A hundred years after the start of the Armenian Genocide, in the very zone of northern Iraq and northern Syria where Armenians were deported and massacred by Ottoman Turkish authorities, another minority population was subjected to similar atrocities, including deportation, mass slaughter, abduction, and starvation.  While ISIS has persecuted a number of distinct ethnic groups, its mistreatment of the Yezidi people has been labeled a genocide by several international bodies.  The condemnation of these acts is still pending in the United States Congress.

House Concurrent Resolution 75
Senate Resolution 340

"The report found widespread abuses committed by ISIL that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, according to a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)." - View Article

"We found that IS committed mass atrocities to control, expel, and exterminate ethnic and religious minorities in areas it seized. IS committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing against those communities in Ninewa. We also assert that genocide was perpetrated against the Yezidi people in the region. Of critical importance, crimes continue against the women and children who were kidnapped and still are being held by IS." - View Article

"Genocide scholars say the administration’s decision has large implications for what the word means. Bill Clinton hesitated to use the word in Rwanda, saying it would mandate action. George Bush used it a decade later in Darfur, but concluded it didn’t mandate any policy change. Genocide experts want, above all, for the word to mean something." - View Article