German Parliament recognizes the 2014 Yezidis genocide

BERLIN – German Parliament has recognized the violations committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against the Yezidis in northern Iraq in 2014 as genocide, reported media outlets.

In 2021, an application was submitted to the Petition Committee of the Bundestag for the recognition of ISIS genocide against the Yezidis on 3^rd August, 2014, in Germany after almost 60, 000 signatures were collected.

The legislature unanimously approved a proposal made by the Petitions Committee to recognize the violations as genocide, reported German media outlet T-Online. 

“Recognizing the genocide is an essential step in overcoming the trauma of the ethnic minority group,” said German Green Party MP Max Lucks, recalling the fragile situation of the genocide survivors who are still living in Iraq.

Lucks added that a safe life and peace must be our goal for the Yezidi community.

Last November, a German court sentenced an ISIS operative to life imprisonment, after finding him guilty of genocide and war crimes against a Yezidi woman and her five-year-old daughter. The ruling was the first ever conviction of an ISIS operative for genocide.

The Yezidis in Shigur (Şengal or Sinjar) were persecuted by ISIS, which enslaved thousands of women and children and killed hundreds of men.

A United Nations investigative team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL in Iraq and the Levant (UNITAD) announced in May 2021 that it had collected clear and convincing evidence that ISIS had committed genocide against the Yezidis.

On the other hand, the Guardian published a report on an investigation by a human rights organization, calling for Turkey to be brought before the International Court, due to accusations of complicity in genocide against the Yezidis.

In August 2014, ISIS launched attacks on villages of the Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian people in the Nineveh Plains in Iraq, forcing thousands of families to leave their homes, killing, kidnapping- even children- and destroying property.