The KONGRA-GEL Co-Presidency Council has issued a written statement to mark the 8th anniversary of the genocidal onslaught of ISIS against the Yazidi town of Shengal and strongly condemned ISIS and all its collaborators.

“We commemorate everyone who lost their lives in the Shengal massacre. We respectfully remember the HPG-YJA Star guerrillas and YPG-YPJ forces who rushed to save Shengal’s people and fell fighting while protecting the people from a mass slaughter. We owe them. They will live forever in the memory of the people of Kurdistan,” KONGRA-GEL said.

The KONGRA-GEL recalled that the KDP and Iraqi army did not protect the Shengal people from the attacks of ISIS on August 3, 2014. “They withdrew their forces from Shengal and left the people unprotected and unarmed in the face of the ISIS massacre. The KDP and the Iraqi government thus became partners in the crime of genocide. Thousands of women and children were killed, abducted, sold in slave markets. The KDP and the Iraqi government are directly responsible for this atrocity. This attitude towards the people of Shengal still continues. As the people of Kurdistan and the Freedom Movement, we strongly condemn them, and we will never forget this.”

“Following the resistance of the Shengal people against the 73rd Yazidi massacre, a social and democratic revolution was introduced under the leadership of women. They organized themselves, realized a change in mentality, developed their legitimate defence forces. To put it differently, a historic change took place in Shengal. Based on the spirit of resistance and self-confidence, the Shengal people shaped a new identity for themselves. This is testimony of freedom,” KONGRA-GEL said.

“However, Shengal is still in jeopardy. If the Shengal genocide and the status of the Shengal people are not officially recognized, the danger will continue to exist for Shengal.

On this basis, an important work of this period concerns an official recognition of the status of Shengal and the massacre in the international arena. All Kurdish institutions and organizations should embrace Shengal's achievements and demand the UN to recognize the status of its people and the massacre.

Wherever the invading states, specifically Turkey, attack the Kurdish people and forces, all Kurdish institutions and organizations should be united to frustrate the plans of the invading forces. On this basis, all the people of Kurdistan should embrace the people of Shengal.

The people of Kurdistan and humanity in general owe the Yazidi people because of the 73 massacres they have been subjected to. Now is the time to protect the Yazidi people, to apologize to them. This can only be achieved by meeting the demands of the Shengal people, which is to say by recognizing the massacre and the autonomous status of Shengal.

The resistance of Shengal’s people against the massacre is sacred. We praise them and endorse their resistance. Freedom comes with a cost. Victory belongs to the Shengal people.”