shengal autonomous administration should share its solution initiatives with the Iraqi government and administration, with the goal of resolving the conflict through negotiation. In this regard, we would like to stress that the Freedom Movement would support all forms of constructive democratic methods to solve the problem.

As a movement, we are engaged in a major fight against the colonial Turkish state. This is not simply the Kurds' freedom war, but also the resistance of the region's peoples for freedom and peace. The Turkish state's neo-Ottoman scheme will be confronted by the Kurdistan guerrilla's walls and broken into pieces. As a movement, we will continue to frustrate these schemes and resist for the sake of the region's peoples' freedom, peace, and stability. We call upon both the Iraqi state and society to see the dangers of the Turkish state's and its accomplices' invasion plans and to speak out more loudly against them.”

Iraqi army attacks YBŞ and YJŞ positions in Shengal
The Iraqi attacks on the self-governing Yazidi region of Shengal in South Kurdistan continue to escalate. After the Iraqi military tried to take control of check-points of the Êzidxan Asayiş 

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