Elif Kaya, Yeni Özgür Politika, 2 August 2022
There are two effective ways of coping with the severe trauma of genocide. The first is to analyse the conditions in which the trauma occurred, identify the perpetrators and call the perpetrators to account for it. The second is to cast an eye over the weak points where there was no resistance in the face of the attack, and strengthen the community organisation and self-defence system in order that the same pains not be suffered again.
The wounds of the genocide perpetrated in Iraq’s Sinjar (Shengal) District on 3 August 2014 have not yet been treated. The Yazidi community is still under great threat of war. Thousands of missing people still wait to be found, thousands are still displaced, and people still strive valiantly to treat their wounds.
The genocide against the Yazidi people was conducted in violation of all ethical and political community values. A message was sent to all oppressed peoples by way of the Yazidis. Women were targeted in particular, because the genocide could only be successful by destroying women, the creators, carriers and drivers of culture, or the upending of their mission.
The first principle of the patriarchal system was the enslavement, commodification and colonisation of women. ‘First shoot the women’ was a tradition handed down to fascism from the patriarchal system. And ISIS based its genocidal policies on shooting, killing, enslaving and selling women, combining this first principle of patriarchy with the barbarism of fascism.
It cannot be said that women were free in the previous prevailing system. But its form of slavery was never expressed as openly and directly as by ISIS. Putting women in chains and literally auctioning them off in marketplaces expressed a desire to turn the clock back and return to the earliest periods of barbarism. In brief, femicide was put at the centre of the Yazidi genocide, because the exploitation of women’s bodies and women’s work was at the centre of all the methods of exploitation.
The existing dominant male could only find strength in the enslavement of and complete disregard for women, and the existing power structure in the enslavement of the community. Furthermore, the most effective way to subjugate the community is through taking control of and enslaving women. ISIS, which interprets everything in the most explicit and primitive way, laid this forward in the most barbaric manner.
They deployed femicide as a central policy as they subjected the Yazidis to genocide for their beliefs and culture. Women were not only killed, they were enslaved and forced to bear the children of the enemy. They endured practices worse than death that would be felt for generations. This femicide, every moment of which was broadcast live through the press, was intimidation towards all women across the world. It was an attempt to give the impression that women were valueless objects to be bought and sold, whose only chance of a life was in the harem of a man.
Yazidi women have found that the best way to cope with this terrible pain and humiliation is to accelerate the struggle. They have developed a true autonomous organisation and self-defence system and have tried to overcome the severe destruction of the genocide by calling the perpetrators to account.
Another important matter is the effort for recognition of this genocide in the international arena. The parliaments of Belgium and the Netherlands recognised the massacre suffered by the Yazidis as genocide last year, as did the German Federal Assembly this year. Though it is important in the international arena that these decisions have been made, it becomes less meaningful if not accompanied by measures aimed at preventing further massacres.
First of all, who was the perpetrator or perpetrators of the genocide? This must be laid out openly for there to be a healthy outcome. The genocide cannot be explained by talking of ISIS alone. Unless the roles of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), who left the area and fled despite bearing the responsibility of protecting the people of Sinjar; the Iraqi government, who failed to fulfil its obligation to protect its own citizens; and the Turkish state, who afforded ISIS all kinds of support and even now continues to rain bombs down on Sinjar on a daily basis, are uncovered, and these parties called to account, any decisions parliaments may make will be mostly empty air.
At the same time, recognition of the genocide should also include reparation of material and psychological damages. It is a priority to give respect to the will of the people who have suffered the genocide. The best way to treat the pains of the genocide is to respect and stand behind the Democratic Autonomous Sinjar decision made by the assembly of the people of Sinjar.
Only by making and putting into practice the decisions required for change from the root can the great pains and deep wounds that were suffered be treated.
