Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

[Kanki]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

kurds are turks, kaki... they are muslims also

kurds(turks) and mongol turks have only different languages from each other.

Kurds are both Persian and Arabic mixture. . . not Turkic

[Kavkaz]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

When as a young child I was in Armenia Yezdi kids were teased for being Yezdi. They standout, their culture does not see the value in education so they are teased like the gypsies in Europe but to a lesser degree.

When Yezdis join the military because it is compulsory they are hazed for being Yezdi.

I don't know i believe Yezdis are treated better in Armenia then Gypsies are treated in Europe, though most Yezdis are not as thiefs. I believe they are uneducated and they will always be teased because they are being left behind in standards of society.

Many take Armenian names and Surnames to fit in.

[jgk3]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

kurds are turks, kaki... they are muslims also

kurds(turks) and mongol turks have only different languages from each other.

kurds are turks? what's so turkish about them?

[HayotzAmrotz]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

Kurds and Yezidis are people of the same race, they are of the same ethnic origin. The only difference is the religion, and since that particular difference (the religion) has been there for a very long time, there is now aslo a significant cultural differences between the two.

Yezidi community of Armenia is recognized around the world as the most respected and free Yezidi community in the entire world! As an Armenian I'm proud to say that we have welcomed Yezidis into our country like no other nation ever did. That's a fact.

The last members of the very small Kurdish community of Armenia left the country on their own accord in the early 1990s, no one forced them to leave. The main reason they left was economic and not ethnic or political. In those dark years unfortunately half of Armenia has left the country, not just the Kurds.

Frankly, I'm very happy that we have a Yezidi community in Armenia. No, not because we can buy sheep from them, but because they have shed blood for Armenia. Because they have shown the ultimate respect for us and joined us in the battlefield.

[Federate]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

Bad blood: Armenia’s Kurds, Yezidis at loggerheads over identity issues


Armenia’s two ethnic minority groups have revealed their strong differences over matters of identity as their leaders held rival press conferences on Thursday, accusing each other of misrepresentation and being misleading.

A 40,000-strong Yezidi community and about 1,500 Kurds living in Armenia have been divided over who they are. The Kurds insist that both are the same people and it is faith that makes them different. This, however, is perceived as “a great insult” by the Yezidis, who have sued the Kurds in court “for insulting the dignity of the Yezidis”.

Yezidis, on their part, argue that there is no Kurd in Armenia as all left the country along with 150,000 Azeris after the 1988 movement for Karabakh began.

“And those Kurds who call themselves Kurds are in fact Yezidis-turned-Kurds,” says chairman of the Yezidi union in Armenia Aziz Tamoyan, suggesting that the whole jostle is only about leadership in the community.

“You, Armenians, also have sects amongst yourselves, such as Jehovah’s witnesses or others, and the same is in this case. Simply some people want to be leaders, to manage the [community] newspaper. This argument is all about money and position,” says the leader of Armenia’s Yezidis.

Meanwhile, representative of the Kurdish community of Armenia Alikhane Mame believes that “there is no Yezidi people, and in reality all are Kurds”.

“Aziz Tamoyan himself is also a Kurd. Who was he before 1989?” he says.

Mame, who is editor-in-chief of a Kurdish-language newspaper published in Armenia, explains that by the data of the official census of the population conducted in 1989, Armenia was home to 42,000 Kurds and already in 2001, when the first census of the population was conducted in independent Armenia, that 42,000-community was renamed Yezidis and only 1,500 people were registered as Kurds.

“In 2001 the same Kurds introduced themselves to the census conductors as Yezidis or, I don’t know, perhaps some things were falsified,” says Mame. He invokes his own experience when census conductors first registered him as a Kurd using a pencil and then deleted that and wrote ‘Yezidi’ with a pen. But Mame, as he himself says, managed to get his Kurdish identity reinstated in documents later.

Tamoyan, meanwhile, says that the identity issue is very important not only for Yezidis in Armenia but also for about two million Yezidis around the world. “And calling a Yezidi a Kurd is as insulting as calling an Armenian a Turk,” he says.

“We are different… we worship the Sun and they are Moslems. Our national festivals, our customs are different, we even have no right to marry each other. Kurds slaughtered us as they slaughtered Armenians [during the 1915-1923 Genocide in the Ottoman Empire], and they continue to do so today,” says Tamoyan.

According to the data presented by the Yezidi community in Armenia, last year Kurds burned two Yezidi villages, killing about 1,000 civilians, in the area called Yezidistan in northern Iraq.

And Tamoyan warns that Armenians should beware Kurds and Kurdized Yezidis, saying they serve the Kurdish interests and are dangerous.

Members of the Yezidi Union in Armenia insist that Kurds have great appetites for Armenian land. “If you hear what they say you will understand that they think that half of Armenia is their land, as well as western Armenia, and that Karabakh once was their Red (or Soviet) Kurdistan and recovering those lands is among their long-term goals.”

Accusations like these, however, have been denied by the Kurds living in Armenia.

The two ethnic groups are also divided over Armenia-Turkey relations, in particular over the issue of the border opening. While Kurds welcome this move, Yezidis voice strong objections.

“If the border is opened, half of 20 million Kurds living in Turkey will pour into Armenia. Can you imagine what will happen? They will stifle this small nation,” Yezidi Tamoyan says.

http://armenianow.com/news/21560/armenia_yezidis_kurds_identity_dispute

[Yedtarts]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

This is a very important thing to all our intellectual Kurd lover Armenians. Let’s not forget this; that Kurds never can be trusted.

Tamoyan, meanwhile, says that the identity issue is very important not only for Yezidis in Armenia but also for about two million Yezidis around the world. “And calling a Yezidi a Kurd is as insulting as calling an Armenian a Turk,” he says.

“We are different… we worship the Sun and they are Moslems. Our national festivals, our customs are different, we even have no right to marry each other. Kurds slaughtered us as they slaughtered Armenians [during the 1915-1923 Genocide in the Ottoman Empire], and they continue to do so today,” says Tamoyan.

According to the data presented by the Yezidi community in Armenia, last year Kurds burned two Yezidi villages, killing about 1,000 civilians, in the area called Yezidistan in northern Iraq.

And Tamoyan warns that Armenians should beware Kurds and Kurdized Yezidis, saying they serve the Kurdish interests and are dangerous.

Members of the Yezidi Union in Armenia insist that Kurds have great appetites for Armenian land. “If you hear what they say you will understand that they think that half of Armenia is their land, as well as western Armenia, and that Karabakh once was their Red (or Soviet) Kurdistan and recovering those lands is among their long-term goals.”
Accusations like these, however, have been denied by the Kurds living in Armenia.

The two ethnic groups are also divided over Armenia-Turkey relations, in particular over the issue of the border opening. While Kurds welcome this move, Yezidis voice strong objections.

“If the border is opened, half of 20 million Kurds living in Turkey will pour into Armenia. Can you imagine what will happen? They will stifle this small nation,” Yezidi Tamoyan says.
http://armenianow.com/news/21560/arm...entity_dispute

[Haykakan]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

Thats just stupid, this open border paranoya has got to stop already (doesnt look like its gona happen anyways). People including kurds go where there are jobs and Armenia cant keep its own population employed thus those 20 million kurds are not going to "pour in". People always worry about whats threatening them the least and totally ignore the most dangerous things.

[ashot24]

Re: Kurdish minortiy in Armenia

This is a very important thing to all our intellectual Kurd lover Armenians. Let’s not forget this; that Kurds never can be trusted.

No, it's not like that...they are playing who's the good one, who's the bad one, they're trying to frighten population and spread animosities, which is ridiculous. They should really come up to terms, what they should do is talk and point their concerns trying to prevent a undesirable situation in the future, rather than speaking to a press hungry for controversies.