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://geographical.co.uk/Features/Yezidis_Jan_08.html.

Simon Maghakyan at Blogian just sent me an email to draw my attention to a new site he’s partly responsible for — the Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum. Interestingly, and somewhat commendably in my opinion, there’s also a blog component, Djulfa Blog: Sacred Stones Reduced to Dust.

Armenia Now reports that an analyst believes that Armenians voting for the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, in last week’s election in fact voted against NATO membership. It’s kind of a bewildering argument, but anyway.

Seyran Petrosyan, based in the Armenian-populated town of Akhalkalaki, contends that Saakashvili’s clear victory in areas where ethnic Armenians live is a paradoxical reflection of the reluctance of Georgian-Armenians to see Georgia as a NATO member for fear of increased Turkish influence and a diminished role of Russia.

[…]

The data released by Georgia’s Central Election Commission shows that Saakashvili was a clear winner in all Armenian-populated areas of Georgia, with a high voter turnout registered in the Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. Thus, the voter turnout in the most densely populated Armenian town of Akhalkalaki exceeded 65 percent.

However, chairman of the Javakhk compatriotic union in Armenia Shirak Torosyan claims the Armenian population of Javakheti treated the presidential polls in Georgia “with passivity bordering on total indifference.”

(more…)

The BBC reports that voting has begun in a snap presidential election in Georgia called after opposition protests turned violent and a state of emergency was declared in the former Soviet republic. Georgians are also taking part in a referendum to determine when the country’s parliamentary election should be held.

According to the report, albeit somewhat controversially, many opinion polls show the Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili leading the pack of seven candidates in the vote, but it is uncertain whether victory can be attained in a first round.

The polls also suggest that Mr Saakashvili’s closest rival will be Levan Gachechiladze, the wine businessman and independent MP chosen by the main opposition bloc as their candidate.

At a polling station in the capital, Tbilisi, Nodar Zardiashvili, said he had voted for Mr Saakashvili.

He told the AFP news agency that he backed the president “because he is doing the right thing by taking the country into Nato and the European Union”.

Nino Saladze, another voter in the capital, said she was supporting Mr Gachechiladze.

“We’ve had enough of Mr Saakashvili, November was the last straw,” she told the AFP.

[…]

On the eve of the elections, Mr Saakashvili said Georgia was still a democratic pioneer among former Soviet republics, despite the crackdown on the opposition protests in November.

[…]

“We have to show the whole world that Georgian democracy is still alive,” he told thousands of supporters at a final campaign rally in the capital, Tbilisi.

(more…)

Reuters reports that Turkey will finally consider amending Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which has long been considered an obstacle to democratization and freedom of speech in the country. In particular, the article which makes “insulting Turkishness” a crime, has been used to prosecute Turkish intellectuals, activists and writers such as Orhan Pamuk as well as Turkish citizens of ethnic Armenian or Kurdish extraction such as Hrant Dink.

Indeed, many pro-democracy and freedom of speech activists consider that Article 301 was indirectly responsible for Dink’s murder in Istanbul earlier this year. Anyway, Reuters says that the amending the article is not guaranteed, but with growing pressure from both inside and outside Turkey to do so, let’s hope it is.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is preparing to amend a controversial law on freedom of speech that has been criticized repeatedly by the European Union and could slow EU accession talks with Brussels.

The justice ministry will hand the draft amendment to article 301 of the penal code, which makes it an offence to “insult Turkishness,” to the cabinet within 15 days, Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin told reporters on Tuesday.

It was not clear when the cabinet would approve the amendment.

Article 301 has been used to prosecute Turkish writers and thinkers, notably for comments on the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 under the Ottoman Empire.

Two years ago the government tried Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk under article 301 for his remarks on the events of 1915-16, but he was acquitted on a legal technicality.

The European Commission’s annual progress report on Turkey, published in November, called on Ankara to make “significant further efforts” on freedom of expression and religion, and noted that more people had been prosecuted under article 301 last year than in 2005.

[…]

Critics say Turkey’s centre-right government is dragging its feet, fearing that amending the law could spark a nationalist backlash at a time when EU membership is becoming less popular among Turks.

EU officials said the law was poisoning Turkey’s relations with Armenia and weighing on the media and non-government organizations in Turkey.

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.

(more…)

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. […]

(more…)

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.

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. […]

(more…)

Via Amerikan Turk, I stumbled upon an open letter to the Armenian Diaspora by Turkish writer, Mustafa Akyol. Of course, the subject of the letter is not hard to guess. It concerns the Armenian Genocide and is obviously written as a result of House Resolution 106. Before quoting from the letter which was also published by the Turkish Daily News, however, it’s interesting to read up on Akyol.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish Muslim writer, who argues both against Islamic extremism and extreme secularism and is an outspoken promoter of intelligent design.

Akyol was born in Ankara in 1972 and had his early education there. He later graduated from the Istanbul Nişantaşı Anadolu Lisesi and the International Relations Department of Bosphorus University. He earned his masters in the History Department of the same university.

[…]

In the past years he has given seminars in several universities in the U.S. and the UK on issues of faith, science, religious tolerance or inter-faith dialogue.

Mustafa Akyol’s articles on Islamic issues, in which he mostly argues against Islamic extremism and terrorism from a Muslim point of view and defends the Islamic faith, have appeared in publications like The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The American Enterprise, National Review, FrontPage Magazine and Islam Online. He lives in Istanbul and is currently working on a book titled An Islamic Case for Liberty, which he plans to have published in 2007.

(more…)