“The Yezidis living on Mount Sinjar provide the last chance for Yezidi culture to survive. Humanity is bound not to let the occupation of Sinjar take place”, Zozan Sima concluded in her column for Yeni Özgür Politika, which assessed the significance of the preservation of the Yezidi culture in Sinjar.
“The earth makes you feel and remember what has happened on the surface of it. If you have the sensibility to feel, the lid on the mysteries will be lifted before your eyes”, she noted. For Sima, Sinjar is one of those valuable territories, where the mysteries of thousands of years are hidden. Only if you know how to seek, to learn and to discover can you begin to solve the mysteries of the sense of community, the beliefs, the nature of the Kurds and the ethico-political society existing in those lands.
Sima points out that Sinjar is one of the very rare lands that still preserves its role as the stemcell of society and of community spirit. That is why defending and embracing Sinjar is beyond just establishing adequate resistance to the occupation of a town.
Yezidis believe that what was about to come was written in ancient notebooks, before the 73th farman (the term Yazidis use for genocide against them). A dark army’s arrival and a massacre worse than any farman before was written on those pages, as well as the prophecy of salvation, according the Yezidi myth. Even though the myth may sound surreal, it reflects the reality that the Yezidis have faced throughout history, Sima notes.
“The guerrillas of the Peoples’ Defence Forces (HPG) and the Free Women’s Units (YJA-Star) are the carriers of the mystery of the army of the angels of the Sherfeddin or the Peacock Angel to the Yezidis of Sinjar. And the Yezidis, who established their autonomy on Mount Sinjar, have declared autonomy as the assurance of their own future”.
According to Sima, the Yezidi people have organized themselves according to a democratic, ecological and women’s-libertarian paradigm: hundreds of communal organizational networks linking tribes, castes, feasts and rituals have created this paradigm shift. “If you can remove the dust, the destruction created by the massacres and the polish of capitalism and patriarchy, you will witness the purest form of ethico-political community. Sinjar is one of the most fertile lands in which the culture of autonomy, self-defense, women’s freedom and democratic-communal life may bloom. So, the prophecy is true”.
Sima finally notes the importance of supporting Yezidis against the threat of occupation of Mount Sinjar, which has been the ancient home of Yezidis: “The Yazidis still living on Mount Sinjar are the last chance for Yezidi culture to survive, because even though the Yezidis may continue to live in other parts of Kurdistan, the main source that gives life to Yezidi culture comes from here. The seed sprouting in Sinjar was carried there by the twelve guerrillas who walked to those lands in order to stop the 73rd farman. It was planted by the hands of Agit Civyan, Zeki Şengalî, Zerdeşt, Nûjiyans and Nazês. Humanity is bound not to let the occupation of Sinjar take place. Saying no to the occupation of Sinjar is the responsilibty of everyone who claims to struggle for women’s freedom. It is the responsbility of everyone who claims to embrace the values of the Kurds. This should be the joint struggle of everyone who believes in a democratic, left-socialist, ecological struggle”.
