Category: ISIS (page 1 of 2)

Yezidi Genocide- one man’s personal account

Amy L Beam works with Yezidi refugees and survivors in Iraq and has agreed to share a chapter from her forthcoming book: “The Last Yezidi Genocide”

NB: This was first published on Amy’s facebook page, link at bottom of the article.

For the excerpt please continue reading:

Kocho Manager Describes August 15, 2014, Daesh Executions Were Watched from the Sky
by Dr. Amy L. Beam, as told to her by Nayef Jaso Qassim, October 26, 2015

The flat plains of Nineveh, where Yezidis live, is the bread basket of Iraq. In the center is Mount Shengal, surrounded on all sides by 100 kilometers of wide open, rich agricultural land and many small villages. (Sinjar is the Arabic name and Shengal is the Kurdish name.) There are no trees for shade. The only canopy is the expansive blue sky. We grow the barley, oats, and wheat for flour for the entire country of Iraq. We are mostly farmers and shepherds with large herds of sheep. Some men take jobs in the cities of Duhok and Erbil.

Kocho, Shingal, Iraq, site of August 15, 2014, massacre and kidnapping of the entire town of Ezidis by Islamic State terrorists.

August in Iraq is the dry season. The wheat and barley crops have been harvested and trucked to Erbil silos. Temperatures soar to a stifling 45C. The green grasses die and turn brown. The ground hardens and cracks from drought. A grayish-brown fog of dust hangs in the atmosphere like a heavy blanket, lowering visibility and causing people chronic breathing problems.

I am the manager of Kocho village. My name is Nayef Jaso Qassim. I was born in 1958, one year after Kocho was founded by my father, the leader of the Al-Mandkany clan. People tell me I look younger, but after what I have seen in my lifetime, I feel as old as the desecrated earth of Shengal itself.

I have witnessed the most treacherous betrayal that I could not have imagined was possible. Even though the Yezidis have recorded 73 genocidal attacks upon our people, the 74th was unlike all others. It destroyed the lives and properties of over 400,000 Yezidis. It destroyed our ancestral homeland. Shengal is finished.

Four of my sons were killed. I lost 71 relatives in Kocho, all sharing my family name of Qassim. They are either dead or missing. Twelve of them had married into our family. Only two of the kidnapped women on my list have escaped. One is the wife of my dead son.

Now my mission is to tell the world the truth about the attacks on Shengal in August 2014. I defy any individual or government or Daesh terrorist [Islamic State jihadists] to silence me, because truth is on my side. I will never stop telling what happened. Only God himself can silence me.

Yezidis share many customs with the Kurds and the Arabs, including managing our villages under the tribal or clan system. We do not elect mayors. The leader or manager of the village is a senior man from the clan. As the town manager, I am given great respect by the town’s people who are all my cousins to one degree or another.

I make decisions that affect the well-being of the entire town of 1,735 people. Being manager carries great responsibility to protect and provide for my people. A leader must also take counsel from his advisors. So I am often in council meetings with the eldest men in Kocho, the fathers of each family. On important matters I must consult with the town’s people to reach consensus and have their support. We have a big hall for these gatherings.

On July 28, 2014, my wife and I flew to Istanbul. My elder brother, Ahmed Jaso Qassim, who is actually the head of our Al Mandkany clan which includes Kocho and four other villages, returned on July 27 from his work in Duhok to manage Kocho in my absence. His first wife and their house is also in Kocho.

We Yezidis have our own festivals, separate in custom and dates from the Kurds and Arabs around us. One of our annual events is the feast after the forty hottest days in the year. It is celebrated after the crop is harvested.

On August 2, one day before the Islamic State terrorists attacked Shengal, my brother Ahmed Jaso hosted a lavish luncheon at his house for 50 guests. It included 22 Arab neighbors of whom 15 were managers of the surrounding Arab villages and one Kurdish village. Ahmed sacrificed a sheep for this special occasion. There was every kind of special food prepared.

Women and children were not present at this special luncheon. All the village managers were friends and equals. This was a luncheon for Ahmed’s associates and neighbors to share in the Yezidis’ harvest. It was like The Last Supper, but instead of there being only one Judas who betrayed Jesus, 13 out of the 15 Arab village managers betrayed my brother and the entire Al-Mandkandy clan less than 15 hours after smiling in his face, dining at his table, and eating his sacrificial sheep.

Clan leaders of neighboring Arab villages who had lunch with Ahmed Jaso August 2, 2014: Nofel

List of Arab mayors (mukhtars) and one Kurdish mayor who were lunch guests of Ahmed Jaso, August 2, 2014, Kocho, the day before they joined ISIS in attacking Shingal. Names of two Arabs who did not betray their Yezidi neighbors are crossed out. The list was written by Nayef Jaso Qassim, mukhtar of Kocho. Five people with lines next to them returned August 14 to meet with Ahmed Jaso in Kocho, the day before the Kocho massacre.


1. Nofel
2. Khalef
3. Jarallah
4. Abdullmajud
5. Khaton
6. Khalal
7. Tarik
8. Muhammedradife
9. Muhammed Imad
10. Mallik Al Nuri
11. Muhammed Abaz
12. Zed
13. Farhan Jarallah
14. Jasim

Not only were my brother Ahmed and I friends with the managers of the surrounding Arab villages, but our wives and children also were friends. We danced at each other’s weddings and visited in one another’s homes. Our children played together. We grew up together. We did business together. I regularly traveled together to Baghdad and Mosul with the Arab village managers for meetings with the government.

Our fathers’ friendship goes back to 1948. The Yezidis used to live with Arabs in Kinissee which is only 8 kilometers to the east of Kocho on Blaj Road. There were never any problems between the Yezidis and Arabs in Kinissee. In 1956, Yezidis built Kocho and they all moved out of Kinissee. Kocho is surrounded by 13 Arab villages and one Kurdish village.

Since 1957, when Kocho was founded, our fathers, and then we, have been friends with our Arab neighbors with not one problem between us. Our problems started only when Daesh came. We call the Islamic State “Daesh”.

When Shengal was attacked on August 3, 2014, my wife and I took the next plane from Istanbul back to Erbil. While we were flying home, some people from Kocho tried to get away in their cars. Daesh captured them and massacred a total of 150 people in three different locations. The others turned back.

I wanted to drive immediately from the airport to Kocho, but my brother, Ahmed Jaso, told me on the phone to stay in Duhok. It was already too late to return. Peshmerga had left Kocho and it was now surrounded by Daesh. Daesh was everywhere in control of Shengal cities and villages. Over fifty thousand Yezidis were trapped on Mount Shengal without enough water or food.

The road from Sunoni, on the north of the mountain, across the flat open plain to Kurdistan, was jammed with cars and trucks packed with families fleeing to safety. The Peshmerga pickup trucks were leading, with Yezidis following close behind. Four-wheel trucks were passing on the side of the road over the hard ground, over-taking the slow traffic and turning the two-lane country road into a four-lane one-way road.

It would be impossible to drive against the flow of traffic that inched northward at only a few kilometers per hour. Every civilian had to pass through several checkpoints before entering the safety of Kurdistan which has protected borders in northern Iraq.
So I stayed here in Duhok, Kurdistan, from where I was in constant telephone contact with my brother, Ahmed Jaso, trapped in Kocho.

We did not know Abu Hamza, the Daesh leader who came to meet with Ahmed Jaso on August 5, but he came with my Arab friend Khalef Al Ayid and one other man. Khalef Al Ayid is the manager of Pisqi Jemali village which is 3 kilometers east of Kocho. Abu Hamza is from Khaider city, south of Mosul. They drank tea together in the meeting hall next to Ahmed’s house.

Abu Hamza demanded we convert to Islam and gave us three days to decide. We tried to get outside help to rescue the village. We called the Arab managers who had been Ahmed’s luncheon guests on August 2, and asked them to help us by going to talk to the Daesh leader in Mosul. I do not know the name of this bigger Daesh leader, but his wife’s father is named Salam Mala Allo.

The Arab managers from our neighboring villages, whom we asked for help, talked to the brother of the Daesh leader in Mosul. They promised to do something to help us, but no help arrived. We remained besieged.

On August 8, Abu Hamza returned pretending to help us. Ahmed Jaso and the men of Kocho listened to what Abu Hamza had to say. The meeting hall was full. Hamza told us we did not have to convert to Islam after all. He told us to go about our normal lives, but we did not believe him. We knew they were Daesh.

For twelve days my brother and I and all the people of Kocho were desperately phoning people everywhere in Iraq and in the world asking to be rescued. My friends who were interpreters with the U.S. Army took our message to Congress and the government in Washington, D.C. and to Europe. We called members of the E.U. parliament. Yezidis living in Europe went to the European Court in Brussels and pleaded for help for Yezidis, especially to rescue Kocho. We contacted every embassy. There were even demonstrations in Brussels in front of the European Court and in Hannover, Germany.

We called government leaders and military commanders in Kurdistan and Iraq and begged to be rescued, but the Iraqi government gave us no response and did not care. We were racing for time. We never rested.

So I sent my message to the Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Sistani, the most respected religious leader in Iraq. Only a few days earlier, on August 1, six grand ayatollahs had publicly announced their support to Ayatollah Sistini because Sistini was calling for a democratic Iraq in which each person could vote. Sistini called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to step down or be voted out of office.

Sistini sent my message to Prime Minister Maliki: “Kocho needs to be rescued.”

The next day the Secretary to the Ministry of Iraq, close to Maliki, called me from his phone, 07802200011, and asked me if I was Nayef Jaso, the manager of Kocho. I said, “Yes.” We talked.

After our talk, the Secretary of the Ministry of Iraq signed an order to rescue Kocho. This order was sent to the operations control room for the Iraqi Army in Baghdad. This happened sometime between August 8 and 12. My sources told me that Americans were in the control room along with Iraqis.

I will never trust Americans again.

I had connections within the PDK political party. I sent them the same message, “Kocho needs to be rescued.” I gave them a plan. They said they would send it to the military operations room in Erbil, capital of Kurdistan. There were Kurds, Arabs, and Americans in that control room. I did not see the Americans in the operations room in Erbil with my own eyes, because I was in Duhok, but my intermediary swears that American military personnel were there.

I asked for 14 planes to include ten helicopters, two Apache attack helicopters, and two military fighter jets such as F-16s. The helicopters were to be used to evacuate the people of Kocho to Mount Shengal. The Apaches and the F-16s were to protect the helicopters during their operation. I said, “I have 200 Yezidi men of my own forces on the ground in Kocho. They will protect the helicopters when they land.”

We got no sure reply to our request to be rescued.

On August 12, I called my brother Ahmed in Kocho and told him, “It’s a plan. I do not know what will happen in the future, but I am sure it is a plan. Take whatever steps you can to save yourselves. No one is coming to your rescue.”

On August 13, Daesh returned and brought some rice and food to the village. They also brought more guards to surround the village night and day. Only 3% were foreign. Only 7% were from other areas of Iraq. Ninety percent came from the Arab villages in Shengal. They were our neighbors.

The operations room said to my intermediary contact that they were watching Kocho intensively. They promised if more than two cars go to Kocho, they would bomb the cars.

I told my brother on the phone, “On August 15, Daesh will give you their decision. Either you can change your religion or they will kill everyone or you can escape to the mountain.” Daesh did not say this, but I understood.

On August 14, Ahmed hosted a luncheon meeting with five of the 15 Arab managers from surrounding villages in an effort to avert an attack. They were Nofel, Khaton, Tarik, Jarella, and Farhan Jarella. These were the same friends who had come for lunch on August 2. Abu Hamza attended, too.

On August 15, at 9 AM many cars entered Kocho from three available directions. Cars came from Tal Afar to the north, heading south on Blaj Road. Others came from Blaj village southeast of Kocho, heading north. Others came from Baaj, southwest of Kocho. They had loudspeakers on their cars and announced they would take everyone to the mountain. It was very hot that morning, so they brought ice and distributed it. They told everyone to bring their gold and cars and report to the school which is on the northeast corner of Kocho.

From 9 AM planes were flying overhead. The operations room in Baghdad watched and did nothing even though there were lines of cars and pickups surrounding and entering into Kocho.

They took the women and children to the second floor of the school. The world knows by now that they were all kidnapped and the women and girls were beaten, raped, and used as sex slaves. Some of them have escaped, but nearly 3,000 Yezidis are still being held captive.

Daesh kept the men and adolescent boys on the ground floor of the school. They checked the hair under the arms of some of the boys to determine age. Young boys went with their mothers.
Abu Hamza asked Ahmed one last time, “Do you want to change your religion?” My brother told everyone, “You are free to choose.”

No one agreed to change religion except for one family that was not from Kocho. They were allowed to leave. Daesh said to the others, “We know you are not going to convert to Islam.”

Until they collected the mobile phones, I was always in touch with my son, Mufit Nayef Jaso, who was only 20. He was the last one to have his phone taken, because he was hiding it in his pocket with a wire in his ear. He was in constant communication with me. He was giving me the details of what was going on in the school. How they separated the men from the women and children. How they collected everyone’s gold and cash and took their ID cards (hawea).

When they started taking the men out of the school and driving them away, my son told me they were shooting everyone. I told my son, “They will kill you.” Then they took his phone.

I was in Duhok meeting with a man named Khairi Hamoka. He was sitting right next to me. He was talking on the phone to the operations room in Erbil. As my son told me what was happening, I was telling Khairi, and Khairi was telling the operations room. They knew everything that was happening in real time. The operations room said they were watching from the planes overhead.

Khairi relayed the question from the operations room to me, “What will Daesh do?”

I answered, “They will kill everyone.” I told them, “Bomb everyone, the women, the children, the men.”

The man from the operations room asked, “You gave us orders to bomb and kill everyone in Kocho? What is your relationship to them?”

I said, “They are my family, my children, my relatives. I will write a report and put my fingerprints on it that I gave the orders to bomb.”

The operations room said, “Human rights will not allow us to do that.”

So they watched from their planes and never did anything to stop the executions that went on for an hour from 11AM until about noon. Two planes flew overhead watching until late afternoon. Inside my head, I was screaming for help. I felt helpless. No! No! No! Please stop them! Please bomb them! Where was God?

When they took my son’s phone, I called my Arab friend who lives in Pisqi Junoovi, 2 kilometers from Kocho. I told him to go see and listen for sounds of shooting. My friend called me back and began to cry on the phone and said, “Yes, you are right. They are killing them. I see one person running away. He is coming toward Pisqi Junoovi.”

I asked my friend to care for him. When he arrived, my friend called me again and let me speak with him. He was Alias Salih Qassim, the father of Basman who is missing and presumed dead. Alias was shot in the knee. Alias told me they were shooting everyone. I told him to take care and promised we will try to get you and take you to the mountain.

This information was passed immediately by Khairi Hamoka to the operations room in Erbil.

Daesh took the men in their own cars and pickup trucks parked at the school to four locations at the edges of Kocho. The first location was to the water storage pool on the side of the perimeter dirt road at the edge of southeast Kocho. The first group of men and boys was shot in the back of the head at the edge of the pool. This is the group Alias was in. He ran directly east to escape.
The second group was in the same location, but Daesh made them get into the empty pool where they were executed.

The third and fourth groups were executed about 300 meters away from the first group on the southeast corner of Kocho, next to the perimeter dirt road where it turns to the west and wraps around the village.

The fifth group they took to a farm one kilometer north of Kocho. [According to a survivor, this was actually the fourth group to leave the school, but it may have taken longer to get there or shoot them because Daesh made a video first.] They put about 50 men into the empty pool and shot them. Three men escaped with multiple bullet wounds.

The sixth group was executed on the southwest corner of Kocho.

Diler Havind (interpreter), Amy L Beam, Nayyef Jaso

During the executions, the men in the cars saw others who were dead or being shot and they jumped from the cars and the back of the pickup trucks in an attempt to escape. On the northwest perimeter of the town, twelve men got shot and killed while running away.

Later, Daesh brought other kidnapped Yezidis to live in Kocho. They are witnesses to the locations of the four execution sites and the twelve bodies of men who jumped from the trucks.

Kocho had a population of 453 males aged 15 years and older. Of these, 19 men and teenagers escaped the execution lines with bullet wounds. These men have identified 84 people who were killed next to them.

There are another 350 men who are considered missing because no witness has identified them as killed. This includes my brother, Ahmed Jaso Qassim, leader of our clan. No one has heard from any of these 350 men since the attack of August 15, 2014. We will not have closure until we can enter Kocho, uncover the mass graves, and perform DNA testing.

Four months after the attack, in December 2014, I visited the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. It’s a town, not a building. It is rumored they have 5,000 American soldiers there. We argued for two hours. I made him listen. The U.S. government cannot claim that it does not know what happened in Kocho.

I am sure if I live long enough, I will see the videos, taken from the planes, of the men and boys being executed in Kocho. If we do not have weapons, our children will fight with pens.

No one has seen me shed a tear, because my life’s mission now is to tell the world the truth about Kocho. The U.S. Embassy offered me a visa, but I turned it down. I will stay right here in Iraq.

Nayef Jaso Qassim
manager of Kocho
October 26, 2015
Duhok, Kurdistan, Iraq
interviewed by Amy L Beam
copyright 2017 by Amy L Beam; chapter from forthcoming book “The Last Yezidi Genocide”

DONATE to help Yezidi survivors get their Iraqi IDs and passports


Why won’t the UK help the Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria against ISIS?

I was recently able to meet with some government officials and put my questions to them.

First of all I’d like to express my appreciation for living in a country where I can get involved in political protest, without being arrested and where the authorities are prepared to put time and effort into hearing me and my concerns. My sincere thanks go to the British government for giving me the meeting, for not being patronising and for treating me with respect. Also for answering my questions with due care and attention particularly those questions regarding the progress of ISIS, the role of the UK in Syria and, in particular, why the UK will not engage with the Rojavan Syrian Kurds and consistently denies them any support.The primary reasons for the UK’s reluctance to help the Rojavan Kurds in their struggle against ISIS, as expressed to me by government officials, seem to be these: 

  • There have been human rights abuses in Northern Syria- carried out by the Kurds
  • The YPG/J recruits 17 year olds
  • The YPG/J is linked to the listed terror organisation the PKK.
Let’s look at their first argument.
First of all let me make clear that my views are that any kind of abuse, torture or deaths in custody are inexcusable. So by all means let’s refuse to talk to any country that has such human rights abuses.
Going by what I was told therefore, the logical assumption is, (since we don’t talk to, or negotiate with, organisations and governments that commit human rights abuses) none of our allies will be guilty of this.
Check out Saudi Arabia:
Check out our NATO ally Turkey:

Check out China where many of our goods come from
Check out Israel

Check out the amount of people who have died at the hands of police in the USA- many unarmed 
For the sake of interest here is the official letter from the YPG refuting the claims (It’s slightly ungrammatical but you get the gist):
Sadly all these links are simply the tip of the iceberg. Go look for yourself. See what our UK ally Turkey is doing to its own citizens right now, at the time of writing, in Cizre, for example.

I feel quite confident at this point in time that any illegal actions carried out by Rojavan Kurds are not state sanctioned (unlike what appears to be happening in Turkey) and if people are accused of committing heinous acts then they will investigated by the Kurdish government, just as British citizens would, presumably, in similar situations.

I am not claiming that the links or my research are exhaustive and I’m not intending to point a finger at countries or to argue one way or another about whether or not the YPG/J are guilty of the allegations. 

All I’m saying is that there’s en element of hypocrisy in the excuses made by the UK government and it should not hide behind such a paltry excuse when we can see that it has long and, dare I say it, seemingly comfortable liaisons with many countries with deeply concerning human rights records.

This is not a reason not to talk to the YPG/J UK so please- pull the other one!

Regarding the second point: The YPG/J, as far as I am aware, does not have a conscious, active recruitment process focussed on youngsters. Where the authorities are made aware, youngsters are sent home. However, given the upheaval, does everyone have documentation that can clarify age? And what would you do if you were sixteen and nine months and your whole family had been beheaded while you were visiting a relative in a different village? Would you not be inclined to say, ‘I’m going to go after the people who did this so that I can stop it happening to someone else?’ Maybe you’d be inclined to say, ‘No-one is helping us defeat ISIS. No other countries are helping. I guess I just have to help myself!’ What else is left?

The bottom line is that if the UK had offered help earlier, maybe seventeen year old kids wouldn’t need to pick up weapons to defend themselves.

The final point I want to make is about the allegation that the YPG/J is linked to the PKK. Maybe it is but that doesn’t change the fact that it isn’t the PKK. It isn’t a listed organisation.

It is a legal organisation. 

Either list it or get off your butts and help. Hey, who knows, if they had help from elsewhere perhaps they wouldn’t need to be ‘linked’ to the PKK!

My final point is that Britain is talking to countries like Iran, maybe in the future even to Assad and has helped facilitate dialogue with ‘terrorist’ organisations in Northern Ireland. Surely talking to the YPG/J and their political arm the PYD should be easy in comparison since they are NOT LISTED.
UK- please! Stop with the lame excuses and help Rojava, the YPG and YPJ. 

Remembering 7/7

Today we remember the victims of 7/7.

How do you find words to describe the atrocity? The indiscriminate killing? The inhumanity? The trauma and terror? How do you get through the loss without getting caught up in negativity and hatred?

You rise above the evil as much as possible. You focus on the moving stories of light and hope that come out of the darkness. Stories of survival and humanity, of bravery, compassion and of sheer heroism.

You don’t let evil win.  You lose fear and you act. You stand up and shout out against extremism, against inaction.

The evil we face now may not be quite the same as it was then – it has mutated, becoming better organised, harder to pin down and more pervasive. It has become even more barbaric if that is possible and is responsible for the wholesale slaughter of civilians right across Syria and Iraq. Spare a thought for the brave men and women in Northern Syria and Iraq battling against this terrorism every day and for the many victims who are at the mercy of an invading militia made up of citizens from all over the world, including Britain.

For as long as this caliphate cult flourishes everything that underpins our society is at risk. Our lives are at risk.

It makes me feel even more driven to make a difference, and hopefully see the end of ISIS and other forms of harmful extremism. Join me in any way you can. Write to your MPS, sign the petition, ask your MPs to table a question in Parliament. Make sure you understand what’s going on in Northern Syria and see if you can get your MPs to acknowledge the efforts of the YPG and YPJ. (Northern Syrian Kurds- they are already acknowledging the Iraqi Kurds and supporting them). Push our governments to provide the YPG and YPJ with the help they need.

For letter templates and the petition scroll down to previous posts, or look in the side bar.

Don’t be cowed. Shout out so that the victims are not forgotten and evil is defeated- it’s the very least we can do because if ISIS wins in Northern Syria the consequences do not bear thinking about..

Response to Times article

The Tiimes published quite a negative article focussing on a young man fighting with the YPG, and alleging that he had autism and was ‘lured’ to Syria!

The article :

My response:

The olive tree planted on Kosta’s grave is growing.
This is an interesting article and it is really encouraging to see that the local MP cares enough to take a personal interest in constituents’ issues and that you care enough to report on them. However there are some assumptions that I feel should be challenged and some errors on the part of the MP that I also feel should be corrected.
First of all the implication in your headline, that because this lad is autistic he is automatically vulnerable and incapable of making up his own mind is rather troubling. It also seems as if you are defining him by his disability, (and there is some doubt about whether he has autism. It appears he was diagnosed when he was nine years old and then was told that he didn’t have autism when he was seventeen- personal communication with his mother). Did you actually try and contact the lad himself to ask him for his opinions? If you have to use this lad’s disability in an emotive headline why not: Autistic man joins fight against ISIS to protect humanity? Or better still go for Newark lad stands up for British values and resists ISIS alongside Rojavan Kurds.
Please don’t diminish his courage because of his disability.
Second, put simply, the Peshmerga are the fighting arm of the Kurds in Iraq mostly. The Kurds in Iraq are a patriarchal, tribal based society. The YPG is the male fighting arm of the Kurdish people in Northern Syria (Rojava). In contrast to the whole of the rest of the Middle East these Kurds are working towards a democratic society and have active gender equality, freedom of religious expression and active pro-gay rights policies among others.
There definitely seems to be some confusion in the mind of the MP and in many media reports between the two different countries. Perhaps it would help if everyone could get that straight for a start. If the MP is indeed asking the British government to ask the government of the Peshmerga to stop people joining the YPG then that’s a bit like Italy asking France to stop people joining the British military in Catterick.
The YPG (or Lions of Rojava) have a vetting system when they recruit and if they think that a recruit is in any way a liability or vulnerable they would either not allow them to join or would send them back. They are, indeed, trying to do this with the actor Michael Enright. If this lad’s mum feels that her son is at risk then she has a way of contacting the YPG and asking for him to be sent back. It is my experience that they would do this at once since they value every human being and try very hard not to have losses. A liability or a loose cannon on the battlefield would put their own people at risk. In addition this lad must have passed the one month training the YPG gives all its members or he wouldn’t still be there. This indicates a certain level of capability on his part.
Finally I note that the reader is told that Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with the ‘brave Peshmerga’. Indeed, are these the same brave Peshmerga who abandoned the Yezidis to ISIS so many months ago? The Yezidis who were rescued from Mt Sinjar by the YPG including the foreign lions like my son (Erik also saved someone’s life and carried him off the mountain to safety)? The Yezidis still remember the foreign lions who helped save them. As we’ve already established, the YPG are not the same as the Peshmerga and so far there is little to no evidence that Britain supports the YPG at all. Little to no aid is reaching the refugees from all minorities societies, who have found sanctuary in Rojava with the Syrian Kurds. There is no aid for the rebuilding of Kobane and other cities destroyed by ISIS. There are no weapons reaching the Rojavans, not even night vision goggles or defensive items. Yet these brave men and women still fight, in trainers and home-made armoured vehicles. They fight against an invading militia that is made up of British citizens, Iraqis equipped and trained by us who have defected, as well as other people from all over the world who share their terrible ideology. Then you ask why our lads feel they need to go out there and imply that they have been lured. Seriously?
No-one wants British boots on the ground but for as long as the British government ignores the YPG/J and its role in the battle against ISIS the more likely we will be to have a British civil war going on in someone elses’ back yard, in which the two ideologies- that of ISIS and that of a tolerant and democratic Britain, will be tested. All we ask is for the government to open a dialogue with the Kurds in Syria (we’re already helping the ones in Iraq) in order to see how they can be supported (night vision goggles for instance would make a big difference to their success against ISIS)
If your readers and any MPs want to find out more about the situation in Syrian Kurdistan and the fight against ISIS then they can visit the links along the side of the page. They can also join my campaign called Kosta’s Olive Tree (look for the group on facebook), or sign the petition if they wish to make a difference. My campaign does NOT call for boots on the ground.
Yours respectfully
Vasiliki Scurfield (Mother of Erik Konstandinos Scurfield KIA Syria)

Tunisia, France, Kuwait and Kobane.

I’m terribly saddened this last week at the news of terrorist attacks in three separate countries all of them engineered by ISIS.There was an attempt at a chemical plant in France with the brutal beheading of the manager, the shooting of holiday makers on a beach in Tunisia that has resulted in over 30 deaths, and a suicide bombing of a Shia mosque in Kuwait with a loss of over 27 lives. 

The media has been filled with terrible pictures of pain and suffering and the stunned incomprehension of normal people who were doing nothing but go about their normal business when their world imploded. But while these images, of Tunisia in particular, have flooded the news reports, there have been ISIS attacks elsewhere, in which gunmen have shot and killed children, not just adult tourists and where the death toll has been over 150 adults and children. Here you see the same stunned incomprehension, the same dreadful grief on so many faces, but this time it’s Kobane, where there are so many ISIS terrorists that they qualify as an invading army, where the media coverage has been so scarce that it verges on shameful. The people in this town didn’t deserve to die any more than the people in the Mosque worshipping, or the people on the beach holidaying, or the man going to work. None of them deserved to die and I’m saddened that despite David Cameron’s rhetoric about stopping extremism, he still won’t enter dialogue with the Kurds in Rojava to see what Britain can do to help. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the people suffering at the hands of ISIS wherever they are. I will keep shouting for you in the hope that my voice will be heard at some point.

Be wise, be brave, be strong.

USA letter for adapting and sending.

Here is a letter that you might wish to adapt  and send to your Senator if you live in the USA.

Thanks to Don Weingarten for writing this.

I write to you to urge increased US military support for Kurdish forces in the face of the Islamist jihadi’s of ISIS.
Among the Kurds fighting ISIS are the Peshmerga, the security force of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), the People’s Protection Units, initials YPG and YPJ (a force solely of women) and military units of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
All of these, particularly the PKK, YPG and YPJ, are poorly equipped, and lack heavy weapons.
In addition, the PKK has been classified by the US as a terrorist group, in my opinion mistakenly. Thus US citizens, many of them military veterans, who have joined their fight, and anyone who contributes to their support, are at risk of legal sanctions by the US government.
In response to this I ask you to
1) Join Senators Ernst and Boxer as a sponsor of the Senate bill to provide US arms directly to the Peshmerga
2) Offer an amendment to the Ernst-Boxer bill providing arms also directly to the PKK, YPG and YPJ.
3) Offer an additional amendment to the Ernst-Boxer bill to insure that no legal action will be taken against US citizens who join or support the PKK, YPG, YPJ or any other Kurdish military unit in their fight against ISIS.
A few days ago, Ramadi the capital of Anbar Province, fell to ISIS in the face of failed resistance by Iraqi security forces.
Military success against ISIS has come only from the Kurds.
Indeed the Kurds have stood heroically almost alone against the ISIS onslaught.
We, the United States, despite our mistakes, overall have been the good guys. That’s our role. Time to act!

First hand account of a visit to a Yezidi refugee camp.

This is a guest post by Rachel Emec and is her account of her visit to a refugee camp in eastern Turkey. Her original post can be seen here:

Rachel is raising money for this camp here: 

My News & My Refugee Camp Visit

I haven’t really posted on the forum much over the past year … but there are a few things that I would like to share with you that may be of interest to some members. I also wanted to update members who were involved with my charity collections sending clothes, toys and teddies to refugees from Syria.

A few years ago I wrote a thread about my travels to Diyarbakir in The South East Of Turkey which I had a great response from.…st-turkey.html
I’d like to tell you about my most recent trip and the events leading up to it. (sorry if it’s long but I’ll try and be brief).
Many of you may know that for years I have been involved in Kurdish issues, I’ve signed hundreds of human rights petitions, set up charity collections, helped Kurdish children get an education, I’ve protested about inequality and inhumanity. I’ve been touched by many things for many years but never have I been touched by anything more than this.
In early March this year I read about the death of a young man, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield. A 25 year old former Royal Marine he left the UK to travel to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish forces. On the 2nd March 2015 he was sadly killed. What touched me so much was the fact that Kosta wasn’t Kurdish…in fact he had no links to the Kurdish cause or community. He wasn’t a mercenary, he’d had a promising career in The Marines. He took the medical training he had learnt and travelled to Syria not for money or to be a hero, he simply wanted to help.
I attended Kosta’s funeral here in Nottingham on 26th March. Like many of the hundreds of people there I had never met him…but on that day, in that church I looked at his coffin and his family and I decided that what I’ve done in my life for others just wasn’t enough!
On 3rd April this year….still reeling with the emotion of the previous week I travelled to Turkey with my husband and 2 sons. It was a trip for Kawa and Lesker to see Granny and granddad and for me to catch up with some things and with some friends. It wasn’t long before I was told in some detail about the Ezidi refugee camp on the outskirts of Diyarbakir. In desperate need of help I was asked if I’d visit. Then a former member of TLF messaged me suggesting a visit so I arranged to go and have a look around. So I did….
The camp holds 6000 Ezidi refugees, 3500 of those are children. Babies are being born and the camp has only 2 cots. The Turkish Government does not and has not donated one kurus YES not ONE PENNY to the camp’s running costs. Nor does the UN, nor any other charity or organisation. Turkey blocks any group from working in there. The camp has been set up and is run entirely by public donations and goodwill.
On entering the camp I was met by a middle aged man who had quite severe learning difficulties, he had escaped the Brutal massacre of Ezidi men…how I was soon to find out.
I had free access to the camp, my husband’s friend volunteers as a doctor and my sister in law has a friend who helped process the refugees. When they first came she worked for 40 days and nights with minimal sleep to help settle them. The people working there are living angels x
There are sooo many children, it hits you. There are elderly, not many men and fewer young women. I hope I can post photos at the end of the post but there is a beautiful young lady of about 18, I really connected with her. I thought that the young girl that she had was her daughter. Sadly not, mum had been murdered and this was the aunt. Surrounded by children many without parents she cared for so many.
The stories that they tell of what was behind them are horrific…utterly horrific and I feel unable to share most with you.
I was approached by an Ezidi elder who invited me to his home. Home for everyone is a tent, a foam mattress and a blanket. Tents have a small area for preparing food and some have a heater. Everything is communal there, showers, washing facilities, clothes stores. It costs 8000 lira a day to run the camp…not much per head.
Before I sat he held my hand and thanked me for visiting. He spoke English, Kurdish and Turkish among other languages. He told me very firmly that the only reason that the majority of those in the camp were alive was because of The PKK. It was a message that EVERY ONE of those refugees that came from Shingal in Iraq told me. The PKK fought ISIS to the death, they carried the disabled, the old and the children to safety….and that is the reason Turkey ignores this camp. The Turkish government will only allow aid to get to it if Ezidi refugees publicly deny The PKK’s help.
Turkey have also said that they want the small school closed inside the camp unless it teaches in Turkish (all the children speak Kurdish). Turkey in fact wants to ban any Kurdish being spoken at all in the camp (this even applies to the volunteer counsellors that help the rape victims!)
The next group of people I spoke to were refugees from Mount Sinja. They spoke of how they were saved by The YPG and (deep breath!) a group of foreign fighters fighting alongside them. I didn’t really speak until they told me that some spoke English.
I’d read that Kosta posted on his Facebook page that he had helped lift the siege of Sinja mountain… here I was sitting with women and children that he had directly help save. A week before I was weeping at his funeral, now I was weeping at what he’d done. I showed these few refugees the photos I had of his funeral….and we all wept together.
I spent quite a bit of time at the camp (and I think you’ve probably had enough of me already) but walking out I decided that if I am to do anything in my life it’s to help these people.
We have to stand up to ISIS, in doing so we are standing up for humanity. These people were good people, they just happened to be Ezidi and therefore a target for ISIS. The camp now holds families from Kobane, unable to go home due to the ongoing fighting and threat of ISIS.
Kosta’s mum has set up a petition that needs more people to sign
There is also a group: 
Kosta’s Olive Tree
Thanks for reading so far. I also just wanted to thank everyone who donated to my clothing and teddy collections over the years. I’ve been in contact with some people who benefited from them when they needed help. Syria is in turmoil and at that time the West didn’t know just how much. We got clothing to people before aid agencies did…so Thankyou x

Get writing- be heard!

Get writing if you want to be heard.

Are you sick of the apathy of western governments towards ISIS and its brutality? Write to your MP. 
This letter is aimed at UK politicians. I will post another one for the USA later. Feel free to copy and paste and/or adapt. If you get a response post below and let me know what it is. 

I am writing because I am extremely worried about events taking place in the Middle East, particularly the murder of innocent civilians at the hands of ISIS. ISIS is an invading force that is brutally murdering ethnic and religious minorities while the countries of the west sit by and watch.
However the west has a collective responsibility, as many of the members of ISIS are recruits from western countries and it is these people who, against every value that is important to us, are killing the Yezidis and beheading people, setting fire to them while they are alive and selling girls into slavery. What logic are we using to allow this to continue? Why is the west and the EU not providing comprehensive support to the Kurdish people, particularly in Rojava, Syria? These people (YPG, YPJ) are actively resisting the invasion of their towns and cities whilst also trying to support the refugees displaced by ISIS activity. I am aware that there are some coalition airstrikes in Ithe area however these are limited in northern Syria. In addition to this there is no conversation with the people on the ground in Rojava, Syria. There is little help available for the support of refugees or the rebuilding of liberated towns.
At the very least there should a clear and open discussion of these issues. In the meantime perhaps you could answer the following questions for me:
Why is there no UN presence along the Turkish Syrian border to prevent ISIS from accessing supporters and supplies and also to investigate allegations of Turkish forces not only obstructing aid from getting to the Kurds but also actively supporting ISIS?
Why is there no protected aid corridor into Rojava to facilitate the access of the refugees to aid and also to help with the rebuilding of towns such as Kobane?
Why is there no dialogue with the YPG and YPJ to find out what they need to continue their resistance against ISIS? Why are we not in discussion with them and providing them directly with help?
Why has Silhan Ozcelik, a young girl of 17 been arrested and remanded in Holloway for trying to join the YPG/J, an unlisted organisation to which many westerns belong, some of whom have returned but have not been arrested.
Why is there no concerted effort being made to commit resources to tracing and returning the girls who have been sold into slavery to their communities? Among the men selling them into sexual slavery and raping them are British citizens yet little is being done to investigate the crimes that the returning men may have committed against civilians.
Why is there no effort to acknowledge the efforts of the PKK in freeing the persecuted minorities (such as the Yezidis from Mt Sinjar) and for working alongside all other Kurdish factions to liberate Kurdish cities from ISIS, particularly since its imprisoned leader has lately been active in promoting dialogue rather than terrorist activities.
Why is there no formal investigation into the allegations that Turkey is taking an unofficial yet active part in supporting the terrorist organisation ISIS?
How many more British people are to be shamed by the apathy of their government into going out there to act against ISIS and possibly dying?
Will you please take steps to raise these issues in Parliament and get them put on the agenda urgently?
I look forward with interest to your answers to my questions and a speedy reply.
Yours sincerely

The petition- please sign

Here is the link to the petition that I promised you. Can we make it reach 100.000? If we do, the British Government will have to discuss it in parliament. Please sign and share.

Stop ISIS, act decisively

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