After the massacres the Yazidis were subjected to, they began to organize themselves administratively, politically, militarily and socially, and this is what the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) which was a cause of the massacres does not want.
The third of August 2014 in Şengal was not like the previous days, as the Yazidis woke up to a nightmare of the sound of shelling and bullets, and the Iraqi army forces, more than 10,000 Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Zirvani packed their bags and fled from Şengal.
The Yazidis did not realize what was going on, all they knew was that they were in front of a new firman, for Girzirk village and after it Sibah Şîxder to be the first regions attacked by ISIS, but they met fierce resistance by the men and youth of the two villages whose battles with ISIS mercenaries continued for more than 6 hours after they started at 02:07 after midnight.
Due to the lack of weapons and ammunition, and the Peshmerga’s betrayal to the “Yazidis,” the resistance could not continue any longer, especially after the martyrdom of many of them. The mercenaries entered Şengal by the early morning hours and began their barbaric acts against the Yazidis.
The village of Kuju which was besieged in the south of Şengal Mount was one of the most vulnerable villages to killings and kidnappings by ISIS, in which more than 500 people were killed, and the women and children of the village were kidnapped.
When the Yazidis in the surrounding villages realized that danger was close to them, they chose to take the rugged mountain path to take shelter in it.
At a time when the Yazidi villages were being bombed and attacked by mercenaries, the KDP’s Peshmerga were fleeing in cars armed with heavy weapons.
No choice remained for thousands of defenseless Yazidis but to complete the rugged road towards the top of Şengal Mount “Serdeştê region.” On the way, hundreds of children and elderly people lost their lives due to the heat and thirst, and the Yazidis heading to the mountain said one sentence: “The Peshmerga sold us.”
“Guerrilla entered from mountains and the People Protection Units, Women Protection Units (YPG, YPJ) from Rojava”
The history of the Kurdistan Democratic Party is full of betrayals against the Kurdish people. When the city of Mosul fell at the hands of ISIS mercenaries, the Yazidi sheikhs demanded Şengal’s Kaymakam related to Kurdistan Democratic Party to form a protection line around the city, but the Kaymakam did not pay them attention because his party had participated in the meeting held in Jordan in June 2014, in which Turkey and America participated, and the plan for ISIS attacks in the region was laid down.
Because the history of this party is known, the Kurdistan People’s Defense Forces sent 12 fighters from the Guerrilla to protect the Yazidis in case of any attacks, but the KDP authorities arrested 3 of them and pursued the rest.”
Despite their small number, those 9 fighters with only Kalashnikov weapons prevented ISIS mercenaries from reaching the foot of the mountain where tens of thousands of Yazidis were, while 10,000 members of the heavily armed Democratic Party’s Peshmerga fled.
In light of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s betrayal, the leader of the Kurdistan Community Union (KCK) Murat Karayılan made media statements in which he confirmed the readiness of the Guerrilla forces to enter Şengal and protect its people. The next day, convoys of the Kurdistan People’s Defense Forces (HPG) and the Free Women Units – Star (YJA-Star) headed towards Şengal province. Guerrilla forces have also deployed in Kirkuk, Maxmûr and the vicinity of Hewlêr to prevent the advance of ISIS in South Kurdistan Region.
With the deployment of scenes of the Democratic Party’s Peshmerga fleeing with their cars, and news of killing and kidnapping received from Şengal, the People Protection Units and Women Protection Units headed towards the mountain. On August 8th, they managed to open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians with the help of the Guerrilla fighters and a number of Yazidis who took up arms to defend themselves.
After the safe passage was opened, the people of Şengal began arriving at the borders of Rojava, and thousands of people from al-Jazeera region were waiting for Şengal people, carrying water and food to provide them.
In Şengal, the Guerrilla fighters and a number of Şengal people who carried weapons remained at risk of ISIS mercenaries with their light weapons, sacrificed dozens of martyrs, but were able to repel ISIS attacks on the mountain and protect it.
“After the massacres, the Yazidis formed protection forces and liberated their city”
After ISIS mercenaries committed a massacre against the Yazidis, in which more than 2,213 Yazidis were left as victims, more than 390,000 displaced, and 6,417 children and women abducted, the Yazidis realized the truth of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and its betrayal of the Kurds, so they decided to establish their own protection forces called Şengal Resistance Units (YBŞ), and soon hundreds of young men and women joined them. Furthermore, at the beginning of February 2015, Şengal women announced the establishment of Şengal Women Units.
In March 2015, Şengal Resistance Units and Şengal Women Units launched in cooperation with the Kurdistan People’s Defense Forces “Guerrilla” a military campaign against ISIS.
This campaign culminated in the victory over ISIS and the liberation of Şengal city on November 13, 2015.
In April 2016, the Kurdistan People’s Defense Forces (Guerrilla) began to withdraw from Şengal after the city was secured from ISIS attacks, and to block the way for some parties seeking to create Kurdish-Kurdish infighting under the pretext of its fighters’ presence there.
“Organization”
Due to the genocide crimes committed against the Yazidis, they no longer trusted the existing administrations, whether the Baghdad government or the Hewlêr government, which is dominated by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, so they decided to administrate themselves autonomously, and began to organize themselves.
For the first time in their history, the Yazidis in Şengal decided to self-administer on January 14, 2015, when they announced the establishment of the Constituent Assembly for the Autonomous Administration in Şengal.
The Constituent Assembly undertook to organize the Yazidi community and form its institutions to manage their affairs, and it held meetings with many foreign delegations.
In 2017, this council was transformed into the Democratic Autonomous Administration Council of Şengal, and with the establishment of this new system, the co-presidency system was implemented, and its executive body was formed.
In view of the importance of the Internal Security Forces and their role in providing security and safety, on July 6, 2016, the Yazidis formed “Izidkhan Asayîş” as a security unit to protect Şengal.
“Political party”
As the self-regulation is important and has a role in liberating and educating them, the Yazidis announced at the sixth conference of the Democracy and Freedom Movement held in June 2016 the establishment of the “Yazidi Democracy and Freedom Party” as an outcome of the unification of the Democracy and Freedom Movement and the Yazidi Assembly, and the party obtained the license from the Iraqi government and officially began its activity in Şengal.
“Establishment of the Women’s Freedom Movement”
For women to be able to protect their rights and defend themselves, they decided to establish the Yazidi Women Council which undertook the task of organizing and training women, in addition to strengthening their will.
A year later, the Council turned to the Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement during a conference held on September 25, 2016, and the movement took on the task of improving the status of women and returning the abductees, caring for women released from ISIS, and raising awareness of freedom.
“Training Academies”
In order to overcome the negative impact of ISIS attacks and raise the community’s awareness, it was necessary to prepare the Yazidis intellectually and psychologically to be able to analyze what happened to them and choose their way of life. In this context, training academies were established, the first of which was the Martyr Agîd Afrin Academy, which was inaugurated in January 2016.
These academies aim to train and qualify the Yazidi people about the reality of Yazidism, Yazidi culture, and enable the Yazidis to manage themselves as well as strengthen the personal will.
In addition, an academy specialized to women was opened, as the Yazidi Women’s Freedom Movement opened the Martyr Binefş Academy to train women from the intellectual, organizational and political aspects.
With regard to education, young men and women in Şengal opened with their own capabilities schools in the tents to teach Şengal children their mother tongue.
In addition to these departments and institutions, the Services Institution was formed, as it works to secure the life requirements and provide services of all kinds to the people of Şengal. This institution serves about 70,000 people of Şengal and works to secure electricity, distribute diesel oil, flour and other services.
“Thousands return”
After security was established in Şengal, and an organization was established for them, thousands of Yazidis who were present in Newroz and Roj camps in Dêrik city in al-Jazeera region in northern and eastern Syria and from the camps in Başûr Kurdistan returned to Şengal.
No party, whether the Iraqi or Hewlêr’s government, provided any aid to them. Rather, the support and assistance was limited to medicines and food sent by the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria, in addition to providing some services to the municipalities.
“The Democratic Party does not want the Yazidis to organize themselves”
When the Yazidis began to organize themselves, form their forces and liberate one village after another from ISIS mercenaries, the Democratic Party saw that it was facing a loss, so it tried by various means to prevent the Yazidis from being will owners, and this party even before the liberation of Şengal began to obstruct the Yazidis so that they would remain subject to it.
The first practices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) were in February 2015, when it imposed a siege on the Yazidis, preventing the passage of any daily materials or supplies for the families, even those carrying a few kilograms of sugar, this party confiscated this sugar, as it wanted to bring the Yazidis to their knees by starvation.
Not only that, this party seized the humanitarian aid that was sent by international organizations. In this context, on December 4, 2017, Human Rights Watch published a report on Şengal, in which it stated: “The Kurdistan Region’s government prevents humanitarian aid access to Şengal.”
KDP, through its followers who were responsible for the massacres the Yazidis exposed to, always sought to promote that the PKK was present in Şengal. Masoud Barzani said in May 2016: “The PKK fighter should leave,” and in September of the same year, the so-called Qasim Shesho who was supported by the Democratic Party at the time claimed that he represented the Yazidis and said that “the PKK should leave” despite the party’s fighters had withdrawn from Şengal.
However, the Yazidis, with their sheikhs and institutions, rejected these allegations and emphasized that those who were the cause of the massacres committed against them do not have the right to speak, and addressing the Democratic Party they said: Where were you when the Guerrilla forces came to rid us of the massacres?”
