Epress.am News from Armenia
In Sept. and Oct. 2009, Embassy officers met with members of the ethnic Yezidi community, Armenia’s largest minority group, to discuss key issues the community faces in Armenia, according to a confidential cable dated Dec. 3, 2009, released by WikiLeaks.
The cable, written by then US Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch, notes that ethnic identity, education and endemic poverty are the main issues that confront the Yezidis in Armenia. Yerevan State University (YSU) Professor of Oriental Studies Garnik Asatryan told an embassy official that “Yezidis occupied the lowest category of Armenian society in terms of income and education levels” but attributed these problems more to their sociocultural norms and “Armenia’s clan economic system” rather than racial or religious discrimination.
In a Sept. 22 meeting, head of Yezidi public radio Hasan Tamoyan also identified education and poor economy as key issues, though noting that the difficulties his community faces were not unique to his ethnic group. “In fact, he believed that Yezidis in Armenia were afforded more recognition and special status from the government than in other FSU [former Soviet Union] countries. According to Tamoyan, many Yezidis simply choose not to go to school and women marry very young.”
On Oct. 14, the US Ambassador met with local Yezidi leaders from the villages of Algyaz, Sipan, and Jamshlu in Aragatsotn region, including Mayor of Algyaz Aziz Mhoyan, Tengiz Mamoyan of Sipan, and Tital Aloyan of Jamshlu.
“The discussion focused on the economic hardships caused by decaying or non-existent infrastructure and services, as well as on the out-migration of young people due to limited employment opportunities. In addition, the cattle-breeding and sheep-herding on which these villages depend have been adversely affected by harsh weather and limited pasture land.
“Aziz Mhoyan pointed to gasification of his village as a key challenge, which was due to be finished by 2010, but had stalled due to budget shortfalls associated with the global economic crisis. He expressed frustration that the main gas pipeline was less than one mile away. Similarly, Tengiz Mamoyan identified the paramount problems for his community as inadequate heating and insufficient access to clean water. Meanwhile, Tital Aloyan cited the lack of medical facilities or a functioning school as the primary problems his village faced.
“All three leaders acknowledged the critical role that foreign remittances played in the survival of their communities: In Alagyaz, Sipan, and Jamshlu, 80-90 percent of families rely on remittance from abroad. The need for foreign remittances is directly connected to the emigration of youth since 1991, which the communities heads cited as another threat to Yezidi society in Armenia,” reads the cable.
In a section titled “Are the Yezidis Really Kurds?”, Yovanovitch notes that Tamoyan, the head of Yezidi public radio, named cultural misidentification of Yezidis as Kurds as a major problem for the community; however, when the ambassador visited Aragatsotn marz, “the local Yezidi leaders were adamant that they are Kurds, ethically, culturally, and linguistically. The only point of difference between the groups is religion, they declared.” As Yovanovitch observes, “The fact that ottoman Kurds played a significant role in the exile and massacres of Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire may also be a factor in Armenian Yezidis’ reluctance to identify themselves as Kurds.”
When the ambassador asked whether an umbrella organization representing the needs of the community exists, the Aragatsotn Yezidi leaders said though there were several organizations, the Yezidis did not speak with one voice:
“Rather many of the Yezidi organizations and NGOs in Armenia were personality driven and concerned primarily with the interests of their leaders. Nonetheless, all three leaders agreed that an umbrella organization would be more effective in securing economic assistance from the Yezidi expatriates and wealthy communities in Russia’s far east. (COMMENT: We were left with the impression that the divisions in the community caused by the Yezidi versus Kurd debate hampers the establishment of an effective and unified organization that can represent the interests of the Yezidi.)”
The cable concludes with an opinion by Garnik Asatryan, the YSU professor, who believed that the Armenia-Turkey border opening could radicalize the Yezidi and Kurdish communities in Armenia as it would allow for more direct contact with elements of Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK/KGK). However, the US ambassador brushed off this view, calling it “alarmist” and noting that though “Armenia’s Yezidis/Kurds may feel solidarity with Kurds asserting their ethnic identity in other countries in the region, there is no evidence that they have actively supported broader Kurdish political movements.”
Photo: The tomb of Sheikh Adi, the most holy Yezidi religious shrine, located in Lalish, Iraq (Wikimedia Commons).