Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

[Anthea]

11 years and counting:

Yazidi’s demand justice for Sinjar massacre victims

On Friday, displaced Yazidis in Zakho, within the Kurdistan Region, commemorated the 11th anniversary of the 2014 Sinjar genocide, when thousands were killed or abducted by ISIS.

The ceremony was held in the Jam Mishko camp at the tent of Shami Diro, known as Day Shami, who lost 33 family members in the massacre and has since become a symbol of Yazidi suffering. The memorial included displays of photographs of victims and missing persons, alongside traditional mourning rituals.

“This day is a deep wound that will never heal,” Day Shami told Shafaq News. “I lost 33 relatives. Eighteen were freed, eight were killed, one girl took her own life in captivity to avoid abuse, and the rest are still missing.” She urged the Iraqi government and the international community to intensify efforts to locate the missing and return the remains of the dead to their families.

Yazidi lawmaker Mahma Khalil said the anniversary sends a clear message to the world, “What happened to the Yazidis was a genocide against a peaceful community.” He criticized Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government for “failing” to rebuild Sinjar, implement the Sinjar Agreement, or return displaced Yazidis to their homes.

Khalil revealed that more than 2,300 Yazidis remain missing, and 52 of 93 documented mass graves in Sinjar have yet to be opened, calling on international organizations to intervene and ensure justice for the victims.

https://shafaq.com/en/Kurdistan/11-year ... re-victims

[Anthea]

Yazidi commander says hand Shingal
security over to Peshmerga

A Yazidi commander on Friday called for Kurdish Peshmerga forces to be put in charge of security in the Yazidi-majority Shingal (Sinjar) district of northern Iraq where multiple armed groups and forces operate, impeding the return of thousands of residents who fled when the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked 11 years ago

“Until Shingal’s security file is handed over to the Peshmerga, the multiple forces and security problems will continue and the displaced will not trust to return to their homeland, and life in Shingal will not normalize,” Haider Shasho, commander of the Ezidikhan Protection Forces that are a Yazidi division within the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry, told Rudaw.

In 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed the Shingal Agreement to restore governance, security, and stability to the district and resolve a number of issues that have prevented the return of its inhabitants. Under that deal, Baghdad was to assume responsibility for security, expelling all armed groups and establishing a new armed force recruited from the local population.

The agreement has never been fully implemented and
thousands of Yazidis are still unable to return home

“There are many conspiracies against Shingal and there are political parties in Iraq conspiring against Shingal. That’s why the Shingal Agreement has not been implemented until now and the crisis and problems of the district remain ongoing,” Shasho said, calling on international actors to intervene and exert pressure on Baghdad to implement the deal.

Shingal is part of the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil. The areas stretch across several provinces, including Nineveh, Diyala, Salahaddin, and Kirkuk. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which remains unimplemented, provides a process for the KRG and the federal government to settle their disputes.

“We wish that if Shingal’s security file is not handed over to the Peshmerga, at least those Peshmerga who are Yazidis should have their duties transferred to Shingal,” Shasho suggested, explaining that “would provide important psychological assistance” to the Yazidis, “most of whom are displaced and living in camps.”

The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious group in northern Iraq that were subjected to countless heinous atrocities, including forced marriages, sexual violence, and massacres when ISIS captured the city in 2014, bringing destruction to many villages and towns populated by the minority group and committing genocide.

They were forced to flee to displacement camps, mainly in the Kurdistan Region. Political disputes over the region between Baghdad and Erbil, as well as the presence of armed groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), have disrupted reconstruction of the city that suffered heavy destruction during the war against ISIS.

International actors, such as the United Nations and the United States, have repeatedly called on Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to implement the agreement and “break the political deadlock” in the city.

Shasho said the PKK forces in Shingal “should also lay down their arms” after the group dissolved itself and announced it was ending its decades-long armed conflict with Turkey.

“While the PKK is recognized as a banned organization in Iraq and has now dissolved itself, its armed members continue in Shingal and the Iraqi government supports them,” Shasho claimed.

The Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) and Ezidkhan Asayish were formed by the PKK to oust ISIS. They control parts of the district.

The PKK and its proxies have rejected the Shingal Agreement.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/020820252

[Anthea]

Kurdish Diaspora Marks
Yezidi Genocide Anniversary

The Kurdistan Diaspora Confederation on Sunday organized remembrance events in more than 20 cities across Europe and North America to mark the 11th anniversary of the Yezidi genocide, aiming to raise international awareness about the atrocities committed by ISIS in the Sinjar region in 2014

In a statement issued to commemorate the occasion, the KDC said the events included candlelight vigils, exhibitions displaying photographs of victims, and informative presentations detailing the scale of the genocide and the current plight of the Yezidi community. The activities took place in cities including Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Nashville, Oslo, Tbilisi, Vienna, Stockholm, and Vancouver, among others.

“This year’s commemoration had a noticeable impact, particularly in Western countries where it helped shine a light on the suffering endured by the Yezidi community,” the statement said. “As the KDC, we will dedicate all our efforts in Western countries to advocating for the Yezidi Kurds, aiming for broader recognition of the Sinjar genocide by the international community.”

The KDC also urged both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi federal government to work together to reach a lasting and practical agreement that would allow displaced Yezidis to return to their ancestral lands in Sinjar with safety, dignity, and access to essential services.

The genocide of the Yezidis began on August 3, 2014, when Da’esh militants launched a brutal assault on the Sinjar region in northwestern Iraq. Thousands of Yezidis were killed, and an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 women and children were abducted, many of whom were subjected to systematic rape, forced conversions, and slavery. The United Nations has recognized the crimes committed against the Yezidis as genocide, citing clear intent to destroy the group in whole or in part.

The offensive caused tens of thousands of Yezidis to flee to the Sinjar Mountains, where they were trapped without food, water, or shelter in scorching summer temperatures. The siege prompted international outrage and led to a US-led humanitarian airdrop and military intervention to protect those stranded on the mountain.

Despite the defeat of ISIS in the area and the liberation of Sinjar by Kurdish forces in 2015, the region remains largely unstable. Security vacuums, political rivalries, and the lack of a unified administration have hindered reconstruction and the safe return of displaced families. More than 2,700 abducted Yezidis remain missing, and thousands continue to live in camps across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Over the years, Yezidi leaders and advocacy groups have repeatedly called on the international community to recognize the 2014 atrocities as genocide, prosecute perpetrators, and support the survivors—particularly women and children—in rebuilding their lives. Efforts have also been made to document the crimes and preserve evidence for future trials.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/891163

[Anthea]

Yezidi Kurds Injured in Knife Attack

Two Yezidi Kurds were injured in a knife attack at a meat processing plant near Hamburg, German media reported, in what police say may have been a religiously motivated assault

The incident took place in the town of Quickborn, where a 45-year-old Iranian-born man working as a butcher allegedly attacked his two Kurdish Yezidi co-workers with a meat-cutting knife. One of the victims is from Shingal, Iraq, and the other from Northern Syria (Western Kurdistan), according to German news agency DPA.

Authorities said the three men were employed at the same facility and that the assailant used a work-issued knife in the attack. Despite efforts by the victims to defend themselves, both sustained injuries before other staff intervened and restrained the attacker. Police later arrived at the scene and arrested the suspect. The knife was confiscated.

Hamburg police are investigating the motive behind the assault and said there are indications it may have been driven by religious animosity. No official charges have yet been announced

The attack has sparked concern within Germany’s Yezidi community, which numbers over 150,000, many of whom resettled in the country after fleeing ISIS atrocities in Iraq and Syria. Advocacy groups have called on authorities to ensure workplace safety and address threats facing religious and ethnic minorities.

Germany has seen occasional acts of religiously or ethnically motivated violence in recent years, prompting debates over integration, extremism, and hate crimes.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/891248

[Anthea]

German court rejects
deported Yazidi family's return

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Potsdam Administrative Court has rejected an emergency application from a Yazidi family seeking to return to Germany after their deportation to Iraq, ruling that their removal was legally valid despite growing political pressure and public outcry

According to DW, the family—two parents and four children—are members of the Yazidi minority targeted by the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) in a 2014 genocidal campaign, officially recognized by the German parliament in 2023. They had lived for years in the town of Lychen, Brandenburg, where the children were integrated into local schools.

In its Thursday decision, the court upheld a March 2023 ruling by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) that rejected the family’s protection claim as “manifestly unfounded” and found no legal barrier to deportation. Judges stated they saw no evidence of “individual persecution” or current large-scale group persecution of Yazidis, nor a significant individual threat such as ISIS-related targeting.

The court also noted that the deportation order had been enforceable since 2023. While another court had suspended the family’s obligation to leave in a July 22 emergency ruling, that decision was delivered only after the deportation had already taken place.

The deportation was carried out on a charter flight from Leipzig to Baghdad carrying 43 people. German authorities initially claimed that only single men—some with criminal records—were on board. But according to DW it later emerged that this was not the case, and the Yazidi family had been among the deportees.

Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Rene Wilke described the situation as “deeply concerning” and said he had requested federal authorities to explore bringing the family back—if legal grounds emerged to do so. The BAMF, however, defended its position, citing the earlier failed asylum claim and current security assessments that classify Iraq as posing no recognized danger to the family.

The case has stirred alarm among Yazidi advocacy organizations, including Nadia’s Initiative, which warns that similar removal orders have been issued to other Yazidi families in Germany. They argue that many Yazidis still cannot safely return due to the destruction of villages, ongoing insecurity, and the presence of ISIS remnants in Iraq

Politicians from the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Left Party have joined calls for the family’s return, citing both Germany’s recognition of the Yazidi genocide and its moral responsibility toward survivors.

The ruling comes amid broader concern over Germany’s new deportation policy, which allows for the removal of refugees to their countries of origin under expanded criteria. According to official German data, more than 800 refugees were deported to Iraq last year, many from the Kurdistan Region.

Yazidi refugees say the policy places them in grave danger. Qasim Jamil, a young Yazidi in Germany, told Kurdistan24: “We came to Germany to build a future for ourselves, to work and study. We cannot be forced back because we do not know when another disaster will strike Sinjar. We have many enemies in Iraq, and terrible things are being said about us.”

Jamil Ismail, deputy head of the Yazidi House in Germany, described the decision as deeply troubling. “We are very saddened by Germany’s decision. Refugees endure dangerous journeys, often crossing more than 30 kilometers by water and facing countless hardships to reach safety here. Returning them now places them in a dire situation,” he said.

He urged Berlin to reverse course: “The German government should review its decision to deport refugees and refrain from implementing it.”

The case has reignited debate in Germany over how asylum policy should treat communities that have endured mass atrocities. For many critics, the court’s strict legal reasoning stands in sharp contrast to humanitarian obligations arising from genocide recognition—exposing a deep divide between the letter of the law and moral responsibility.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/85 ... lys-return

[Anthea]

Persecution of Yazidis

The persecution of Yazidis has been ongoing since at least 637 CE

Yazidis are an endogamous and mostly Kurmanji-speaking minority, indigenous to Kurdistan, who had also been persecuted when they followed Adawiyya, the predecessor of the Yazidi religion, which has historically been regarded as "devil-worship" among the followers of Abrahamic religions, primarily among Muslims and is still described as such by some, especially by Islamic extremists.

Yazidis have been persecuted by surrounding Muslim state entities and groups since the medieval ages, most notably by Ottomans, neighbouring Muslim Arab and even some Kurdish tribes that had converted ti Islam.

After the 2014 Sinjar massacre of thousands of Yazidis by ISIS, which started the ethnic, cultural, and religious genocide of the Yazidis in Iraq, Yazidis still face discrimination from the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government

After some Kurdish tribes became Islamized in the 10th century, they joined in the persecution of Yazidis in the Hakkari mountains.

Due to their enforced religion, Muslim Kurds persecuted and attacked the Yazidis with particular brutality.

Sometimes, during these massacres, Muslim Kurds tried to force the Yazidis to convert to Islam as they themselves had been forced to do.

Massacres by Muslim Kurds and Turks in the 19th century nearly eradicated the Yazidi population.

In 1254, Sheikh Adī’s grand-nephew al-Ḥasan b. ‘Adī together with 200 of his supporters were executed by Badr al-Din Lu'Lu, who was a Kurd convert to Islam and Zangid governor of Mosul, Sheikh Adi's tomb at Lalish was then desecrated

In 1415, a Shāfi‘ī theologian, ‘Izz al-Dīn al Hulwānī, with the military support of the Sunni Kurds of the Sindi tribe and the lord of Ḥiṣn Kayfā, attacked Lalish and burnt down the temple. The Yazidis later rebuilt their temple and the tomb of Sheikh Adi.

The Geli Ali Beg Waterfall in Iraqi Kurdistan is named after the Yazidi leader Ali Beg who was killed there in 1832 by the Kurdish prince Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz.

In the year 1585, the Yazidis in the Sinjar Mountains were attacked by the Sunni Kurds from Bohtan.

In the year 1832, about 70,000 Yazidis were killed by the Sunni Kurdish princes Bedir Khan Beg and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz.

During his research trips in 1843, the Russian traveller and orientalist Ilya Berezin mentioned that 7,000 Yazidis were killed by Kurds of Rawandiz on the hills of Nineveh near Mosul, shortly before his arrival.

According to many historical reports, the Bedir Khan massacres can today be classified as a genocide.

In 1831, Muhammad Pasha massacred the people of the Kellek village. He then went northward and attacked the entire Yazidi-inhabited foothill country which was located east of Mosul.

Some Yazidis managed to take refuge in the neighboring forests and mountain fastnesses, and a few of them managed to escape to distant places.

Many Yazidis from Sheikhan, who had fled from the Kurds but could not cross the Tigris river, gathered on the great mound of Kouyunjik, where they were persecuted and killed by Muhammad Pasha's men.

In 1832, Muhammad Pasha and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Khatarah. Subsequently, they attacked the Yazidis in Shekhan and killed many of them.

In another attempt he and his troops occupied over 300 Yazidi villages. The emir kidnapped over 10,000 Yazidis and sent them to Rawandiz and gave them the ultimatum of converting to Islam or being killed. Most of them converted to Islam and those who refused to convert to Islam were killed.

In 1832, Bedir Khan Beg and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Shekhan. His men almost killed the whole Yazidi population of Shekhan. Some Yazidis tried to escape to Sinjar.

When they attempted to escape towards Sinjar, many of them drowned in the Tigris River. Those who could not swim were killed. About 12,000 Yazidis were killed on the bank of the Tigris river by Bedir Khan Beg's men. Yazidi women and children were also kidnapped.

In 1833, the Yazidis who lived in the Aqrah region were again attacked by Muhammad Pasha and his soldiers. The perpetrators killed 500 Yazidis in the Greater Zab. Afterwards, Muhammad Pasha and his troops attacked the Yazidis who lived in Sinjar and killed a great many of them.

In 1844, Bedir Khan Beg and his men committed a massacre against the Yazidis in the Tur Abdin region. His men also captured many Yazidis and forced them to convert to Islam. The inhabitants of seven Yazidi villages were all forced to convert to Islam.

Many Yazidis also defended themselves against the attacks. So did Ali Beg, the Yazidi leader in Sheikhan. The Yazidi leader Ali Beg mobilized his forces in order to oppose Muhammad Pasha, who mobilized the Kurdish tribes which lived in the surrounding mountains in order to launch an attack against the Yazidis. Ali Beg's troops were outnumbered and he was captured and killed by Muhammad Pasha.

After the Ottomans had given the Yazidis a certain legal status in 1849 through repeated interventions by Stratford Canning and Sir Austen Henry Layard, they sent their Ottoman general Omar Wahbi Pasha (later known as "Ferîq Pasha" in the memory of the Yazidis), in 1890[35] or 1892[34] from Mosul to the Yazidis in Shaikhan and again gave the Yazidis an ultimatum to convert to Islam.

When the Yazidis refused, the areas of Sinjar and Shaykhan were occupied and another massacre committed among the residents.

The Ottoman rulers mobilized the Hamidiye cavalry, later founded in 1891, to take action against the Yazidis. Many Yazidi villages were attacked by the Hamidiye cavalry and the residents were killed.

The Yazidi villages of Bashiqa and Bahzani were also raided and many Yazidi temples were destroyed. The Yazidi Mir Ali Beg was captured and held in Kastamonu. The central shrine of the Yazidis Lalish was converted into a Quran school. This condition lasted for twelve years until the Yazidis were able to recapture their main shrine Lalish.

During the Armenian genocide, many Yazidis were killed by Hamidiye cavalry. According to Aziz Tamoyan, as many as 300,000 Yazidis were killed with the Armenians, while others fled to Transcaucasia.

Many Yazidis found refuge in Armenia as they fled from Muslim Kurds and Turks. Despite the fact that the Yazidis hid 20,000 Christians from the Ottomans in the Sinjar Mountains during the Armenian genocide, the Yazidis faced discrimination in Armenia. Yazidi children tended to hide their identities in schools so they would not be discriminated against.

The term "Yezidi" is often used by non-Yazidis as an insult.

According to Arbella Bet-Shlimon, in 1935 the Iraqi Army attacked eleven Yazidi villages, placed Sinjar under martial law, and then sentenced many Yazidi prisoners to death or to long sentences because they had resisted mandatory conscription; some of the prisoners were even paraded in front of a jeering crowd in Mosul that killed one of the captives.

In the 21st century, Yazidis faced targeted violence from insurgents during the Iraq War, including an April 2007 massacre that killed 23, and the Qahtaniyah bombings, which killed 796, and the Yazidi family massacre (2008) killing seven.

The Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) was set up to defend Yazidis in the aftermath of these attacks.

The genocide of Yazidis by ISIS, which began with the 2014 Sinjar massacre, led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their ancestral lands in Sinjar.

Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were forced into sexual slavery by the Sunni fundamentalist majority-Arab terrorist group ISIS, and thousands of Yazidi men were killed.

Five thousand Yazidi civilians were killed during what has been called a "forced conversion campaign" being carried out by ISIS in Northern Iraq. The genocide began after the withdrawal of the KRG's Peshmerga militia, which left the Yazidis defenseless.

Peshmerga's retreat was due to Sunnis refusing to fight fellow Sunnis

ISIS's persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and led to another American-led intervention in Iraq, which started with United States airstrikes against ISIS. Kurdistan Workers' Party, People's Protection Units, and Syriac Military Council fighters then opened a humanitarian corridor to the Sinjar Mountains.

Since 2016, many Yazidis in Syria have fled from the Afrin region to the relative safety of the secular Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, because of fears of persecution by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, an overwhelmingly Sunni militia.

All of the massacres of Yazidis were committed by Muslims

The Yazidis speak of 74 genocides of them in their history and call these genocides "Farman".

The number of 72 Farman can be derived from the oral traditions and folk songs of the Yazidis. "Farman" meant "decree" in Persian, and referenced the decrees given by the Ottoman government targeting the Yazidis, which were so numerous that the Yazidis began to interpret the word as having meant genocide. The last Farman is number 74 and denotes the genocide of the Yazidis by the ISIS terrorists.

[Anthea]

Drought continues to drain Mosul Dam

The receding water level has uncovered the grave of a Yazidi man near Khanke in Duhok province, about 26 kilometers from the city. The gravestone identifies him as Jabur Beko Ali, who died on September 16, 1961, at age 30. It also reads: “If God wills, we are Yazidi.”

Water levels at Mosul Dam in northern Iraq’s Nineveh province have dropped sharply, largely due to a dry winter and reduced releases from upstream Turkey.

The dam’s water level has fallen noticeably only three times in the past 50 years - in 2017, 2023, and again this year. In July, the receding waters also revealed a school in Khanke that had been submerged in the Tigris for more than four decades, Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

In 2023, an old Yazidi village emerged from the reduced water levels. More than 80 villages were submerged when Mosul dam was constructed on the Tigris River in 1984, 50 kilometres north of Mosul.

In June 2019, German and Kurdish archaeologists uncovered an ancient palace after water levels plummeted. The ruins were located in Kimune, where the ancient city of Zakhiku, ruled over by the Mittani Empire, is believed to have been located

The dam can store up to 11 billion cubic meters of water that is used in agriculture and residential sectors. It also produces hydropower, generating an average of 580 megawatts of energy per day.

Mosul Dam became operational on July 24, 1986

Iraq faces mounting water stress. The World Resources Institute lists the country among 25 nations at “extreme water stress,” meaning it uses more than 80 percent of its available water and risks shortages during short-term droughts.

The scarcity is also driving migration. In late July, Migration and Displaced Ministry spokesperson Ali Abbas told Rudaw that over 17,000 families have moved from Basra, Dhi Qar, and Maysan provinces in the past decade due to “drought, water scarcity, and desertification.”

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/270820254