Eurasianet touched upon Armenian Yezdis’ request to help their Iraqi brothers
15:32, 17 August, 2013
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, ARMENPRESS: Armenia of late has gotten involved
helping Diaspora Armenian communities caught in the
crossfire of civil war in Syria. Now, some Armenian citizens want
Yerevan to offer the same kind of help to their kin in another
regional hot spot, Iraq. Quoting the article published by Armenpress
on August 14, Eurasianet touched upon the Yezdis living in Iraq and
their problems.
As stated by Eurasianet, the Yezdis, a Kurdish-speaking people who are
Armenia’s largest minority, hope that Yerevan will raise the
awareness of the plight of Iraq’s Yezidis around the world. Iraqi
Yezidis now face violent attacks for selling alcohol. Iraqi laws only
allow non-Muslims to sell alcoholic beverages and the country has
witnessed a series of deadly militia attacks on liquor stores run by
Christians and Yezdis.
Sasha Sultanyan, head of Armenia’s Yezdi National Committee, has
announced that the group plans to ask the Armenian foreign affairs
and Diaspora ministries to promote awareness of the Iraqi Yezdis’
situation “in international organizations and help prevent the
massacres”.
`Our brothers are being killed in Iraq,’ Armenpress reported Sultanyan
as saying on August 14 `The governments of Kurdistan and Iraq
aim to destroy the Yezdis living in Iraq and take over their lands.”
Several hundred thousand Yezdis are estimated to live around the
world; the largest number in Iraq. Their religion is a blend of
Zoroastrian, Muslim, Christian and other religious traditions. The
central figure in the faith is a peacock angel Malek Taus, who
dispenses
both blessings and misfortunes as he finds fit.
Ethnic Yezdis together with ethnic Armenians bore the brunt of the
World-War I-era slaughters in southeastern Ottoman Turkey. Many fled
to Armenia and Georgia to escape persecution. Sultanyan expressed hope
that Armenia, given its past, will not stay indifferent to the
targeted violence against another ethnic group.
Yerevan has not yet indicated whether or to what extent it might
choose to stick its head out for the Yezdis of Iraq.
From: A. Papazian