Yazidis welcome German decision recognizing ISIS crimes
A Yazidi refugee outside the German Parliament. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – In a move that was popularly welcomed by the Iraqis, especially the Yazidis, the German Parliament recognized the crimes committed by ISIS terrorist group against the Yazidis in Iraq in 2014 as genocide, recommending a series of support measures for the Yazidis.
The decision stressed that the primary goal of ISIS was to completely eliminate the Yazidi community, and that more than five thousand Yazidis were tortured and brutally killed by ISIS, especially in 2014.
The decision noted that male Yazidis were forced to convert, and were immediately executed, deported or turned into forced labor slaves if they refused.
The decision indicated that Yazidi girls and women were subjected to enslavement, rape and sale, and added that sexual violence aims to strip communities of their humanity, humiliate and fragment them, and accordingly, the German parliament considers crimes committed by against the Yazidi community as genocide.
“Although a number of European parliaments preceded the German Parliament in describing the horrors of genocide committed by ISIS in Sinjar against the Yazidis, but through some provisions approved by the German Parliament, it is an advanced and more comprehensive decision, as it addresses the effects of that genocide, compensates those affected, and prosecutes those involved,” former Iraqi MP, Hussein Nermo, told Sky News Arabia.
“The decision is good and is widely acclaimed by the Yazidis, not only in Iraq. It also pushes various parliaments in Europe and the world to generalize the adoption of this description,” Nermo added.
After invading the Yazidis’ areas in 2014, ISIS terrorists killed thousands, sexually enslaved seven thousand women, girls and children, and displaced thousands of Yazidis, who are more than 550 thousand people concentrated in northern Iraq.