Aziz Tamoyan

Aziz Tamoyan (born July 1, 1933 in Zovuni, Armenia[1] – died January 2, 2021 in Armenia) was the president of the Yezidi National Union.[1][2]

Aziz Tamoyan

In the late 1980s, Tamoyan organized a division of his compatriots of about 500 people who were involved in the liberation of Artsakh. The division was named after Jangir Agha, who commanded the Yazidi division during the Battle of Bash Abaran in May 1918, when Armenia fought off the Turkish offensive. In the same years Tamoyan also organized a Yazidi rescue team that was involved in clearing up the aftermath of the 1988 Spitak earthquake.

Tamoyan was one of the founders of the Yazidi newspaper and participated in the creation of textbooks for Yazidi schools in the 1990s. He is the author of books about the history, culture and life of the Yazidis, about the genocide of the Yazidis in the Ottoman Empire (together with the Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians), about their participation in the liberation struggle in western Armenia, in the First Republic of Armenia as well on the Karabakh War.

Tamoyan was the first in Soviet times to establish a connection between the Yazidis of Armenia and compatriots in their historical homeland - in upper Mesopotamia, in the north of what is now Iraq and Syria.

On September 30, 1989, he was elected chairman of the National Union of Yazidis of the Republic of Armenia, and in 1997 he became chairman of the National Union of Yazidis of the World.[1]