Following the fatal attack on Zekî Şengalî, a member of the Shengal Yazidi Society Coordination and KCK Executive Council on Wednesday, countless people in Southern Kurdistan took to the streets to protest the Turkish state's attacks.

In Sinune, several thousand people gathered outside the Democratic Autonomy Council in the early afternoon and marched through the city in protest. In addition to representatives of political parties and various NGOs, well-known personalities and religious leaders from the region took part in the demonstration. Repeated slogans such as "Martyrs are immortal" and "Down with the betrayal" were chanted.

At a final rally, Riham Hiço, co-chair of the Sinune Democratic Autonomy Council, made a statement which said: "It is well known that in August 2014, the Islamic State perpetrated a genocide on the Yazidi population in front of the entire world. Today, this genocide has repeated itself. Turkey carried out air raid on 15 August as a continuation of the genocides suffered by the Yazidis. Since the beginning of the history of the Turkish state, the Yazidis have been persecuted. And today this persecution continues."

Hiço called on the Iraqi government to clarify the deadly attack on Zekî Şengalî. He recalled that the attack occurred in an area under the sovereignty of Baghdad, so the central government was obliged to take a stand for the Yazidi population.

Appeal to international organizations

The Democratic Autonomy Council demanded that the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations to take stance and not to remain silent on the attacks on Yazidis.

Also in Silêmanî, Hewler, Ranya and Germiyan protests against the Turkish occupation policy and attacks on the Yazidi population took place. In demonstrations calls were highlighted to block the airspace over Shengal for Turkish aircraft.

The fatal attack on Zekî Şengalî on the fourth anniversary of the Kocho massacre occurred on the way back from a commemoration ceremony in the village. The village, which had about 1,700 inhabitants, and where 300 Yazidi families used to live, was attacked by the terrorist militia "IS" on 15 August 2014. When the residents refused to convert to Islam, 380 men and teenagers were massacred at once. 694 women and children were kidnapped and exploited as sex slaves or trained to be child soldiers.

One day before the deadly attack on Mam Zekî, Turkish President Erdoğan and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met for talks in Ankara.