The massacre of August 03, 2014 is a genocide, let’s recognize this extermination as a genocide

 

Yazidi Culture and Belief:

Mesopotamia is the cradle of humanity. On these lands, societies, cultures, beliefs and religions were born. Among the oldest peoples are the Yazidis, who have inhabited these lands for millennia, with their own culture and beliefs. One of the peoples to whom the lands and history of Mesopotamia belong are the Yazidis. In the Yazidi culture, beliefs and philosophy, there is no room for attacks on other peoples or beliefs, nor is it possible or imaginable to perpetuate genocide or impose occupation on other peoples. The Yazidi people are by essence a people of democratic and peaceful culture, and have always lived in a way of sharing, acceptance and protection. In Yazidi culture and beliefs, women have a central position and play a leading role in the protection and continuity of ancestral culture.

Throughout history, extermination of the Yazidi people.

In the land of Mesopotamia, and mainly in Kurdistan, the Yazidis have gone through 74 genocides. In all these exterminations, culture, beliefs, history and geography have been targeted. These are 74 efforts to eliminate and exterminate the Yazidis right down to their roots. Official evidence indicates that the Yazidis experienced 74 exterminations, but there are hundreds of unknown massacres. The devastating scope and heaviness of these numerous massacres can be seen in their demography: the Yazidis have shrunk from a population of 40 million to only around 1 million,and are now scattered all over the world.

Without doubt, in all these exterminations and massacres, it’s women who have been targeted the most and suffered the most. They were robbed, murdered, raped and forcibly removed from their culture and beliefs. Because women in their essence protect and perpetuate Yazidism, the killings, attacks, looting arise from authoritarian patriarchal thinking that have attempted more than 74 times, in the person of Yazidi women, to destroy the very root of the Yazidi people.

 

Extermination of August 03, 2014

On August 03, 2014, ISIS fighters thanks to the betrayal of the PDK and the collaboration of The Turkish State, began in Sinjar a 74th massacre on the Yazidi people. An extermination that had been planned years before, ISIS was supported, strengthened and dispatched to the Yezidi people. Since the year 2003 and long before the massacre of August 03, 2014  the KDP peshmerga were responsible for protecting Sinjar. When ISIS attacked Sinjar, 12,000 KDP peshmerga fled, did not fight and paved the way for genocide. The KDP sold out ISIS and there is ample evidence of their actions. In the universal law of United Nation, it is said that complicity in genocide thus entails guilt of genocidal crimes. By joining forces with ISIS, the PDK have therefore committed genocidal crimes against Yazidi society. On August 06, 2014 the Guerrillas of Freedom of HPG and YJA-Star to prevent the way to an extermination passed from the mountains of Kurdistan to Sinjar. On November 13,2015 Sinjar was liberated from ISIS.

 

Women:

During the massacre of August 03, 2014, 3,504 Yazidi women and 2,869 men were captured by ISIS. Thousands of women and girls were sold in market as slaves like in Mosul or Raqqa, suffered rape and torture, were killed.

So far 1,184, nearly 2,000 women have been freed, but 2,900 Yazidis are still in the hands of ISIS and their situation is still unclear, most of them women and children. ISIS is forcing them to change their beliefs and religion. Indeed, on June 19, 2016 in Mosul, 19 Yazidis women who had been captured by ISIS, refusing to convert to the Islam imposed on them, refusing to change their beliefs, were locked in cages and burned alive.

 

Children:

During the massacre, hundreds of Yazidis children died of thirst and hunger. Hundreds of children were killed. The children who fell into the hands of ISIS were forcibly converted to Islam. They brutally educated them in Islamist ideology. By force, the children were made soldiers, child soldiers, and even took part in the war. Some children were even trained to blow themselves up. There were two children, they were brothers and came from the village of Til Qaseb connected to Sinjar. Ebû sêf Elsencerî û Esed Ebû Elxetab were their war-names that ISIS gave. On February 14, 2017 during the war in Mosul, the two brothers blew themselves up. However, during the genocide, more than 2,745 people were left fatherless and motherless.

Mass graves:

Thousands of Yazidis were killed and buried in mass graves. People were killed because they did not accept to change their religion and convert to Islam. In Sinjar and the surrounding area, 93 mass graves have so far been discovered, with more still to come. According to the Ministry of Defense and ongoing investigations, since 2019 until now 62 graves have been opened so far. 31 mass graves that are known remains. The number of corpses that have been discovered in Sinjar is 798. In the village of Solax, 80 women and 2 children were buried in one of the mass graves. On August 18, 2024, close to Til Efer in the hole of Elu Enter a mass grave was opened covering between 1,500 and 2,000 bodies, the vast majority of them are Yazidis.

Migration:

Because of the genocide, between 350,000 and 400,000 Yazidis were forced to leave their homes and migrate. 1,000 of them left Iraq to flee to foreign countries, and more than 2,000 Yazidis migrated to southern Kurdistan, in the north-east of present-day Iraq.

According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) sources, between 120,000 and 130,000 have returned to their homes in Sinjar over the past 11 years. However, according to IOM sources, up to 80,000 migrants remain, most of them are living in camps in southern Kurdistan.

 

Attacks on sacred places of worship:

During the massacre, ISIS attacks also particularly targeted the places of worship of the Yazidi people, blowing up dozens of these sacred sites. One of these sacred places of worship that ISIS blew up is called “Quba Şêx Mend” and is located in the village of Sêkinyê in the Til Îzêr area. ISIS gathered a group of old men and women, crammed them into the place and blew it up.

Result:

According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted the 09 December 1948, according to the second Article, ISIS is guilty of the crime of Genocide. Taking into account the murders of members of the same group, the capture of thousands of Yazidi girls, women and children, the forced conversions to another religion, not to mention the psychological and physical violence, the sale of thousands of Yazidis, the rape and torture of women and children, the willful destruction of Yazidi places of worship, forced migration and the enlistment of children to take part in the war. These facts alone condemn ISIS as guilty of all genocidal crimes, are against the international law, international agreements and human rights.

According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article 3 point E, the acts of the PDK during the massacre of August 03, 2014 also take place as crimes of genocide. The PDK paved the way for ISIS over Sinjar, and in so doing paved the way for genocide.

On this eleventh anniversary of the genocide of 03 August 2014 on Yazidi society, we felt it necessary and important to share this wide-ranging dossier with you so that you also can research. We affirm that the genocide of 03 August 2014 is immoral and against the human conscience. This genocide is well outside international laws and agreements, well outside human rights. In this way, as the Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement, we express our wish that you take action and responsibility towards conscience, towards humanity, and that you officially affirm the massacre of 03 August 2014 on the Yazidi people in Sinjar as genocide, that this massacre be officially known and defined by what it is: a genocide.

 

 

With greetings and respects,

16.07.2025

The Liaison Committee of the Yezidi Women’s Freedom Movement