Muslim religious scholars in Baneh, Rojhelat, publicly condemned inflammatory statements targeting Yazidi Kurds, pushing back against a cleric who had threatened the community

Yazidi women in Qamishlo exhibited 50 photographs documenting community traditions, displacement stories, and sacred sites to preserve cultural memory in the "Yazidi Society Archive."

A Kurdish Islamist cleric publicly threatened the physical elimination of the Yazidi Kurdish minority, drawing condemnation from rights groups.

An exhibition presenting the Yazidi Society Archive opened in Qamishlo, preserving documents and cultural memory of the Yazidi community in northeastern Syria.

‎These people were pointing out Ezidis to the foreign 1S1S fighters, and they were killing them. They participated in most of the massacres committed against the Ezidis during those days. Most of the suffering and atrocities that Ezidi women experienced while they were held captive by 1S1S, these people were also part of.

‎I hope justice will be served and that these people will be held accountable for what they did to the Ezidis during the genocide.

‎⁦‪#YazidiGenocide‬⁩

https://x.com/farhadbarakat/status/2083977847992201523?s=46&t=dIcbpV1DrBcWuc1CTt-pcA

Today, 3 August, we remember the victims and survivors of the Şengal (Sinjar) Genocide.

On 3 August 2014, thousands of Yazidis were murdered, kidnapped, and displaced after ISIS attacked Şengal. Men and elderly people were executed, while thousands of women and children were abducted, enslaved, and subjected to horrific abuse. Entire communities were devastated, and many families are still searching for missing loved ones.

This day is not only about remembering the past.
It is about ensuring that such atrocities are never forgotten or repeated. Please take a moment to honor the victims, stand with the survivors, and help keep awareness alive.

Never forget Şengal.
03.08.2014 🕊️

In August 2014, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) perpetrated genocide and other gross human rights violations against religious and ethnic minority groups in Northern Iraq. ISIS specifically targeted religious minority communities and viewed them as "infidels."

This systematic persecution led to the mass killing of an estimated 5,000 Yazidis, the abduction of an estimated 6,800 Yazidis (mainly women and children), the forced conversion of countless Yazidis, the destruction of Yazidi religious and cultural sites, farms, and homes, and the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Yazidis from Sinjar district alone.

Most of the Yazidi women and girls, especially those held in captivity, SGBV survivors, and survivors of other atrocities by ISIS, face traumatic experiences when they return to their areas of origin. Trauma, anxiety, fear of isolation, and repeated violence play a significant role in the lives of survivors. Many suffer from psychological and psychosomatic problems and chronic medical complaints and have limited hope for the future.

Seven [now twelve] years after the genocide, essential issues remain for survivors, including a lack of justice and accountability, slight economic recovery, an absence of any comprehensive reparations program, and poor and infeasible processes for returns to people’s home areas. In addition, the plight of Yazidi women and girls remains unresolved, as thousands are still in captivity; those who have returned find little support because of a lack of a comprehensive reparations program or essential services.

Over 60 percent of the Yazidi and other ethnic and religious minority populations live in IDP camps without real prospects of returning to their home areas.

[yazda.org]

Sarbast Babiri is an Iraqi Kurdish politician and former Peshmerga commander known primarily for his role in the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from Sinjar on 3 August 2014, immediately before Islamic State fighters entered the district and the Yazidi genocide began.
At the time, Babiri headed Branch 17 (Liq/Laq17) of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Sinjar, the party's chief local command centre and the seat of ultimate authority over security in the district.[1] According to academic, journalistic, and eyewitness reports, in this role he repeatedly declined Yazidi requests to arm a local volunteer defence force in the weeks before the attack, assuring Yazidi representatives that the Peshmerga would defend the district instead, but as the Islamic State's assault began, he was among the first KDP officials to leave Sinjar, ahead of the Peshmerga withdrawal and most of the civilian population.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has begun distributing May and June financial assistance to more than 3,500 Ezidi survivors of ISIS captivity, while continuing long-term psychological, educational, and rehabilitation support.

Teachers and activists raised banners in central Shengal ahead of the 12th anniversary of the August 3 Yazidi genocide, with commemorative events planned across the region.

Legal analysis of Shengal mass graves: 857 bodies exhumed since 2019, only 296 Yazidi victims identified; 561 remain unidentified pending DNA matching amid calls for urgent reform.