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.

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.

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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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.

Via Save Roj TV, Caucaz has published an article on the Yezidis in Georgia. Although significantly smaller than the Yezidi community in Armenia, Georgian Yezidis are interesting because they are largely urbanized and the division as to ethnic identity is not as large or problematic as it is here. Therefore, as we don’t hear a lot about Yezidis in Georgia, Nicolas Landru’s article is worth reading.

On a sloping backstreet of Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, a basement marks the entryway of the Kurdish International Centre of Culture and Information. In this office, if any part of the community happens to gather for the holidays, it is often the guardian, Erika Mouradian, alone. This time, expectations of musicians to come from Armenia to liven up the Centre will have been in vain: visible and active during Soviet times, today’s Yezidi Kurdish community in Tbilisi has severely diminished. Unstructured and divided, the community is without a doubt the weakest minority in Georgia.

[…]

At the heart of the Yezidi Kurds community however, rifts are still important. Between “Ethnicly Yezidi Kurds”, “of Kurdish ethnicity and Yezidi Kurdish religious”, or simply “ethnically Kurdish”, different groups, organizations and individuals represent all three options. In the small Centre of Mtatsminda, if the word “Yezidi Kurds” were not used, the principal cultural organization of the community in Georgia would be “The Union of Georgian Yezidi Kurds”, which does not recognize a link with Muslim Kurds or the PKK movement. Armenian scholarly manuals mention the “Yezidi Kurdish nation”, but for this reason, several Tbilisi organizations have complained to the Armenian embassy. The community has little chance of arriving at a consensus.

With nearly 40,000 souls, Armenia is host to the most important Yezidi Kurdish community in the Caucasus, which is also the most organized and most visible. In Georgia, they were counted at 33,331 in 1989 and 20,843 in 2002. Local associations however, estimate no more than 6,000.

[…]

Another sign of the community’s weakened state is that Yezidi Kurdish youth, without any future in Georgia, often try their hand in Armenia, although the economic situation there is in many regards worse than in Georgia.

Anyway, I posted a little about Yezidis in Georgia here, and my most recent article on Yezidis in Armenia for the Institute of War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is available in English here, in Russian here, and in German here. The Caucaz article is here.

Via the International Herald Tribune, The Associated Press reports that four Yezidis, including three children, set themselves on fire today. The act of self immolation was in protest at the inaction of the police in investigating the death of the children’s father. Their grandmother also set herself on fire opposite the Presidential Palace on Yerevan’s central Baghramian Avenue.

The protesters poured gasoline on themselves and set themselves on fire in front of the president’s office in Yerevan, the teenagers’ great uncle Surian Avdalian told The Associated Press.The elderly woman and her 14-year-old grandson were wounded and hospitalized with burns, Avdalian said. The other two grandsons were unharmed.

The activists were members of the small Yazidi community, who were protesting what they called official inaction in last year’s beating death of the children’s father, which they said was not being investigated, Avdalian said. They argued that the case was not being probed because the Yazidi were being discriminated against based on their ethnicity.

Officials would not comment on the incident.

About 50,000 Yazidi, a Kurdish ethnic group, live in Armenia.

The full story is here. A1 Plus has a report on the incident, accompanied by photos, here. RFE/RL has also just posted a story here.

Yezidi child, Armavir Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1998

After my most recent article on the division among Armenia’s largest ethnic minority for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) was translated into German by Dengê Êzîdiyan, news that some of my supporting interviews on the Yezidis have also been translated into the same language by another. A week ago, Karl G. Mund from Yeziden Colloquium contacted me to ask permission to translate my interviews with Dr. Christine Allison, which I of course gave.

A friend at Dengê Êzîdiyan informed me about an interview with Dr. Christine Allison that had just appeared on the IWPR-website (IWPR = institute of war & peace reporting) asking me to translate the piece for publication on their homepage. I was already familiar with the name of Onnik Krikorian since I reported some time before about his extraordinary photo-report about a Yezidi funeral in Armenia.

After finishing that translation I continued surfing through Onnik’s website where I found all the interviews he used for that report including two interviews with Dr. Christine Allison. During a former visit to Mala Êzîdiyan in Oldenburg I had already peered through her scientific work “The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan”, cf. the review by Dr. Christiane Bulut on our homepage.

Thus I found a veritable raisin to peck for this issue of my column. And looking through other interviews by Onnik Krikorian showed that the conflict he reported for IWPR has been ongoing for about 15 years. Becoming acquainted with the material I realized that there is really a sensitive problem which cannot be solved by keeping silent. It is more connected to historical/political than to religious issues.

And it is deeply connected with the historical situation of Armenians since the late 19th century, also with relations of the Armenian population not only concerning the Turkish population but also to significant portions of the Kurdish population during the last 3 decades of the Ottoman Empire (i.e. approximately 1893 – 1923). I think the recent uproar throughout Turkey over the new genocide-laws in France gives reason for Kurds, both in Armenia as in other countries to review that time with the utmost objectivity and without any trace of prejudice.

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