The Yazidi town of Shengal (Sinjar), which was subjected to genocide by ISIS mercenaries on August 3, 2014, was liberated on November 13, 2015, after months of resistance led by HPG guerrillas and Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ). The people of Shengal formed their self-defence and self-government as the greatest response to further massacres and betrayal in Shengal.

Having declared its Democratic Autonomous Administration, Shengal became the target of both the Turkish state and South Kurdistan’s ruling party, KDP. While armed groups affiliated with the KDP and the Turkish army launched attacks in 2017, the central Iraqi government also resorted to various methods to eliminate the autonomy in Shengal.

On 15 August, 2018, İsmail Özden (Mam Zeki Şengali) fell martyr in a targeted operation conducted by the Turkish state and its local collaborators on 15 August 2018. On 16 August 2021, the Turkish state targeted the vehicle of YBŞ Commander Seîd Hesen in the old bazaar in Shengal downtown at noon. Seîd Hesen Seîd and his nephew Îsa Xweda, who was a YBŞ fighter, were killed, and three other people were injured.

The Turkish state carried out airstrikes on the Sikêniyê Hospital in Shengal on August 17, 2021, killing eight people and injuring more than 20 others. The Ministry of Justice of Turkey asserted that 10 PKK members had been "neutralized" in the airstrikes. 

The people of Shengal commemorated their martyrs who fell in the month of August.

The commemoration event at the Şehit Dilgeş ve Şehit Berxwedan Cemetery of Martyrs was organized by the Autonomous Administration of Shengal and attended by hundreds of people including members of political parties, representatives of Yazidi institutions and organizations, tribal leaders and religious figures.

Speaking here, Hemed Bişar, a member of the Committee of Martyrs’ Families, denounced the Turkish attacks against prominent Yazidi leaders.

Speaking about the struggles of Mam Zekî Şengalî and Seîd Hesen, Bişar paid tribute to the martyrs who have enabled the Yazidi community to achieve gains.

Kinê Xidir, member of the Free Yazidi Women’s Movement (TAJÊ), pointed out that attacks sought to crush the organization of the Yazidi people in Shengal and to force them into migration. “The enemy should know that we will not leave our lands and that we will continue our struggle in the footsteps of our martyrs. Traitors have no place in the lands of Shengal that were freed with the blood of martyrs.”

Reham Hico, Co-Chair of the Shengal Autonomous Administration Executive Board, said: “We, the Yazidi people, have fought with the spirit of 15 August to avoid massacres. Those who sacrificed their lives for an autonomous and free Shengal will never be forgotten. The enemy goes on with his plans to make us renounce our struggle. No Yazidi should enter the service of the enemy and betray the people.”