ROJBIN DENIZ

Shengal- What Beritan Şengalî saw behind the wall caused wounds in her memory, heart, and body. She had to see how her uncle’s daughter was killed by ISIS. The fear, pain, and many other feelings that she felt led her to be a fighter.

Beritan tried to choose words to describe how ISIS members killed a baby; however, no words can describe what happened there at that moment.

“They (ISIS members) killed a 40-day-old baby with chopping knives in front of her mother and the women inside the room. The silent screams of my uncle’s wife destroyed Shengal on that day. A world dying under the debris of Shengal. Everything seemed frozen in time. I do not know how long it took me to take up my gun but I wanted to go out and fight them. But they were many and I was also frozen.”

“They forced her to eat”

“I was worried about my uncle’s wife. I looked inside the room to see where my uncle’s wife was. She was standing inside the room in silence. Although hours passed, she stood there. After a while, ISIS members brought food for her, rice and meat on it. An ISIS member came and closed her eyes. He forced her to eat and then asked, ‘Is your baby's meat good?’ My uncle’s wife did not understand what he told her. Actually, she did not hear what he said because she was not there anymore.”

“Everything was real”

Beritan began to talk after remaining silent for a while.

“I decided to stay behind the wall. I felt anger and wanted to revenge. I became the mother of my anger and my revenge. The stories told us by our parents were not movies; everything was real. On the second day in the tunnel, I wanted to go out and see sunshine; however, outside was not safe and I decided not to go out. I understood who ISIS members were after I saw what happened on that day. They were brutal and barbaric. As I reached the end of the tunnel, I heard voices behind me, at the entrance of the tunnel. At that moment, my heart would stop. The voices were getting closer and closer. I heard footsteps. I heard two persons were talking with each other. I held my gun and decided to shoot them if they saw me. Then, they checked the inside of the tunnel by holding a lantern. After checking the tunnel for a while, they agreed that there was nobody inside the tunnel and left. They did not see me. I thought I should go to mountains.”

“They took the women with them and left”

Beritan spent two days inside the tunnel without water.

“What would they do with the thousands of Yazidi women and men who were abducted by hundreds of ISIS members in Suka Kevn? I was wondering what would happen to the people kept out and in the houses. It was an unbearable feeling to feel fear and uncertainty together. I started looking through the hole again. The women were standing there. Everyone was hungry and thirsty because they were not given food and water for two days. At noon, ISIS members entered the room and took all women inside the room outside. I heard voices outside of the house. After a while, there was only silence. I thought of getting out of my place to find water and something to eat.”

She hid in the kitchen cabinet

Beritan went to the kitchen to find water and something to eat.

“After making sure they had gone, I went to the kitchen. As I entered the kitchen, I heard voices from outside. I could not go out of the kitchen because they would see me. I looked for a place to hide in the kitchen. I hid in the kitchen cabinet. Then, ISIS members entered the kitchen and began to collect all food in the kitchen. I was in fear of being seen. Fortunately, they left without seeing me. Then, I went out, found bread and water in the kitchen, and returned to the tunnel.  After eating bread, I thought of finding my uncle’s wife and somehow saving her from them and going to the mountains. I went out of the tunnel and looked outside but there were ISIS members watching around. There were women outside and they were forced to get on a bus.”

“The water of the stream was red”

After ISIS members left the village, Beritan went out of the house but what she saw outside was more terrifying.

“I went out to go to mountains. There was a stream near the village. I saw dead bodies inside the stream. The water of the stream was red. On that day, hundreds of Yazidi men were beheaded. That day, we, as Yazidis, were betrayed. More than half of those men, who were beheaded, had served as soldiers of Saddam and as Peshmerga members for the KDP. Despite that, the KDP took their weapons from them and left them unprotected. The Iraqi soldiers left the region as soon as they heard about ISIS. We, as Yazidis, served as soldiers for them but we did not learn how to protect ourselves.”

“There were dead bodies everywhere”

Beritan always talked about those who helped ISIS when she told us what she had witnessed during the genocide. She was just 14 years old and saw the brutality of ISIS.

“I wanted to hide by the stream for a while but I could not stop because I heard the screams of people. After walking for a while, I could not move on because I saw the heads of the people in the stream. I tried to find the way among the houses to the mountains. After spending two nights, two days inside the tunnel, I left the village of Suka Kevn. I could not do anything for the people and women abducted by ISIS. All I could do was save myself. I knew that if ISIS members caught me, they would kill me. I headed to mountains.”

Tomorrow: She joined the YJŞ