German lawmakers have decided to recognize the 2014 massacre of Yazidis in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS) as genocide next week, reported AFP on Friday.
Germany’s ruling centre-left-led coalition and the conservative MPs agreed to present a motion regarding the recognition of the Yazidi genocide to the Federal Assembly next Thursday.
According to the motion draft seen by AFP, the chamber “recognises the crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, following the legal evaluations of investigators from the United Nations.”
Germany is believed to be the world’s largest Yazidi diaspora of about 150,000 people. The German MPs’ possible vote in favour of the recognition of the genocide would lead to a reassessment of the judiciary and financial assistance for the return of displaced Yazidis.
An independent UN commission of inquiry had previously recognised the massacres as genocide in 2016, as did the European Parliament in the same year.
The ISIS attacks against Yazidis were carried out in 2014, starting on 3 August. ISIS overran the Yazidi land, forcing young women into sexual and domestic servitude for ISIS fighters, massacring thousands of people and displacing Yazidis in the area. ISIS was removed from the area on 13 November 2015. Thousands of Yazidis remain missing to date.