The Human Rights situation of the Yezidi minority - UNHCR

In addition to having the largest Yezidi population, Armenia was also the centre of Kurdish
cultural production in the Soviet Union. Kurdish printing in the Soviet South Caucasus began
in 1921, when a primer using the Armenian alphabet was issued from Echmiadzin; in 1929 a
new Kurdish script using the Latin alphabet was introduced. 36 From 1929 many Kurdish
books were printed in Armenia. Kurdish schools, teaching a full curriculum in the Kurdish
language (with the exception of the teaching of Armenian) were opened.
Repression began in the late 1930s. In 1938 the only Kurdish newspaper of the Soviet Union
was closed; Ria taza (New Path) had been published in Yerevan regularly since 1931 and
only reappeared 17 years later in 1955. 37 The Latin script for Kurdish was dropped, and
instead Cyrillic script was used until the mid-1950s. In 1937 some 800 Muslim Kurds were
deported from Armenia to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. 38 From the mid-1950s repression
ended and there was a Kurdish cultural revival focussed on Yerevan. “Kurdish schools” were
re-introduced, albeit in just two of the republic’s districts (Abaran and Talin) and in truncated
form: these schools taught a complete curriculum in Armenian but did offer Kurdish as a
subject. 39 A Kurdish theatre was also established in 1948. 40 Significantly, academic
specialists on Kurds were insiders and were able to publish regularly on the Kurds of
Armenia. 41
The 1989 census recorded an aggregated figure of 56,127 Yezidis and Muslim Kurds; of
these 44,739 claimed Kurdish as their native language, while 10,415 claimed Armenian as
their native language. These figures do need to be seen, however, in the context of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which had already begun to lead to expulsions of Azeris and
Muslim Kurds in the autumn of 1988. The Nagorny Karabakh conflict and the mutual
expulsions of Armenian and Azerbaijani minorities ultimately led to an estimated 18,000
Muslim Kurds being displaced from Armenia, along with 186,000 Azeris. 42 Many of these
Kurds subsequently moved to Russia, probably permanently.
In sum both Yezidis and Muslim Kurds found a relative haven in Soviet Armenia, which
proved to be a focal point for the Soviet Kurdish community. For Muslim Kurds, however,
this haven came to an abrupt end with the onset of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and
displacement to Azerbaijan.
36 Müller, D., The Kurds of Soviet Azerbaijan, 1920-91, Central Asian Survey, Vol. 19, No 1, 2000, p.57
37
Idem, p.59
38
Idem, p.62
39
Idem, p.64
40
Abramian, J., Background: The Yezidi Movement in Armenia, in O. Krikorian (ed.), The Yezidi Community in
Armenia, p.5
41
Müller, p. 65
42 The sources differ as to whether Yezidis were allowed to self-identify as Yezidi rather than Kurd in the 1989
census. Although some sources indicate that this was the case, disaggregated figures for numbers of Yezidis and
Muslim Kurds in Armenia in 1989 do not appear to be readily available. Rather, it is only the aggregated figure
of 56,127 that is widely available. If the estimate of 18,000 Muslim Kurds displaced from Armenia as a result of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict is correct, this would suggest that the Yezidi population of Armenia in 1989 was
around 38,000. See Yunusov, A., Migratsionnye potoki- oborotnaya storona nezavisimosti [Migration flows –
the flipside of independence], in R.M. Avakov and A.G. Lisov (eds), Rossiya i Zakavkaz’e: realii nezavisimosti
i novoye partnyorstvo [Russia and the South Caucasus: the realities of independence and new partnership],
Moscow: Finstatinform, 2000
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