Civilnet
In an open letter, a number of NGOs and concerned citizens are calling on Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan and permanent Representative to the United Nations Zohrab Mnatsakanyan to raise the issue of the current crisis in Iraq at the UN General Assembly.
The letter states: “People in Iraq are facing a major humanitarian crisis as a result of the actions of Islamist and terrorist groups. The victims are the ethnic and religious minorities of Iraq, including many Yazidis. According to UN data, as of July 9, over 850,000 people have been deported from Iraq over the last month, of those, 200,000 were deported just last week. Right now, on Sinjar Mountain in Northern Iraq, over 20,000 Yazidis are blockaded with no food or drinking water and are on the verge of death. These deportations are accompanied by pogroms and crimes against humanity, including the kidnapping and sale of women as slaves, rape, the mass slaughter of children, etc. The situation in Iraq is dire and requires not only the international community’s humanitarian assistance in food and medical assistance, but also in military intervention. Being an agency that can authorize military intervention, the UN Security Council can authorize peacekeeping troops access to Iraq in order to stop this actual genocide. As a representative of a state whose people have survived genocide, as well as a state with a Yazidi minority population, and a responsible member of the international community, we ask Armenia to raise the question of the ongoing events in Iraq at the UN General Assembly, as well as to urge the member states of the Security Council to adopt a resolution to authorize humanitarian military intervention.”
Signatories to the letter include the National Union of Yazidis in Sinjar, the Yazidi National Committee, the National Union of Yazidis, the Midia-Shangal Yezidi National Union, various NGOs, and citizens.
On this Facebook event page, “Discussion at Mashtots Park” the number of signatories under the open letter is increasing. On August 13, at 7:30 p.m., Mashtots Park hosted a public discussion on the events taking place in Iraq. After radical Islamists captured the town of Sinjar in Northern Iraq in early August, Kurdish minorities, who consider it their hometown, were forced to flee to the surrounding mountains for fear of losing their lives. Thousands of families, who are currently being deprived of food, drinking water, and medical aid, are in desperate need of help.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharyan had promised the Yazidis of Armenia that he would raise the question of Iraq’s minorities in various international arenas. Member of Parliament Zaruhi Postanjyan from the Heritage party of the Armenian National Assembly, in turn, submitted her proposal to the Armenian government to provide the Yazidis of Iraq with humanitarian aid.
Vardan Voskanian, an expert on Eastern matters, talked about the dangers faced by Iraq’s Yazidi population with Civilnet; the interview can be seen here. Alternatively, in an interview with CivilNet via Skype, journalist and human rights activist Massoud Akko also spoke about the Yazidi crisis.
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