The Shengal invasion operation planned in Turkey during Masoud Barzani’s visit on March 3 has been carried out. KDP has set the counter guerrilla units they armed and harbored on the Êzidî people. KDP had ordered the peshmerga to not resist during the ISIS attack on August 3, 2014, and now that the guerrilla has prevented ISIS’ invasion of Shengal, they are claiming a say over Shengal again. Even though they abandoned Shengal to ISIS, they say that area belongs to them. This is a rare case of brazenness. As if the guerrilla came and forcibly and unjustly removed KDP from there, the KDP is claiming rights now! If the pains KDP made the Êzidî people go through in Shengal had been inflicted by any other political power, they wouldn’t be speaking of Shengal ever again. What hardships has KDP’s non-resistance and abandon in Shengal on August 3 created? First the KDP should make an account of this, and then they can speak of Shengal.

When the Peshmerga abandoned Shengal without resistance, journalist Berfin Hezıl asked them, “Why did you leave Shengal?” and “Where are you going?” - a peshmerga said they were “beaten”, and another said they “didn’t retaliate”. The “beaten” part is not true, because they never resisted to begin with! With orders from KDP headquarters, they abandoned Shengal. One wonders why they left without resistance, why they left the Êzidîs at the hands of a hoard of murderers. According to a widespread rumor, they had an agreement with ISIS beforehand. ISIS would have Shengal, and in return would hand over the Cizre region in Rojava to the KDP when they took it. The mediator in this deal is rumored to be the Turkish state. Another claim is that the KDP abandoned Shengal in order to live in peace with the Sunni Arab state to be formed by their southern border. One could guess that they agreed to act together against the Rojava Revolution in return. KDP has certainly abandoned Shengal to ISIS after a negotiation. As such, later ISIS said KDP didn’t keep their promises, that was how they justified marching on Hewlêr.

The reason why the KDP didn’t resist aside, the Êzidîs have suffered for this non-resistance. The whole world witnessed the Êzidîs taking to the road, women, children and the elderly, and how they suffered. Who is responsible for ISIS selling off Êzidî women as slaves? All should answer that question. Can any Êzidî forget that? Who can estimate the trauma this has created in all Êzidîs? People are acting like the 73rd genocide was in a movie and it’s now gone. That is what hurts the Êzidîs most.

KDP’s operation on Shengal is to break the Êzidîs will and to suppress them. KDP wants the Êzidîs to comply with whatever they demand like in the past. The Êzidîs have always faced genocides throughout history. They definitely resisted, but they also tried to coexist with the forces around them without fighting. 73 genocides is no easy thing. These have created fractions in the society. Because they have experienced many genocides, they have come to not fight the powerful, and live in a certain accord. KDP is trying to take advantage of the fear and trauma the 73rd genocide has caused in Êzidîs, even though they are responsible for it. The Êzidîs justly have the unrest of the dove in their spirit throughout history. Because it is unknown where the blow will come from. They faced great cruelty, treachery and injustice throughout history. The duty for all Kurds is to lift the Êzidîs out of this feeling and make them feel safe, but the KDP is acting like the perpetrators of the 73 genocides, and clamping down on the Êzidîs. They are trying to intimidate the Êzidîs. So much so that, they are blackmailing the Êzidîs with “If you don’t oppose the PKK and the guerrilla, the Turkish state will come and rain down bombs.” They tell them, “If you don’t submit to us, anything can happen to you.” As such, stockpiling heavy weaponry and gang members is not hinting at the gun, but bringing out the barrel.

The KDP is making some Êzidîs say what they want with intimidation. Even that much is enough to expose the truth of the KDP. Speaking with KDP’s words means the Êzidîs shouldn’t have self defense or self government, Shengal shouldn’t be autonomous and that they want to live under the KDP rule like before. KDP fled from ISIS, but thinks forcing hegemony over Shengal is heroic. And with the anti-Kurdish Turkish state behind them, no less! Right now, the Turkish State is the protector of KDP. That alone shows KDP’s character and the role they play. Tayyip Erdoğan is implementing the special war Abdülhamit waged on the Kurds in a more regressive and denialist way, and KDP is used in this special war.

KDP has taken advantage of the poverty faced by those who fled Rojava Kurdistan and made them into mercenaries. They organized Rojavan youth, armed them and wanted to use them against the Rojava revolution. They organized the Rojava deserters as counter guerrilla units and they want to push them into Rojava through foreign powers. But the Rojava Revolution knows of the KDP’s and ENKS’s counter-revolutionary approach, and didn’t accept these impositions. It is understood that the KDP doesn’t only want to rule over Shengal, but to attack the Rojava Revolution over Shengal like ISIS. If ISIS had taken full control of Shengal, they would have used it as a base to attack the Rojava Revolution from. What ISIS failed to do, the KDP wants to put into practice now. They are aiming to both invade Shengal and attack Rojava over Shengal.

The group marketed as the Roj peshmerga are the counter guerrilla units prepared to smother the Rojava Revolution. These are people who haven’t fought for the country or the people. They are not military forces like the peshmerga who have value. Even calling them peshmerga is tarnishing the peshmerga name. The KDP has done the most harm to the peshmerga name. They made the peshmerga into accomplices in a genocide by ordering them not to resist, and now they are calling the enemies of the Rojava revolution peshmergas, which makes the martyred peshmergas turn in their graves. These are not peshmerga - they are traitors, they are counter units. In the past, there were counter units trained and armed outside entered into Angola. These counter units were called the “UNITA”. These people are the UNITAs of Rojava. KDP wants to push their own peshmerga on to Rojava like in Angola. The first victim of these UNITAs are the Êzidîs.

These people have nothing to do with Kurdishness. They haven’t taken up arms for a cause. They have fled Rojava. When they were delinquents, they became mercenaries. These people are worth nothing. They murdered the two guerrillas who stood in front of the armed vehicles so a war among Kurds wouldn’t break out in a provocation, with impunity. That photograph alone shows the difference between those counter units and the guerrilla.

The Êzidî people rejected KDP wanting to invade Shengal with counter revolutionary gangs. The self government bodies of the Êzidîs demand an immediate withdrawal of these gangs and heavy weapons pushed onto Shengal. Êzidîs will never accept these gangs invading in any way. They will resist these gangs, however steep the price may be. Accepting this imposition is to accept the breaking of the Êzidî will and to accept intimidation. Êzidîs can’t accept this after 73 genocides. They can’t go back to August 3 now.

A historic opportunity has emerged for the Êzidîs with the consciousness from 73 genocides. Êzidîs can’t abandon their self defense, and they can’t give up on self government and autonomy. If they do, they will be lying down beneath the blade, they will have denied their own existence. In the age of freedom and democracies, Êzidîs can’t accept to live without will like in the past anymore. They can’t accept others governing them.

The problem created in Shengal by the KDP and the gangs doesn’t only interest the Êzidîs in Shengal. It interests Êzidîs in Bashur, Rojava, Bakur, Armenia, Russia, Europe and throughout the world. Will the Êzidîs continue to exist, or will they accept annihilation? Existence now means self government and self defense, it means the autonomy of the Êzidxan. The historical conditions for this have emerged. Nobody but Turkey and KDP oppose the autonomy of the Êzidîs. Anybody with a hint of a conscience would accept autonomy for the Êzidî people, an oppressed people of a distinct faith. No human will refuse the Êzidîs autonomy. And after 73 genocides! The 73 genocides are the fundamental legitimacy argument for the autonomy of the Êzidxan.

If Êzidxan was autonomous, the Êzidîs would certainly not experience the 73rd genocide. Like 12 guerrillas kept ISIS from entering Shengal, thousands of Êzidî youth would have fought valiantly and not allowed ISIS into Shengal. Because Shengal is the land that creates the Êzidîs. Êzidîs wouldn’t have abandoned the lands that created them without a fight. When they showed a bit of resistance, there would be many to support them too. But the KDP abandoned Shengal just as soon as they saw ISIS.

Right now, Êzidîs and their allies should have only one demand. Gangs in Shengal must leave at once. The presence of the invaders is unacceptable. They are invaders and they need to be removed. They will either leave themselves, or they will be extracted. Because accepting their presence means death for the Êzidîs.

The Êzidîs can’t live without self defense and self government anymore. All Êzidîs, all Kurds, all forces of democracy, all human rights organizations, every political power throughout the world, should work for the autonomy of the Êzidîs and protect the self government bodies built by the Êzidîs. This is the duty that falls to humanity now. The autonomy of the Êzidîs must be guaranteed by the whole of humanity.