During my research on the Yezidi minority in the Republic of Armenia, one name that often crops up is that of Cenghir Agha, a Kurdish military commander who fought alongside Armenian General Andranik against the Turks in 1918-20. Using that as as a stepping stone, Kurdistan and Hayastan looks at other military collaborations between Yezidis and Armenians, and most recently during the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh.

During the Genocide, the military cooperation and relations between general Andranik and the Yezidi-Kurd Cenghir Agha were strong and their their battles against the Turks became an symbol of the age-long friendship of the two nations.

The Yezidi-Kurds in Armenia were active participants in the battles at Bash-Aparan and Sardarapat in 1918, that turned a new page in the history of the two nations.

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The Yezidi-Kurds has participated and symphatized in many Armenian defence battles, for an example in the battle of Artsakh, the Kurds attended in the battle and thirty of the Kurdish soldiers died in the battles.

The Kurds has also financed and shared battles the Artsakh movement where a Kurdish section and a Kurdish women section (!) existed who fought for Vaiq, Goris, Ijevan and Yeraskhavan.

Interestingly, in Thomas Goltz’s book on the conflict, Azerbaijan Diary, the American journalist writes that after Armenians took Lachin, Yezidis from Armenia were bused into the town to pretend to be local ethnic Kurds when reporters visited. Speaking Kurmanji Kurdish, the Yezidis said they were local inhabitants who welcomed the Armenian capture of the town whereas in reality most of the Moslem Kurds had actually fled.

Again, while talking to local Yezidis in Armenia this actually seems to be the case. Considered to be ethnic Kurds, Gurgen asks why is it that Armenians and Yezidis get on better than Armenians and Kurds and the answer seems to lie in a shared history of persecution at the hands of both Turks and Moslem Kurds. Although Yezidis are described as a minority group of ethnic Kurds, there has been a great deal of animosity between the two.

Armenia’s Yezidis, many of whom fled Turkey during the Genocide, are therefore closer to Armenians because of this shared history. Moreover, when Armenia’s Azerbaijani and Moslem Kurdish population left Armenia at the beginning of the Karabakh conflict it because only natural for the country’s Yezidis to downplay the ethnic connection with Moslem Kurds who also played a role during the Genocide, and in some cases to argue that Yezidis were an ethnic group totally distinct from the Kurds.

For more background information, my two most recent articles on the Yezidis in Armenia — and specifically the division in the community as to ethnic identity — can be found here and here. The post on General Andranik and Cenghir Agha is here. The same site also looks at the links between Armenian military commander Monte Melkonian and the Kurds.