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The Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, voted on Thursday to recognise the 2014 massacre by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq’s Sinjar region as genocide against the Yazidi people.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock celebrated the vote in a series of tweets in Kurdish.
“We know that no decision by any parliament in this world could eliminate their pain, but I deeply believe that this decision makes a difference: It is an important step towards alleviating suffering, as well as securing justice for survivors,” Baerbock said.
The minister had visited Northern Iraq three years ago to meet with Yazidi women, who had been “kidnapped, enslaved and victims of rape”.
“Their pain never leaves me,” said the minister. “Our country is now the largest Yazidi diaspora in the world. Today’s vote is due to [the Yazidi community’s] tireless efforts.”
Germany is home to some 150,000 Yazidis, who arrived in the aftermath of the ISIS attacks pushing the peaceful people out of their ancestral lands. The recognition of the jihadist attacks against the community as genocide will make it easier for Germany to charge residents with crimes against Yazidis, allocate more funding into evidence collecting efforts in Iraq, and better rebuild the community.
The motion condemned ISIS for their “indescribable atrocities” and “tyrannical injustice” against Yazidis, Agence France-Presse reported.
ISIS targeted the Yazidi homeland in August 2014, killing thousands of young men and abducting thousands more women and girls of all ages. Women were auctioned off in slave markets, and subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of ISIS fundamentalists. Despite continued efforts, thousands of Yazidis remain missing to date.
The community has suffered dozens of large-scale massacres, targeted mostly due to their pre-Islamic faith. ISIS considered Yazidis to be “devil worshippers”.
The United Nations passed a resolution recognising the genocide in 2016.
Germany’s motion is a “pioneering” one for addressing the consequences of genocide, Air Bridge Iraq chairman Mirza Dinnayi told AFP. The NGO offers support to victims living in Germany.
“The survivors want nothing more than justice, for the world to see their suffering and for the perpetrators to be punished,” AFP cited aid group Hawar Help as saying.
Germany’s lawmakers couldn’t “close (their) eyes to their suffering any longer”, Social Democrat MP Derya Türk-Nachbaur said. “The indescribable atrocities of IS militias must not go unpunished. Not in Iraq and not in Germany.”
Greens MP Max Lucks said, “We owe this to the Yazidis because we didn’t take action when we were needed. Our silence cost lives.”
