Ferik, Armavir Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

As mentioned in a previous post, yesterday saw a return visit to Ferik, a small Yezidi-inhabited village in the Armavir region of Armenia. According to the locals, Ferik was a predominantly Azerbaijani village until they fled persecution in Turkey a year before the 1915 Armenian Genocide. The village was then named after Ferik Polatbekov, the son of a Kurdish chieftain deported to Siberia.

This young revolutionary poet, who became the main leader of the Red Army in Siberia and was finally killed by the Whites, remained totally unknown in Kurdistan. The same applies to a number of Kurdish writers and poets who achieved fame in the Soviet Union.

A People Without a Country, Gérard Chaliand, Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, Marco Pallis

The full post accompanied by photographs is available on The Caucasian Knot.

Ortachiya, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

The break-up of the former Soviet Union has given Armenia’s largest minority, the Yezidis, new freedoms. But this has proven to be a mixed blessing, as geopolitical and historical concerns have riven the small community. Text and photography by Onnik Krikorian

Nestled at the foot of Mount Aragats, Armenia’s highest peak, the villages of Riya Taza and Alagyaz hardly merit more than a passing glance from motorists heading north towards the border with Georgia. Elderly women dressed in colourful garb nonetheless line the road, while children play nearby among rusting abandoned vehicles and farmers herd their cattle in the surrounding pastures. Few stop at the makeshift shacks selling basic groceries and provisions on the roadside. In fact, nobody pays much attention at all.

But for academics from as far away as the UK, France, Germany and Japan, these small, impoverished villages are a dream come true. Located 60 kilometres from Yerevan, the Armenian capital, Riya Taza, Alagyaz and other villages interconnected by pockmarked roads are home to one of the biggest concentrations of Yezidis in the country.

The full feature story accompanied by photographs is available in the January issue of Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, or online at http://www.geographical.co.uk/Magazine/Yezidis_Jan_08.html.

Yezidis, Alagyaz, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1998

My feature article and photographs for Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, were meant to be published in the January 2008 edition, but now it looks like it’s already been published in the December issue. Unfortunately, the full text of the article is not available online yet, but when it is I’ll post another link and an excerpt. Until then, this is what Geographical has for now.

A people divided

Armenia’s Yezidi people practise one of the purest versions of Kurdish culture, but, as Onnik Krikorian discovers, outside forces have riven the small community.

My last published article on Yezidis in Armenia was for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting and can be read online here, and many of the transcripts of the interviews I’ve done since 1998 are here. Also, until the full Geographical article can be read online, there’s plenty of posts and links to previous articles on Yezidis in Armenia and Georgia under the relevant category.

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One topic that I’ve covered constantly since June 1998 has been that of Yezidis and Kurds in Armenia. Considered to be ethnic Kurds that resisted attempts to convert to Islam, Yezidis in Armenia are the republic’s largest minority. However, local factors such as the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh and a shared history with Armenians of persecution at the hands of Moslem Kurds in Turkey during the Genocide have given way to divisions within the Yezidi community in Armenia.

It’s a topic I’ve constantly returned to with my latest feature article due to be published in the January 2008 issue of Geographical. The last article on this subject was for the Institute of War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) last year and examined the impact this division had on minority education for the Yezidis in Armenia.

At the beginning of September, at an event staged in the Yezidi village of Alagyaz, government officials said that new textbooks in minority languages would be distributed to schools in minority-populated villages, while UNICEF said it would provide stationary and other supplies.

Less than a month later, however, Yezidis in Alagyaz and ten surrounding villages were complaining. Their language is the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, but the books funded and provided by the government were instead written in Ezdiki. While the latter is still Kurdish by another name, the alphabet chosen for publication was in the unaccustomed Cyrillic alphabet instead of the more usual Latin or Arabic scripts.

[…]

Yezidis are the largest ethnic minority in Armenia, with most having arrived in the country in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries. Widely dismissed as devil worship, Yezidism in fact combines elements from Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Although the Yezidis are generally considered to be Kurds who resisted pressure to convert to Islam, there have been attempts to identify them as a separate ethnic group in Armenia since the last years of Soviet rule.

In 1988, an appeal was made to the Soviet authorities by some Yezidi leaders requesting that they be designated as an ethnic group. This coincided with the beginning of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, as a result of which, thousands of Muslim Kurds fled Armenia, alongside ethnic Azerbaijanis. Yezidis, however, were spared.

In 1989, the request was granted, and in the last Soviet census conducted the same year, out of approximately 60,000 Kurds who had been formerly identified as living in Armenia, 52,700 were for the first time given a new official identity as Yezidis. The 2001 census put the number of Yezidis and Kurds in the republic at 40,620 and 1,519 respectively.

[…]

Some experts believe that the government has only succeeded in alienating the Yezidis through its education policies. One academic from Europe speaking to IWPR on the condition of anonymity said, “The state seems to be distinctly encouraging the Ezdiki faction and has not latched on to the fact that Kurmanji and Ezdiki, which were the same language for the entire Soviet period, are still the same. […]

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Ortachiya, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

As mentioned earlier, Geographical will be publishing an article and photos by yours truly on Yezidis in Armenia, the division within the community regarding Kurdish identity, and the work of academics researching the largest minority in the country in their January 2008 issue.

The physical version of the magazine is apparently going to the printers tomorrow. Until the article and photos are out or up online, some previous articles on the Yezidis in Armenia are at the following URLs:

http://www.oneworld.am/journalism/articles/yezidi.html
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=325045&apc_state=henh

As always, my interviews on Yezidis in Armenia since 1998 are at:

http://www.groong.com/orig/yezidi.html

And there’s lots of coverage on this blog too:

http://oneworld.blogsome.com/category/yezidis/

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve written another feature article on the Yezidis in Armenia for Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society. From reading the email I’ve just received, looks like the article accompanied by photos will be published in the January 2008 issue if any of you want to subscribe to the magazine before the end of the year. A great magazine, and no, I don’t get any commissions on putting readers their way.

Reuters reports that Turkey has launched military strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq. The brief incursion involved airstrikes and ground troops. Thirty-four Kurdish rebels are believed killed with no Turkish casualties. The military action comes as Turkey threatens a major incursion into Northern Iraq following the adoption of a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the U.S., and the deaths of 12 soldiers near the border on Sunday.

Turkish warplanes and troops have attacked Kurdish rebels inside Iraq and forces were being built up on the border, but Ankara was holding back from any major strike for now, military sources said on Wednesday.

News of the sorties, between Sunday and Tuesday evening in which Turkish warplanes flew 20 km (13 miles) into Iraq and some 300 ground troops advanced about 10 km, put Baghdad under greater pressure to act against PKK rebels operating from the north of its territory.

[…]

Turkey, which has NATO’s second biggest army, has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships, along the mountainous border in preparation for a possible large-scale strike.

[…]

“Further ‘hot pursuit’ raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today (Wednesday),” a military official said.

Riya Taza, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

It’s a bit late in coming, but last weekend Garo (aka Christian Garbis) from Notes from Hairenik and I visited the Yezidi village of Alagyaz in the Aragatsotn region of the Republic as I’m currently writing an article on Armenia’s largest minority for the U.K.’s Geographical magazine. Moreover, I’ve been covering Yezidis in Armenia since June 1998 and it’s always nice to return.

Anyway, time is pressing, but thankfully Garo has posted an account of the visit and in particular, our meeting with a family I first encountered last year.

[…] On the north-bound highway to Vanadzor along the stretch between Aparan and Spitak there are three Yezidi villages that I know of at least—Ria Taza, Alagyaz, and Jamshlu. Each village’s name has a story behind it—Ria Taza is not only the name of the oldest newspaper in the Yezidi community but it also means “new path” or something like that. Alagyaz is the old Turkish/Kurdish/Armenian name for Aragats, close to the foot of which these villages are situated. Jamshlu I am sure means something but I have no idea what. Onnik wanted to get to Aragats to catch up with some people he knew. We met one family of five with three small children. The patriarch of the family, whose name is Vazir Avdashian, is the village’s schoolteacher. I asked him several questions about the history of the community, the school and so forth, and he was more than eager to explain things to me.

[…]

Vazir’s relatives moved from Aintab situated in modern-day eastern Turkey to Alagyaz in 1828 when there was virtually no one there; it was just a barren space (and it actually still is for the most part). He told me that supposedly migrant dwellers would come to the area then leave before the winter came, although those were just stories that could not be substantiated. The house he and his family lives in was built by his father in 1968—the old house was situated where the highway exists today. It’s a good-sized home—the right side of it seems to be a stable while the left side is where the family lives. The house seems to be very roomy and is very clean, practically spotless, which obliterates claims of Yezidis being dirty people. The home is heated by a centrally located stove burning dried dung, which seemed to have no odor of any kind.

In Alagyaz out of a population of 2,500 up through the late 80s only 500 remain. Many undoubtedly have gone to Russia to work. The same holds true for the other villages as well. Vazir has five brothers and one sister. Although at least one of them remains, the other siblings have gone to Russia and even France. People in the village survive mainly by herding animals and cultivating the land. Indeed in the area there are perhaps thousands of sheep and cattle grazing across the plains. There is also a cheese factory in the village. Yezidis are known for their excellent diary products anyway as I have sampled them in the past since you can sometimes find them being sold door-to-door or in markets.

Many of the homes—but according to Vazir all of them—have satellite connections to the outside world. He showed us at least three stations that were Kurdish—one from Iran, another from Iraq, and one he said was broadcasting from Europe somewhere by Kurds from Eastern Turkey who could not get away with what they were doing back home, mainly broadcasting PKK propaganda and revolutionary songs that have a striking similarity to Armenian ones. In fact there are several PKK supporters living in the village. Satellite hook-ups including the dish supposedly cost only $120, and there are no monthly service fees which doesn’t sound too bad.

[…]

Vazir told me there are no clinics in the area although there were during Soviet times. Those who fall ill and are in need of vital medical care must either go to Yerevan or Spitak, which has very good hospital facilities there since the earthquake.

The Yezidis were basically compelled to live in Armenia having no where else to go when facing persecution by the Ottoman Turks. Vazir explained to me that there was a huge influx of Yezidis from 1915 onwards as they were also persecuted severely and massacred by the Turks, something that isn’t discussed. Although there is discrimination against Yezidis by Armenians (who are prejudice in general anyway), there is no real animosity towards them from what I know. There was an incident not too long ago where one was murdered in Yerevan, the particulars of which remain unclear.

[…]

In any case, I came away feeling pretty inspired and certainly pleased that I finally had an opportunity to speak with them. […]

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2004 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Nominee, Howard Dean, plants a tree at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005

Via Blogian, the New York Times reports that Democratic party support for a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide is waning. According to the paper, a dozen lawmakers have withdrawn their support for the resolution which is expected to be voted on in the U.S. Congress next month. The Armenian lobby shouldn’t be surprised, however. This is what always happens whenever such a resolution gets through. American national security concerns and U.S.-Turkish relations are always the reason and that’s unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Until today, the resolution appeared to be on a path to House passage, with strong support from the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California. It was approved last week by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But this evening, a group of group of senior House Democrats had made it known they were planning to ask the leadership to drop plans for a vote on the measure.

“Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over something that happened a century ago, and maybe this isn’t a good time to be doing that,” said Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat who dropped his sponsorship of the resolution Monday night. .

Others who took the same action said that while they deplored the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire, beginning in 1915, the modern-day consequences in the Middle East could not be overlooked.

“We simply cannot allow the grievances of the past — as real as they may be — to in any way derail our efforts to prevent further atrocities for future history books,” said Representative Wally Herger, Republican of California.

“I think it is a good resolution and horrible timing,” said Representative Mike Ross, Democrat of Arkansas.

The Turkish government has lobbied heavily against the resolution, which is nonbinding and largely symbolic. But lawmakers attributed the erosion in support mainly to fears about a potential Turkish decision to deny American access to critical military facilities in that nation and its threat to move forces into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.

“This vote came face to face with the reality on the ground in that region of the world,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and an opponent of the resolution.

[…]

The biggest fear, several former officials said, is that Turkish forces could push past the border and head for Kirkuk, forcing Iraq to respond and presenting the United States with mediating between two allies and a decision about whether to commit American troops. Such a crisis could also draw in Iran, which has also had growing problems with Kurdish groups crossing into its territory from Iraq.

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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.

[…]

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.

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While looking for new blogs about Armenia using Google’s excellent Blog search engine I stumbled upon a new one about Yezidis and Kurds in Armenia. Given that I’ve covered Armenia’s largest national minority extensively since 1998 it was certainly interesting to find and nice to see some of my past work on the Yezidis in Armenia being used on the site.

It was also interesting because the blog’s author is of Armenian and Kurdish descent. Fascinating.

My great grandfather was the general Ihsan Nuri Pasha and other kurdish nationalists relatives from my fathers side led the Ararat rebellions until the turkish airforce crushed the republic of Ararat hung them all in open streets and beheaded them in public. They also participated in the Republic of Mahabad during 1946. My mothers relatives suffered from the armenian genocide my grandfather and grandmother was forced to change names and became hidden armenians in turkey my great grandfather was Barzum Aga a well known armenian landlord driven by humanity to both the christians and the kurds. Many of my relatives lost their lives during the genocide. …this is why i am interested in the kurdish-armenian issues and the relations.

The blog, Kurdistan and Hayastan, is here.