Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-Presidency commemorated the people who lost their lives in the August 3 genocide and stated that the abducted women and children are “an oath to fight” for them. KCK stressed that ending the firmans against the Yazidi people would “mean an end to oppression and massacres against all peoples of the Middle East.”

The KCK statement is as follows:

“We remember with gratitude and respect those who fell martyr in the 74th genocide inflicted by ISIS upon our Yazidi people. We repeat our promise that the abducted women and children are an oath to fight for us. The reason the Yazidi people have survived this 74th  genocide, is because they have a deep rooted past and are one of the most ancient peoples in history. An attack against the Yazidi people is an attack against the history of the Middle East. In this sense, it constitutes treason against Middle Eastern history. As such, Leader Apo has considered supporting the Yazidis to be the same as supporting the history of the peoples of the Middle East and the Kurds, and has identified consciousness towards Yazidis to be a debt for humanity.

EVERYODY OWES THE YAZIDIS IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY

Before August 3, 2014, there were many signs that this massacre would take place. The killing of 500 Shengal residents with 4 trucks loaded with explosives in August 2007 had shown that Yazidis were targeted. That is why Leader Apo warned of an Yazidi massacre in 2014. The guerrilla wanted to take precautions upon these warnings, but were hindered. In this sense, Leader Apo foreseeing this genocide from the Imrali dungeon makes all Kurdish political powers, all Middle Eastern countries and all of humanity indirectly responsible for this massacre. As such, everybody owes the Yazidi people in the name of humanity.

DOMINATING THE YAZIDIS IS DISRESPECTFUL

All of humanity, and Kurds, can pay their debt to the Yazidis by guaranteeing the language, culture, faith, existence and identity of Yazidis. And the way to do that is to ensure a free and democratic life. Yazidis want an autonomous life with their own defense forces to avoid another genocide on their own lands. For that, they are in the process of actualizing their autonomy as an organized, democratic society. With the YBŞ and YJŞ they are handling their own defenses and with their assemblies they govern themselves.

As the 74th genocide against the Yazidis enters its 5th year, the duty that falls on us, all the Kurdish people and all of humanity is to embrace and support the Yazidis’ autonomous life. Without that, no individuals or groups can be considered protecting the Yazidis. Wishing to dominate the Yazidis through giving them money or authority would be a continuation of the disrespect against Middle Eastern history and the Yazidi people. If we are to revive and rejuvenate the conscience, justice, equality and morality present in Middle Eastern lands, the first condition is to respect the free and democratic lives of Yazidis. If we are to speak of the values of freedom and democracy, the first test of that would be the approach towards Yazidis.

THE FIGHT TO PRESERVE LOVE IN FREE AND DEMOCRATIC SURROUNDINGS

If Yazidis achieve a free and democratic life on the basis of autonomy, this will also mean Southern Kurdistan and Iraq achieving a free and democratic life. The end of genocides against the Yazidis would mean the end of oppression and massacres against all peoples of the Middle East. Leader Apo has always considered the presence and free life of the Yazidi people to be very important. For that, he has stressed that the Dewreş and Adule epic is an epic of the pains and tragedy of the Kurdish and Middle Eastern peoples. He has considered the epics of Mem and Zin and Dewreş and Adule to be fundamental cultural values and the past of Kurds. He has even called the struggle for freedom led by the PKK to be to bring Dewreş and Adule and Mem and Zin together and fulfill what they long for. He has identified the PKK’s struggle for freedom as a struggle to preserve true love in free and democratic surroundings on these lands.

The 74th  genocide has been a great lesson for the Yazidis, all Kurds, all peoples of the Middle East and all of humanity. In light of this historic lesson, it has become a duty for revolutionaries and socialists to actualize the free and democratic life based on a democratic nation in the Middle East and throughout the world. It has become the historic duty of the 21st century to actualize the longings and emotions of Mem and Zin and Dewresh and Adule through spreading the mindset and resistance of the 12 guerillas who sacrificed themselves in Shengal throughout the Middle East. The dark fate of the Kurds and the peoples of the Middle East will come to an end through the struggle for freedom, democracy and communalism that will be implemented with this mindset.

THERE ARE THOUSANDS MORE DEWRESH AND ADULES IN THE KURDISTAN MOUNTAINS

Our Yazidi people have suffered the 74th genocide on August 3, 2014 but this has become a turning point in changing their history with a dark fate. The consciousness this genocide has created will bring about a new Yazidi reality where no more genocides will come to pass. Now Dewresh and Adule can rest in peace in their eternal places. Because there are thousands more Dewresh and Adules in the Kurdistan mountains.

On the anniversary of the 74th genocide, we are calling on all Kurdish people and the peoples of the Middle East to increase the fight for freedom and democracy and to create a free and democratic life in the Middle East, the land of morality, conscience, justice, equality and fairness, and to make these lands the lands of humanity’s democratic civilization again.”