President Barzani welcomes the German Parliament's classification of ISIS crimes against the Yezidis as genocide

ARK News… President Masoud Barzani on Saturday welcomed the decision of the German Parliament (Bundestag) to classify ISIS crimes against the Yezidis as "genocide."

The German parliament, the Bundestag, approved a memorandum classifying what ISIS committed against the Yezidis as "genocide," and recommended a series of assistance measures for the Yezidis.

President Masoud Barzani wrote on his Twitter account that the Bundestag's decision to recognize the genocide against the Yazidi Kurds is "extremely appreciated and proud."

"We renew our gratitude to Germany and call on our other Western allies to take similar measures, to classify these atrocities as acts of genocide," he added.

The text of the German parliament's decision stated that "the primary goal of ISIS was the complete elimination of the Yazidi community," adding, "More than 5,000 Yazidis were tortured and brutally killed by ISIS, especially in 2014."

The decision indicated that the Yezidi men were "forced to convert (their religion), and in the event of refusal, they were immediately executed or deported and turned into forced labor slaves."

Girls and women were subjected to "enslavement, rape, and sale," as the parliamentary memorandum adds, which indicates that "sexual violence ... aims to strip communities of their humanity, humiliate and fragment them," and therefore, "Parliament (Bundestag) considers the crimes committed against the Yezidi community genocide."

Belgium, Australia, and the Netherlands have already recognized the genocide against the Yazidis.

The decision of the German Parliament stipulates a series of demands directed at the German government, from prosecutions against suspects in Germany, financial support, as well as evidence collection in Iraq, to the rebuilding of destroyed Yazidi housing complexes.

Germany, which has the largest Yazidi community in the world, is one of the few countries that has pursued a judicial process regarding the practices of the "ISIS" organization against the Yazidis.

Last November, the German judiciary convicted an Iraqi of committing "massacres of genocide" against the Yazidis, at a time when a German woman suspected of belonging to the "ISIS" organization is being tried for persecuting and enslaving a Yazidi woman.

A special UN investigation team announced in May 2021 that it had collected "clear and convincing evidence" that ISIS had committed genocide against the Yazidis.

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