Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

Red Wednesday 19 April 6767

Roj Bash Kurdistan seeks to remind it's supporters of the horrors endured by the peaceful Yazidis and hope that wherever you are, you will ALL do your utmost to support the Yazidis and assure they NEVER suffer such genocide again

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/W4YPaM4pTAo

[Anthea]

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/Bxwb5m-7h50

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/bO1r0s2mw1k

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/PNi43lSmCkg

[Anthea]

Why did not anyone put a stop ISIS before it slaughtered the Yazidis?

Why is it not the top priority of the entire world to rescue the captive Yazidis?

Why has not the international community provided secure new homes for the Yazidis on their homeland?

The start of ISIS genocide

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/b1LorvEMftw

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Direct link: https://youtu.be/n0lN40udcJQ

[Anthea]

The world must stop playing war games in Syria and Iraq:

Both America and the UK sell the largest portion of their weapons to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Islamic country that is supporting ISIS Sunni rebels within Syria and Iraq

Both the US and the UK are helping to provide weapons for the Islamic State - then they are attacking ISIS for using those weapons

STOP PROVIDING WEAPONS and PROLONG THE WAR

STOP BOMBING and KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE

The number one priority MUST be to

FREE THE YAZIDI CAPTIVES

[Anthea]

If thousands of European or American women and children were held captive by ISIS - does anyone seriously believe that they would have been ignored, almost forgotten about and left to suffer from daily humiliation and torture for more than 2 1/2 years

[Anthea]

Yazidi girl taken by Islamic State aged 8 freed by Iraqi Forces

A Yazidi girl aged only 8 was kidnapped by Islamic State forces in 2014

Iraqi security forces freed the girl, now aged 11, from IS stronghold Mosul

Her mother and siblings were taken too - some are still in Raqqa others Germany

'They who kidnap these children are monsters,' said police chief Jaafar al-Baatat

Iraqi forces in Mosul have freed an 11-year-old Yazidi girl who was kidnapped and sold as a slave by the Islamic State group in 2014.

The girl was taken by the jihadists from the village of Kosho, south of the Yazidi hub of Sinjar in northern Iraq, together with her mother and sisters.

She was freed during an operation by the security forces on Thursday in west Mosul a federal police chief said in a statement.

Iraqi forces have freed an 11-year-old girl from Mosul who was taken by the Islamic State aged only eight. In 2014, thousands of Yazidi women were captured and sold into slavery. it is thought that at least 3,000 remain in enslavement, violently forced into sex and motherhood

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service has been operating in the area and secured more than half of the neighbourhood on Thursday.

'They who kidnap these children are monsters,' Major General Jaafar al-Baatat said in a statement which was released with a video showing the girl at a police base south of Mosul.

Vian Dakhil, a prominent Yazidi lawmaker who helped bring her minority's plight to the world's attention when ISIS jihadists swept through the region in 2014, said the girl's release had been carefully planned.

'When Daesh (ISIS) took her village on August 15, 2014, she was eight years old and she was kidnapped with her mother and her sisters. She was initially taken to Tal Afar and was sold on to Mosul.'

Yazidis are neither Arab nor Muslim and when IS swept across northern Iraq almost three years ago, it carried out massacres against the minority which the United Nations said qualified as genocide.

Most of the several hundred thousand members of the minority live in northern Iraq, mainly around Sinjar, a large town which anti-IS forces have now retaken but was extensively destroyed.

In 2014, IS jihadists captured Yazidi women and turned them into sex slaves to be sold and exchanged across their self-proclaimed 'caliphate'.

Around 3,000 of them are believed to remain in captivity.

The girl was taken by the jihadists from the village of Kosho, south of the Yazidi hub of Sinjar in northern Iraq, together with her mother and sisters. Her mother and sister were sold in Raqqa and remain there while two other sisters have been freed and now live in Germany

On the police video, the girl stands silently, wearing a light green head scarf as officers try to reassure her. Many of towns and villages have now been retaken from the jihadists by the Iraqi security forces but they are often still unsafe or need to be completely rebuilt

On the police video, the girl stands silently, wearing a light green head scarf as officers try to reassure her.

'She has two sisters who were sold and sent to Raqqa,' said Dakhil, referring to the Syrian city that is still controlled by ISIS and the other main hub of the 'caliphate'.

'They are still there.'

Dakhil explained that the girl's two other sisters and mother were bought back from IS, a method which has been used by the authorities and Yazidi organisations to free hundreds of women, and now live in Germany.

The girl and her family are originally from Kosho, the same village Yazidi rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Nadia Murad is from.

'They who kidnap these children are monsters,' said Major General Jaafar al-Baatat in a statement following the girl's release

Vian Dakhil said the girl's father had a disability.

'Her cousin who lives in a camp for the displaced near Dohuk (in autonomous Kurdistan) is coming to fetch her,' she said.

The Yazidi community, which follows a unique faith, celebrated their New Year on Wednesday.

Many of towns and villages have now been retaken from the jihadists by the Iraqi security forces but they are often still unsafe or need to be completely rebuilt.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... freed.html

[Anthea]

Yazidi girl, 11, kidnapped by Islamic State aged only 8 freed by Iraqi Forces from the jihadist stronghold Mosul

Question:

Does this mean that there are other Yazidi captives being held by ISIS in Mosul?

I suspect YES

Question:

Does this mean that some of the Yazidi captives have been killed in the Mosul slaughter?

I suspect YES

Question:

Was the 11 year old girl the only Yazidi being held captive in Mosul?

I suspect NO

[Anthea]

Yazidis are still seeking safety on a mountain

Wadha Khalaf sits cross-legged on the rough ground, throwing dough between her hands like she’s done it a million times before.



The 45-year-old mother of 13 is a new arrival among the thousands of displaced Yazidis living on top of Mount Sinjar, in northern Iraq — a sacred place for people of her faith.

But it is not the first time she has sought safety here.

Nearly three years after fleeing a murderous rampage by ISIS fighters, Khalaf is part of a wave of Yazidi families who have been forced to escape again, this time because of fighting between groups that have sworn to protect them.

“It has made me feel like we would never feel happy again in our life,” she says as she piles the bread high.

Fleeing to the mountain

This tent city on the mountain where Khalaf is taking shelter has been here since 2014, when thousands fled an ISIS invasion of dozens of towns and villages in the Sinjar region, in what the United Nations says was genocide against the Yazidi people.

ISIS kidnapped thousands of Yazidi women to use as sex slaves and killed civilians by the hundred. Nearly 4,000 Yazidi women are still being held by the militant group, according to the Women and Girls Support Center.

Those were the atrocities that prompted the United States, in August 2014, to launch its first strikes against ISIS in Iraq, opening a long campaign against the group that has extended to Syria, and been overseen by two presidents.

Years later, despite huge international attention for their plight, many Yazidis are still searching for safety.

In March, long-simmering tensions between rival Kurdish groups boiled over into armed clashes in the Sinjar region.

With ISIS to the south and Kurdish infighting in the north, there is now a sense among Yazidis that they are once again trapped on Mount Sinjar. It has become both a sanctuary and a prison.

After being stranded on the mountain for nearly two weeks in 2014, Khalaf and her family made their way to a refugee camp in Syria, where they lived for two years. They later came back to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq and stayed in a relative’s house in the town of Sinuni. They were there for nine months when fighting broke out in March between Kurds in a neighboring town.

“We don’t dare to go back again. There are people getting killed in these fights,” she says. “When we got to Sinuni, we thought everything would be OK. But it is not safe there.”

A battle for influence

At the root of the fighting is a battle for influence in the Sinjar region and the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

The PKK was founded in the late 1970s to fight for autonomy and greater rights for Turkey’s more than 20 million Kurds. It is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

More recently, it has played a key role in the fight against ISIS.

The peshmerga, the semi-autonomous Kurdish region’s official army in northern Iraq, fled as ISIS advanced in 2014. But PKK fighters based in the mountains farther north, together with their Syrian affiliates, raced to the area to support the few Yazidis who had weapons to fight. These Kurdish militants carved out an escape route that led the minority group through Syria and back into Iraq.

Many Yazidis credit the PKK and its affiliates with saving thousands of lives. The PKK has since trained Yazidi fighting groups and taken them under its banner, and stayed in the Sinjar region ever since.

The fighting in March broke out after a dispute between one of the Yazidi fighting groups operating under the PKK's umbrella and Syrian peshmerga fighters trained by the Kurdish region's president, Masoud Barzani.

Now, the Kurdish government in northern Iraq says Sinjar is secure and the PKK has no authority to stay — they should return to where they came from.

Turkey, which is allied with President Barzani's government, is adamant that they do so. The Turkish government wants to prevent the PKK from setting up a permanent base in Sinjar, from which it says the group could traffic weapons to fighters in Turkey.

In a sign of growing impatience on the matter, the Turkish air force bombed a PKK building in the foothills of Mount Sinjar on Tuesday and declared it would continue to target the group there until it leaves the area.

For the US, the fighting has highlighted precariousness of the united front it has built among anti-ISIS groups.

The US has has provided significant support to the peshmerga to take on ISIS. But it has also supported the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, the People’s Protection Units or YPG. This support has strained the US relationship with Turkey, which views the PKK and its affiliates as one and the same — a terror organization on the same level as ISIS.

The US State Department expressed “deep concern” over Turkey’s airstrikes on Tuesday, but has since not taken any decisive steps to de-escalate tensions in Sinjar.

The threat of airstrikes is just another danger to add to the list for Yazidis, a religious group that’s been persecuted for centuries for its beliefs. Some of the displaced Yazidis think the PKK should leave, while others say they do not yet feel safe enough.

“If it were not for the PKK, most of the Yazidis would have been dead by the hands of ISIS,” Khalaf says. “As long as one Yazidi is in danger, we don’t want the PKK to leave. If we are given international protection and Yazidis feel safe, and the US keeps an eye on our situation, then we won’t have any problem with the PKK leaving our areas.”

Higher up the mountain road that snakes through the peaks here on Sinjar, 41-year-old Hassan Selo is putting a fence up around his tent. He recently moved here from another part of the mountain, which he has called home for the last three years.

On a clear day, he can see his old home off in the distance, in a little village south of the mountain. It is still under ISIS control. Between where he stands today and the nearest ISIS-held village, peshmerga defensive positions stretch in a thin line parallel to the mountain.

“At the beginning, the PKK came to help us,” he says. “They brought us food, water, they aided our wounded people, they protected us from ISIS. We didn’t have military experience but they did.”

But when the situation changes, he adds, the PKK should consider leaving Sinjar.

“To say they should leave now is wrong because there is not complete safety in our area yet. But when our situation gets better and security is restored, they should leave. We are Iraqi people, they are not even Iraqis themselves. They are from other countries such as Syria and Turkey, they cannot rule here.”

No way back

In the shadow of the mountain, to the south, lies the town of Sinjar, where most of the displaced people here are from. Before ISIS arrived in 2014, it was home to some 360,000 Yazidis. Today, they are scattered in camps across northern Iraq.

For those on the mountain, stability has been elusive. There are a number of aid organizations active here providing food, water and medical care, but work opportunities are limited.

One man who got bored of waiting is Kassem, a 25-year-old from Sinjar who has set up a small shack as a barbershop by the side of the road. It’s filled with young men waiting for their turn in the chair.

Kassem, who asks that only his first name be used, says the most popular haircut in his shop is the American style, or more specifically, the American soldier style. He jokes that the man in his seat is getting an “Obama.”

“Maybe later we will we do this for Trump soon,” he says.

For Kassem, a young man with ambition, every day that passes here feels like an eternity. He says the Yazidis feel forgotten.

“The humanitarian services are very low, things such as water, tents. It is around three years that we are under these tents, I have a feeling that the international community have closed their eyes, and I don’t know why.”

Kassem learned to cut hair on the fly. He watched other people do it and just practiced. He seems like an optimistic person, but like most people on Mount Sinjar, he foresees a difficult time ahead for the Yazidis.

“We have nothing left, and there is nothing that didn’t happen to us. We as Yazidi people don’t see much safety in the Middle East. Especially with the racist ideology that is here. We hope that someday it will vanish, and we can live together peacefully.

For now, he says, “nobody can reach the mountain.”

https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-04-25/ ... y-mountain

[Anthea]

PKK presence in Iraq's Sinjar poses threat to Ezidis

Following Turkish airstrikes, local Ezidis reiterate calls for PKK terrorist group to vacate region

Calls for the PKK terrorist group to leave northern Iraq’s Sinjar Mountain region have not been complied with, an Ezidi official said Wednesday, stressing that the PKK remained a threat to the local Ezidi community.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sheikh Semo, an Ezidi member of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)’s parliament, said the Ezidi community had repeatedly called on the PKK to withdraw from Sinjar with a view to preempting further conflict in the region.

Noting that the PKK had so far ignored these calls, Semo asserted that the terrorist group was using the area’s civilian residents as “human shields”.

"PKK militants hide among civilians, putting the lives of Ezidis at stake," he said. “They intentionally set up their camps near civilian areas.”

Since 2014, the PKK has maintained a presence in Sinjar on the pretext that it is fighting the Daesh terrorist group.

Turkish airstrikes

In a statement carried by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KPD)’s official website, Vian Dakhil, an Ezidi member of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, commented on Turkish airstrikes that targeted PKK positions in Sinjar on Tuesday.

"The people of Sinjar understand that the PKK presence in the region will only result in more harm to civilians," she said.

"The latest developments [Tuesday’s airstrikes] in the Sinjar Mountain region has once again shown the PKK’s true face," she added. "The PKK has its own agenda; it doesn’t care if it puts Ezidis in harm’s way.”

Also quoted on the KPD's website, Sinjar District Governor Mahma Khalil pointed out that both the KRG and Ezidi leaders had called for the PKK’s withdrawal from the region in advance of Tuesday’s airstrikes.

"Developments in Sinjar are the result of negligence on the part of Iraq’s central government, international coalition forces and the U.S.,” he said.

"We have repeatedly asked all three to pressure the PKK to leave Sinjar," he added.

Officials in Sinjar plan to raise the issue with Baghdad and the U.S.-led coalition, Khalil said, going on to warn that Turkish military activity in the region could be stepped up if the PKK were to remain in the area.

Troublemaker

According to Kasim Murad, an Ezidi resident of the Sinjar Mountain region, the PKK presence in the area remains a perpetual source of danger.

"The PKK has become the troublemaker of Sinjar,” he said. “We knew they would only bring harm in their wake.”

"People of the region can’t return to their homes because they fear their children will be abducted and taken to Qandil Mountain,” Murad added, referring to the PKK's headquarters in northern Iraq.

According to a Tuesday statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, some 40 terrorists in the Sinjar Mountain region -- and 30 others in Syria's northeastern Karacok Mountain region -- were “neutralized” as a result of Turkish military action.

Ezidis are a religious group concentrated largely near the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Sinjar Mountain region. Smaller Ezidi communities can also be found in Turkey, Syria, Iran, Georgia and Armenia.

http://aa.com.tr/en/turkey/pkk-presence ... dis/805823

The PKK and the Peshmerga helped the Yazidis but let us be honest - NOBODY arrived in time to prevent the deaths of THOUSANDS of Yazidis

If there had been an earthquake INTERNATIONAL assistance would have been pouring into the area within a few hours

But NOTHING happened quickly enough to prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocent Yazidis

OR

The deaths of COUNTLESS THOUSANDS of Yazidis as the fled to the mountains dying of COLD - THIRST - HUNGER

What are we left with now:

Assorted groups of Kurds who are SHAMEFULLY arguing which of them has done the most to help the Yazidis

A world full of governments who play at war games in Syria - while at the same time selling weapons to countries known to be passing on those weapons to all the different assorted rebel and jihadist groups

Idiots who think that the answer to the problems facing the Yazidis, is to divide and separate them even more and send them to different countries - rather than provide them with a secure homeland

NOBODY IS DOING ANYTHING TO RESCUE THE YAZIDIS HELD BY ISIS

[Anthea]

The Yazidis have lost:

fathers
mothers
sons
daughters
brothers
sisters
grandparents
aunts and uncle
many members of their large extended families
friends
homes
business
employment
farms
all their possessions
their sell-respect

Now Yazidis continue to suffer:

not knowing what has happened to missing family members
living in fear of being attacked in refugee camps
often freezing, wet and hungry in those camps
or moved to another country
leaving behind their extended family members
leaving behind their friends
leaving behind the support of their community
having to learn new ways of life
new customs
new languages
an entirely new way of life

Nobody seems to understand that the Yazidis are used to living in a close-knit extremely supportive community

Nobody seems to understand that the Yazidis are used to living with or close to their extremely large extended family

Nobody seems to care what happens to the Yazidis

[Anthea]

Yazidis fear fresh war as Turkey hits Kurdish militants in Sinjar

Turkey this week began hitting PKK affiliates in Sinjar. For the Yazidis who survived ISIS genocide, there is now a new threat in their homeland

After surviving a brutal Islamic State assault, surviving Yazidis on Mount Sinjar must contend with Turkey's latest aerial campaign – which now adds Iraq to the list.

Earlier this week, Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish militants in Iraq's Sinjar region for the first time, following a deadly assault against US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

The attack on Sinjar appeared to target the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), an affiliate of the outlawed PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party – which has been fighting in Turkey for Kurdish autonomy for decades.

Yazidis fear further strikes could hit Sinjar, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan telling Reuters on Tuesday that the strikes in Syria and Iraq will continue "until the last terrorist is eliminated".

Hundreds of Yazidis were slaughtered in a massacre by ISIS on Sinjar in August 2014 and until today, around 2,000 Yazidi women are still being held by the militant group as sex slaves – some have been freed in twin assaults against IS in Raqqa and Mosul.

Thousands have not yet returned home, since the south of Sinjar is still under ISIS control, and far from stable.

Now they have an added worry that Turkish air strikes against PKK-linked targets will create even more instability, and risk civilian lives.

The strikes on Sinjar on Tuesday killed five Peshmerga – members of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq's armed forces – and injured nine. The attack on the People's Protection Units (YPG) airbase in Syria killed dozens of fighters.

On Wednesday, Turkey tried to limit the damage, offering condolences for the Peshmerga that they say were accidently killed on Sinjar.

Kurdish officials quickly called on the PKK to leave the area.

Qasim Shesho, the commander of Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar, told MEE that the PKK are a destructive force on Mount Sinjar.

"The situation in Shingal [Kurdish for Sinjar] will not calm down, as long as the PKK is in Shingal. There will be war, destruction, and killing," he said.

"The PKK are the cause of everything happening in Shingal… the people in Shingal are afraid of more air strikes," he said.

However, Serhat Varto, a PKK spokesperson, told MEE that the Kurdish Democratic Party, of which the KRG's president Massoud Barzani is leader, should end its alliance with Turkey.

"Turkey has nothing to do with Sinjar. It's a Kurdish issue, a Yazidi issue, an Iraqi issue, and an international issue," he said.

"The KDP wants to rule again in Sinjar like before, but the Yazidis will not accept this," he said.

"For this reason, the KDP should not back a Turkish intervention to solve the Sinjar issue. Turkey is the enemy of the Kurds, this is clear," Varto added.

"The Kurdish parties should solve their problems by themselves, not by Iran, Turkey or the Baath regime [the party of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad]. All Kurdish parties should stand against this [Turkish attacks]," he added.

Yazidis' symbolic status

Oytun Orhan, a researcher with Ankara-based think tank Orsam, told MEE that the almost symbolic status of the Yazidi people in the eyes of the international community could limit any further Turkish response to PKK-affiliates on Sinjar.

"The international community is sensitive about the Yazidis, and any attack in Sinjar would be seen as Turkey attacking Yazidis, not the PKK," he said.

"This could limit Turkish attacks. Turkey should be bit careful and selective in determining attacks in the Sinjar area, in case of civilian casualties," he said.

But for Sherzard Shingali, a Yazidi student in Erbil, Turkey is unconcerned with such a prospect.

"They are trying to finish the genocide, of what still remains of the Yazidi people," he claimed.

"I don't think it was because of the YBS," Shingali added.

"IS also has a good relationship with Turkey," he claimed - a position rejected by Ankara.

"People joined the YBS to take their revenge against IS. Now they will be killed by Turkey."

The Yazidis in Sinjar are increasingly tired of being caught up in geostrategic power struggles between Kurdish parties, and regional countries, and have called for an international force to protect the Yazidis.

KDP officials have also accused the PKK of working with Iran to open a corridor through Sinjar to Syria. The PKK has denied this.

Additionally, for the PKK, Sinjar is important as it connects the Kurdish areas in Syria to Iraq, which could become an alternative to the current Turkish and KDP-controlled borders after Iraqi forces finish the Mosul operation and clear out IS from all border territory.

"They [the KDP] are also worried about the growing PKK presence and popularity in an area that was once exclusively theirs," Abdulla Hawez, a Kurdish journalist, told MEE.

"Not to mention because of Sinjar's location between the KRG, Rojava (autonomous Kurdish region of Syria) and the Popular Mobilisation Forces (Shia paramilitary groups in Iraq, or Hashd al-Shaabi) and Iraqi-controlled areas south of Mosul, this has given the PKK unprecedented leverage," he added.

"Also for the PKK, Sinjar is a window to enter the political life in Iraqi Kurdistan," he added.

In early March, seven PKK fighters were killed in a clashes with forces belonging to the KDP.

After the Peshmerga initially withdrew in August 2014 it has become increasingly difficult for them to control Sinjar, despite returning under a US-led operation in December of that year, leaving the PKK with a significant presence in the region.

Anticipation of Turkish strikes

Maxime Barrat is a French foreign volunteer with the YBS in Sinjar.

Speaking to MEE, Barrat said the Turkish air strikes were not unexpected and that the group had been preparing for the attack for several weeks.

"We were thinking Erdogan was waiting for after the referendum to directly attack and help the KDP to take the area," he said, referring to the 16 April Turkish vote on increasing presidential powers.

"I went today to the [PKK] cemetery hit in the strikes, as you enter the mountain. It's really sad. I spoke with people and they are really afraid of new strikes," he said.

The Turkish government for months threatened to attack the PKK in Sinjar and said it would not accept "new Qandils" being created in the region, a reference to the mountain range in Iraqi Kurdistan which has provided sanctuary for the PKK.

The US consulate in Erbil has been trying, since last year, to limit PKK influence in Sinjar, according to US officials, and negotiate between the different groups and also managed to pressure Baghdad to cut the salaries they provided to local PKK Yazidi fighters.

Washington has feared that the PKK presence could complicate reconstruction, the return of Yazidis, and invite an armed Turkish response, either by air or land, a situation which has now transpired.

A spokesperson for the US-led coalition against IS said that it was important that efforts were not diverted from combatting the radical group.

"We encourage all forces to remain focused on the greatest threat to regional and worldwide peace and security and concentrate their efforts on ISIS, and not toward objectives that may cause the coalition to divert energy and resources away from the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria," he told MEE.

"We are on alert. If Turkish planes are seen during the day we disperse in the village and sleep in the trenches," he added.

"The coalition is aware of the Turkish air strikes in Northern Iraq and Syria. As we've said in the past, all of Iraq's neighbours need to respect Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity," he added.

After the short-lived clashes between the Peshmerga and the PKK on 3 March, the KDP tried to encourage YBS fighters to join the Peshmerga ministry, which was backed by the US and officially opposed to a PKK presence in Sinjar.

But this was not enough for Turkey. "Turkey was always saying that they would never let Sinjar be a second Qandil," Turkish researcher Orhan said.

"Turkey wants to eliminate it [PKK], and also supports KDP efforts to retake the Sinjar area," he said.

Message to Trump?

Furthermore, he said it might be related to an upcoming meeting between Turkish President Erdogan and US President Trump, scheduled for mid-May.

"This strengthens Turkey's hand against Trump. Turkey wants to show that by ignoring our concerns, we could act unilaterally," Orhan added.

Therefore, it is unlikely that Sinjar's Yazidis will have any rest in the near future.

"There are other places to fight them, but why Sinjar? Why is everyone always fighting in Sinjar," asked a 23-year-old Yazidi woman, using the pseudonym Leyla Khanasori.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/yezid ... -774303862

[Anthea]

After long trek to Armenia Yazidi families struggle to fit in

ARAKS, Armenia: Shortly before midnight outside a poorly-lit barn in southern Armenia, Sevak Mouradyan is funnelling gallons of petrol into plastic canisters and humming a traditional Yazidi anthem to himself.

He pauses for a moment, squints through the darkness towards a group of men drinking tea and begins to shout orders.

His eight sons swiftly form a production line from the barn through a field. Tyres are passed methodically between them, rolled uphill and stacked in a pile at the top.

"We are preparing a fire to show unity with our brothers on Mount Sinjar," said Mouradyan, hauling the fuel onto his back.

"For the Yazidi people, light signifies solidarity. Maybe they will see the fire far away in the distance and know that we are thinking of them."

Mouradyan is one of around 35,000 Armenian Yazidis who have been settled in Armenia in the southern Caucasus for more than a century. They have recently been joined by Yazidi families who have fled the Islamic State offensive in northern Iraq.

In August 2014, Islamic State militants began an assault on the Yazidi religious community's heartland in Sinjar, northern Iraq, home to around 400,000 Yazidis.

The insurgents systematically killed, captured and enslaved thousands of Yazidis, whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions and are regarded by Islamic State as infidels.

U.N. investigators estimate more than 5,000 Yazidis have been rounded up and slaughtered and some 7,000 women and girls forced into sex slavery.

Those who could fled to the refugee camps of Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere in the region. Around 50 Yazidi families made the arduous journey by road to Armenia, seeking refuge among their fellow Yazidis in rural communities like the village of Araks.

"TOO DIFFERENT"

But Armenian Yazidis believe that their ethnic kin from Sinjar have been influenced by the Islamic traditions of the Iraqi majority.

"Our way of life is too different from theirs. They are all Muslims now," Mouradyan said. "We fear that they will bring instability and terror to our homes."

In the village of Akna Lich, an hour's drive away, Ara, one of the new arrivals, has just returned home after a long day cultivating the land outside his home. He and his wife moved to the mostly Yazidi village late last year.

"We thought we would find peace here, but it's difficult," said Ara, who did not want to give his full name.

"Here they think we are too different, that we are not real Yazidis anymore," he said, removing his shoes and placing them neatly outside the door.

Kurdish forces retook areas north of Sinjar in December 2014, and the town itself in November 2015.

Christoph Bierwirth, representative for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Armenia, said since Yazidi land in Sinjar has been retaken from Islamic State, many of the Iraqi Yazidis have returned to their homeland. Their decision was motivated in part by difficulties they faced integrating in Armenia, he said.

"They were welcomed in a small village with, on one hand an open approach from the local population and, on the other, with some misunderstandings about whether their prayers are Muslim or of another form," Bierwirth told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at his office in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

"The lifestyle is very different for those in the Sinjar mountains and the Yazidi communities here," he said.

NEW TEMPLE

Since January 2016 the Armenian government has contributed $100,000 to the UNHCR to support the resettlement of Yazidis from Sinjar, said Bierwirth.

Integration efforts continue to be a challenge for the authorities, balancing complaints from both communities, local officials said.

"This area is a mixed village: half Yazidi, half Armenian," Mayor Gevork Misakian explained at his office in Akna Lich.

"It was decided that the arrivals from Sinjar should come here in order for them to stabilise. There have been some complications, but we continue to try our best to ensure there is harmony," Misakian added.

In an effort to smooth integration, the government has started construction of the largest Yazidi temple outside Iraq to commemorate those killed at Sinjar and to honour Armenian Yazidis.

"In Armenia, our religion is accepted but in Iraq, they worship very differently," said Sheikh Alehan, and he prepared to conduct the funeral of a local Yazidi.

"No matter what happens, even if there is only one (Yazidi) left in the world, we will never change our religion. This is the difference with those from Sinjar," he added.

The latest wave of persecution - described by the United Nations as a genocide - is another tragic phase in Yazidi history.

"The Yazidi nationality is under threat," he said. "Genocide has become a part of our history, so we must do all we can to protect our identity. The temple is a symbol of that resilience."

Bierwirth says that efforts such as this will help to ensure both existing and new members of the Yazidi community in Armenia can continue to practice their faith, and help the whole community to thrive, rather than to seek new lives elsewhere.

"Given the limited size of the group and out-flux migration, the Yazidis don't have enough priests, which they require to follow a fully-fledged spiritual life," he said. "That is a factor for many Yazidis to look for opportunities outside Armenia."

But for new arrivals like Ara, life has been a struggle.

"All we can hope for is to avoid any disputes, to keep our heads down and to continue working," Ara says. "Only then will we really be safe."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuter ... it-in.html

[Anthea]

Dozens of Yazidis enslaved by ISIS in Iraq now free

Thirty-six members of the Yazidi religious minority are free after nearly three years in the hands of so-called Islamic State (ISIS), the UN says.

They have been taken to UN centres in Dohuk in Kurdish northern Iraq.

It is unclear whether they escaped in Iraq or were freed, as the UN declined to give more information to avoid jeopardising future releases.

ISIS killed and enslaved thousands of Yazidis after seizing the northern town of Sinjar in 2014.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces regained control in 2015 but many Yazidis were held captive by ISIS elsewhere as the group took over large swathes of northern Iraq.

The 36 survivors include men, women and children who were enslaved, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

They reached Dohuk two nights ago where they are being housed in centres established by the UN Population Fund.

There, they are being reunited with family members and offered care including clothing and medical and psychological aid, the UN said.

The women and children are being cared for at dedicated service points set up by the UNPF, and will be referred for more specialised treatment.

The UNFP's humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, said the UN was going to do "everything possible" for the rescued Yazidi.

"What these women and girls have endured is unimaginable," she said.

Link to Full Article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39762790

[Anthea]

Êzidî Freedom and Democracy Party (PADÊ) officially recognized



The Êzidî Freedom and Democracy Party (PADÊ) was recognized by Baghdad as an official political party.

During its 6th conference in 2016 June, the Êzidî Freedom and Democracy Movement (TEVDA) made a decision to become a political party by the name of Êzidî Freedom and Democracy Party (PADÊ, Partiya Azadi û Demokrasiya Êzidiyan).

Following the finalization of preparations to this end, PADÊ officials filed an official application to the Iraqi Parliament which has announced today their recognition of PADÊ as an official political party.

Accordingly, PADÊ will be able to participate in Iraqi elections to be held in the following term, and open offices in Iraq and South Kurdistan.

[Anthea]

Yazidi genocide evidence mounting against Islamic State

Legal experts said on Thursday there was growing evidence to prove atrocities by Islamic State against Iraq's Yazidi minority, including sexual slavery and mass killings, legally constitute genocide, which could help bring militants to justice if they ever go on trial.

In a report published in Human Rights Law Review, researchers found a "consistent and coordinated pattern" of crimes being committed against Yazidis and concluded that Islamic State clearly displayed "genocidal intent" against the minority group.

The researchers said it was important to collect and preserve such evidence since members of the Islamist militant group could go on trial for genocide in the future.

International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney last June said she aimed to prosecute the Islamist group through the International Criminal Court for their crimes against the Yazidi community.

In August 2014, Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL or ISIS, began an assault on the Yazidi religious community's heartland in Sinjar, northern Iraq, home to around 400,000 Yazidis.

Thousands of captured men were killed in what a United Nations commission called a genocide against the Yazidis, a religious sect whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. Islamic State considers them devil-worshippers.

"Genocide is at the apex of international crimes and has been described as the 'crime of crimes'," said co-author Aldo Zammit Borda, who is a law lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in Britain.

"It is therefore hugely significant to be able to show that ISIL's treatment of the Yazidis could be characterised as genocide," he said, having analysed reports by U.N. agencies, aid groups, media, and the militants themselves.

U.N. investigators estimate more than 5,000 Yazidis have been rounded up and slaughtered and some 7,000 women and girls forced into sex slavery.

Iraqi forces are now fighting to retake the city of Mosul, the militants' last major stronghold in Iraq, where many Yazidis were held.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuter ... perts.html

(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Ros Russell; Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, global land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, women's rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org to see more stories)