Mam Zekî remembered in Shengal

Three years ago, Zekî Şengalî (Ismail Özden) was killed in a targeted Turkish drone attack in Shengal (Sinjar). The Yazidi revolutionary was commemorated today at his grave in the “Şehîd Berxwedan û Şehîd Dilgeş” Cemetery of Martyrs. Şengalî was a member of the Shengal Yazidi Coordination and the KCK Executive Council and was called “Mam Zekî” [Uncle Zeki] by the people.

The memorial ceremony began with a military ceremony and a moment of silence. Arîf Şengalî then delivered an address on behalf of the Shengal Resistance Units (YBŞ) and Shengal Women’s Units (YJŞ). The YBŞ commander said in his speech, “Mam Zekî represented great value to the Yazidi community. We do not consider him only as a politician. For us, he was a school. Today, thousands of his students carry his struggle on. Mam Zekî was a leader and worked day and night for his people. He had an important mission and worked for the security and self-determination of the Yazidi community. That is why he was assassinated. We will avenge him and the other martyrs.”

Arîf Şengalî emphasized in his speech that Yazidi society has changed since the 2014 genocide: “This should be clear to all those who try to use this community for their own interests. We will not give up our struggle.”

After the military ceremony, flowers were laid at the grave and a film about Zekî Şengalî’s life and struggle was shown.

Who was Zekî Şengalî?

Zekî Şengalî was fatally injured in an airstrike by the Turkish army on August 15, 2018. The attack on the Yazidi Kurd’s vehicle occurred on his way back from a commemoration ceremony in the village of Kocho. The village had been almost completely wiped out by ISIS on August 15, 2014.

Zekî Şengalî, who is affectionately called Mam Zekî by the Yazidi population, was born in 1952 in the Kurdish province of Batman. Repression and oppression in Turkey drove many Yazidi Kurdish families to flee. This was also the case for the Özden family, who went to Germany in 1969.

Zekî Şengalî became involved in the Kurdish freedom movement at an early age, joining it in 1987. Because of his political work, he was imprisoned in Germany for a time starting in 1990. Şengalî did not compromise despite the oppression and threatened danger. His revolutionary personality impressed many people. Mam Zekî’s son Qasim Özden (Sîpan) and his niece Xanê Esmer Demir also joined the Kurdish freedom movement and died in the guerrilla struggle.

In 1999, Şengalî made the decision to go back to Kurdistan. Once there, he first moved to Êzîdxan, the land of the Yazidis in southern Kurdistan. In Shengal, Şêxan and many other places, he worked to organize the Yazidi population. When ISIS attacked Shengal on August 3, 2014, Mam Zekî returned there and took part in building his own autonomous structures as a member of the Shengals’ Yazidi coordination.