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Yazidis mark second anniversary of genocide at the hands of Islamic State
Extremist organization launched massacre operation in Sinjar on 3 August 2014 · Yazidis say they have undergone than 70 massacres, genocides throughout history
Data from Yazidi organizations and the United Nations put at 3,000 to 5,000 the numer of Yazidis killed by the Islamic State since 3 August 2014. To those, deaths of women and children kidnapped and sold as slaves by the extremist organization must be added. Even today, it is estimated that 3,200 Yazidi women remain enslaved by the IS. Thus, technically, the genocide is not over, but undergoing.
A 2016 UN report concluded that the Sinjar events amount to a crime of genocide as it is proven that the Islamic State intended "to destroy the Yazidis of Sinjar, in whole or in part," not only by killing them, but also by enslaving the women and raping them, by preventing children from being born, by committing ethnic cleansing, and by destroying their culture, among other crimes.
On Twitter, the second anniversary of the massacre is being marked this week using the hashtags #Remember3August and #StopYazidiGenocide. A demonstration is held today in Berlin (Germany, the country hosting the largest number of diaspora Yazidis) to remember the genocide and to demand more direct action to save the enslaved women.
A unique religion
Islamic extremism believes that Yazidis are devil worshipers because it identifies Melek Taus -the Peackock Angel, a central figure in the Yazidi religion- with the devil, or Shaitan. Yazidis deny any link between the two figures.
The Yazidi religion, in its current form, is the result of a long process of syncretism in which Sheik Adi -a 12th century Sufi master still venerated by today's Yezidis- played a major role.
Most Yazidis speak Kurdish, and their main area of concentration is the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region. Many of them fled the Sinjar region as IS fighters advanced. Most Yezidis took refuge in other parts of Iraqi Kurdistan, while 30,000 to 50,000 found themselves besieged by IS fighters on Mount Sinjar. A YPG-PKK ground operation, with US air support, allowed to break the siege and rescue those people.