Religious places of worship and Yazidi community assets were destroyed by Daesh during their military and genocidal campaigns
Dear friends,
This year 2020 has been tumultuous on levels beyond human imagination. Whilst I share with you these words from Beirut, Lebanon, silence continues to be the sound of the injustices born by my Yazidi friends. On this 3rd of August, 2020, the ongoing genocide against the Yazidi people will mark its sixth year since it first all began when Daesh forces invaded Sinjar.
The Yazidi community, who once upon a time made up 650,000 citizens in the abundant belt of Iraq and Northern Syria, live today in undignified and under-resourced IDP camps in the Kurdish Region and Iraq. They are subject to airstrikes from Turkish fighter jets and resurgence attacks from a Daesh movement that never declared defeat. Many have become refugees in abominable refugee camps in Turkey, Greece, and Lebanon.
Some have chosen to permanently uproot themselves from our Middle East and re-build themselves new homes in the United States, Germany, Canada, Australia, and Armenia. There is no choice of return to their homeland, unless they are willing to take the risk to return with no safe passage, no investment capital and plans for rebuilding, and no foundation for sustainable socio-economic re-development. For all, their oxygen levels are today beyond depleted.
In the last almost six years, my family, team, and I have served our Yazidi friends. Together, we determined the underlying root calls for genocide in the fatwas of Daesh and endowed spiritual pilgrimages for returning girls and women to begin their healing journeys. We capacity-built mobile clinics and welcomed Yazidi children to Lebanon for specialized surgeries. We sponsored the preservation of cultural assets of the community, championing Yazidi poetry and the anthem of the Yazidi people. Together, we continue to strengthen the advocacy of the cause, amplifying the incredible voices of the community on global legislative and media stages.
It has been a powerful team effort all these years, and yet, in many ways, there are those days when it feels like we are still just getting started.
We are privileged to partner once again with our Yazidi friends at Yazda to host this year’s commemorative events on this sixth year of genocide. This event is in the name of those who perished, those who are still to be found in uncovered mass graves, and those who are still in captivity in Daesh households. It is in the name of those who are held hostage by geopolitical inconvenience and diplomatic disinterest. It is in the belief that yes, good shall prevail; that in the face of terror, humanity shall overcome.
This 2nd and 3rd of August commemoration will include a series of deeply-needed, blunt, and action-based keynotes and panels on the many faces of the Yazidi cause: the ongoing security deficits, the indignity of IDP and refugee camps, the powerless right of return, the deprivation of socio-economic potential, deeply-rooted international injustice, and deeply human survivorship.
For more information, please contact us at event@yazda.org
In the name of peace for our Middle East,
With much respect,
Lynn Zovighian
Managing Director
The Zovighian Partnership
The Zovighian Partnership is a family-owned social investment platform, established by father and daughter in 2013. Deeply invested in R&D, we are committed to delivering ethical, inclusive, and innovative design, research, and prototypes.
The Zovighian Partnership Public Office is committed to delivering significant resources to bringing grounded methodology, sound governance, and rigorous strategic thinking to communities and cities in crisis. We hold ourselves accountable to giving voice to the diversity of views that are central to long-term and sustainable peace and socio-economic enablement.
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Yazda is a global community-led institution that protects and champions all religious and ethnic minority communities, including Assyrians, Chaldeans, Kakais, Shabak, Yazidis, and others in Iraq, Kurdistan Region, and Syria.
Founded in 2014 at the onset of the genocide perpetuated by Da’esh, also known as Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) against the Yazidis, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity against other minorities, Yazda leads advocacy and strategic projects in Dohuk, Sinjar, and the Nineveh Plains, as well as global diaspora hubs.