On the 12th anniversary of the genocide, as the date 3 August 2026 approached, the suffering endured by the Yazidi community and by all people of conscience is the result of multifaceted political and geopolitical balances. The massacres that began with the attacks by ISIS in August 2014 cannot be explained solely by the brutality of a radical organisation; they were part of a broader genocidal project aimed at changing the region’s demographic and political map.

Twelve years later, Shengal is not only a place where suffering and disasters are commemorated, but has also become a center of conflict and strategic calculations among regional and international powers. The massacre, which took place before the eyes of the entire world, demonstrated the depth of the Yazidi people’s exclusion from legal protection and their vulnerability. The current situation in Shengal has also revealed the true face of autonomous diplomacy, politics aimed at defending interests, and international indifference.

This process shows that the Shengal issue has now gone beyond the limits of a humanitarian disaster and has become a political, legal and sovereignty crisis directly linked to the future of state structures in the Middle East.

Theatrical diplomacy, empty promises and bureaucratic corruption

In the period following the liberation of Shengal, there were numerous conferences, statements full of promises and theatrical diplomacy. Under public pressure, the international community and multinational institutions made sweeping promises to rebuild Shengal, recognise the genocide at the highest legal levels and bring the perpetrators before international courts.

Yet over the past 12 years, it has become clear that these promises have not been fulfilled, disappearing into bureaucratic labyrinths and networks of geopolitical interests. Funds allocated to Shengal did not reach the territory of Shengal and were siphoned off under the influence of organised corruption within Iraq’s administrative systems.

One of the most critical issues in Shengal politics was the Shengal Agreement of 9 October 2020, signed between the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government under the supervision of the United Nations and the Turkish state. This agreement was one of the clearest examples of top-down politics and the disregard for the will of the people. Decisions concerning the region’s future were taken without the participation of Yazidi local councils or genuine representatives of the forces that defended Shengal during its darkest days.

The main purpose of this agreement was not to resolve infrastructure problems or ensure the security of the population, but to attempt to restore the political and military hegemony of the forces that had withdrawn in 2014. Rather than bring peace, the agreement failed to take into account the reality on the ground and the autonomous will of the Yazidi community, deepening political and military tensions in the region and raising questions about the credibility of international efforts.

The use of refugee camps as a political tool

From a humanitarian and social perspective, the most devastating consequence of this policy of siege is the situation of the hundreds of thousands of Yazidi refugees who, 12 years later, are still living in plastic tents. Life in the camps in Duhok province is no longer a temporary situation, but has become a political tool and an instrument of demographic change. The failure of these families to return to their ancestral lands is not a personal choice or simply the result of a lack of opportunities; it is the outcome of an organised policy of obstruction.

The authorities are preventing people from making their legitimate return through checkpoints, administrative obstacles, psychological warfare and fear propaganda. The aim of this policy of obstruction is to keep the Yazidi population in the camps as a tool of electoral pressure while simultaneously creating a demographic vacuum in Shengal, thereby facilitating the implementation of long-term hegemonic projects in the region.

Looking at the situation inside Shengal and its villages, the reality of this policy of despair becomes even clearer. Areas such as Sîba Şêx Xidir, Til Izêr, Herdan, Girzerik and Koço have been turned into physically and economically dead towns. The city’s infrastructure, clean water network, electricity system and health centers have deteriorated to a level that makes normal …