In Shengal (Sinjar), the Yazidi parties have been called upon to stand together against the threat of invasion by Turkey. Young people have been called upon to participate in the defense of the Yazidi settlement area in southern Kurdistan in the event of an occupation attack.

The call was made on behalf of the tribal and faith committees in the presence of tribal elders and Yazidi sheikhs in front of the Şehîd Dilgêş and Şehîd Berxwedan Cemetery of Martyrs in the Shengal Mountains. The joint statement was read out by Dexîl Mirad who said the following:

"As the Committee of Shengal Tribes and Committee of Yazidi Faith, we condemn the threats of the Turkish state. Turkey supports Islamists and wants to divide Iraq. It wants to reach the Shengal Mountains and occupy the region. With untenable justifications, it wants to occupy our holy ground and establish its own bases here.

The history of the Ottoman Empire and the massacres of the peoples there are well known. The past of the Turkish state is marked by massacres of minorities. The massacres of the Armenians, Yazidis and Alevis are just a few of them. Now Turkey wants to commit a new massacre. It wants to occupy Şengal and make the dreams of its forefathers come true.

As tribal elders and as Yazidi religious committee, we are not afraid of the attacks of the Turkish occupying state nor of its partners. We will follow the footsteps of our ancestors and defend our soil and the Yazidi people until our last breath.

We appeal to our people and friends: let us form a unity and defend our sanctuaries and Shengal together. The political parties and military forces must fulfill their national responsibility and oppose the occupiers. We have resisted the ISIS gangs until the end, and we will continue to do so today. We will not leave the Yazidi land."

After the joint statement, individuals took the floor and reiterated the call for resistance.

Background: Turkey prepares invasion

Turkey is preparing an invasion of Shengal and is soliciting international support for it. To justify the planned occupation, it claims that the PKK has a presence in the region.

When ISIS moved into Shengal in 2014, the roughly 12,000 peshmerga of the South Kurdistan’s ruling party KDP and the Iraqi army stationed in the region withdrew without warning, leaving the Yazidi population defenseless against ISIS. For the Yazidi community, a systematic massacre began accompanied by rape, torture, expulsion, enslavement of girls and women, and forced recruitment of boys as child soldiers. Those who were able to flee retreated into the mountains. There, less than a dozen HPG guerrilla fighters initially protected the entrance to the mountains and prevented the jihadists from entering.

The PKK had already sent a twelve-member advance squad to defend Shengal on June 28, 2014, following a call by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. Twenty days before the massacre, the peshmerga arrested three members of the guerrilla group and one Yazidi supporter. The remaining guerrilla fighters moved to Mount Shengal and began organizing youth. When the ISIS attack began on August 3, a nine-member guerrilla group defended the population that fled to Mount Shengal.

The guerrilla fighters held the road running west of Shengal from Sinûnê to Dugirê and prevented ISIS from capturing the mountain. Yezidi youth joined the defense of the mountain. After the nine-member guerrilla group resisted ISIS attacks for several days, two battalions of the People's and Women's Defense Units (YPG/YPJ) from Rojava came to the aid of the HPG on August 6. Subsequently, the YPG/YPJ and the HPG established a security corridor to evacuate the Yazidis, who had fled in their hundreds of thousands to Mount Shengal, to Rojava. Over time, more than 200,000 people were able to reach Rojava through this corridor. This prevented an even greater massacre. The YPG/YPJ and HPG fought sacrificially and repeatedly, even with casualties, to maintain this "humanitarian corridor." 100 fighters fell protecting the evacuation of the population. In total, almost 300 YPG/YPJ and HPG fighters were killed by ISIS in the Shengal massacre.

The PKK defended the Yazidi population against ISIS and saved them from genocide. In the following years, it has enabled the Yazidis to defend and govern themselves. In August 2018, all HPG units were withdrawn from Shengal.