ANKARA - HDP's Feleknas Uca said that Yazidi women who were kidnapped by ISIS continue to turn up in Ankara while the states hides this fact, and said, "We need to be a bridge between Shengal and the women of the world." 

 

More than 7 thousand children and women were abducted during the attack that ISIS launched on Shengal on August 3, 2014. Yazidi women and children were abducted to different countries by ISIS, have been found in Turkey at the initiative of their families in recent years. A Yazidi woman, who have been held in the house of ISIS members for 3 years in Ankara's Kazan district, was rescued after her relatives in Canada, gave 8 thousand dollars to the ISIS member. It is stated that 2,600 Yazidi women and children are still missing.

 

The rescue of the Yazidi woman from ISIS in Ankara raises questions about how the ISIS members live in Ankara so comfortably, how they cross the border, how the state is not aware of the abducted women, and whether any investigation has been opened against these ISIS members. 

 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Foreign Relations Committee Co-chair and HDP MP Feleknas Uca, who has been struggling to reveal the truth since the massacre committed against Yazidis in 2014 and to ensure that Yazidi women and children who escaped from ISIS are reunited with their families, both during the treatment process, talked about the tragedy they lived and the responsibility of the state.

 

WOMEN WERE SOLD IN SLAVE MARKETS

 

Reminding that thousands of Yazidi women were sold in slave markets after the massacre, Uca said, “For the first time in history, women were sold in markets before the eyes of the world and the public in this day and age. Their photographs were hung on the walls of the shops in the markets. Thousands of women were held in Bados Prison in Mosul are witnesses to the traumas experienced at that time. The women were held in the prison said that they were killed not once, but tens of times a day. They cried out loud that they could no longer accept this pain, called on to the states to bomb that prison so that they could be saved at once. It was a big trauma for Yazidi women.” 

 

Uca reminded that they have been working on Yazidis who were able to cross into Turkey with the crisis desk they established by local organisations and institutions at that time. Uca said, “More than 33 thousand Yazidis fled from Shengal. They stayed in schools, camps or people's houses in Silopi, Cizre, Şırnak, Urfa, Viranşehir, Batman, Mardin and Diyarbakır. I know very well the trauma of that period because at that time there was great insecurity. But that trauma is not over.”

 

TRAUMAS

 

Giving examples of what happened during that period, Uca said: “When the Yazidis settled in a village in Silopi and when they heard the the Azan calling the people to prayer, they panicked and wanted to leave the village. While they were being kidnapped and massacred, the ISIS members shouting 'Allah u Akbar' was all that they were hearing. This is why they get agitated by the sounds of Azan. Then the villagers made us talk with them, we explained the situation, we said 'don't go'. It was such a trauma. The women who survived ISIS were brought to Kobanê. We went as a delegation. At that time, we brought 5 children and their mothers to Turkey as the Platform for Struggle for Women in Forced Detention. We got into two vehicles. After I told them I was also a Yazidi, they trusted me and got into the vehicle I was in. They didn't let us take a break along the way, they thought that when we stopped, ISIS would come. It was such a trauma. We brought her here and she was treated. During their psychological treatment, the children only drew pictures of ISIS members. They spoke about the torture they went through. They could not stay with anyone. We stayed in the same bed in the same room for days, until they were returned to their families in Dihok.“

 

YAZIDI WOMEN TURN UP IN ANKARA

 

Emphasizing that ISIS members cross the borders of Turkey freely, Uca said that the situation is known by everyone. Noting that they brought the issue to the Parliament's agenda many times with a parliamentary question about the situation, Uca said, “Even as MPs, when we move from one city to another, we get stuck at dozens of check points. But the women were kidnapped from Shengal were brought to the capital Ankara. How many check points are there from Shengal to here, how did they cross the border? How does the state gets them across the border illegally? The state cannot identify these women and their families, but the families somehow reach and take their children back paying money to the ISIS members, and the state turns a blind eye on this.” 

 

INVESTIGATION WAS OPENED

 

Uca said that they were verbally attacked and bullied by AKP MPs when they said that "There are Yazidi women abducted to Ankara" in the parliament and said, "But how many Yazidi women have been abducted from Ankara. No investigation was launched against the kidnappers of these Yazidi women and children, and they were not punished. German state television told that the kidnapped Yazidi women were sold in a market in Antep. We  filed a criminal complaint as a platform, but it was not accepted and it was covered up. They cross the border, they are seen in Ankara, but the Ankara Police, which carries out detention operations against Kurds every day, does nothing against ISIS members.

 

THE GOVERNMENT HIDES THE TRUTH

 

It is impossible for Turkish state to be unaware of this situation. The state is following us 24 hours a day, how can it not be aware of ISIS? It is impossible for them not to know this when it has such intelligence.”

 

Uca said that their motions on the subject were left unanswered, and that some motions were returned on the grounds that "the language used is hurtful and rude". Uca said, “Not just us, but all HDP MPs said it during the budget talks, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs denied it.”

 

 

FAMILIES WHO GOT IN TOUCH WITH THE HDP

 

Stating that the families whose children were abducted and living abroad started to contact with them, Uca said, “The families find their daughters themselves. They informed us about a few as well, we know their children are here and they are tracking them. The families are trying to find the their daughters by their own means, since the state does not disclose their locations or investigate. Families who contacted us said that their daughter had contacted them. They stated that when they gave the money, their daughter's photo was sent to them. There is still a mistrust in the Yazidi women, they are afraid that the Turkish state will hand them over to ISIS again. They live in great fear.”

 

WE SHOULD BE A BRIDGE BETWEEN SHENGAL AND WOMEN'

 

Underlining that what happened was a great tragedy, Uca continued her words as follows: “They wanted to target all women of the world in the person of the Yazidi women. A lot of women are being abducted all around the world, not just the Yazidi women. That's why we all have to be sensitive about this issue. We have been asking questions to the state and it hasn't answered us yet. If they had put the effort and investigate, hundreds of women abducted by ISIS would have been found. This encourages the ISIS members. But we will continue to ask the whereabouts of these women. Thousands of women were abducted before the eyes of the whole world. European countries were contempt with just condemning these abductions. Condeming it is not a solution. We have to be united as the women's organisations. If we want to get to know the Yazidis, if we want to understand what happened in Shengal, we have to go there first. In order to understand what kind of life the women who survived ISIS are building in Shengal today, it is necessary to form a delegation and go to Shengal. Only then can we save both Yazidi women and all women in the world if we unite the struggle. That's why it's so important for delegations to go there. We need to be a bridge between Shengal and the women's struggle and the women of the world.”

 

 

MA / Zemo Aggoz