Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07YEREVAN723
2007-06-01 11:54:00
SECRET
Embassy Yerevan
Cable title:  

ARMENIA'S YEZIDI KURDISH MINORITY: A SMALL BUT

Tags:  PREL ASEC PTER PHUM AM 
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FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5714
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 1271
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 0563
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 0369
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 000723 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/01/2017
TAGS: PREL ASEC PTER PHUM AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA'S YEZIDI KURDISH MINORITY: A SMALL BUT
RECEPTIVE HAVEN FOR WOULD-BE KURDISH TERRORISTS

REF: A) 06 YEREVAN 1424 B) 06 YEREVAN 1484 C) YEREVAN

274 D) YEREVAN 528

YEREVAN 00000723 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Poloff Masha Herbst for reasons 1.4 (b, d).

-------
SUMMARY
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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 000723

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/01/2017
TAGS: PREL ASEC PTER PHUM AM
SUBJECT: ARMENIA'S YEZIDI KURDISH MINORITY: A SMALL BUT
RECEPTIVE HAVEN FOR WOULD-BE KURDISH TERRORISTS

REF: A) 06 YEREVAN 1424 B) 06 YEREVAN 1484 C) YEREVAN

274 D) YEREVAN 528

YEREVAN 00000723 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Poloff Masha Herbst for reasons 1.4 (b, d).

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (S) The mayors of two Yezidi Kurdish villages, spoke
openly to us during a May 31 visit about the fact of PKK
(KGK) presence in Armenia, telling us that wounded PKK
fighters from neighboring countries receive medical treatment
in Armenia. We also discussed the complicated issue of
Yezidi Kurdish nationality in Armenia, and emerged with a
clearer picture of the community's self-identity: an
unassimilated group that exists peacefully as a subset of
Armenia's citizenry, but that also maintains strong ties with
the broader Kurdish nation, and sympathizes with the PKK.
There seems a clear rural/urban divide, with rural dwellers
embracing a Kurdish national identity, and pro-PKK sympathy,
that their Yerevan-based brethren disdain. END SUMMARY.


2. NOTE: Armenians and local Yezidi Kurds alike refer to the
Kongra-Gel/KGK/Kadek as the PKK, and we will be guided by the
local terminology in this cable. END NOTE.

--------------
POOR CONDITIONS
--------------


3. (U) Ria Taza and Alagyaz are two Yezidi Kurdish villages
in Armenia's Aragatsotn marz (region). Half of the marz's 22
villages are populated by Yezidi Kurds. The two villages --
about five minutes apart -- straddle the main road about an
hour west of Yerevan, and just a short distance from the
Turkish border. Conditions there are poor. Ria Taza Mayor
Ahmed Broyan told us that because the village's winter lasts
nine months out of the year, there is no agriculture. The
villagers raise cattle for meat and milk. Neither Ria Taza
nor Alagyaz have potable water. Absent gas, like in many
poor villages in Armenia, the villagers burn cow dung bricks
for their winter fuel.


4. (U) Though the villages appear to be as poor as any in the
Armenian countryside, Mayor Broyan told us that only three or

four men from the village travel to Russia for seasonal work
-- an odd disparity in a region where many villages lose
nearly all their able-bodied men to construction jobs during
the warmer months. Residents of Alagyaz tend not to travel
to Russia for work either, preferring instead to live off
remittances from relatives abroad, according to Mayor Aziz
Mghoyan.


5. (S) Mayor Broyan was late for our meeting, so we talked to
his sons before he arrived. Rustap, one of the mayor's
sons, told us that the PKK had "united all Kurds throughout
the world," and that the organization was present in Armenia.
He said the organization counted some Armenians among its
members (presumably Yezidi Kurds and not ethnic
Armenians, but he did not elaborate). Rustap told us that
there were probably about a dozen Armenian Yezidi Kurds
currently fighting with the PKK, among them a 27-year-old man
from Ria Taza. (NOTE: We had heard previously (ref B) that
the PKK had discontinued efforts to recruit fighters here.
END NOTE.) Rustap's brother, Ishkhan, confirmed
reports we had heard previously (refs B, C and D) that the
PKK's Yerevan organization, the Kurdistan Committee,
organizes protests against Turkey or in favor of Ocalan.
Ishkhan vehemently denied earlier reports that the
Kurdistan Committee pays villagers to participate in the
protests.

--------------
WOUNDED PKK FIGHTERS TREATED IN ARMENIA
--------------


6. (S) In his living room, sparsely decorated but for an
Abdullah Ocalan calendar and a small Ocalan poster, Mayor
Broyan told us that the question of whether the PKK was in
Armenia was neither Armenia's business, nor the United
States' business. When pressed, he confirmed that the PKK
was in Armenia, and boasted that wounded PKK fighters
received medical treatment in Armenia (something we have
heard before -- ref B). When asked how many, he requested
that Poloff stop taking notes. Once the notebook had been

YEREVAN 00000723 002.2 OF 003


laid aside, we tried to pin him down on numbers. Given the
choice of dozens or hundreds, Broyan told us that hundreds of
fighters from Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq came to Armenia
for treatment. He said that those who were severely wounded
received initial treatment here, before
being sent to Europe. We were unable to get details on how
fighters entered and exited the country, or even on where
exactly they were treated. Broyan told us he could take us
to see some of them, but that he would have to ask permission
first. When we asked who would need to give him permission,
he said there was a "center" in Armenia that coordinated the
treatment. We asked what the Armenian government thought
about this, and he said, "We do it
through our own community; we don't tell the government."


7. (C) Alagyaz Mayor Mghoyan was more careful in his
discussion of the PKK. While he spoke openly about the fact
that there was a PKK office in his village, and even
volunteered to take us there, he told us that the office's
purpose was to put on concerts and hold cultural events. We
took him up on his offer to show us the office, however, when
we arrived there, we were told that the PKK representatives
had just left for Yerevan and would be
gone for the rest of the day.

--------------
YEZIDI, KURD OR YEZIDI KURD?
--------------


8. (C) Most of our contact with Yezidi Kurds before this
visit had been with those who live in Yerevan and who
pointedly do not self-identify as Kurds, but simply term
themselves Yezidi. Aziz Tamoyan, the self-proclaimed leader
of all Yezidis, and Hasan Tamoyan (no relation),a Yezidi
radio personality, disavow their connection to the Kurdish
people, and claim to speak for the Yezidi population. They
are among the apparently small minority of Yezidi Kurds who
claim that their language, Yezidiki, is distinct from
Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji). However, we are told the only
real difference between the two languages is their alphabet:
Yezidiki is written in Cyrillic letters, while Kurmanji uses
either the Latin or the Arabic alphabet.


9. (C) Broyan and Mghoyan had harsh words for the two
Tamoyans: "illiterate," "self-important," "scum of the
nation." The mayors said that Yezidi Kurds and Muslim Kurds
share a nationality, but differ in religion. They
claim the word "Yezidi" refers to the religion - a pagan
religion based on Zoroastrianism, which involves sun worship
and a proscription on eating lettuce. Both mayors were
clearly very offended that the two Tamoyans purport to speak
for all Yezidis (including Yezidi Kurds).

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


10. (C) It looks now as though the two Tamoyans do not speak
for anyone but themselves (and possibly for the dozen people
who accompanied Aziz Tamoyan to the Embassy during an April
27 protest -- ref D). The designation "Yezidi
Kurd" appears to be a more accurate description of the
community as a whole than simply "Yezidi." Armenians tend
to use the words "Yezidi" and "Kurdish" interchangeably to
describe the community.


11. (S) Mayor Broyan's estimation that "hundreds" of PKK
fighters receive treatment in Armenia is almost certainly an
exaggeration; we were unable to convince him to be more
specific about the number, or about whether it referred to
those being treated currently as opposed to all those who
have ever been treated here. Though Broyan took pains to
describe the fighters as "wounded," we believe that it would
be difficult to conceal from Armenian authorities significant
numbers of battle-wounded Kurds receiving treatment in public
hospitals. However, PKK fighters seeking non-combat-related
general medical care might more easily slip below
authorities' radar. It is most likely that our
interlocutors, as clear PKK sympathizers, may well wish us to
believe that the organization is more robust, and better
organized and funded, than is actually the case.


12. (C) The clannish and skittish Yezidi Kurd minority can
be difficult to get close to, and we have not had as many
opportunities as we would like to cultivate these
relationships. The community is also fairly suspicious of

YEREVAN 00000723 003.2 OF 003


Armenians and the Armenian government. We have requested an
IREX-sponsored American scholar
sociologist/anthropologist/ethnographer) come to Armenia for
a 30-day study visit to learn more about the Yezidi Kurdish
community, and have had positive early indications, so we
hope to learn more in upcoming months.
GODFREY