ROJBİN DENİZ

Shengal – On August 3, 2014, ISIS attacked Yazidis first from the Qıblet. The people of Shengal call south “Şemal” and east “Qıblet”. Tilafer, Baac, and hundreds of Arab villages located Shengal’s Qıblet part. During the genocide against Yazidis, ISIS attacked them over Arab villages around Shengal. People living in the east suffered the most from the genocide. When the people living in the south of Shengal Mountains heard the news from the east, they began to take measures to protect themselves. However, most Yazidis didn’t believe that ISIS would reach Şemal and they were taken captive by ISIS.

Hardan village, located in the south of Shengal, was built in 1952 with a population of 1,700. Hardan village is surrounded on three sides by the Arab villages. Yazidis migrated from the north to Shengal to live in the village. The villagers are members Merkha and Cuvanaki tribes and Davute Devit clan.

People working for the KDP were left alone in Hardan village

Most of the people living in the Hardan village worked with the Peshmerga before the genocide. After the genocide, people of the village acted with Kasım Şeşo and Haydar Şeşo, the representatives of the KDP in the region, due to fear of the KDP. 480 people of the village were taken captive by ISIS during the genocide. Years have passed, but the fate of many is still unknown. Most of the people having been taken captive by ISIS are people working with the KDP.

As NuJinha team, we first passed an Arab village called Gir Şebek to go to Hardan village. After we passed Gir Şebek village, we saw a destroyed house. Then, we saw a village in ruins. Every house, mother in the village mourn for what happened seven years ago in the village. We slowly entered the village and saw three women in front of a house. We first greeted them and then talked with them.

Leyle, Seve and Beybun are three women, three mothers. We asked them if they had witnessed the genocide. First Seve began to talk. Seve was taken captive along with her three daughters, six sons, and husband by ISIS. She, her three daughters, and two sons are survivors of the genocide. She doesn’t know where her husband and four sons are now. “I want my sons back,” she told us.

A grieving mother in each house

Beybun’s son and many of her family members were taken captive by ISIS. She has received no news from her son for seven years. Leyle’s two sons, sister, and many family members were also taken captive by ISIS. “Do you see Hardan village? You will find a grieving mother in each house,” Leyle told us.

“I still hear the cries of my daughters”

We first spoke to Seve but she didn’t want to talk much. “They took all my children from me in a school located in Tilafer. I still hear the cries of my daughters. When you look at us, you see standing bodies but we are broken to pieces inside,” said Seve to describe her grief.

 “I want to talk but not for myself, for all people of Hardan village,” Leyle told us. We went to her house together. She showed the mountains from her house, “These Mountains protected thousands of Yazidis. Yazidis cannot exist without Shengal. Everyone fights for the mountains of Shengal. But everyone should know that Shengal is our history, we belong to it, and we will never leave it.”

“My story is the story of everyone”

“The name of my story must be the mountains of Shengal (Çiyayê Şengal). My story is the story of everyone. When a Yazidi tells her/his story, she/ he actually tells the story of all Yazidis. The stories form the story of Yazidis,” said Leyle and she began to tell her story;

“I am Leyle Celal from Hardan village. I have lived in this village for 40 years. I am originally from Zorava. I came to Hardan after I got married. Life used to be very hard in Hardan. Living conditions were very challenging but we had a good relationship and shared everything with each other. We were seven sisters and we were like friends. I was the oldest sister so I looked after all of them because my mother had to work. My sister, who has been held captive by ISIS, saw me as a mother and sister. In Hardan, people used to think of each other, we had a good relationship with our neighboring villages (before genocide). All our neşghboring villages were Arab villages. They used to participate in our wedding parties, funerals and we used to participate in their wedding parties and funerals. Their children used to come to Hardan to go to school. We never thought that they would betray us. When ISIS first attacked the Qiblet, the people living in our neighboring villages told us, ‘don’t be afraid and go another place, nothing will happen to you.’ And we believed them. There was Fera Lina village in the south of Hardan village, Heci Fadil village in the east, Gir Şebek village in the north. But when ISIS attacked us, all people supported ISIS.”

“When we woke up, the Peshmerga had gone”

Leyle told us that there was a checkpoint of the KDP at the entrance of the village before the genocide.

“People living in the east called us and said, ‘The Peshmerga members left us and fled. Run away, don’t trust Arabs, they betrayed us here, they will do the same there.’ They were right. When we woke up in the morning, the Peshmerga members had gone. In our village, many people used to work with the KDP but they weren’t informed. ISIS first attacked the Koço village and then us. ISIS attacked us along with the people living in our neighboring villages. People living in the east called us many times. We were told that women and girls had been taken away and men had been killed. We began to make preparation to run away after receiving phone calls. 60-70 people, including me, got in a big truck while other people got in their cars. ISIS blocked us when we were close to the Gir Şebek village. People living in Arab villages around Hardan also came from the other side and surrounded us. ISIS and the villagers stopped many cars; they separated women, children, men, and the elders. The villagers knew us very well because they were our neighbors. ISIS took 480 people from our village captive. They killed a group of people on the main road. They threw the people in a hole after they killed them. They took the rest to Tilafer.”

Leyle and many people managed to flee from ISIS and they went to Rojava. “We walked for days. When we arrived at the border of Rojava, the fighters helped us. We were hungry and thirsty. They gave us a place to live. We will never forget what they did for us. We stayed there for two days and then went to Başûr Kurdistan (Southern Kurdistan). We stayed there for three years.”

ISIS took two sons of Leyle captive and she hasn’t received any news from them since then. After the liberation of Shengal, she returned Hardan. “I prefer to live in my village even if it is painful for me. Each mother living in Hardan lost their loved ones. My two sons are still held captive by ISIS. We feel we are closer to our children here; maybe they will come back one day.  I want not only my own children, but all children of the village to come back. As mothers, we pray every day for our children.” 

Mass graves

Seven years have passed since the genocide against Yazidis took place. There are 80 mass graves and many unknown graves in Shengal. There are many mass graves at the entrance to Hardan. These mass graves are the deepest wound of the mothers in Hardan. They worry if the bones of their children are in the graves but they also want to know what happened to their children.

“We demanded everyone exhume the mass graves but no one hears our voice. We don’t know what happened to our children. We only demand them to come and exhume the mass graves. We see the mass graves every day, I cannot look at them.”