ARMENIAN YEZIDIS HAVE DECIDED WHO TO SUPPORT IN ELECTIONS

ARMENPRESS
Mar 22 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 22, ARMENPRESS: The leader of Armenia’s biggest national
minority group refuted today media reports claiming that he will ask
his fellows to cast their ballots in favor of the Dashink (Alliance)
party of a former commander of Nagorno-Karabakh defense army Samvel
Babayan in parliamentary elections, scheduled for May 12.

Aziz Tamoyan, who heads the 42,000-strong Yezidi community of Armenia,
said to a news conference his fellows have made their decision which
political party to support, but refused to reveal their names.

Tamoyan said he denied proposals to run for parliament in a
single-mandate constituency because he had done so in 2003 but his
attempt proved a failure.

Tamoyan, who is also chairman of the World Yezidi Union, said the
ballot is secret, but he hopes that his fellows will support the
candidate that has won the entire community’s approval.

He said the list of candidates of the People’s Party has two Yezidis,
while the Prosperous Armenia and Dashink have one Yezidi in their
lists each.

Yezidis belong to the Kurdish race of the Indo-European family
and speak a northern dialect of Kurdish (Kurmanji). They adhere
to a distinct religion that is influenced by Zoroastrian beliefs,
Christianity and Islam. Though the language spoken by Yezidis is
Kurdish, they tend to regard themselves as distinct from Kurds.

In Armenia, Yezidis are predominantly a pastoral community, with
villages concentrated in the central highlands and along alpine
meadows in the upper elevations of the country.

Yezidi shepherds make annual migrations in the spring to the upper
elevations of mountains, camping in caravan-style tents and tending
their sheep and goat flocks until the first snows of the autumn,
when they return to their villages.