Zekî Şengalî, a member of the Shengal Yazidi Society Coordination, was murdered on Wednesday in a targeted attack by the Turkish state. The attack on the vehicle of the Yazidi politician occurred on the way back from a memorial service in the village Kocho. The village had been almost completely wiped out by the terrorist Islamic State (IS) on 15 August 2014.

The Yazidi Women's Council has strongly condemned the attack on Zekî Şengalî and called for an end to the Turkish attacks on Shengal and legal consequences at international level against Turkey and Iraq.

The statement of the Yazidi women’s organization said the following;

"We demand the immediate end of the Turkish state's attacks on Shengal. We condemn the murder of Mam (Uncle) Zekî and all other victims and bow before them with the deepest respect. Since August 15, Turkey is bombing the Shengal region. Many people were injured or killed.

The 74th genocide and feminicide against the Yazidis in the Shengal region of northern Iraq has been ongoing since 3 August 2014 onslaught by the so-called Islamic State and its allies. One of the key allies of the Islamic State is the Turkish government with its President Erdogan at the head. Since January 2018, a war of aggression by the Turkish military and Islamist gangs, including ISIS fighters, against the canton of Afrin and its inhabitants in Rojava has been taking place in violation of international law. In the process, numerous villages inhabited by Yazidis and holy sites of the Yazidi faith were destroyed, and women and girls were abducted and raped. Worst human rights violations, as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes against the multiethnic, multi-religious and peaceful people living there, have taken place before the eyes of the world public. This attack is led and carried out by NATO member Turkey.

With the attack on Shengal, and thus the Yazidis now underway, the AKP/MHP regime aims to end the genocide and feminicide on the Yazidis and the Kurdish people that the Islamic State started on 3 August 2014 , Shortly before the attack, a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and Erdogan took place. It can be assumed that the attacks of Turkey have taken place with the consent of the Iraqi government. Thus, the Iraqi government is also complicit in these attacks on the people of Shengal in northern Iraq. Instead of protecting the people and their holy places, the Iraqi government supports another genocide and the extermination of the Yazidi community by the Erdogan regime.

We demand the immediate termination of these attacks! We demand all legal consequences at international level against Turkey and Iraq! We demand the support of the people of Shengal, their defense forces and humanitarian aid!"