Crimes against Yazidis to be recognized as genocide in Germany

The Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) from the German coalition with a joint initiative with the opposition Union parties, are preparing to accept the crimes committed by ISIS (Islamic State) against Yazidis as genocide in the German federal assembly (Bundestag,) Deutsche Welle Turkish reported, citing an exclusive report by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper.

The parliamentary groups of these parties will present a joint proposal to the Bundestag in this direction next week, FAZ said.

The draft law said:

"The German Bundestag bows to the victims of the crimes of the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria. Yazidis, Christians and members of other religious and ethnic minorities and Muslims who resisted IS were victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity."

More than 5,000 Yazidis were tortured and brutally murdered by the IS, especially in 2014, as the IS aimed the "complete annihilation" of the Yazidi community.

Many international organisations, governments and parliaments, as well as groups have already classified IS’ treatment of the Yazidis as genocide, and condemned it as such. The genocide of Yazidis has been officially recognized by several bodies of the United Nationsand the European Parliament. Some states have recognized it as well, including the National Assembly of Armenia, the Australian parliament, the British Parliament, the Canadian parliament, and the United States House of Representatives.

"By recognizing these Islamist crimes as genocide, we give the survivors a voice and support them in their fight for historical justice. But one can only speak of justice when the whereabouts of the missing people are clear, the victims are buried and the murderers are punished,” Derya Turk-Nachbaur, the SPD member of the Bundestag, told the newspaper.

Michael Brand, a deputy from the Christian Democratic Unionsaid that it was important that Germany not only recognizes the genocide as such, but also advances the historical investigation and legal prosecution of the crimes and the protection of the culture and religion of the Yazidis at national and international level.

Germany’s Bundestag had signaled last summer that it would recognize crimes against Yazidis as genocide, when a resolution was passed by a relative commission.