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YEZIDIS ASK FOR ARMENIA'S HELP IN IRAQ
EurasiaNet.org
Aug 16 2013
August 16, 2013 - 11:54am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Armenia of late has gotten involved helping Diaspora Armenian
communities caught in the crossfire of civil war in Syria. Now,
some Armenian citizens want Yerevan to offer the same kind of help
to their kin in another regional hot spot, Iraq.
The Yezidis, a Kurdish-speaking people who are Armenia's largest
minority, hope that Yerevan will raise the awareness of the plight
of Iraq's Yezidis around the world. Iraqi Yezidis now face violent
attacks for selling alcohol. Iraqi laws only allow non-Muslims to
sell alcoholic beverages and the country has witnessed a series of
deadly militia attacks on liquor stores run by Christians and Yezidis.
Sasha Sultanian, head of Armenia's Yezidi National Committee, has
announced that the group plans to ask the Armenian foreign affairs
and Diaspora ministries to promote awareness of the Iraqi Yezidis'
situation "in international organizations and [help] prevent the
massacres," Armradio reported.
"Our brothers are being killed in Iraq," Armenpress reported Sultanian
as saying on August 14 "The governments of Kurdistan and Iraq aim to
destroy the Yezidis living in Iraq and take over their lands."
Several hundred thousand Yezidis are estimated to live around the
world; the largest number in Iraq. Their religion is a blend of
Zoroastrian, Muslim, Christian and other religious traditions. The
central figure in the faith is a peacock angel Malek Taus, who
dispenses both blessings and misfortunes as he finds fit.
Ethnic Yezidis together with ethnic Armenians bore the brunt of the
World-War I-era slaughters in southeastern Ottoman Turkey. Many fled
to Armenia and Georgia to escape persecution. Sultanian expressed
hope that Armenia, given its past, will not stay indifferent to the
targeted violence against another ethnic group.
Yerevan has not yet indicated whether or to what extent it might
choose to stick its head out for the Yezidis of Iraq.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67400
EurasiaNet.org
Aug 16 2013
August 16, 2013 - 11:54am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
Armenia of late has gotten involved helping Diaspora Armenian
communities caught in the crossfire of civil war in Syria. Now,
some Armenian citizens want Yerevan to offer the same kind of help
to their kin in another regional hot spot, Iraq.
The Yezidis, a Kurdish-speaking people who are Armenia's largest
minority, hope that Yerevan will raise the awareness of the plight
of Iraq's Yezidis around the world. Iraqi Yezidis now face violent
attacks for selling alcohol. Iraqi laws only allow non-Muslims to
sell alcoholic beverages and the country has witnessed a series of
deadly militia attacks on liquor stores run by Christians and Yezidis.
Sasha Sultanian, head of Armenia's Yezidi National Committee, has
announced that the group plans to ask the Armenian foreign affairs
and Diaspora ministries to promote awareness of the Iraqi Yezidis'
situation "in international organizations and [help] prevent the
massacres," Armradio reported.
"Our brothers are being killed in Iraq," Armenpress reported Sultanian
as saying on August 14 "The governments of Kurdistan and Iraq aim to
destroy the Yezidis living in Iraq and take over their lands."
Several hundred thousand Yezidis are estimated to live around the
world; the largest number in Iraq. Their religion is a blend of
Zoroastrian, Muslim, Christian and other religious traditions. The
central figure in the faith is a peacock angel Malek Taus, who
dispenses both blessings and misfortunes as he finds fit.
Ethnic Yezidis together with ethnic Armenians bore the brunt of the
World-War I-era slaughters in southeastern Ottoman Turkey. Many fled
to Armenia and Georgia to escape persecution. Sultanian expressed
hope that Armenia, given its past, will not stay indifferent to the
targeted violence against another ethnic group.
Yerevan has not yet indicated whether or to what extent it might
choose to stick its head out for the Yezidis of Iraq.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67400