News Center- Today is the 11th anniversary of the genocide committed by ISIS against the Yazidi community on August 3, 2014.

The Women Protection (Defense) Forces (YPJ) released a statement on Saturday to mark the anniversary, saying, “Our struggle will be our promise.”

The statement reads as follows:

“To Our People and the Public Opinion
We commemorate all the martyrs of August 3rd, the day that once again witnessed the issuance of the seventy-third decree against the Yazidi people and all the peoples of Kurdistan. Through this ISIS-issued decree, a new massacre was committed against our Yazidi people. In the face of this massacre, the Iraqi state and the administration of the South Kurdistan Region remained silent and did not take any initiative to protect and defend the Yazidi people. All the dominant powers became complicit in the decree of extermination against the Yazidi community.
In response to the cries of women and children, the freedom fighters (Guerilla) took primary responsibility and headed to Şengal (Shengal or Sinjar) from the mountains of Kurdistan. Despite all obstacles, they stood alongside their Yazidi community and defended Şengal, a land with an ancient history. When the massacre reached its peak, fighters of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) opened a safe humanitarian corridor between Şengal and Rojava. Hundreds of YPJ and YPG fighters became shields against ISIS ideology and protected the Yazidi community. Many of our comrades reached martyrdom in the liberation of Şengal, and we once again honor and remember these freedom fighters.
The jihadist and fascist mentality of ISIS targets the values of society and life through the person of the woman. Killing, kidnapping, selling, and using women as slaves for the caliphate is a real political and ideological attack. Through these assaults, they directly target the principle of women’s freedom. In response to these attacks, Yazidi women led the resistance, and our people in Şengal took up arms and defended their dignity. Therefore, no society in this century can continue its life and culture without legitimate self-defense. For eleven years, our Yazidi community has been struggling for official recognition of its identity and status, and has established its own self-administration system that upholds legitimate self-defense.
To this day, hundreds of Yazidi women remain captive under ISIS and await their release. Fighters of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) have so far rescued many Yazidi women and young girls from the grip of ISIS. As the YPJ, we bear the responsibility of liberating all Yazidi women, and our struggle will continue for all women in Syria, especially those still held captive by ISIS.
Our people in Şengal are determined to protect their land and honor. The people of Şengal are implementing the ideas of Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) to achieve a democratic society through their own system of self-administration in Şengal, ensuring their security and autonomy.
With the strategy of self-defense, the struggle of women will become an entrenched culture of free life, standing against the mentality of the state and male domination. As the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the struggle to liberate the women of Şengal will be our primary duty, and we will remain ready alongside the Yazidi community in all stages of this struggle.
On this basis, we renew our promise of a free homeland to the martyrs of freedom, to the mothers of the martyrs, and to all Yazidi women and sons who sacrificed their lives out of duty. Our struggle will be our promise.

 

General Command of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ)

02.08.2025”