Beth Nahrin Patriotic Union Party: We condemn the Yezidi Genocide in Shengal committed by ISIS and call on the U.N. to protect Iraq’s minorities

ANKAWA, Iraq — On the sixth anniversary of the Yezidi Genocide in Shengal, the Beth Nahrin Patriotic Union condemned the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 and called on the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council to intervene directly to end the tragedy of all Iraqis, particularly those befallen on the Yezidis and Chaldeans-Syriacs-Assyrians.

The Beth Nahrin Patriotic Union released the following statement:

“For many centuries, and like the indigenous people in ​​Beth Nahrin, the Yezidis have suffered from religious and national persecution, not long ago, at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and extremist Islamists. The most recent crimes were those committed by the Islamic State beginning on 3 August 2014, where thousands of Yezidis were killed, thousands of women and children enslaved, and hundreds of thousands more displaced.

We, the Beth Nahrin Patriotic Union, announce with honor that we were and will always stand with you, hand in hand, in the joint struggle for achieving justice and obtaining the rights of the Yezidi people and the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people within North and East Syria and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in accordance with the Iraqi Constitution through a federal, democratic, and unified Iraq.

We denounce, with you and the whole world, on the 6th anniversary of the Yezidi Genocide, the crimes committed against you and call on the United Nations and the U.N. Security Council to intervene directly to end the tragedy of all Iraqis in general and the tragedy of the Yezidi people, the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people, and the rest of the persecuted minorities in Iraq, in particular.”

The Yezidi House in North and East Syria’s Gozarto (Jazira) Region also commemorated the Yezidi Genocide in a statement, indicating that the Yezidis were subjected to various injustices throughout their history, including the brutal barbarism of the Islamic State, and stressed the importance of the defiance of the people of Shengal in defending their mountain, plains, history, and ancient heritage.

In related news, Director of the Iraqi Kidnapped Yezidi Office, Hussein Qaidi, revealed that more than a thousand Yezidi women survivors have been treated for the effects of sexual slavery by ISIS at a special center in Nohadra (Dohuk).