(1) When I read the news that a 15 year old Ezidi boy, who survived the IS genocide, fled to Germany, found refuge in the northern city of Celle, has now been murdered by a racist white man, simply breaks my heart, my diasporic heart. Let me tell you something about Celle:

(2) When Ezidis in Turkey fled the war on Kurdish villages during the long 1990s, entire families found themselves as refugees in Germany and formed the largest Ezidi diaspora community in the world.

(3) Diaspora was essential for survival as for Ezidi people it meant a safe space in a hostile world, where for the first time identity, community and traditions of an ancient religion could be preserved without the imminent threat of persecution.

(4) Mala Êzîdiya, the community house of the Ezidi diaspora in Celle, was a first political articulation of community that had been systematically silenced throughout history.

(5) When I conducted field work there, it was very striking to observe how Ezidis from across the Kurdish region created an intergenerational, and -regional space of interaction and were actively working towards a shared consciousness of community and history.

(6) Those who fled Turkey in the late 80s and early 90s were helping those who survived the 2014 IS genocide in Iraq.

(7) When an Ezidi survivor of genocide is killed by a white supremacist, then this is the repetition of history. For us children of diaspora, it is this repetition that imprints our past and present, no matter where we are and who the perpetrator is. #hanauwarkeineinzelfall