Ten years after the genocide of the Yazidi in Shengal (Sinjar), the fate of around 1,300 children abducted at that time is still unclear. The DEM party assumed that some of the Yazidis kidnapped by the Islamic State from North Iraq in 2014 are in Turkey.

Ihsan Seylan, co-spokesperson for the DEM party for children's rights, said at a press conference in Ankara: "It is well known that children are among the groups most affected by wars and conflicts. Thousands of children and women were abducted in the course of the ISIS attack on Shengal on 3 August 2014. Yazidi children who were kidnapped during the genocide were forcibly assimilated and made to forget their identity, their faith and their previous lives.

We know that a significant number of these children are in Turkey. Despite our efforts to clarify the matter, the authorities have not done anything to date and have not provided any answers regarding the number of children abducted. International NGOs published information on this. According to them, around 1,300 children are still missing, but there are no exact figures. The fact that their whereabouts have not been clarified to this day, ten years after the genocide, is hurtful. We do not forget this pain and continue to fight to ensure that children in Turkey, Kurdistan, the Middle East and all over the world can grow up in a safe and familiar environment."

Background: Genocide of the Yazidi in Shengal

On 3 August 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Shengal region in northern Iraq with the aim of wiping out the Yazidi community, which had already been persecuted for centuries. Through systematic massacres, rape, torture, expulsion, enslavement of girls and women and the forced recruitment of boys as child soldiers, the Yazidi experienced what they call the "Ferman" - the 74th genocide in their history. According to the UN, at least 10,000 people were killed, about half of them children. Even among the thousands who starved, died of thirst or died of their injuries while fleeing to the mountains, almost all of them were children (93 percent). ISIS forced boys as young as seven to work as child soldiers in its training camps. Girls were raped and sexually enslaved, and more than 400,000 people were driven from their homes.

According to estimates by the Yazda organization, around 2,700 Yazidi are still missing today, including around 1,300 who were children at the time of their abduction. Many of them are still systematically raped and kept and sold as slaves. Therefore, this genocide in its form also represents a femicide. The organization Nadia's Initiative assumes that 300 to 400 girls and boys under the age of 18 are still in the hands of ISIS. More than 3,500 Yazidi have been rescued, including 2,000 children.