YEZIDI PUPILS HAVE THREE TEXTBOOKS IN NATIVE LANGUAGE
ARMENPRESS
Aug 30 2006
YEREVAN, AUGUST 30, ARMENPRESS: When Yezidi schoolchildren in Armenia
will go to school on September 1, when academic year here begins,
they will find, for the first time, three text-books in their native
language. They are the ABC, and textbooks on Yezidi language and
literature.
Hasan Tamoyan, head of a radio program broadcast by the Public Radio
for Yezidis, said the Union of Yezidis was instrumental in helping
to develop and print the textbooks. Yezidis have now media outlets-
a 30 minute radio program and an official newspaper run by the Union
of Yezidis.
Yezidis, also known as Yezidi Kurds, are Armenia’s largest minority
community, numbering officially more than 40,000. Many Yezidis began
to settle in Armenia during the Russian-Turkish wars of the 19th
century and more fled with Armenians during the massacres of 1915.
Neither Christian nor Muslim, practicing their own ancient rites,
the Yezidis stayed when Azerbaijanis and Muslim Kurds fled Armenia at
the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute in 1988-90. They keep
an ancient nomadic lifestyle and live by breeding cattle and sheep.