It has been 8 years since the massacre of the Yazidi community by ISIS mercenaries in front of the whole world. Despite this, thousands of Yazidis are still far from their lands, and the fate of thousands remains unknown. The Iraqi government has not taken any steps for the rights of the Yazidi people, either. For this reason, Yazidi institutions and organizations say that they do not trust anyone and that the only solution for the Yazidi people is to govern themselves.

On 3 August 2014, the Yazidi community were subjected to a great massacre. While the whole world remained silent, the PKK guerrillas rushed to save the Yazidi people. After Shengal was liberated by the guerrillas, the Yazidi people established their own defense force and institutions. The Yazidi people, who said that they would not allow a similar massacre to happen again, added that they would increase their struggle.

We can prevent new massacres by organising ourselves

Wetha Reşo, a member of the Yazidi Women's Freedom Movement (TAJÊ), commemorated those who lost their lives in the 3 August 2014 massacre and said: "We need to know well who sold us out. Eight years have passed since the massacre, yet the fate of thousands of our people is still unknown. We must increase our struggle to save the Yazidi women and girls who are still held in ISIS hands. We must do whatever we can for them. As the Yazidi people, we know ourselves now, so we will not rely on those who allowed the last massacre."

Reşo continued: "We will organize even more so that new massacres do not occur. We know that if we organize, we can prevent new massacres. We now have power and will. We built our institutions, we established our defense force. When the massacre was carried out, neither Iraq nor the South Kurdistan government took care of us. Because we are Yazidis, the whole world remained silent to our cries. Thanks to our heroic martyrs who rushed to save us, we survived the massacre. We will never forget those who gave their lives for us. They will always live in our hearts."

Yazidi people should be united

Shengal Democratic Autonomous Assembly member Xelef Qasim underlined that the Yazidi people were also attacked for their faith, and added: "They wanted to massacre and destroy the Yazidi community. This is the reason why thousands of Yazidis were killed. The Yazidi people should unite wherever they are. We need to be united. The conspiracy against the land, language, culture and faith of the Yazidi people still continues. Every Yazidi should know this. We need to put up a common struggle to stand up to these conspiracies. Many Yazidis lost their money financially at the time of the massacre. Our situation was very good, but we saw that it did not save us from the massacre. The only solution to prevent these massacres from happening again is to govern ourselves."

How will those who do not respect our religion give us rights?

Saleh Êzdîn, a member of the Yazidi Freedom and Democracy Party (PADÊ), said that the Yazidi people have been living in these lands for 5,000 years.

Saleh Êzdîn, who criticized the Iraqi government's approach to the Yazidi people, said: "The Iraqi government must accept the rights of the Yazidi people. We have suffered tens of massacres and been subjected to genocide. Despite all this, Iraq does not accept our religion. How will those who do not respect our religion give us our rights? If there were a government in Iraq it might have prevented the violations of our rights. But how will Iraq, which is heading towards disintegration, give us our rights? South Kurdistan has been occupied by the Turkish state. If we wait for the Iraqi government, we will not get our rights."