Fwd: THIS SUNDAY ! Yezidi Genocide 5th. Anniversary Commemoration - 2:00 Queen's Park

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joe and Renanah Gemeiner <joenadren@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 2, 2019 at 12:09 PM
Subject: THIS SUNDAY ! Yezidi Genocide 5th. Anniversary Commemoration - 2:00 Queen's Park
To: Joe and Renanah Gemeiner <joenadren@gmail.com>

Fifth Anniversary of Mount Sinjar Genocide

FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE YEZIDI GENOCIDE TO BE REMEMBERED AT QUEEN'S PARK  Sunday, August 4th 2:00 PM Queen's Park Legislature Building, south lawn   Please stand with the Yezidi Community in memory of those who died at the hands of ISIS

(Toronto, July 26th, 2019) The mass murder of more than 10,000 Yezidi people by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will be remembered on Sunday, August 4th at Queen's Park. We invite you to stand with members of the Canadian Yezidi community in memory of those who died in the genocide at Mount Sinjar five years ago. On the morning of August 3, 2014, ISIS fighters entered the Yezidi city of Sinjar, bent on total destruction.  In the days that followed approximately 10,000 Yezidis were executed in cold blood – shot, beheaded, burned alive. More than 7,000 Yezidi women and girls were taken by ISIS and forced into sex slavery.  Holy shrines were desecrated.

As ISIS overran Sinjar, thousands of Yezidis fled to Turkey.  Approximately 15,000 Yezidi refugees, mostly women and children, now live in UNHCR camps in Nusaybin, Diyarbakur, and Midyat. There is a word for what the Yezidis have endured.  It is genocide.

Five years later, the survivors of this genocide bear wounds that have not healed. Mass executions, the abduction of sons and daughters, the torment of sexual slavery -- these memories are replayed through every waking moment and restless night.

As new mass graves are discovered, hopes are cruelly dashed that missing relatives will be found alive.

On August 4, 2019 at 2:00 PM the Yezidi community living in the Greater Toronto Area and London, Ontario will commemorate the Mount Sinjar Genocide at Queen's Park with the largest gather of Yezidis in Canada.  Among them will be survivors of the massacre and sexual slavery that followed.

The broader Canadian community can help the healing of these survivors by standing with them to mark the fifth anniversary of the genocide. A large and compassionate assembly on August 4th will show these men, women, and children that they are not alone.

Karen Goldenberg, C.M.
Chair of Project Abraham

Mirza Ismail
Founder and Chair of Yezidi Human Rights Organization - International