Navigator
Facebook
Search
Ads & Recent Photos
Recent Images
Random images
Welcome To Roj Bash Kurdistan 

Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

A place for discussion and exchanging ideas about Kurdistan issues here, also a place for sharing article & views and analysis about Kurdistan .

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Aug 03, 2017 12:46 am

Shengal, three years ago

The Êzidî Kurds, who have living in the Mesopotamian region for many thousands of years, have throughout history been subject to genocides, cruel betrayals and massacres and on the 3rd August 2014 suffered the 73rd genocide. The Êzidî 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.

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 2016, the results of the attacks launched on the 3rd August 2014 were as follows:

    - around 5000 Êzidî men were massacred

    - around 100 Êzidî men were beheaded

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

    - A huge number of Êzidî girls and women were raped

    - Some Êzidî women were forced to marry ISIS commanders

The estimated numbers of the victims, including the countless Êzidîs who starved to death, died of thirst or froze to death on the mountain, are a great deal higher than what was written in the report of the United Nations.

GENOCIDES AGAINST ÊZIDÎS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

The Êzidîs, who follow one of the most ancient faiths of Mesopotamia, have suffered in the course of history 73 genocides. Most of those mass murders were perpetrated by the Ottoman empire. Because most of these genocides to wipe out the Êzidî community were ordered by the at that time leading Ottoman Shahs via a fiat, the Kurdish Êzidîs 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 Êzidî 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 Êzidîs 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 Êzidîs 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 Êzidîs 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 Êzidîs in between Surdash and Kirkuk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    * Between 1753 and 1800 Ottoman Shahs ordered the pillaging, imposition of heavy taxes, enslavements and genocides of the Êzidî 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 Êzidîs in Shengal

    * In 1824 massacre against the Êzidîs 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 Êzidîs took place in Botan

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

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

THE MASSACRE OF 2007

One of the more recent mass killings against the Êzidî Kurds took place in 2007. On the 14th August 2007 attacks were carried out with four bomb laden trucks in the villages 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 said that the gang Turkmen Front of Iraq (ITC) was involved in the attack, which was forged by the Turkish secret service in Southern Kurdistan.

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

SHENGAL’S STATUS BEFORE THE AUGUST 3 GENOCIDE

The Kurdish Êzidîs 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 Êzidîs were forcibly resettled. In each and every genocide they faced, the Êzidî people saved themselves into the protective arms of Mount Shengal. But in 1975 they were removed by force from the villages of the mountain 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.

R I P Êzidîs/Yazidis
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

Sponsor

Sponsor
 

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:12 pm

Three years since Islamic State attack, Yazidi wounds still open

SINJAR, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's Yazidis marked three years since Islamic State launched what the United Nations said was a genocidal campaign against them on Thursday, but their ordeal is far from over despite the ouster of the jihadist fighters.

Militants were driven out of the last part of the Yazidi homeland in northern Iraq in May. However, most Yazidis have yet to return to villages they fled when Islamic State over-ran Sinjar in the summer of 2014, killing and capturing thousands because of their faith.

Nearly 3,000 Yazidi women and children remain in Islamic State captivity, and control over Sinjar is disputed by rival armed factions and their regional patrons. Justice for the crimes Yazidis suffered, including sexual enslavement, has also so far proved elusive.

"The Yazidis' wound is still bleeding," one man told Reuters at a ceremony attended by several thousand people including the mayor and other local dignitaries, held at a temple at the foot of the mountain that dominates Sinjar.

"The Kurds and the Iraqi government are fighting for Sinjar and we are paying the price," said the man.

A U.N. human rights Commission of Inquiry, which declared the killings of thousands of Yazidis to be a genocide, said on Thursday that the atrocity had not ended and that the international community was not doing enough to stop it.

"The genocide is on-going and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of States... to prevent and to punish the crime," the commissioners said in a statement.

Islamic State fighters killed thousands of captured men during their attack on the Yazidis, a religious sect whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions. Islamic State considers Yazidis as devil-worshippers.

Images of desperate Yazidis fleeing up the mountain in the blazing summer heat were broadcast around the world and helped to galvanise the United States to conduct its first air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq.

At least 9,900 of Iraq's Yazidis were killed or kidnapped in just days in the Islamic State attack in 2014, according to a study documenting the number of Yazidis affected which could be used as evidence in any trial for genocide.

About 3,100 Yazidis were killed - with more than half shot, beheaded or burnt alive - and about 6,800 kidnapped to become sex slaves or fighters, according to the report published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.
(we believe the number to be far higher)

Enslaved women and girls are now reportedly being sold by Islamic State fighters trying to escape the U.S.-led assault on their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, the U.N. commission said.

Dispute Over Sinjar

The array of forces that drove Islamic State out of Sinjar are now vying for control of the area near the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

Kurdish peshmerga forces retook around half of Sinjar in late 2015, effectively annexing it to the autonomous region they hope to convert into an independent state. A referendum on independence is due to be held in September, which the government in Baghdad opposes.

Mainly Shi'ite paramilitary groups, some backed by Iran, retook the rest of the Yazidi homeland in May, bringing them within metres of the peshmerga.

Another group, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), also gained a foothold in Sinjar and clashed with the peshmerga earlier this year. Its presence has made the area a target for Turkey, which has fought a three-decade war against the PKK on its own soil.

"People are worried about returning," said General Ashti Kojer, the local head of Kurdish police, known as Asayish. "The (Sinjar) region has become a conflict zone".

Kojer and another local official said the political environment was preventing international organisations from working on reconstruction and rehabilitation in Sinjar, further discouraging Yazidis from returning.

Water has to be trucked in, electricity is supplied from private generators, schools are closed, and the closest hospital is Dohuk -- around three hours' drive away.

"The lack of services and political problems are preventing families from returning," Jalal Khalaf, the director of the mayor's office in Sinjar, told Reuters.

Blame Game

In a speech at the ceremony, the Yazidi mayor of Sinjar, Mahma Xelil, said former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was responsible for the tragedy because he was in charge when the militants overran Mosul, capturing billions of dollars of weapons they used in their attack on the minority.

Other Yazidis blame the Kurds, who were defending the area at the time, for failing to resist the IS onslaught.

At the ceremony, people carried signs saying "Stop Yazidi Genocide". Families streamed into cemeteries to remember their loved ones. Women wore bandanas saying "Genocide".

In the city of Sinjar, posters and banners hung up on roundabouts depict harrowing scenes from the attack three years ago: families fleeing and distressed women and children.

Large parts of the city, which was also home to Muslim Kurds and Arabs, remain empty. Around 1,000 Yazidi families have returned to Sinjar since the city was retaken in 2015, according to Khalaf. The city and the surrounding area had been home to around 400,000 Yazidis.

Farhan Lazgin brought his family back to Sinjar around one year ago because he was fed up with living in a camp.

His home was in relatively good shape, but his two children have missed out on a year of school, and may fall further behind because teachers are not returning to the city.

Zeido Shammo, one of the few shopowners to have returned to the city, said he no longer trusted local forces: "We ask for international protection," he said, echoing the sentiment of many Yazidis.

Although Islamic State has been routed from the area, Shammo said he could not feel safe until their hardline ideology was eradicated too: "Daesh (Islamic State) is defeated but we are still worried because the mentality of Daesh still exists."

Opposite his shop, Islamic State slogans have yet to be painted over. One reads: "The State of the Caliphate Remains".

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-p ... KKBN1AJ0YR

Writing by Isabel Coles, additional reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Peter Millership and David Stamp
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Aug 05, 2017 2:06 am

Because it is a brand new day
Do not forget and turn away
The sun is out the weather warm
Yet Yazidis still live in a storm

Their home is gone the people dead
The torment always in their head
They just want is peace in their land
Won’t anyone give them a hand

What happens to Yazidis is not right
Do not let people forget their plight
It is no use to care but once a year
For Yazidis death is always near


phpBB [video]


Direct Link:
https://youtu.be/qqqqhtbvZVc
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:57 am

United Nations Human Rights
Office of the High Commissioner
Report


Commission of Inquiry on Syria calls for justice on the occasion of the third anniversary of ISIL/ISIS’s attack on the Yazidis

GENEVA, 3 August 2017 – Three years after the ISIL attack on the Yazidis, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria calls on the international community to recognize the crime of genocide being committed by ISIL/ISIS against the Yazidis and to undertake steps to refer the situation to justice, and reiterates its recommendation to all parties fighting ISIL/ISIS to consider rescue plans of Yazidi captives.

In the early hours of 3 August 2014, ISIL/ISIS fighters launched the attack on the Yazidis of Sinjar. Over the following days, the terrorist group executed hundreds of men and took captive thousands of women and children. The Yazidis are a distinct religious community whose beliefs and practice span thousands of years, and who ISIL publicly reviles as infidels.

In its report “They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis”, released on 16 June 2016, the Commission found that many of the women and girls were taken to Syria where they were sold as chattel and sexually enslaved by ISIL fighters. Boys were indoctrinated, trained, and used in hostilities. It concluded that ISIL committed the crime of genocide by seeking to destroy the Yazidis through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture, forcible displacement, the transfer of children and measures intended to prohibit the birth of Yazidi children.

The genocide is on-going and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of States Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 to preven​t and to punish the crime. Thousands of Yazidi men and boys remain missing and the terrorist group continues to subject some 3,000 women and girls in Syria to horrific violence including brutal daily rapes and beatings. Some women and girls are being held in Raqqa city. As the Syrian Democratic Forces and international coalition offensive on Raqqa intensifies, reports have emerged of ISIL fighters trying to sell enslaved Yazidi women and girls before attempting to flee Syria.

The Commission recommends to all parties fighting ISIL to consider plans aimed at rescuing Yazidi captives and use all means available to ensure they are set free during on-going military operations. The international community must also recognize ISIL is committing the crime of genocide against the Yazidis and undertake steps to refer the situation to justice, including to the International Criminal Court or an ad hoc tribunal with relevant geographic and temporal jurisdiction as well as to dedicate resources to bringing cases before national courts, whether under the framework of universal jurisdiction or otherwise.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Page ... 5&LangID=E

Background

The Commission, which comprises Mr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chair), Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd, and Ms. Carla Del Ponte, has been mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic.

The full report can be found on the Human Rights Council web page dedicated to the commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/II ... ssion.aspx

*****

For further media information:
(Geneva) Rolando Gómez, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Tel: +41-22-917.9711, email: rgomez@ohchr.org, or Cédric Sapey, OHCHR, Tel: +41-22-917.9751, email: csapey@ohchr.org
....................................................................................................................

Always lots of talk and plenty of reports but absolutely NO ACTION

I suggest the UN sends a peace-keeping force to the Yazidi homeland and secure it for now and always :ymhug:
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:12 am

UN News Centre
(another UN report)

ISIL/ISIS's 'genocide' against Yazidis is ongoing, UN rights panel says, calling for international action

3 August 2017 – Marking three years since the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) attacked the Yazidis in Syria, a United Nations-mandated inquiry has called for justice and rescue plans.

“The Commission of Inquiry calls on the international community to recognize the crime of genocide being committed by ISIL against the Yazidis and to undertake steps to refer the situation to justice,” said the expert panel in a statement marking the third anniversary of ISIL's attack on the Yazidis.

According to the Commission, in the early hours of 3 August 2014, ISIL fighters launched an attack on the Yazidis of Sinjar – a distinct religious community whose practice spans thousands of years. Over the following days, the terrorist group executed hundreds of men and took captive thousands of women and children, publicly reviling them as 'infidels.'

In its June 2016 report, entitled They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis the Commission found that many of the women and girls were taken to Syria where they were sold as chattel and sexually enslaved by ISIL fighters. Boys were indoctrinated, trained and used in hostilities.

“ISIL committed the crime of genocide by seeking to destroy the Yazidis through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture, forcible displacement, the transfer of children and measures intended to prohibit the birth of Yazidi children,” the report concluded.

The genocide is on-going and remains largely unaddressed, despite the obligation of States Party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 to prevent and to punish the crime, the Commission said.

The international community must also recognize ISIL/ISIS is committing the crime of genocide against the Yazidis

“Thousands of Yazidi men and boys remain missing and the terrorist group continues to subject some 3,000 women and girls in Syria to horrific violence including brutal daily rapes and beatings,” the expert body noted.

Pointing out that some women and girls are being held in Raqqa city, the Commission revealed that as the Syrian Democratic Forces and international coalition offensive on Raqqa intensifies, reports have emerged of ISIL/ISIS fighters trying to sell enslaved Yazidi women and girls before attempting to flee Syria.”

The Commission recommended that all parties fighting ISIL/ISIS consider plans to rescue Yazidi captives and use all possible to ensure their freedom during on-going military operations.

“The international community must also recognize ISIL/ISIS is committing the crime of genocide against the Yazidis,” the statement concluded, urging action to refer the situation to justice, “including to the International Criminal Court or an ad hoc tribunal with relevant geographic and temporal jurisdiction as well as to dedicate resources to bringing cases before national courts, whether under the framework of universal jurisdiction or otherwise.”

The Independent International Commission – comprised of the Chair, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Karen Koning AbuZayd and Carla Del Ponte – has been mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 in Syria.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=57304

YES recognise ISIS as committing genocide against the Yazidis - it did NOT take us 3 years, we recognised it as genocide by 4 August 2014

YES take ISIS leaders to the International Criminal Court

BUT FIRST

Stop bombing Raqqa until you have rescued all the Yazidi sex slaves trapped there

Anyone who bombs Raqqa and kills a Yazidi in so doing, must also face an International Criminal Court X(
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Aug 05, 2017 11:51 pm

For a few days people have pretend they are interested in the Yazidis

BUT THEY DO NOTHING

The Yazidi lands may be free from ISIS - though for how long nobody knows

Now the Yazidi land is under an assortment of occupying forces, each one trying to take total controll

    Kurdish Peshmerga

    An assortment of mainly Shia groups, some backed by Iran

    Other Iraqi government forces

    The PKK and it's affiliates

    The Turkish government is now taking an unhealthy interest in the area

The Yazidi forces themselves are fighting to destroy ISIS in Raqqa

Raqqa, being only a few hours away from Yazidi land, presents an ever real threat
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Aug 06, 2017 12:11 am

The Yazidis’ desperate struggle is far from over
By Gareth Browne

Three years ago, international attention was drawn to the desperate plight of Iraq’s Yazidis, a largely unheard of ethnic and religious minority. As Isis rampaged across their homeland of Sinjar in Northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, thousands of Yazidi women were kidnapped and taken hostage to serve as prized sex slaves by Isis members. Many of them still remain in Isis-held territory across the border in Syria.

Children were brainwashed and recruited to fight for the jihadists, while adults were massacred and left in the mass graves which now litter the mountainous northern districts of Iraq. Those who were able to flee did so to Mount Sinjar, whereon they were surrounded by the jihadists, and had to be rescued by dramatic helicopter airlifts which were televised across the world. So great were these crimes that the UN described them as genocide.

Three years later, on the anniversary of this recent genocide, the Yazidi struggle is far from over. The upcoming referendum on Kurdish independence is a new challenge for the Yazidi community as it struggles to find its place in a post-Isis Iraq.

The Kurds themselves have been a widely discriminated against minority under multiple Iraqi governments – and Masoud Barzani’s Kurdish government has repeatedly tried to position itself as the region’s only reliable defender of minorities. As Barzani’s son, who is Chancellor of the Region’s Security Council, recently stated, ‘Kurdistan will remain a home for all people of different faiths and groups.’

But many Yazidis are unsure whether or not to trust the Kurdish government. When Isis approached Sinjar in August 2014, having just captured the city of Mosul, it was the Kurdish Peshmerga who fled, leaving thousands of Yazidi civilians to a horrific fate. There is a feeling within the Yazidi community that they were abandoned by the Kurds in their time of greatest need.

Iraq was once home to some 400,000 Yazidis, many of whom lived in the district of Sinjar. Now, some two years after Sinjar’s recapture from Isis, a quarter of those have fled Iraq for new lives in Europe and North America, and very few have returned to the area which serves as something of a homeland. Thanks to ongoing political disputes between Kurdish groups and Baghdad as to who should control Sinjar, severe blockades on goods coming into Yazidi areas make everyday life near impossible. So while Baghdad and Erbil squabble, it is the Yazidi people who continue to suffer.

In July, a Human Rights Watch report accused the Asaiysh, the Kurdish security forces, of threatening and intimidating those Yazidis who have chosen to align themselves with the Baghdad government instead of Masoud Barzani’s KRG government. The report claimed that Kurdish authorities had expelled and intimidated the families of those Yazidi who had refused to back the Kurdish Peshmerga, and had instead aligned with Baghdad’s Popular Mobilisation Front, a largely Shia militia which numbers over 100,000.

In recent years, Kurdish opportunism has left Kurdish forces in control of several areas outside of the the recognised Kurdish Federal Region of Iraq, including the Yazidi majority area of Sinjar. But while many of the residents of these areas show no affinity to an independent Kurdistan, and wish to remain a part of a united Iraq, the KRG government is insistent they will be included in the Kurdish push for independence. There is a tragic irony in a much discriminated-against minority ignoring the will of another vulnerable minority in their push for independence.

The most recent genocide in history may be over, but for Iraq’s Yazidis, the suffering continues.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/t ... from-over/
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:41 pm

Sadly, less than a week has passed since the 3rd Anniversary of ISIS attack upon the Yazidis and already they have been forgotten by the media and the general public :((

If anyone has any sensible ideas as to how we can gain support for the Yazidis please join our forum (it is free of charge) and share your ideas :ymhug:
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:28 pm

Don’t forget the Yazidis: To avoid the next genocide, remember the last

Iraq’s religious minority were deliberately targeted for extermination

As the floodwaters subsided, the Ark drifted across northern Iraq. Finally, with a crunching jolt, it hit dry land. Its timbers had scraped the peak of a mountain range called Sinjar. Water began to pour in. Fortunately, a black serpent, its coils as thick as an arm, moved to plug the breach. The Ark did not sink. Noah, his family, and all the various animals on board survived to repopulate the earth. This story, so familiar, so strange, can be seen illustrated in a shady courtyard that also boasts, just for good measure, the very spot where Adam is claimed to have been fashioned from dust. Lalish, a magical compound of domes, towers and stairways, stands in a valley in Iraqi Kurdistan.

To the Yazidis, a religious minority whose population straddles both the Kurdish region of Iraq and, to the south, the plain of Nineveh and the peaks of Sinjar, it is quite simply the holiest place in the world. Certainly, there is nowhere else in the Middle East which so seamlessly or mysteriously fuses the many cultural traditions of the region. Like Zoroastrians, the Yazidis tend sacred fires; like Christians, they practise baptism; like Muslims, they practise yearly fasts and daily prayers. One shrine at Lalish commemorates a sheikh who was once, very possibly, the Babylonian god of the sun. The Yazidis are charged with the palpable trace elements of antiquity.

Yet what makes people different can also make them hated. This is a lesson we hardly need teaching — it was Europeans who incubated ancient prejudices to such a monstrous pitch that our continent came to witness, within living memory, the most genocidal crime in history; it was Europeans, in the wake of Kristallnacht and Auschwitz, who vowed most fervently: ‘Never again.’

The ambition to wipe out an entire people, though, did not die with the Nazis. On 3 August 2014, it came to Sinjar. Isis fighters who had just captured the vast Iraqi city of Mosul fanned out across the plain of Nineveh. The Yazidis were deliberately targeted for extermination. The men, and those women deemed too old to be auctioned off as concubines, were murdered. Girls were enslaved, sold, raped. Boys were abducted to be brainwashed and turned into killers for Isis.

Here is the closest comparison that the current carnage in the Middle East offers to the Nazi persecution of the Jews. If parallels with the second world war must be drawn, then it is the Yazidis, of all the miserable peoples of Iraq and Syria, who have suffered the most terrible holocaust.

Why, then, has the world turned such a blind eye to their genocide? In large part it is because, numbering only 600,000, they rank as a minority in the genuine sense of the word. There are no Yazidi politicians in the West to press their case, no Yazidi columnists to beat the drum on their behalf. In August 2014, as ISIS were busy shooting and enslaving, the panjandrums of the western media were in hotels 600 miles away, covering an altogether more familiar conflict. How could the sufferings of a people most journalists had never heard of compete for global attention with the reassuringly familiar rhythms of an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip?

Only with the tear-choked appeal for help from the sole Yazidi MP in the Iraqi parliament did their voices at last start to be heard. Even then, though, western journalists found it impossible to cover the genocide on the ground. TV news anchors did not head from Israel to northern Iraq. This was entirely understandable. Unlike the rival combatants in Gaza, ISIS had a habit of beheading westerners on YouTube. Any journalists who had sought to visit the front line in Sinjar would have been condemning themselves to a hideous and very public death. The Yazidi genocide was not televised. Now, with the defeat of ISIS in northern Iraq, the full story of what happened back in that dreadful summer of 2014 is at last starting to emerge. Yazidis shot and thrown like refuse into pits; men and boys beheaded in front of their families; girls as young as eight subjected to gang rape; beatings; forced conversions; torture; slavery. In a camp I visited, a woman who had been raped for an entire year, then shot in the head when her owner grew tired of her, then finally sold back to her husband, lay curled in a foetal ball in a makeshift tent, rocking and moaning to herself.

Still, though, the horror of it all seems not to be cutting through. Perhaps we in the West cannot give it our full attention because we are too deadened by a sense of our own complicity in the miseries of Iraq, and by the complexities of it all. When I visited the summit of Mount Sinjar last year, I found examples of both. A great hulk of concrete marked where Saddam had stationed one of his Scud missile launchers in the first Gulf War; next to it, in tents massed around an ancient temple, was a camp of female and distractingly attractive Marxist guerrillas. The PKK, whose role in protecting Mount Sinjar is remembered with gratitude by many Yazidis, were stationed there in defence of their own (often brutally promoted) brand of revolutionary socialism. Just like their fellow Kurds in the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, their aim all along has been to establish a permanent sphere of influence over Sinjar. To this goal, the longing of Yazidis for a secure and dignified autonomy has always been peripheral.

Now, with the liberation of Mosul by the Iraqi army, and the return of Shi’ite militias to the plain of Nineveh, fresh ingredients have been added to the mix of ambitions. No wonder, looking at this swirl of competing interests and remembering what happened the last time they stuck their hands into the Iraqi magimix, that western powers shrink from intervening. Yet we owe it to the Yazidis not to forget them. Even as the feuding of rival Kurdish and Arab factions stop refugees returning to their homes in Sinjar, the poisonous interpretation of Islamic scripture used to justify their genocide has not gone away. The ideologues of ISIS have awakened ancient ghosts. In ad 830, so it is said, a caliph visited Harran, and ordered the city’s inhabitants to convert or die. Centuries later, an Ottoman cleric issued a fatwa urging Muslims to slaughter Yazidi men and take their women as slaves: ‘According to the principles of the four schools of law, it is the duty of all Muslims to kill them.’ ISIS are saying nothing new.

The Yazidis themselves claim to have survived 72 persecutions over the centuries. If they are to survive the 73rd as a distinct and coherent people, and not be scattered for ever from their ancient homeland, they need the backing of the outside world. Just as Noah fashioned a mighty vessel capable of withstanding the Flood, the Yazidis now need an ark of their own; one secure enough to keep them safe, and bring them back to rest in Sinjar.

Tom Holland and Gareth Browne discuss the plight of the Yazidis on the Spectator Podcast.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/don ... -the-last/
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Aug 13, 2017 2:37 am

It’s been three years since the Islamic State group started their attacks on the minority Yazidi community. According to the UN the extremists campaign of violence and kidnapping amounts to genocide.

Thousands of Yazidis are still being held by IS. Our correspondent Murad Shishani has met with some of the men who are still trying to rescue many of the women who were kidnapped


BBC Video:

phpBB [video]


Direct Link:
https://youtu.be/2jvbVRdOIY8
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Aug 17, 2017 12:08 am

YJŞ fighters rescue an Êzidî boy from ISIS in Raqqa

Shengal Women’s Units (YJŞ) have rescued an Êzidî boy from the clutches of ISIS in Raqqa where a fierce battle to clear the city is ongoing in its 72nd day. The 14 years old boy, Selah Hesen Reşo, is from Khanasor town of Shengal.

Image

In the course of the 73rd genocide against the Êzidîs in Shengal, 11 years old Saleh Hesen Reşo was taken hostage together with his entire family and forced to convert to Islam under torture in Mosul. After undergoing military and religious training, the gangs took him to Raqqa and had him fight against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In an operation by YJŞ fighters, 10 ISIS members were killed and the boy was rescued from their clutches.

The Great Battle led by the SDF is continuing in its 70th day. The SDF liberated until now 14 neighbourhoods from the ISIS gangs and seized control of 50% of Raqqa's city centre. They managed to free thousands of civilians from the fangs of the ISIS gangs so far.

The Shengal Women's Units (YJŞ) have also joined the Great Battle a while ago, vowing to take revenge on ISIS and rescue the civilians held hostages by them.

One of those Êzidîs who were freed by the YJŞ in Raqqa is Saleh Hesen Reşo. He was only 11 years old when ISIS gangs swept over Shengal to perpetrate the 73rd genocide against the Êzidî community.

According to DİHABER, Reşo was kidnapped with his entire seven-person family, who are originally from the Khanasor town, during the genocidal aggression on Shengal and taken to Mosul afterwards. Reşo and his twin brother Sebah were torn apart from the rest of the family and then forced to convert to Islam under torture.

Reşo was then taken Hama, Homs, Mansurah, Tabqa and Raqqa respectively and was subject to religious teachings and military training. Currently still 30 to 35 relatives of his are held hostages by ISIS gangs. Aside from his brother, the aftermath of his other relatives is totally unknown.

Talking about the day when women, children and men were separated from each other, Reşo told that he and his twin brother Sebah were taken to a prison assigned to children. He said not to know how long they were kept there, noting that they were subject to torture countless times and forced to convert to Islam during their imprisonment. He said dozens of Êzidî children who refused to accept this were massacred in front of his eyes, and he accepted to become a Muslim because he was very frightened after all those he was through and witnessed.

Reşo remarked that the gangs later prepared and took the children in groups to Raqqa and its surroundings without even telling them where they were being taken. He was then given religious and military training, adding that he knows now how to use Kalashnikov and other weapons.

Reşo, whose twin brother was near him during all this process, was taken afterwards to Hama, Homs, Mansurah and Tabqa.

“They held us in every of those cities for three to four months. They were caring about us particularly. We did never want to be through all those training sessions but we couldn’t say anything because we were afraid. They did not separate my brother from me. I don’t know why but he was always near me.”

Reşo stated that at times he and his twin brother spoke to each other clandestinely in the Kurdish language and said: "When the ISIS members noticed, they threatened us and threatened us to not use Kurdish once again. At the end they took me from Hama to Raqqa, where I was put into a group of some ISIS members. After some days I was taken to the front line. Some positions of the ISIS gangs were hit by airstrikes. The ISIS gangs are stuck in Raqqa. There they also assign the Êzidî children to the war."

Reşo, who has been rescued in Old Town Raqqa from the clutches of ISIS finally after three years, said that the ISIS gangs are resorting to child soldiers by use of force, adding: "Here they separated me from my brother Sebah who was put in another group that were settled in a house not away from ours. During an operation 10 ISIS members next to me were killed and I was rescued. But I still do not know where my brother is now."

After his rescue, Reşo was taken to a safe location by the YJŞ fighters.

Stop cheering and remember that well over 3000 Yazidis are still being help by ISIS :((

WE ASK THAT ALL OUR FRIENDS SHARE THE FACT THAT:

More than 3,000 mothers, daughters, aunts and sisters are still being tortured and raped on a daily bases
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:57 am

For a Yazidi Woman, Justice for ISIS Crimes Is Still Elusive

Nadia Murad was 21 years old when, she says, Islamic State fighters abducted her, beat her and raped her. Her offense: belonging to the minority Yazidi community, whom the Islamic State regards as infidels. Her cause for the last two years: demanding justice for the Islamic State’s atrocities.

This week, Ms. Murad clinched a small, but important victory. Her country, Iraq, agreed to let the Security Council appoint a panel of independent investigators to gather evidence of the most serious crimes committed by the Islamic State, and not just those against Yazidis. Lacking that, the Security Council would have had to adopt a resolution to create such a panel.

Still to be resolved is where and how those crimes will be prosecuted, and how to make sure those trials are credible and not displays of victor’s justice.

Ms. Murad’s quest poses an acute test for the promise of international justice, born from the ashes of Nazi genocide 70 years ago, after World War II.

If the most powerful countries in the world cannot hold accountable those who are accused of enslaving women for sex, beheading their perceived enemies, turning children into suicide bombers and carrying out what an international panel believes could be an act of genocide against the Yazidi people, what is the very notion of international justice good for?

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is accused of some of the gravest crimes known to humanity, and not only against the Yazidis. It does not have powerful countries defending it, as does say, the government of Syria, which also stands accused of a raft of war crimes.

Anti-ISIS activist Nadia Murad in 2016. A member of the Yazidi community, she has spent two years seeking justice for crimes she says ISIS committed against her and others. Credit Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times

Not least, the Islamic State committed these atrocities at a time when the world has a set of firmly established laws and a permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague precisely to deter and punish those who commit such crimes.

The I.C.C. has no jurisdiction in Iraq, though; the nation is not a member of the court, and there is no appetite on the Security Council’s part to refer the conflict in Iraq to the court.

In early August, the United Nations-authorized Commission of Inquiry urged world powers to recognize the crime of genocide against the Yazidis and to “undertake steps to refer the situation to justice.” Yet, even with that, the effort to investigate — let alone prosecute — those crimes has not been so straightforward.

The Security Council has the power to dispatch investigators to collect evidence or to set up a special tribunal. But it was reluctant to do either without Iraq’s consent.

That consent came Wednesday. In a letter to the United Nations, Iraq’s foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said his government would work with the British government on a draft Security Council resolution seeking “international expertise to criminalize” the Islamic State. The political sensitivities were clear in his letter. Mr. al-Jaafari emphasized Iraq’s “sovereignty and jurisdiction” in adopting any such resolution.

Iraqi special forces searching in July for remaining Islamic State fighters still hiding in the destroyed Old City of Mosul. Credit Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Amal Clooney, a British lawyer and rights activist who represents Ms. Murad, said she welcomed Iraq’s consent for an international investigation, as a first step.

“Yazidis and other ISIS victims want justice in a court of law, and they deserve nothing less,” Ms. Clooney said in a statement Wednesday. “I hope that the Iraqi government’s letter will mark the beginning of the end of impunity for genocide and other crimes that ISIS is committing in Iraq and around the world.”

Justice, of course, means different things to different parties.

Iraq has arrested thousands of suspected Islamic State members under its counterterrorism laws, which include the death penalty for membership in a banned terrorist group.

Islamic State fighters are facing trials in domestic courts from Tunisia to Germany to Iraq, although it remains to be seen how or where the group’s most senior leaders will be tried for the most serious international crimes, including genocide.

Trying such crimes in local courts can be tricky. “Most significantly,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch, “political will to permit independent and impartial criminal prosecutions can be in short supply in countries affected by conflict.”

Ms. Murad, now 24, is barely five feet tall. She does not smile much, and she rarely veers away from her prepared remarks, in Arabic. She favors solid black tunics and shoes made for walking. She sometimes looks as though she would rather be doing anything other than recounting for well-dressed, influential world leaders the horrors she lived through.

She has met with the Canadian prime minister, the queen of Jordan, United States ambassadors (representing both the Obama and Trump administrations), two successive secretaries general of the United Nations and, on several occasions, halls of dignitaries and philanthropists.

She has told and retold her awful story. The man who first came for her. “A monster,” is how she described him. Her brothers being executed. Mass graves.

And as time goes on, and she finds herself telling and retelling her story, it becomes harder for her to contain her fury.

At a briefing in the Security Council earlier this year, she looked up from her notes at one point and snapped, in halting English, at a room full of hushed diplomats from the world’s most powerful countries. “What more you need before you will act?” she asked bluntly.

She was honored last year with a human rights prize in honor of the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel. The United Nations appointed her a good will ambassador. Her memoir, “The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State,” is to be published this fall by Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group.

Ms. Murad, who now lives in Germany, says she never wanted this life. She was a farmer’s daughter. She wanted to open a beauty salon.

Her discomfort at being a crusader comes out sometimes. In an interview last fall, she confessed to being worn out, but also unable to give up.

“I will go back to my life when women in captivity go back to their lives, when my community has a place, when I see people accountable for their crimes,” she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/worl ... usive.html
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Aug 20, 2017 9:38 pm

Democratic autonomy declared in Shengal :ymparty:

Democratic autonomy was declared at a press conference in Shengal town, Southern Kurdistan.

Image

The press conference was attended by Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly Co-chairs Hisên Hecî Nefso and Rîham Hıço, Democratic Administration Board Co-chairs Hecî Hesen Pîso and Nehlê Yusif Hefsun, Deputy Co-chair Yardımcısı Kurdê Elî Ezîz, YBŞ (Shengal Resistance Units) Commander Seîd Hesen Seîd, Êzîdxan Asayish member Faris Herbo Xidir and Shengal Youth’s Assembly Co-Spokesperson Îbrahîm Omer.

Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly Co-chairs Hisên Hecî Nefso and Riham Baqi Hıco made the following statement in Kurdish and Arabic, introducing the ‘Democratic Autonomy Project of Êzidîxan’:

“We as the Êzidîs are the most ancient faith and cultural society in history. Due to our faith, we have suffered repeated genocides, we have been displaced, subject to all kinds of victimization and agony throughout history.

It must be understandable that in this regard our faith identity came further to the fore in order for us to protect ourselves and exist. The Êzidî faith, the most ancient faith of humanity and the Middle East, faced with massacres at genocide level at the hands of fanatic religious governments and societies throughout history. As as the Êzidî society describe these genocidal attacks as firman [decree]. With these firmans of physical and religious genocides, Êzidîs across Kurdistan and Mesopotamia came to the threshold of extinction. Hundreds of thousands of them had to migrate to Armenia, Russia and Europe. We managed to reach the 21st century with a community that dropped to hundreds of thousands settled mainly around Welatêşêx and Shengal.

The perpetration of the latest firman against the Êzidîs in the 21st century, when we considered values such as democracy, equality and freedom to be gaining ground, is clearly a shameful and insulting case for all humanity.

Our Êzidî community has been subject to the barbarity and fascism of ISIS gangs that became a menace to humanity. The inhumane and brutal attack carried out on our Êzidî society on August 3, 2014, which we define as the 73rd firman, was one of the most tragic and painful firmans we have been through. It is known that this firman has led to troubles difficult to rehabilitate.

Thousands of Êzidîs were kidnapped in these attacks, thousands more –mainly women and children- were kidnapped, hundreds of thousands were displaced from their holy land Êzidîxan and scattered all around the world. With this firman of ISIS, Êzidîs faced going out of existence. Although these massacres were predictable, neither the IRaqi state nor the Bashurê (Southern) Kurdistan Regional government took precautions.

Due to the lack of self-governance and self-defense forces of the Êzidîs, ISIS managed to invade the Êzidî villages and reach Shengal in a short while during their onslaught on 3 August 2014. The military forces in Shengal did not resist against the ISIS attack, and thus left hundreds of thousands of Êzidîs to the genocidal aggression of ISIS.

Like in the previous firmans they had faced in history, women, children, youth and elderly took to the Mount Shengal barefoot, without food and water. In this most difficult time of the Êzidîs, 12 self-sacrificing PKK guerrillas made themselves a shield against the ISIS’ herds of murderers, while YPG/YPJ guerrillas similarly rushed from Rojava and opened a humanitarian corridor through which they rescued Êzidîs from a great massacre and genocide.

Most of the Êzidîs that survived the firman settled in camps in Rojava, Bashurê (Southern) and Bakurê (Northern) Kurdistan, while 15-20 thousand of our people remained in Mount Shengal, young and old alike, and continued their lives under challenging circumstances. In the face of the ISIS threat, thousands of families insisted to stay and continue their lives in Mount Shengal amid challenging winter conditions, which constitutes a great resistance in the Êzidî history. This resistance went down in history as our people’s determination to continue their existence.

HPG guerrillas and YBŞ fighters that organized themselves as the self-defense force of Shengal did not allow ISIS to set foot on Mount Shengal, and they liberated several settlements around Mount Shengal from ISIS. YBŞ and HPG guerrillas played a leading role in the liberation of Shengal town center from ISIS in 2015’s autumn.

The liberation of Shengal from ISIS is not just an important case alone. We thus gained awareness that attaining autonomy on the basis of self-defense, and developing a free and democratic life was a guarantee to not face further firmans. On this basis we advanced our self organization, which was a most fundamental right of ours. To us, it is neither understandable nor acceptable that the powers which did not fulfil their responsibilities towards the Êzidî society and caused us to be victimized with this firman have sought to prevent the Êzidîs from using this basic right of theirs.

In the wake of this firman against our community, treating the Êzidîs as before, not recognizing their will and considering that they have not drawn a lesson from what has happened is the biggest unfairness and disrespect towards Êzidîs. To our regret, some powers seek to re-dominate themselves on Shengal and Êzidîs today ignoring all we have been through. Their attack on Khanasor on 3 March 2017 via the gangs that broke from the Rojava Revolution, was the consequence of such a mindset. Khanasor was not under ISIS occupation. It was an area that was cleansed of ISIS and defended by our children for two years, and where people organized themselves. After the failure of these attacks, the Turks were made to attack our territory. Turkish warplanes bombed Shengal in order to intimidate us and break our will. All these practices will not ever be able to suppress our society.

Êzidîs are not the Êzidîs they used to be before the firman, and everyone should understand this. We should not be expected to accept any power that imposes their dominance on us without recognizing our will. We stated already that we will not be discouraged by the tendencies of these powers. We will be resisting from now onwards as well.

As Êzidîs desire to attain an autonomous life basing on self-defense and self-government in the wake of the latest firman, the essentiality of democratic autonomy for the Êzidîs has once again revealed itself clearly amid the fight given by some powers to dominate over Shengal. Those who failed to protect the Êzidî society during ISIS onslaught made clear their desire to establish dominance over Shengal after the defeat of ISIS in this territory.

For us Êzidîs, 3 August 2014’s firman is a milestone. Our people do not mean to entrust our existence to the mercy of some other powers anymore, and they want to attain a democratic autonomous life in order not to face yet another genocide.

For this reason, our people constituted their assembly and declared their will in a conference only 5 months after the firman, on 14 January 2015, when they declared to the world their will and determination to enhance resistance, liberate their lands, turn Shengal back to a living space, enable the return of those displaced back to home, advance their self-defense and self-government systems. They thus manifested their will to turn Shengal back into a source of life and hope.

It is beyond argument that this will revealed by the conference as Shengal Construction Assembly is the most legitimate representation and will of the people of Shengal because as the people and assemblies of Shengal, we did not leave our land and we resisted. With no contribution and support from the central and regional governments, the assembly of this people managed to fill the existing gap of administration despite all the difficulties and lack of sources.

The construction assembly working to build a self-government system for the past 2,5 years has established several institutions and organisations needed by the people during this period of time. Despite all the challenges, the construction assembly created means and opportunities for the living of the people that remained in Mount Shengal. From education centers to schools, municipality, field assemblies, health services, asayish and several other institutions and organisations, the construction assembly turned Shengal back into a living space in spite of all the obstructions.

Shengal Construction Assembly played an important role for not only the Êzidîs that remained in Shengal, but also for those who were forced to migrate, and became a hope for their return. Thousands of families could turn back to their land on this foundation built in Shengal.

Until today, this assembly has played its role to meet the basic needs of the people, building people’s institutions and defending the people with its defense forces. In addition to all these tasks and responsibilities, our people want their assembly to assure the status of Shengal on the basis of autonomy.

Since 14 January 2015, our Êzidî people desire an autonomous life in which decisions concerning themselves will be made by their own assemblies and the self-defense force to protect them against attacks will be affiliated to this assembly. They reject the fight for domination over Êzidîxan. In this regard, we submit the democratic autonomy project, which our people consider a must, to the appreciation of all political powers, concerned states, international powers and the Kurdish public opinion. We expect all those responsible powers to support the democratic autonomy structure that will lead Êzidîxan to a free and democratic life through an improvement of this project with necessary contributions.

ROAD MAP AND BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMY

    1- Establishment of Êzidîxan autonomy commission under the supervision of the United Nations, and inclusion of representatives from Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional governments, PKK and Democratic Northern Syria Federation in this commission.

    2- Under the supervision of this commission, establishment of Êzidîxan People’s Assembly to involve representatives from all Êzidî communities, Êzidî religious functionaries, women and youth organisations, and different faith and popular communities living within the borders of Êzidîxan; and functioning of this assembly as a constituent assembly.

    3- Unification of YBŞ and military forces of various Êzidî communities under a joint command and formation of Êzidîxan’s self-defense force affiliated to Êzidîxan People’s Assembly.

    4- Administration of police and asayish forces by the “desteya rêvebir” [Executive Council] and “desteya parastın” [Defence Council] to be formed under the Êzidîxan Assembly.

    5- Establishment of a Diplomacy Committee affiliated to Executive Council to work towards establishing relations with Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional governments, foreign states, international institutions and concerned political organisations and parties to serve a free and democratic living on the basis of Êzidîxan’s Democratic Autonomy.

    6- Establishment of executive councils to work in the fields of health, education, culture, economy, trade and justice within the Êzidîxan Assembly, and supervision of these works by the assemblies to be formed only by the involved staff.

    7- Press gets organized independently on the basis of Êzidîxan democratic principles and societal values. Problems regarding the press get resolved by press institutions or assemblies made up of press workers. Êzidîxan allocates a certain, and equally allocated, budget to the press every year.

    8- Every city and town must be administered by local assemblies, a part of which shall be formed by general and equal quota-centered elections, and the other part to comprise representatives elected by organised democratic institutions on a democratic basis. These assemblies make all the decisions that concern the related town or city but not entire Êzidîxan. Executive councils manage the works concerning the cities and towns in question.

    9- All political opinions get organised freely and these organisations are secured by assemblies and executive councils. Every pressure to be exerted on a different political opinion and organisation constitutes a crime.

    10- In all working areas women’s distinct organization is ensured, matters that concern women specifically are decided for by the women’s own organizations and the women’s councils.

    11- In all councils and communes there is a minimum quota of 40% for women. The youth representation quota for councils is 15% minimum.

    12- In the Êzidîxan council the Êzidî religious scholars have sufficient quotas. This quota comes to the council with the predetermined election system.

    13- After the Êzidîxan people’s council acts as the constituent assembly, it is renewed according to elections held in line with the elections act.

    14- Both Êzidîxan and city and town council members are determined 65% with the general vote, and 35% by the democratically elected representatives from organized societies.

    15- After the Êzidîxan people’s council acts as the constituent assembly, how the democratic autonomy to be created in Êzidîxan will relate to the Iraqi central government and Bashurê Kurdistan will be determined by the negotiations the Êzidîxan autonomy commission holds with said powers. If there is no agreement in the negotiations, a democratic referendum will determine whether the Êzidîxan will be under the Iraqi central government or the Bashurê Kurdistan Federation or a third option.

    16- After how the autonomous structure of the Êzidîxan relates to the relevant governments is determined, the democratic autonomy created in Êzidîxan is made compatible with the general Iraq and Bashurê Kurdistan Federation to avoid conflict in political and social life without touching the core of the autonomy.

    17- In matters not directly related to the Êzidîxan and those that relate to Iraq in general like defense, diplomacy and economy, Êzidîxan acts according to the Iraqi and Bashurê Kurdistani constitutions and laws. But in foreign embassies for general diplomacy, an Êzidî cultural attache is appointed for the promotion of the Êzidîxan culture and life.

    18- The autonomy of Êzidîxan under the aforementioned principles is included in the Iraqi Constitution and the Başurê Kurdistan laws.

    19- Êzidîs are history’s legacy to humanity. The autonomy of Êzidîxan should not just be guaranteed by the Iraqi constitution, but should also be secured by the United Nations. The Êzidîxan autonomy commission under UN supervision continues its existence until the Democratic Autonomy is accepted and put into practice.

    20- In the process of institutionalizing the autonomy, no new outside military forces should be brought in to Êzidîxan other than the existing forces now. With the announcement that all parties accept the democratic autonomy in the framework stated above, all military forces not under the Êzidîxan council should withdraw from the Êzidîxan.

    21-Recognition of the 73rd Firman against the Êzidîs as a genocide in the international arena. For that, the Êzidîxan autonomy commission under UN supervision will complete the duties and responsibilities on their part.

    22- Founding of an independent court in Shengal by the Êzidîxan autonomy commission and the trial and punishment of peoples who played a bad role in the Firman and have Êzidî blood on their hands.

    23- Support for the Êzidîxan autonomy commission in the protocol to be signed among the Iraqi Êzidîs, Turkmens and Christians in the European Parliament on October 26, 2017."
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:19 am

Iraqi Forces Must Rescue Abducted Yazidis From Tal Afar: Yazidi MP

ERBIL (Reuters) - As Iraqi forces pressed their offensive to retake Tal Afar on Monday, a Yazidi politician urged them to quickly rescue the many Yazidi men, women and children still believed to be held captive in the city by Islamic State militants.

Vian Dakhil, a member of the Iraqi parliament, said the fate of children who had been kidnapped, sold or had their identities changed was of particular concern.

The Yazidi area in northern Iraq had previously been home to about 400,000. In a matter of days, more than 3,000 Yazidis were killed and about 6,800 kidnapped, either sold into slavery or conscripted to fight for Islamic State.

More than 3,000 women and children are still believed to be held captive by Islamic State, according to community leaders.


Link to Full Article:

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... -yazidi-mp
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Aug 22, 2017 1:30 am

Turkey fumes as Sinjar Yazidis declare 'democratic autonomy'

As Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, continues to resist mounting international calls to scrap a referendum on Kurdish independence planned for September, a rival Kurdish faction has added its voice, declaring what it calls “democratic autonomy” in the predominantly Yazidi region of Sinjar. The Sinjar Democratic Autonomous Administrative Council made the announcement on Sunday, saying it wants “free and democratic life for all Yazidis.”

Sinjar is among the so-called disputed territories that the KRG and the central government in Baghdad both claim as their own. The KRG says the referendum will be conducted in all the disputed territories, including Sinjar.

Bordering Syria, Sinjar remains the scene of a turf war between the Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), backed by Turkey, and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting for Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey and is also vying for influence in Iraq, Iran and Syria. The PKK-backed administration council says it will not allow the referendum to be conducted in areas under its control, including Khanasor, a strategic crossing point for PKK militants heading to Syria.

Bilal Wahab, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Al Monitor, “If they decide to, the PKK can block positioning referendum ballot boxes in Sinjar in towns and neighborhoods, they control.” This, he said, would leave the Yazidis caught in the middle of the political rivalry between the PKK and the KDP.

Tensions between the KDP and the PKK flared in September 2014, when Islamic State (IS) militants unleashed an orgy of mass murder and rape, killing thousands of Yazidis. Many blame KDP peshmerga for failing to defend the Yazidis and for fleeing the scene without even leaving weapons for the beleaguered minority to defend itself. That is when the PKK intervened, shepherding thousands of Yazidis to the safety of the Sinjar Mountains.

The PKK has since overseen the establishment of a Yazidi militia, the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), as well as an all-female force along with local governing bodies. Sinjar town remains under the control of pro-KDP Yazidis, but the rest of the region has largely been divvied up between pro-KDP and pro-PKK groups, and in some instances they cohabit.

Sunday’s assembly presented a list of planned institutions meant to convey the distinct and independent character of the autonomous zone. These include a “diplomatic body” to “manage relations with Iraq, Kurdistan and other states” and a “neutral court” to prosecute “those who caused or helped [IS] in the Yazidi regions.” There was no immediate reaction from the KRG, but Barzani repeated today that there is no question of postponing the referendum.

All of this is infuriating Turkey, which views the PKK's presence in Sinjar as a further threat to its own security. Turkey has several thousand troops in Iraqi Kurdistan and has repeatedly threatened to take military action against the PKK in Sinjar.

In a bid to pre-empt further Turkish actions, the KDP and its Syrian Kurdish proxies sought in March to dislodge the PKK from Khanasor, but failed. In April, Turkish fighter jets targeted PKK and YBS militants in the area, but ended up killing six KDP peshmerga instead.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asserted today that his government is considering joint military action with Iran against the PKK. “[The] PKK terror organization has a foot in Iran,” Erdogan said, speaking to reporters ahead of an official visit to Jordan. “They always cause harm to Iran and us. … We believe if the two countries cooperate, we can reach a conclusion in a much shorter period of time.”

Those comments follow last week’s groundbreaking three-day visit to Ankara by Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Iran’s military chief of staff. According to the pro-government daily Turkiye, Bagheri offered to launch a joint operation against the PKK's Qandil bases bordering Iran and to help drive PKK fighters out of Sinjar as well.

In a further twist, a growing number of Yazidis have defected from KDP- and PKK-backed outfits to join the Baghdad-supported, predominantly Shiite Popular Mobilization Units, which have driven IS from southern Sinjar, effectively curtailing the KDP and PKK’s influence there. This dynamic makes it less likely that the PKK-backed administrative council is acting under Baghdad’s influence or that it is part of an effort to prevent the Sept. 25 independence referendum from taking place.

“I don’t believe the council was coordinating with Baghdad,” said Arzu Yilmaz, an Iraqi Kurdistan-based academic who has done extensive research on Sinjar. She told Al-Monitor, “More likely, it is part of a broader strategy [for the PKK] to position themselves ahead of any declaration of independence proper by the KRG.”

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/origina ... ition.html
Good Thoughts Good Words Good Deeds
User avatar
Anthea
Shaswar
Shaswar
Donator
Donator
 
Posts: 28352
Images: 1155
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:13 pm
Location: Sitting in front of computer
Highscores: 3
Arcade winning challenges: 6
Has thanked: 6019 times
Been thanked: 729 times
Nationality: Kurd by heart

PreviousNext

Return to Kurdistan Debates, Articles and Analysis

Who is online

Registered users: Bing [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot]

x

#{title}

#{text}