Ottoman Genocide Statement Excludes Yezidi Genocide; Yezidi Community in Armenia Considers It “Discrimination”

“Sinjar” Yezidi National Union NGO considers the law authored by National Assembly deputy Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov related to the genocide of religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire to be unacceptable. 

The NGO’s statement states that last year Heritage faction MP Zaruhi Postanjyan presented a draft statement to the National Assembly which would condemn the genocide of Yezidis, Greeks, Assyrians, and other national-religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire.

“The draft was rejected with the efforts of the Republican Party faction. The rejection was justified by Republican Party MP Samvel Farmanyan, who believed that the statement was not in the interest of Armenia’s foreign policy. 

And behold, after some time, NA deputy Spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov authored a nearly identical draft statement, where the main difference between his and MP Zaruhi Postanjyan's statement is that it does not mention the Genocide of Yezidis. Such behavior is simply incomprehensible and shocking to the Yezidi community in Armenia. Why is the National Assembly neglecting the genocide of Yezidis on the same empire’s territory? It is known, that of the 200,000 Yezidi families who lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire until 1914, only 14,000 survived and later continued to be persecuted for keeping Armenian refugees in their homes. Why is Armenia’s legislature forgetting these facts and was is the Yezidi Genocide factor that was not beneficial from a RA foreign policy perspective?

“Sinjar” Yezidi National Union NGO condemns the behavior of coauthors of the draft toward the Yezidi people and calls for a necessary amendment to the draft statement; otherwise we would consider it a discrimination against the Yezidi people,” states the Sinjar NGO’s statement.