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  • KurdishMedia: Yezidi social life in the CIS

    KurdishMedia.com

    Yezidi social life in the Commonwealth of Independent States
    01 November 2004

    KurdishMedia.com - By Lamara Pashaeva

    Mrs. Lamara Pashaeva is a Yezidi Kurdish anthropologist who works in the
    Institute of Ethnology in Tbilisi, the capital of Republic of Georgia.
    Her academic field covers all ethnic and religious minorities peacefully
    co-existing in Georgia - Kurds (both Muslim and Yezidi), Greeks,
    Assyrians, Azeris, Armenians, Ossets and others. Lamara Pashaeva's
    family had for centuries been inhabiting the Wan region of Northern
    Kurdistan, but after the World War 1 escaped the notorious genocide and
    moved to Georgia. This paper has been presented at the 1999 Conference
    in Berlin dedicated to Yezidi and Alevi religious communities. The
    conference was sponsored by the French Institute in Berlin and the
    Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

    The confessional belonging is always an important factor in the social
    life. This is also the case with the Kurdish society in which religious
    diversity contributed to political division. However, the main obstacle
    for Kurdish integration and consolidation is the fact that the Kurds
    have no independent state of their own, although being an indigenous
    population of the Middle Eastern region and although still massively
    residing on a territory which politically belongs to four states. In
    such a situation the Kurds are deprived of the right for
    self-determination and fight a battle for independence with
    overwhelmingly superior forces. As is known, in the past, the states
    which divided Kurdistan used religion as a tool to involve the Kurds
    into international disputes. Thus, during the Ottoman-Sefevid wars, the
    Kurds became a part of Sunni-Shi'a discord. Frequently, religious calls
    were intended against the so-called "infidels" including the Christians
    and the Yezidi Kurds. At the same time, it must be noted that history
    has enough evidence for how the Kurds protected and saved the Christian
    groups.

    Few Kurdish tribes, who were Yezidi in terms of religion, appeared in
    Transcacuasia as early as in the 18th century. In 1770s, the Georgian
    King Irakli II made a try to establish contacts with the Yezidis and
    used the Assyrian Archbishop Isaya as a mediator. Irakli II sent via
    Isaya a letter to the Yezidi leader Choban-Agha in which he proposed a
    coalition with the Yezidi, Armenians and Assyrians against the Turkish
    Sultan. In response, Choban-Agha showed his willingness and requested,
    in case of success, a fortress called Xoshab.

    A larger group of Yezidi migration to Transcaucasia took place during
    and after the Crimean War (1853-1956) and the Russian-Turkish War of
    1877-1878. During the second half of the 19th century, the Yezidi Kurds
    lived in the following vilages of Armenia: Mirek, Kurabogaz, Djardjaris,
    Chobanmaz, Kurdish Pamb, Big and Small Djamushlu and Korubulagh. The
    population of those villages mostly came from the Ottoman Empire between
    1830 and 1877. It is known that in 1875, the two Yezidi villages -
    Baysiz and Sichalu - had 41 families.

    However, the majority of the modern Yezidi Kurds settled in Armenia and
    Georgia in the beginning of the 20th century as a result of religious
    persecutions from the Otoman authorities and some pan-Islamic Kurdish
    forces. These Yezidis came from districts of Van, Bayazid, Kars and
    Surmalu. Since the Yezidi Kurds were a rural population, they mostly
    settled in abandoned and deserted villages in Armenia, although in
    Georgia they found refuge in cities - first in Tbilisi and later also in
    Telavi. The migrants from one village normally would settle in a village
    together, while in cities the members of one congener group would reside
    on one street. In majority of cases, the spiritual group of Pirs would
    settle with their Murids.

    At present, the main group of the Kurds in Georgia lives in cities of
    Tbilisi as well as in Telavi, Rustavi and Batumi. A part of them
    migrated to Georgia in 1930s and after the World War 2 from their
    villages in Armenia. Thus, in general we can say that the Yezidi Kurds
    of Georgia are city dwellers. They chiefly work in the service sphere.
    More and more young Yezidi Kurds become students and increase the number
    and level of the intelligentsia. According to my data, in Georgia and
    Armenia there live more than 80,000 Yezidis.

    There are more around 80 patronimy groups - qebil of the Sheykhs and
    90-92 groups of Pirs. The Southern Caucasian Yezidi Kurds use the terms
    qebîl and bar in the same meaning. We know that in the Kurdish
    tradition, alongside patronimies named after their leader and founder
    (Mixaîlî, Anqosî etc.), there are some that bear geographic names. The
    geographic patronimies reflected a relatively later stage of the
    commencement of the social structure.

    It is remarkable that the Yezidis in Georgia, to a certain degree,
    continue to follow prohibitions in food. The food taboo includes:
    lettuce, because once on Sunday in Mosul Sheykh Hasan was stoned by
    lettuce; cabbage, because Shaykh Shams was thrown cabbage in Halab
    (Aleppo) and the vegetable became damned (although there are other
    legends connected with taboo on cabbage which are linked to Tausi
    Melek). The Yezidis are also forbidden to eat hemp (qirqirk) and pork.
    The pigs blocked the way of six disciples of Shaykh Adi who were coming
    from Jerusalem.

    The spiritual group of the Shaykhs have animal taboos. Thus, members of
    the family of Shaykh Hasan are not allowed to kill rabbits. The Shaykhs
    from the family of Sidjaddin Shams have control over mice: if in
    villages someone noticed the rodents, they would ask the Shaykhs of
    Sidjaddin Shams to pray in order to get rid of mice. Snakes are believed
    to be obedient to the family of Shaykh Made Farkh. You may know that
    snake is carved on the door of Shaykh Adi's grave in Lalish, together
    with figures of lion, axe, man and comb.

    As is widely known, the only holy place of the Yezidis is Lalish in
    Iraqi Kurdistan. Since the Caucasian Yezidis lived far from their
    historical holy land, they had to find a solution. Therefore, they
    performed their religious duties in the houses of their Shaykhs, who, in
    turn, were visiting their Murids during religious holidays. In Armenia,
    the Yezidi Kurds had settled 80 years before they did in Georgia. They
    lived in rural areas either separately (the case of the tribe of Zurbai)
    or together with the Armenian Christians. Not surprisingly, their life
    and habits have experienced a certain Armenian influence: for instance,
    the Yezidis started to visit Churches and local Armenian sacred places
    including the Ziyaret against barrenness (Dêra Qaltixçî).

    The Yezidi Kurds in Georgia primarily live in cities. They visit the
    Churches, lighted candles before the icons of Virgin Mary, but they
    never cross themselves. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
    Yezidi communities of Georgia and Armenia were in close contacts. As it
    has been already mentioned, in late 1930s and after the World War 2,
    many Armenian Yezidis moved to Georgia. However, as early as in the
    Soviet era, a group of the Yezidis from Elegez (Aragats), Armenia, had
    migrated to the city of Novosibirsk to create a rather powerful
    community there.

    After the break-up of t he USSR, the economic situation of the Yezidis
    and non-Yezidis alike rapidly worsened. Many Yezidis started to look for
    jobs in Russia, Ukraine, and conequently migrated abroad. This has
    widened our research possibilities, since the Yezidi communities can be
    now found in West Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia. Sticking to
    Russia, the groups of the Yezidi Kurds live in Moscow, Saint Petersburg
    and Yaroslavl. It is interesting to note that in Yaroslavl, a Yezidi
    cultural-religious centre came into existence. Some of the Yezidis
    constitute big communities in the rural areas of Krasnodar, Stavropol,
    Rostov and Volgograd districts of the Russian Federation and in around
    the city of Anapa. There, the Yezidis work in agriculture.

    In addition to what has been said, there are quite numerous Yezidi
    colonies in the Ukraine: in the Crimea, near the city of Kharkov and
    possibly in some other locations, which I have no data sofar. In places
    where the Murids settle, their Shaykhs and Pirs also join them. It must
    be highlighted that there are many Shaykhs in the city of Saint
    Petersburg. As a result of disperse settlements, ethnic and religious
    ties somehow weaken. However, some try to overcome this difficulty by
    the means of marriage.

    The Yezidis display a very active pan-Kurdish activity as well: they
    make financial and moral contributions to the Kurdish
    national-liberation movement. The majority of the Soviet Kurdish
    intelligentsia were Yezidis, who worked in their villages and cities as
    well as in the scholarly centres of Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Yerevan
    and Tbilisi. Nowadays, there is a Kurdish theatre and radio in Tbilisi.
    The Georgian Yezidi scholar, Karame Anqosî, has translated and edited
    the Yezidi sacred books into Georgian. Throughout last decades we have
    had Yezidi Kurdish members of the Georgian parliament.

    The Yezidi Kurds of Armenia, Georgia and now also Russia and Ukraine
    have survived during 80 years of their life in exile in countries with
    overwhelming non-Kurdish ethnic and religious majorities. They succeeded
    to retain their identity and cultural elements by resisting natural
    assimilation. Certainly, their everyday life and social settings were
    going through certain changes, but their major ethnic and religious
    specificities remained immutable. To the beast of my understanding, the
    Transcaucasian Yezidi Kurds, before the destruction of the USSR, were a
    successful example of ethnic and cultural diaspora. Its history and
    experience must be better investigated and analysed. To demonstrate a
    real, that is, non-partisan picture, I would suggest to organise
    expeditions to the remaining islands of the Yezidi Kurds in the
    Commonwealth of Independent States.

    Translated by Dr. Zorab Aloian

    ---
    http://www.kurdishmedia.com/reports.asp?id=2250
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