نص كلمة الشيخ شامو قي البرلمان الهولندي باللغة الانكليزية
شبكة لالش الاعلامية
ندرج ادناه نص كلمة الشيخ شامو، باللغة الانكليزية، والتي سلم نسخة منها في مبنى وزارة الخارجية الهولندية، كما سلم نسخة منها الى اللجنة الدائمة للشؤون الخارجية في البرلمان الهولندي ضمن المائدة المستديرة للنقاش المفتوح حول وضع الاقليات في شمال العراق، لكن تم قراءة ابرز ما فيها، وبشكل مختصر، في اللقاء الرسمي امام وسائل الاعلام، بسبب ضيق الوقت ووفق طلب الجانب الهولندي:
Thanks for this opportunity and hosting me
I find it necessary to give a brief introduction about Yezidies and Yezidism. It is clear that the language, heritage, history, geography, and the existence of Yezidies altogether confirm the fact that Yezides are the Kurd’s prototype in the territory of Mesopotamia.
It is also evident from the beliefs held by Yezidies that Yezidism is a very deep-rooted and ancient faith that appeared in the early stages of the eastern civilization.
The rites, occasions, and ceremonies conducted by Yezidies trace the history of Yezidism back to the times before Christ. The same rituals and ceremonies were carried out by Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Mithras peoples. Yezidies’ New Year is a living proof of these rituals which falls on the first Wednesday of April, following the eastern calendar.
Yezidism has passed through some stages until it became what it is now.
These stages are as follows:
The first stage: Yezidies in this stage were closely attached to nature. They valued and sanctified natural phenomena and assigned a god to each phenomenon such as the god of sun, the god of moon, the god of birth and that of death…etc
The second stage: In this stage, Yezidies accepted the concept of monotheism but safeguarded the natural phenomena gods. According to the religious verses of Yezides, the oneness of God was introduced at the time of Abraham Khalil. The third stage:
This stage marks the advent of Sheikh Adi (1111-1162) who was mystic. He revived Yezidism and entered into it some new concepts in a bid to keep Yezidism within the framework of mysticism.
The Yezidies history has been distorted and deformed twice as much as the history of Kurds once due to their different religion and once because of their Kurdish nationality.
Owing to what is mentioned above, they have, all through history, been suppressed.
Historical resources make reference to the atrocities and genocides that descended upon the Yezidies. In them it is mentioned how Yezidies were being driven to the edge of extermination.
All that befell Yezidies did not satisfy the opponents of Kurds and Yezidies so that the Iraqi Baath regime vented its spleen on the components of Kurdistan until the toppling down of this regime in 2003.
As a consequence of this tragic history of Yezidies, we Yezidies make up less than one million all over the globe.
There is a population of nearly 600,000Yezidies in Iraq and the rest are scattered in different countries.
Our geography seems to be our doom because only 10% of Yezidy areas were liberated during the Uprising of 1991 and the remaining 90% of Yezidy territories were freed in 2003.
Yezidies like such other components as Christians, Kakai’s, Turkmen, andShabaks in the areas surrounding Mosul played a towering role in obtaining national and decisive gains for Kurdistan Alliance in Mosulas they struggled and demanded that their areas join Kurdistan for the implementation of the article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.
The freedom we enjoyed in Kurdistan allowed us to play our role efficiently in all governmental, political, administrative, social, and civil society institutions. We remember the dark history written by our foes in order for us to build up a civilized and modernized community, especially in Shingal.
Over the past 11 years all aspects of our life (Yezidie’s) bloomed and the protection and security of Shingal was the responsibility of Peshemerge forces.
Following the coming of ISIS and their seizure of Mosul on June, 6th, 2014, all the areas of the article 140 turned to be the neighbors of the so-called The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Therefore, by order of President Masoud Barzani, Peshmerge forces massed to these areas but despite this people felt threatened and were panic-stricken because their beliefs differ from those held by ISIS and they realized if ISIS attacked them, a catastrophe would take place.
Alas! when on August,3rd, 2014 ISIS militant attacked the areas of Nineveh plain, Peshmerge forces retreated as a result of which shingal, which borders from all directions with Arab-inhabited areas, fell victim; the city which was already threatened with the change in balance of power and a result happened what happened.
The military fall in Zumar which is near Duhok’s border and the threat of detonating Sahila’s bridge by ISIS had an enormous negative impact on the morale of Peshmerge forces tasked with the protection of Shingal.
Not to mention, the Arabs’ support and loyalty to ISIS militants. Moreover, negotiations with ISIS militants was a wrong step because negotiations were held on faulty basis as they were considered a small group of robbers and gangs. Their number and military skills and ammunitions were all underestimated. But what took place attests to the fact that they are an organized state with heavy weapons.
This underestimation led to the disbanding and withdrawal of our fragile defense forces.
Mosul plain inhabitants could escape for their lives and made it to safe locations but the geographical remoteness of Shingal which is 200 kilometers away from Duhok plus the fact that it is surrounded by Arab-inhabited villages made people of Shingal fell prey to barbaric ISIS militants.
Another reason why this occurred was that some Peshmerge leaders did not act responsibly and did not do what they had to. This is what befell our people and only 30% escaped and arrived in Duhok safe but 70% of our population in Shingal were stranded on mountaintop.
Dear friends, the tragic stories that happened to our people and the aggressions committed against them are crystal clear and the time we have now does not suffice to talk about them all.
We don’t have the number of our people who were fallen, neither the number of the abducted girls and women and men who were taken captive, nor do we have the number of our innocent girls who were put on sale for sex slavery.
The properties and belongings of our people in Shingal were also plundered. Therefore, I can only provide you a rough estimate of the above-mentioned. More than 3000 people died including children, women, men and elderly.
Furthermore, 6000 are taken captive and a living proof of their atrocity is the carnage they committed against the villagers of Kocho in Shingal which was made up of 1500 residents of whom 400 men were murdered, whereas children,girls and women were abducted.
After peshmerge forces secured a passage for those who witnessed death and hardly escaped with their lives, approximately 350000 internally displaced people left for Duhok.
This number is a very heavy burden to the Government of Kurdistan Region because people from Nineveh plain also took refuge in Duhok. The total number has reached 700000 displaced people according to duhok government, which is close to the number of Duhok city population.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our Muslim brothers and sisters in Duhok who extended a helping hand to the vulnerable people of Shingal. The aids were presented by state officials, civilians, religious men, state institutions, charity organizations and so forth.
It was also pleasure that the aids from the Kurdistan Parliament reached the affected people of Shingal. Shingal’s crisis was the gateway for international support for Kurdistan.
At request of President Barzani, The United States of America, UN, International Security Council, EU and other countries provided both military and humanitarian assistance to Kurdistan to help save Kurdistan of this brutal aggression.
This international support was a guarantee for the people of Kurdistan in general and Yezidies and other components in particular that this barbaric enemy that is against humanity and all religions would be vanquished.
It turned out that Kurdistan has allies to support it when it is at its worst and gone is the time that the enemies of Kurdistan achieve their goals on our land.
It is true that ISIS in the name of religion legalized the genocide of Shingal but what is more unfortunate than this is the allegiance and sympathy Shingal’s Arab neighbors with whom people of Shingal had very cordial relations betrayed Yezidies and vented their anger on the people of Shingal, mainly because of the Kurdishness of Shingal.
Dear fellows,
our message to you is that it is clear that we Yezidies have always been exposed to genocidal attempts but this one is the most hideous act of atrocity ever committed against us in a free Kurdistan and in the twenty first century.
Substantial damages and loss were inflicted on our people of Shingal and this is the first time shingal has been evacuated. As a result of this atrocity our people have lost self-confidence nor do they have confidence in others around them.
The sufferings of our people are beyond words, their wounds are so profound that they cannot heal easily. Therefore, please be informed that we are in dire need of international help and support. Kindly allow me to encapsulate our demands in the following points:
1. In order for our people to psychologically gain back their lost confidence and to not migrate to Europe and elsewhere, Kurdistan region needs your and international assistance for overcoming ISIS terrorists, liberating the areas under the control of ISIS now, and guaranteeing security in those territories especially in Shingal so that our people can return to their homes.
2. We demand that serious attempts be made to emancipate the families that are taken captive by ISIS.
3. We hope that you support the Kurdistan Government and Parliament’s bill for conducting an international investigation into the crimes committed in Shingal. Also, we ask for the formalization of this catastrophe as a genocide against Yezidies by ratifying it because obviously the most ferocious act against humanity was committed against our people at this time.
The fact that genocide was committed against Yezides is evidenced by the following three point:
A. According to the article 6-a of the International Criminal Court, ISIS militants committed mass killing of Yezides violating the regulations of this court.
They have murdered hundreds of Yezidies by different violent means among whom were mostly children and women.
B. In accordance with the article 6-b of the International Criminal Court, ISIS militant committed genocide by physically and psychologically torturing our Yezidy men, women, children, and elderly who did no wrongdoing. The only reason why they were placed under torture was that they are Yezides by religion and Kurds by nationality .
C. ISIS terrorists infringed the article 6-c of the International Criminal Court because a large number of our people were forced to live hard life conditions. The objective behind this atrocity was to bring physical destruction upon our people and exterminate them.
As a consequence of this attack, our people fled to mountains and due to the lack of dailylife necessities a huge number of our people, especially children and women, died.
The International Legal Committee, according to the article 2-c of the International Genocide prevention and the Punishment of its perpetrators of 1948, states that the mass immigration of a group of people is considered genocide if it was meant to exterminate part or all the members of that group.
4. The destiny of our areas has been unknown for 11 years, therefore we call upon the international community to place pressure on the central government of Baghdad to allow these areas be joined to Kurdistan in accordance with the article 140 of Iraqi constitution.
5. An international protection force be sent for the protection of all components of Kurdistan Region and mainly for safeguarding the borders of Shingal because its geography is constantly threatened whether ISIS remain or not.
6. We ask that both financial and logistic assistance be given to our displaced people through the Kurdistan Government.
This reason why we demand this is that this number is so large that our government cannot handle alone. The number of the IDP is beyond the capacity of Kurdistan’s Government and they are going through terrible living conditions.
It is sad to say that UN and its humanitarian organizations did not act as expected.
7. Providing military assistance to Kurdistan. We demand that heavy and sophisticated weapons be delivered to Kurdistan because it is now combating a terrorist state which poses a great threat on the international security.
8-As I have mentioned earlier, Yezidies have been subjected to many genocides throughout their history.
What sets this recent barbaric genocide apart from the previously-committed ones is the coercive deportation of the people of Shingal. The repercussion of this attack was that Shingal alongside the towns, villages and its suburbs were for the first time completely evacuated.
This is the first time in our history that Shingal has come under the total control of its aggressors; an unprecedented incident.
Therefore, in case the above-mentioned demands go unimplemented and if Shingal remains unliberated, Yezides future and destiny will be unknown and perhaps they will have no other choice but to migration and seeking refuge in countries other than their own Eventually, I pay tribute to the ones fallen for the sake of their country, faith, and nationality all across the globe. May God help us all and thanks for listening. With respect…
Sheikh Shamo Sheikh Na’mo
Kurdistan Parliament Member
10/9/2014
تُتاح هذه الصورة أيضا في: العربية
