Shafaq News/ On Saturday, the Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani, praised Germany's recognition of the 2014 genocide against the Yezidi Kurds.

"The decision by the Bundestag to recognize the genocide against the Yezidi Kurds is a highly treasured decree. We reiterate our gratitude to Germany and call upon our other Western allies to engage in similar actions insofar as recognizing such atrocities as acts of genocide." Barzani said on Twitter.

Earlier this week, Germany's lower house of parliament recognized the 2014 massacre of Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq as a "genocide" and called for measures to assist the besieged minority.

Deputies in the Bundestag unanimously passed the motion by the three parliamentary groups in Germany's ruling center-left-led coalition and Conservative MPs.

The vote followed similar moves by countries including Australia, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

In 2014, ISIS seized the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq, where Yazidis have lived for centuries.

The terrorists forced women and girls into slavery, recruited boys as child soldiers, and killed many of the community's men. Since then, thousands of Yazidis have fled the region.

Around 5,000 people are believed to have been killed, and another 7,000 kidnapped.