I have heard that Armenia treated the Kurds like shit in the past.
More information:
http://www.knn.u-net.com/kurd4.htm
http://www.kurdistanica.com/english/history/origin-e.html
http://www.kurdinfo.com/history.htm
In the Caucasus, the fledgling Armenian Republic, in the course of 1992-94 wiped out the entire Kurdish community of the former "Red Kurdistan." Having ethnically "cleansed" it, Armenia has effectively annexed Red Kurdistan's territory that forms the land bridge between the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia proper.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, under which the rights of minorities such as the Kurds were protected, the situation changed dramatically to more closely reflect Armenian sentiments towards the Kurds. Armenia subsequently declared its sovereignty. But with that change the status ot the Kurdish minority has come under increasing threat.
In 1988 when Armenia became involved in the issue of the Karabagh and its independence from Azerbaijan, Azeris under duress left the new state. Thereafter the single remaining obstacle to the creation of a homogenous Armenia was the presence on Armenian soil of about 60,000 Yezidi and Muslim Kurds. In an effort to deal with the problem, Armenian nationalists initially set these two groups of Kurds against each other. Newspapers reported that Yezidi Kurds were not Kurds; but a completely distinct people. This brought loud protests from Kurdish intellectuals, among them S. Kotsyoy, candidate in Law Sciences, who made these statements whic-h appeared in the newspaper, Voice of Kurds: "Whether deliberately or not, actions in Armenia are designed to set Yezidi Kurds against Muslim Kurds. Despite this, Yezidis consider themselves Kurds and one must take that sentiment into account...During the 1989 census, suddenly the Yezidis were discovered, as if they were a people formerly unknown. The word 'Yezidi' was used to qualify the nationality of many Yezidi Kurds, although the government refused to change their passports. This of course causes many international difficulties. Almost all Yezidis and their intelligentsia consider themselves Kurds and reject the artificial division of the nation. I raised the issue of the unfair separation of Yezidis from the Kurdish tree because it is a total absurdity."
Furthermore, Armenian nationalists created the newspaper, Punik as a vehicle for the generation of anti-Kurdish propaganda in the country. Typical of the rhetoric that appears are these claims: "Yezidis think it outrageous to be called Kurds. Kurds themselves see Yezidis and Armenians as impious people and will not accept even a glass of water from their hands." The newspaper also plays up the participation of Muslim Kurds in the Armenian genocide that occurred in Turkey between 1915 and 1918. (It is a fact that some fanatic religious Kurds did participate in the genocide, but it is also true that Kurds hid and actually saved Armenians from the massacres.) Are such claims anything less than incitement to racial hatred?
Punik purports to speak for Yezidi Kurds without their consent. Moreover, the newspaper criticizes Yezidis who consider themselves Kurds. Take this statement for example: "If they believe they are Kurds, that's their problem. We know Yezidis as Yezidis because the classical literature we know makes a clear distinction between Kurds and Yezidis. Furthermore, all our friends among them are Yezidis." Armenian nationalists refuse to acknowledge that the single distinction between Yezidi and Muslim Kurds is one of religious belieœ
The journal Report-Kurdistan disclosed that about 20,000 Muslim Kurds were obliged to leave their homes and flee Armenia. The aim of nationalist Armenians is apparently the forced exile of all Muslim Kurds.
Now it is the Yezidi Kurds under threat. Punik accuses the Yezidi intelligentsia of taking a pro-Azerbaijan position. Take this statement for example: "Once upon a time we had a small group of friends among the intellectuals and semi-intellectuals of Yezidi-Kurdish circles. Since then it has clearly appeared that during all these years the Yezidi aristocracy has joined local parties associatmg with "rokde" elements who openly support Azerbaijan along with anti-Armenian foreign Kurds." Following attacks of this sort it is not surprising that the Kurdish intelligentsia in Armenia feels threatened
Over the past several years since these attacks, about 80% of the Kurdish intelligentsia in Armenia have withdrawn from the public scene. Some Kurdish political and social civil servants have been killedbypaid murderers. But the crimes have not been investigated as politically motivated, they are treated as the work of common criminals.
From: Kurdish Life, Spring 1995
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/kurdish/htdocs/lib/armen.html
I am a captive in my own counrty also." By a Yezidi author
I am a Kurdish writer. I am from Armenia and I am a Yezidi. I left my country for exile (Germany) to escape the oppression by the Armenian state and the nationalist gangs that were established by the state. I believe that no one in this country knows well the situation of the Yezidis. It seems that people who work for the immigration office do not distinguish Yezidis from the Armenians.
Beatings, verbal abuse and other unpleasantries became the norm. And the Yezidies got their share of this treatment. In the city of Yerevan, a Yezidi Kurd named Alik Hasanyan was arrested and in front of thousands of people was burned alive. He was charged with killing an Armenian girl and a boy. Later on it became evident that he was not the killer. He had absolutely nothing to do with the killings
Another Yezidi from the Artashat region was gunned down in broad daylight for no reason
Despite much cruelty and oppression, Armenia has become a member of a few democratic organizations and is striving to become a member to the Council of the European Union. And the Kurds have no rights there.
The retirees who worked for more than forty years, have lost their pensions. The Armenians are forcing them to leave the country. The Armenians are telling them: "Go to your own homeland!!" Well, one has to ask as to where the Yezidi homeland is? We believe that no one sees the dire situation of the Yezidies. There are two faces of the Armenian state: With one face, it wants to expel the non-Armenian population out of Armenia, with the other face, it wants to claim to the world that "Armenia is a democratic republic and everyone living in it is equal. The Yezidies are free and they have a good time there. Those who escape out of Armenia do so out of economic desperation, not due to oppression."
The rights that the Soviet Union recognized for the Kurds in 1930s are rescinded. We had a newspaper called "Riya Taze" (the new path), research institutes, education in Kurdish language. Today we have none of these.
Everything is under the control of the armed bandits. The Armenian state is waging a very dirty war against Kurdish intellectuals through nationalist organizations like PYUNIK, HINCHAK, HAYASTANI and LIRAGIR. The state sees Kurdish intellectuals as servants, hands and tails of outside agents that are bent to harm Armenia.
Many Kurdish intellectuals were put on trial for saying "Yezidies are Kurds." And the courts would sentence these Kurdish intellectuals. Despite the fact that Kurdish intellectuals defended the brotherhood of both Kurds and Armenians, still these Armenian organizations went against the Kurds. A Yezidi academic, Prof. Dr. Sihide Ibo got killed in the hands of such aggressors and criminals. None of the killers are found and brought to trial. They threw Dr. Dewreshian under a car and ran him over. The body of Hesen Abbasian was dumped at the outskirts of Yerevan a month after. The majority of the intellectuals then left Armenia. This, in summary, is the situation of the Yezidies in Armenia.
From: Denge Ezidiyan (Yezidi publication based in Germany) January 2003
Translated by Burhan Elturan
http://www.kurdistan.org/Current-Updates/yezidi.html
Biji Kurd u Kurdistan, mirdin bo dujmenekanman!
