Yezidis are Not Kurds, But Kurds are Yezidis: Aziz Tamoyan

“We will sue anyone who tries to say that Yezidi is a religion and not a nation. Yezidis are a modern nation; they have their [own] community and literature,” President of the National Union of Yezidi in Armenia Aziz Tamoyan said in response to statement by Kurds that there are no Yezidis and that Yezidi is nothing but a religion.

According to Tamoyan, Sultan Yezid was the ancestor of Yezidis and Sharfadin established the religion.

A 2001 census showed that there are 1,500 Kurds and 41,000 Yezidi in Armenia.

“Those 1,500 Kurds abandoned Armenia. Only one Kurd has remained. Today those who consider themselves Kurds are in fact Yezidi, they speak Yezideren and say that they are Yezidi. The Kurds use a totally different language which we do not understand,” explained Tamoyan, adding that the Kurdish people have Turkish roots.

Asked why then do the Yezidi consider themselves Kurds, Tamoyan said: “They become Kurds by being bought out. Such as there are sects among Armenians, so too have Yezidis adopted Kurdish identity. Our roots are different, we are sunworshippers, while the Kurds are Muslim. Kurd means a shepherd.”

Tamoyan also mentioned that a lot of Yezidi had participated in the Karabakh war, while not a single Kurd did so.

The Yezidi people in Armenia have sent a letter to the president, the chair of the National Assembly and the Prosecutor General of Armenia to complain against the Kurds. They are asking that the Kurdish radio and the Kurdish Committee in Armenia be shut down. The Kurds have, in turn, made an appeal against the Yezidi.