YAZIDIS in Syria have appealed to the international community and human rights organisations to protect them from further genocide by jihadist groups and the Turkish state.

The Yazidi Union issued a statement in the Serdem refugee camp in northern Syria, explaining that the community has been subjected to “genocidal attacks” for centuries but continues to resist.

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking people with their own monotheistic religion, have been targeted by Isis jihadists who consider them “devil worshippers.”

Thousands of women have been kidnapped, raped and sold into sexual slavery by the death cult, which also slaughtered thousands of Yazidi men for refusing to convert to Islam as it swept across the region in 2014.

More than 3,000 women remain missing and the Yazidis fear another massacre at the hands of the Turkish state and jihadists in the Free Syrian Army.

“When Turkey’s invasion of Afrin operation began, the groups of mercenaries threatened to kill and behead the Yazidis. These mercenaries made it clear that what they did in Shengal would continue in Afrin,” the union said.

The statement called for international support to stop the Yazidi people becoming victims of genocide.