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Armenians protest outside of the Turkish Ambassador's Residence on the 106th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in Washington, DC on April 24, 2021. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Yazidi rights organization has praised United States President Joe Biden’s recent recognition of the Armenian genocide, describing it as a “critical milestone.”
“The recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the President of the United States Joseph Biden, following that of US Congress, is a critical milestone,” reads a statement released by Yazda and co-signed by ten other rights and genocide prevention organizations. “On the occasion of this commemoration, we call for the full, all-inclusive recognition of all acts of genocide that deserve equal honor.”
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were victims of a wide Ottoman campaign of systematic killing beginning in 1915, the exact date to which the genocide ended is a matter of disagreement among people.
Biden, who campaigned on a ticket of recognition for the genocide, on Saturday became the first American president to officially recognize the genocide.
"Precedence is legitimized when justice is not promptly and fully realized. This is true in the case of the Armenians, as it is true in the cases of other genocides, including the Da'esh genocide against the Yazidis, Christians, and others," the statement adds, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
In the summer of 2014, ISIS extremists swept across swathes of Syria and Iraq. In August that year, they attacked the Yazidi homeland of Shingal in Nineveh province, committing genocide against the ethno-religious minority.
"The Yazidis, Christians, and other religious minorities continue to face the threats of further atrocities and even community extermination," adds the statement.
Although the Iraqi government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, extorting money from vulnerable rural populations, and carrying out bomb attacks.
"Safety and security are also under severe threat as military airstrikes by the Turkish Air Forces continue to bomb villages inhabited by the Assyrians and Yazidis," the statement reads, noting that this has contributed to the failure to reconstruct Shingal, and the return of more than 300,000 displaced Yazidis to the area.
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