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Report: The Yezidis Kurds from Tbilisi,
Georgia 20.12.2006
By Nicolas LANDRU in Tbilisi |
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December 20, 2006
On a sloping backstreet of Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, a
basement marks the entryway of the Kurdish
International Centre of Culture and Information. In
this office, if any part of the community happens to
gather for the holidays, it is often the guardian,
Erika Mouradian, alone. This time, expectations of
musicians to come from Armenia to liven up the
Centre will have been in vain: visible and active
during Soviet times, today’s Yézidis Kurdish
community in Tbilisi has severely diminished.
Unstructured and divided, the community is without a
doubt the weakest minority in Georgia.
The entryway to the Centre has only two tables and a
television, but it is rich in decoration: a Kurdish
flag and star; an iconic photo of Lalish—the Yézdis
religious center in Iraq—containing religious
symbols (a snow-flake, a peacock, three cupolas and
an eternal flame); and immense portraits of Abdullah
Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
and the charismatic figure behind the movement for
the liberation of Kurds in Turkey, who was arrested
by the Turkish secret service in 1999, condemned to
death and then pardoned thanks to international
pressure.
The events that occurred in Georgia at the same time
as Öcalan’s 1999 arrest are revealing of the Kurdish
situation there. Several hundred people went out
into the streets of Tbilisi in demonstration of
their support for Öcalan, leader of the Kurdish
cause. Another part of the community, otherwise
having no interest in this fight, was opposed to the
mobilization.
As for an illustration of the manner by which the
Georgian society understands the problems of Kurds,
the following incident should shed some light: it is
often said that when the Chief of Police in Tbilisi
learned that because of Öcalan’s arrest the Kurds
were protesting in the suburb of Samgori, the Chief
of Police gave his forces the order to free the
bandit. Criminals or street sweepers, the women who
clean the streets of Tbilisi at dawn are almost
exclusively Kurdish, the profession is so
designated. Herein lies the universally confirmed
image of Kurds in Georgian society. Moreover,
whether it be a mere sad coincidence or not, in
Georgian, the word Kurd is pronounced “kurti” and
thief is pronounced “kurdi.”
To the sound of Kurdish television
In the Centre, Erika has access to six Kurdish
television stations including ROJ—the voice of the
PKK broadcasted from Denmark, and MED-TV, which is
based in Belgium. She is often brought news from
Armenia, written in Armenian, Russian and Kurdish.
There is no Kurdish newspaper published in Georgian.
The Centre is entiredly devoted to the Kurdish
international cause: One Russophone newspaper is
called Free Kurdistan, another is called Friendship
and subtitled, “Öcalan, our leader.”
While facing the constantly blaring television,
Djemal explains the injustice Kurds face while all
other nations have obtained a territory. The
construction of a Kurdish State is her dream. At the
announcement of Saddam Hussein’s death sentence, who
is accused of executing thousands of Kurds, Erika
expressed a joy without limits. Justice had been
done.
Another identifying mark of the international
Kurdish cause among the Yézidis of Tbilisi is the
name the Kurdish team took during an interfaith
football tournament organized by the Georgian
Football Federation and UNDP in December 2006. The
Yézidi team called itself “Barzani” in reference to
the greatest Kurdish tragedy in Iraqi history. In
1983, Saddam Hussein arrested and dissapeared
everyone with the name Barzani.
Kurds or Yezidis?
All the same, this Caucasian population’s
identification with the international Kurdish cause
is far from apparent. The Centre’s main room, among
Kurdish flags and portaits of Öcalan, Yézidi symbols
are also proudly displayed. In the rear room there
is a temple where adherents come to celebrate the
saint’s days. “It’s our Kurdish religion” says
Erika.
Moreover, the religious differences among
Kurdophones, particularly in the Caucasus, seriously
shake up identities. While the majority of Kurds in
Turkey, Irak or Syria are Sunni Muslins, the Yézidis
practice an ancient religion which venerates the
peacock, a symbol of the demon which became in
angel, the flame and the sun, and curious syncretism
of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Because the collective identities were formed long
ago around religious principals, two distinct
communities developed. In Georgia the 1926 census
counted approximately 10,000 Kurds and 2,000 Yézidis.
The Soviet authorities only recognized one Kurdish
community. All the same, the majority of were
deported by Stalin in 1944 and the Yézidis were
counted at 18,329 versus 2,514 Muslims according to
the 2002 census. Additionally and separate from the
religious factor, Muslim Kurds, like those in
Armenia, are well integrated in the Azeri community.
They have often been counted as Azeris, and some of
them currently present in Georgia even hold Azeri
citizenship.
At the heart of the Yézidi community however, rifts
are still important. Between “Ethnicly Yézidi”, “of
Kurdish ethnicity and Yézidi religious”, or simply
“ethnically Kurdish”, different groups,
organizations and individuals represent all three
options. In the small Centre of Mtatsminda, if the
word “Yézidi” were not used, the principal cultural
organization of the community in Georgia would be
“The Union of Georgian Yézidis”, which does not
recognize a link with Muslim Kurds or the PKK
movement. Armenian scholarly manuals mention the
“Yézidi nation”, but for this reason, several
Tbilisi organizations have complained to the
Armenian embassy. The community has little chance of
arriving at a consensus.
Marginalization and weakening
With nearly 40,000 souls, Armenia is host to the
most important Yézidi Kurish community in the
Caucasus, which is also the most organized and most
visible. In Georgia, they were counted at 33,331 in
1989 and 20,843 in 2002. Local associations however,
estimate no more than 6,000.
Are these figures inflated to mask the disasterous
emmigration from Georgia? In the 1980’s, the
community was still highly visible in Tbilisi. The
city containted one of the most reputed theatres of
the Kurdish world. Excluded from public positions
and the majority of professional tracks, without a
port-parole or federal organization, the Yézidi
Kurds, according to a report by the International
Federation of Human Rights, occupy the most fragile
social position in the country.
The in Mtatsminda Centre, the women speak of their
sons in Russia and their daughters in Germany,
France or Canada. In reality, the community
litteraly melted after 1989 and the rate of
emigration is the highest among Georgian minorities.
Another sign of the community’s weakened state is
that Yézidi Kurdish youth, without any future in
Georgia, often try their hand in Armenia, although
the economic situation there is in many regards
worse than in Georgia.
Translated by Christian Nils LARSON (originally
in French, first appearing in the December 12, 2006
edition)
caucaz com
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