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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #749
Aug 22 2014
Armenia's Yezidis Reach Out to Iraqi Kin
Some argue that Armenians have a special responsibility to help given
their own tragic history.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
Members of Armenia's 50,000-strong Yezidi community are urging their
government to do more to help their fellow-believers who are
threatened by Islamic insurgents in Iraq.
Some 400,000 Yezidis have fled their homes, either finding shelter in
Turkey or Syria, or seeking a safe place inside Iraq. The plight of
thousands of people in the Sinjar Mountains attracted world attention
and prompted Western airdrops of food and water.
News of their plight has sparked action among Armenia's Yezidis.
"We talk to our brothers every day. Today we heard that the Islamists
issued an ultimatum to three Yezidi villages and gave them three days
to renounce their faith. The residents of two of the villages managed
to flee, but 80 men were killed in the third village, and the women
and girls were taken to the town of Tal Afar and sold into slavery,"
said Mamet Amiryan, deputy head of Armenia's National Union of
Yezidis.
The world's two million Yezidis, who speak a Kurdish language, are
spread throughout the Middle East. Their unique religion has
pre-Islamic roots and is connected to the ancient Zoroastrian faith.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - or the Islamic State as it now
styles itself - is intolerant of anything outside its own
fundamentalist Sunni views and has given the Yezidis a stark choice -
convert or die.
"The Iraqi government has even published reports that the Islamist
extremists buried 500 women and children alive and beheaded our
priests," Boris Murazi, head of a Yezidi organisation called Minjar,
told IWPR.
A spokesman for President Serzh Sargsyan said on August 18 that
Armenia was deeply concerned by the reports of bloodshed.
"The president has ordered the foreign ministry and the heads of the
country's diplomatic missions to redouble efforts to raise this
question at international level," the spokesman said.
He said the government in Yerevan would consider sending humanitarian
aid to the refugees.
Murazi said that after meeting Yezidi community members, Deputy Prime
Minister Armen Gevorgyan promised that 50,000 US dollars would to be
spent on humanitarian aid.
"But he said we had to send it to Iraq ourselves," Murazi said. "We
suggested giving the money to the United Nations, which is organising
aid distribution."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said talks were ongoing
about how to get funds to the intended beneficiaries.
Murazi and others are comparing events in Iraq to the mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
"All this will be like the Armenian genocide if no one does anything
and the expulsion of the Yezidis continues," he said. "The Armenians
managed to save one small corner of their homeland - modern-day
Armenia - but we won't manage even that."
Ruben Melkonyan, deputy head of the department of Oriental studies at
Yerevan State University, said Armenians needed to reach out and help
the Yezidis.
"If the genocide of the Armenians had been condemned, then there
wouldn't have been new ones," he said. "Until that happens, we will
continue to witness new genocides."
Murazi said many of the displaced Yezidis would welcome a chance to
move to Armenia, just as many Christian Armenians from Syria have
done. But he said the government was blocking this because there is no
fast-track visa arrangement in place with Iraq.
"There are 15 empty houses in our villages, and we could put them
there," said Alik Namoyan, head of the the Yezidi village of Mirak.
"We are ready to offer them assistance and give them everything they
need - provisions, bedding and livestock. What else could we do? Our
brothers are in trouble."
Gayane Lazarian is a journalist with ArmeniaNow.com.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenias-yezidis-reach-out-iraqi-kin
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #749
Aug 22 2014
Armenia's Yezidis Reach Out to Iraqi Kin
Some argue that Armenians have a special responsibility to help given
their own tragic history.
By Gayane Lazarian - Caucasus
Members of Armenia's 50,000-strong Yezidi community are urging their
government to do more to help their fellow-believers who are
threatened by Islamic insurgents in Iraq.
Some 400,000 Yezidis have fled their homes, either finding shelter in
Turkey or Syria, or seeking a safe place inside Iraq. The plight of
thousands of people in the Sinjar Mountains attracted world attention
and prompted Western airdrops of food and water.
News of their plight has sparked action among Armenia's Yezidis.
"We talk to our brothers every day. Today we heard that the Islamists
issued an ultimatum to three Yezidi villages and gave them three days
to renounce their faith. The residents of two of the villages managed
to flee, but 80 men were killed in the third village, and the women
and girls were taken to the town of Tal Afar and sold into slavery,"
said Mamet Amiryan, deputy head of Armenia's National Union of
Yezidis.
The world's two million Yezidis, who speak a Kurdish language, are
spread throughout the Middle East. Their unique religion has
pre-Islamic roots and is connected to the ancient Zoroastrian faith.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - or the Islamic State as it now
styles itself - is intolerant of anything outside its own
fundamentalist Sunni views and has given the Yezidis a stark choice -
convert or die.
"The Iraqi government has even published reports that the Islamist
extremists buried 500 women and children alive and beheaded our
priests," Boris Murazi, head of a Yezidi organisation called Minjar,
told IWPR.
A spokesman for President Serzh Sargsyan said on August 18 that
Armenia was deeply concerned by the reports of bloodshed.
"The president has ordered the foreign ministry and the heads of the
country's diplomatic missions to redouble efforts to raise this
question at international level," the spokesman said.
He said the government in Yerevan would consider sending humanitarian
aid to the refugees.
Murazi said that after meeting Yezidi community members, Deputy Prime
Minister Armen Gevorgyan promised that 50,000 US dollars would to be
spent on humanitarian aid.
"But he said we had to send it to Iraq ourselves," Murazi said. "We
suggested giving the money to the United Nations, which is organising
aid distribution."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan said talks were ongoing
about how to get funds to the intended beneficiaries.
Murazi and others are comparing events in Iraq to the mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
"All this will be like the Armenian genocide if no one does anything
and the expulsion of the Yezidis continues," he said. "The Armenians
managed to save one small corner of their homeland - modern-day
Armenia - but we won't manage even that."
Ruben Melkonyan, deputy head of the department of Oriental studies at
Yerevan State University, said Armenians needed to reach out and help
the Yezidis.
"If the genocide of the Armenians had been condemned, then there
wouldn't have been new ones," he said. "Until that happens, we will
continue to witness new genocides."
Murazi said many of the displaced Yezidis would welcome a chance to
move to Armenia, just as many Christian Armenians from Syria have
done. But he said the government was blocking this because there is no
fast-track visa arrangement in place with Iraq.
"There are 15 empty houses in our villages, and we could put them
there," said Alik Namoyan, head of the the Yezidi village of Mirak.
"We are ready to offer them assistance and give them everything they
need - provisions, bedding and livestock. What else could we do? Our
brothers are in trouble."
Gayane Lazarian is a journalist with ArmeniaNow.com.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenias-yezidis-reach-out-iraqi-kin