Being Yezidi
Caught between competing ideological interests, members of the Armenia’s largest ethnic minority struggle to define their identity. Considered by many to be ethnic Kurds, some allege arguments about the origins of the Yezidis are politically motivated.
YEREVAN, Armenia — When Aziz Tamoyan sits behind his desk in the cramped and dilapidated room that serves as his office in the Armenian capital, he says that he does so as president of the country’s largest ethnic minority, the Yezidis.
Pointing at the handmade posters stuck on the wall to one side of his cluttered desk, Tamoyan reads aloud the slogan that also serves as the motto for his newspaper. “My nationality is Yezidi, my language is Yezideren, and my religion is Sharfadin,” he proclaims, opening a copy of Yezdikhana to reveal the results of the last census conducted in Armenia three years ago.
neweasternpolitics 