3rd anniversary of the genocide against the Yazidis in Iraq (August 3)

On the occasion of the third anniversary of the genocide against the Yazidis in Iraq (August 3, 2014), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and the German-based Yazidi aid organization HAWAR.help have addressed Germany’s 16 federal state parliaments with an urgent request to help the distressed survivors of this terrible crime. “Please support the initiative of the Yazidis in Germany, who have been living here for quite a while now, and who are trying to help the members of their religious community in Iraq. Please try to develop projects – similar to the initiatives to take care of traumatized women in Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg – to help the Yazidi refugees, the women and children. They need psychological care, and the refugee camps don’t have enough funds. Also, there have to be initiatives to rebuild and develop the Sinjar region in northern Iraqi,” says the letter the human rights organization and the aid organization sent to the parliaments.

“It would be a sign of respect towards the victims of the genocide and a warm-hearted gesture of solidarity with the survivors to provide help,” the STP and HAWAR.help wrote. “The long-term goal of the Yazidis is to ensure that the perpetrators will be held accountable before international courts –and the survivors are hoping for an official recognition of the genocide. In addition, the Sinjar region in northern Iraq, the mountainous region in which most of the Yazidis live, should become self-governed.”

The Yazidis in the Sinjar region were attacked by IS-militants in August 3, 2014. According to the United Nations, about 5,000 Yazidis lost their lives; many more were abducted, and about 430,000 decided to flee. The IS had tried to expel or kill all the Yazidis in the Sinjar region. Men and boys who didn’t manage to escape and who refused to convert to Islam were shot. Up to 5,000 women and girls were kidnapped, and only about 900 of them were able to escape. The captured women were raped, forced into marriage, or sold on slave markets. Survivors reported about frightening bearded men who harassed little girls, about children who cried for their mothers, and about screaming women. They were treated so badly that several women committed suicide – or tried to. About 300,000 Yazidi refugees who lost everything in the attacks are still living in tent camps.

The largest diaspora group of Yazidis can be found in Germany – with about 120,000 members. Most of them came to Germany in the 1980s, as a means to escape religious persecution. About 50,000 Yazidis are living in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, 5,000 alone in and around Bielefeld.

Header Photo: Düzen Tekkal