Yazidis in Armenia

Many Yazidis came to the Russian Empire (now the territory of Armenia and Georgia) during the 19th and early 20th centuries to escape religious persecution, as they were oppressed by the Ottoman Turks and the Sunni Kurds who tried to convert them to Islam. The Yazidis were massacred alongside the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide, causing many to flee to Russian-held parts of Armenia.[7] The first ever Yazidi school was opened in Armenia in 1920.[8]

Yazidi intellectuals played a crucial role in fostering a secularized idea of Kurdish nationalism that would bridge across the religious divide which had historically separated Yazidi communities from their fellow Kurdish-speaking Muslims.[9] These vanguards of Soviet Kurdish culture comprised Yazidis such as the linguist Arab Shamilov, the writer Hajiye Jndi and the poet Shikoye Hasan. Based on a Latin alphabet developed for the Kurmanji vernacular of Kurdish by the Yazidi linguist Arab Shamilov the Kurdish-speaking newspaper Ria Teze was published in Yerevan from the 1930s onwards.

Yazidis in Yerevan condeming Azerbaijan's actions against Artsakh during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

A detachment of volunteering Yazidis in Armenia for the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020.

The Yezidi movement erupting in Armenia in 1988 appealed to the 3rd All-Armenian Yezidi Assembly convened on 30 September 1989 (the two previous Assemblies occurred at the dawn of the Armenian SSR's history, in 1921 and 1923) to challenge the Government for the official recognition of their identity. As a result, the Yezidis were presented as a separate minority in the USSR population census of 1989. According to this very census, the total count of Yezidis in Armenia was 52,700. Also need to note that in Karabakh war participated more than 500 yezidis by ethnicity, they have a detachment "Jangir Agha" headed by Aziz Tamoyan.[8]

Many Yezidis volunteered during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War to fight on the Armenian side.[8]

In 2020, after the break out of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, many Yezidis in Armenia again volunteered to defend Artsakh.[10]

According to the 2011 census, there are 35,272 Yazidis in Armenia.[1] Ten years earlier, in the 2001 census, 40,620 Yazidis were registered in Armenia.[11] Media have estimated the number of Yazidis in Armenia as between 30,000 and 50,000. Most of them are descendants of refugees to Armenia following the persecution during Ottoman rule, including during the Armenian Genocide, when many Armenians found refuge in Yazidi villages.[12] A minority of Yazidis in Armenia (around 3,600) converted to Christianity,[13] but they are not accepted by the other Yazidis as Yazidis.[14] Yazidis in Armenia are recognized as an ethnic group, which according to a report has been perceived as an attempt to promote a non-Kurdish identity and has angered many in the community.[15] Sympathy for the Kurdistan Workers' Party is also widespread.[16][17]

Ethnic Yazidis have a slightly younger population compared to ethnic Armenians. Almost 54 percent is under thirty years old, while 8 percent is aged sixty or more.

Election Code of Armenia guarantees one seat in the National Assembly to Yazid minority.[19]

In January 2021, the national theater of Yazidis was opened in Vagharshapat, with the first play being about the fallen Yazidi soldiers of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.[20]

A memorial dedicated to fallen Yazids in Yerevan.

In 2016 a memorial for fallen Yazids is installed in Yerevan downtown in the park at the crossing of Isahakyan and Nalbandyan streets.[21][22]

As of 2016, the world's largest Yazidi temple is under construction in the small village of Aknalich.[23] The temple named Quba Mere Diwane opened on 2 September 2019, and is dedicated to Melek Taus, one of seven angels in Yazidi theology.

The president of the National Union of Yazidis, Aziz Tamoyan with Armenia's third president Serzh Sargsyan in 2011.

US reports on the relations between Yazidis and the Armenian government have been mixed. According to a 2004 U.S. Department of State human rights report, Yazidis are subjected to some harassment in Armenia. Attendance school rates among children in the Yezidi ethnic minority continued to be lower than average, partially due to economic reasons, a lack of Yezidi teachers and books, and the early removal of teenage girls from schools for marriage. In 2006 the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) supported the government's effort to publish textbooks for ethnic minorities, and in 2007 new Yezidi language textbooks appeared in some Yezidi schools around the country. The textbooks are Aziz. and Hasan Shex Mamude. Also through Armenian government support the first Yezidi newspaper was published named Ezdikhana (ex. name: Denge Ezdia or Yezidi Voice).[24]

Armenia has been described as "the best country for their survival as a community" by the Yazidis.[2] However, according to several reports, discriminations against Yazidis exists in the country.[25][26] In an 2007 U.S. Department of State human rights report states that "as in previous years, Yezidi leaders did not complain that police and local authorities subjected their community to discrimination".[27]

There are 19 Yazidi-inhabited villages in Aragatsotn Province.

Quba Mere Diwane (left) and Ziarat (right) temples in Aknalich, Armavir Province.

There are two Yazidi villages in Armavir Province: Yeraskhahun and Ferik, both in Ejmiatsin district.

On 29 September 2012 Yazidis opened their first temple outside their Lalish homeland - the temple of "Ziarat" in Aknalich village in Armavir province of Armenia.[28][29] In August 2015 an architectural design for a new temple in Aknalich was released; the temple is planned to be completed in 2017.[30] This temple, the world's largest Yazidi temple, was built next to the Ziarat temple and has opened in September 2019, under the name "Quba Mere Diwane".[31]

The only Yazidi village is Verin Artashat, near Artashat.