German lawmakers on Thursday recognised the 2014 massacre of Kurdish-speaking Yazidis by Islamic State group jihadists in Iraq's northwest as a "genocide", following the lead of UN investigators.

"The recognition of the genocide is an essential step to overcome the traumas for the Yazidi community," said Greens MP Max Lucks, highlighting the precarious situation faced by survivors still living in Iraq.

"A safe life, peace... must be our ambition for the Yazidi community," he said.

Germany, home to a large Yazidi diaspora, is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against IS.

Last November, a German court convicted an Iraqi jihadist of genocide against the Yazidi minority, a first in the world that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad hailed as a "victory" in the fight for recognition of the abuses committed by IS.

The Yazidi minority has been particularly persecuted by the jihadist organisation, which forces its women into sexual slavery and killed men in their hundreds.

A special UN investigation team announced in May 2021 that it had collected "clear and convincing evidence" that jihadists had committed genocide against the Yazidis.

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Swedish PM condemns MPs posing with PKK flag amid Turkey NATO row
Stockholm (AFP) July 6, 2022
Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson on Wednesday condemned a group of left-wing MPs who posed with flags from Kurdish militants as the country's NATO membership bid faces Turkish pressure over such groups. NATO on Tuesday kicked off the accession procedures for Sweden and Finland after a deal was struck with Turkey, which had blocked the Nordic nations from joining. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had accused them of being havens for Kurdish militants, specifically highlighting th ... read more