Armenia`s Yazidis demand U.N. protection of Yazidis in Iraq

ArmInfo. The National Union of  Yazidis "Sinjar" today, August 12, held a protest action in front of  the UN Yerevan office demanding that the World Organization create  mechanisms to protect the Yazidis in northern Iraq and prevent a new  genocide.

Representative of the National Union of Yazidis "Sinjar" Hamlet  Simonyan, in an interview with journalists, spoke about the intention  to send a corresponding letter-appeal of the Yazidis to the UN  Secretary General Antonio Guterres through the Yerevan UN office.

According to him, with this protest action they want to draw the  attention of the international community to the newly aggravated  problem of the Yazidis in Iraq.

"I don't know what the reaction of the international community will  be, because we saw how it reacted to the blockade of Artsakh, which  lasted for more than 9 months. There was no significant response.  There is little hope, but we must demand," the representative of the  Yazidi organization noted.

In this vein, Simonyan expressed concern about the increase in hate  speech against the Yazidis that has been observed in recent days.  According to him, the Yazidi refugees living in the camps are  panicking, fearing a repeat of attacks by Islamists.

Ten years after the genocide of the Yazidis committed by ISIS, there  are still 30 refugee camps in northern Iraq, where over 1,500 Yazidis  live. They are in an extremely difficult situation, suffering from a  lack of proper assistance. At the same time, they cannot return to  their homeland - Sinjar in the far northwest of Iraq, since the  region remains an arena of political struggle.

It is noteworthy that on August 11, the Central Executive Committee  of the opposition People's Equality and Democracy Party (PEDP) also  made a statement in defense of the Yazidis.

"An ancient religious group that has been subjected to attempts to  exterminate 73 times throughout its history is once again facing a  serious threat of massacre instigated by the KDP. This ancient  religious group is at risk of extermination due to false ideas and  dangerous rhetoric. The new threat initiated by the Barzani  administration is paving the way for systematic ethnic and religious  cleansing," the political force said in a statement, adding that some  150,000 Yazidis who survived the ISIS mercenary attack and the  subsequent genocide on August 3, 2014, are living in inhumane  conditions and are locked in tent cities in southern Kurdistan.

"During this time, more than 100,000 Yazidis have been forced to seek  refuge in Western countries. Those who remained recently found  themselves under threat of massacres again after fatwas were issued  in the mosques of Zakho. Thousands of Yazidis in refugee camps in the  territories controlled by the KDP are desperately trying to return to  Shengal due to threats. The KDP, which abandoned the Yazidis to their  fate in 2014 and did not allow them to be protected during the  massacre carried out by ISIS, will be the main culprit of a new  massacre if one occurs. We warn the KDP and the authorities of  Southern Kurdistan - this dangerous game must be stopped immediately.  The Kurdish people will defend the right of the Yazidis to live in  peace and security on their lands, as they did in the past," the PPR  added.

The Genocide of the Yazidi population in the city of Sinjar in  northern Iraq was carried out by the Islamic State group in 2014. It  manifested itself in the expulsion of Yazidis, their mass murder, and  the abduction of Yazidi women. The actions of IS against the Yazidis  became known as the "campaign of forced conversion." About 50  thousand Yazidis became refugees, and several thousand more died. It  should be added that in 2018, the Armenian parliament recognized the  Yazidi genocide in Iraq, and in 2015, on the 100th anniversary of the  Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, it adopted a resolution recognizing  the genocide of the Greeks and Assyrians.