Brussels October 13, 2014
Leyla Ferman, Co-President of the Yezidi Federation of Europe, urged Europe and the international community to support and protect the Yezidi Kurdish population who has been terrorized and forced to leave their homeland after the isis attack in Shengal in August 2014.
Representatives of Kurdish institutions, Delavar Ajgeiy, Head of the Kurdistan Mission to the European Union in Brussels and Eyuop Doru EU Representative of Kurdish Peoples` Democratic Party (HDP) which has 36 seats in Turkey`s Parliament were among the participants.
In a hearing on human rights in Syria and in Iraq in the Subcommittee on Human Rights in the European Parliament (EP), speakers from different countries debated the situation of the refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in the Middle East region. The hearing was chaired by Ms Elena Valenciano Martínez-Orozco, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights.
Among the speakers were: Mr Frej Fenniche, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Thomas Schmidinger, University of Vienna, Ms. Sema Genel, Support to Life (STL).
Leyla Ferman described the hard conditions of the Yezidi Kurds dispersed in different camps in Kurdistan, especially in North Kurdistan (Turkey) and in Rojava (West Kurdistan – Syria). Spreading of illnesses, bad health and sanitary conditions and lack of education possibilities for children are only few of the problems mentioned by Mrs Ferman. The representative of the Yezidi Federation of Europe urged EU to intervene and prevent a humanitarian disaster before the start of the winter.
Regarding the long term solution for Yezidi Kurds, Mrs Ferman believes that the only way to put an end to the attempts for Yezidi genocides, which already happened 73 times in their history, is the creation of safe haven for the Yezidi community in Kurdistan as one of the indigenous population in the Middle East.
In conclusion, Mrs Ferman and the other speakers in the conference called for support for Kobani where Kurdish fighters are courageously fighting already one month against the isis terrorists’ gangs. “Kobani is symbol of the human fight against fanatics and terror and it should be supported and saved by all the humanity”, said the participants in the debate.