Massacre in Sinjar, one year on: REPAK statement

REPAK, the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office based in Erbil, has published this statement on the one year anniversary of the IS attack on Sinjar/Shengal, which led to a horrific massacre in which thousands of Yezidi people were killed, thousands taken into sexual slavery and many more thousands were displaced. 

To the press and public

Exactly one year ago, gangs of the so-called Islamic State (IS) tried to carry out genocide in the Southern Kurdish (Northern Iraqi), mostly by Yazidis inhabited city Shingal/Sinjar. On 3 August 2014, IS aimed to occupy Shingal by massacres and ethnic cleansing in the villages around. According to numbers of the UN, due to the massacres that started on 3 August, 5 thousand Kurdish Yazidis got killed, 7 thousand girls and women got kidnapped like trophies, enslaved by IS gangs and sold in slavery markets. Even though some of the women were able to escape, a lot of women committed suicide for escaping from this atrocity. But still thousands of women remain in the hands of IS. Continue reading “Massacre in Sinjar, one year on: REPAK statement”

We will not let them make war! Statement by REBAK

This statement was sent us by the Kurdish Women’s Relation Office (REPAK) based in Erbil:

Dear women,

As Kurdish Women’s Relation Office we want to inform you about current incidents in our country, which aim to push the whole people of Turkey and Kurdistan into a dirty war.

On 20 July, in the mostly Kurdish inhabited district Suruç on the border to Kobanê (Rojava – Northern Syria) as result of a suicide bombing 31 people lost their lives, nearly 100 got injured. Most of these people were students from all over Turkey and Northern Kurdistan, on their way to Kobane, where they wanted to build a library and a playground for children.

It is assumed that the suicide bomber acted by order of ISIL, whereby since now nobody has admitted responsibility for the attack. Continue reading “We will not let them make war! Statement by REBAK”