Over 500 Yazidis sign Joint Declaration for Shengal

A joint declaration, signed by 511 people, rejected the agreement on Shengal.

On 9 October, the central Iraqi government and the South Kurdistan Regional Government announced an agreement on the administration and security of the region of Shengal.

The Yazidi community in Shengal and the diaspora immediately rejected the agreement.

A joint declaration, signed by 511 people, was read at a press conference in Lohne, Germany.

Yazidi artists, politicians, academics, scientists, journalists and representatives of institutions, especially those living in Kurdistan, Europe and the Caucasus, signed the declaration.

The declaration called "the status of Shengal” to be guaranteed.

The declaration pointed out that the Yazidi community favours peaceful resolution of problems, crises and tensions. “We will be pleased if serious steps were taken for Shengal. However, the latest agreement signed by the Hewler and Baghdad governments was reached ignoring the will of the Yazidis.”

The joint declaration listed the following demands of the Yazidi people:

-To ensure a just, lasting and fundamental solution for the future of Shingal, a new process of negotiation and reconciliation should be initiated, in which the Yazidi should have the right of veto as a third party in this process and the content of the agreement be rewritten in accordance with the principles outlined below.

- To prevent future ethnic genocides a permanent status for the Yazidi community under the Iraqi constitution should be guaranteed, with the regions of Shengal and Nineveh as two separate units.

- The security and defense mechanisms to be established should include as military units, all forces without exception, organised after the genocide, to fight for the rescue and protection of Shengal.

- At least 10,000 people should be involved in this mechanism, both for external protection and to ensure internal security, for the region of Shengal alone.

- A politically independent person with experience in urban planning and infrastructure services should be elected to a reconstruction board.

- To organise and coordinate the return of the people of Shengal a joint commission of wise and knowledgeable people should be established.