Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

Yezidis and : Shaping of a New Identity*

Victoria Arakelova Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Yerevan

Abstract For the last decades, the Yezidi identity whose main marker was for centuries based on a unique religion, the Sharfadin, has undergone specific transformations. One of the most stable trends playing a crucial role in the mentioned process, is the spread of Orthodox Christianity, particularly among the Yezidis of Georgia and Russia. This phenomenon is especially interesting regarding the fact that, unlike neo-Protestant missions, Orthodox has never been active in proselytism particularly among the Yezidis; no Orthodox mission has ever focused its activities on this group. Yet, the number of the Yezidis con- verting to the Orthodox Christianity gradually grows. The paper is an interim result of a project on the modern transformations of the Yezidi identity. Compiled on the materials collected by the author through interviews and questionnaires among the converted Ye- zidis of Georgia and Russia, it focuses on several particular cases reflecting the shaping of a principally new identity, when Christian mentality replaces the Yezidi eclectic religious outlook.

Keywords Yezidis, Jehova’s Witnesses, Conversion to Christianity, Complex Identity

Conversion has never been typical of any ethno-religious community, and the Yezidis in particular,1 as evidenced by multiple cases of their forced conversion to , and just few, of their voluntary adoption of Christi-

* Some preliminary notes on the subject were presented by the author at INALCO’s conference “Current researches on the Yezidis and Minorities in the Kurdish Speaking Re- gion” (1-2 April 2016, Paris), and the international conference “Iran and the Caucasus - 20: A Breakthrough” (21-23 October 2016, Aghveran, Armenia), organised by Institute of Orien- tal Studies, Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University, Yerevan. 1 On the identity markers of ethno-religious communities, see, e.g., Arakelova 2010.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 DOI: 10.1163/1573384X-20180403

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 354 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 anity. The last decades of the 20th-beginning of the 21st century reveal quite new, active trends of Christian proselytism among them. The revival of Christianity in the Soviet Union in the late 80s of the past century, as well as spread of various non-traditional denominations, what in fact brought serious changes in the mentality of the whole soci- ety, seriously influenced the Yezidi community as well. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these processes continued even more actively as a re- sult of the sharp deterioration of the economic situation, and active mi- gration processes among the Yezidis (mainly from Armenia and Georgia to Russia). Proselytism among the Yezidis has been observed since then in Arme- nia, Georgia and several regions of the Russian Federation, each region having its specific peculiarities. The Yezidis of the South Caucasus, namely Armenia and Georgia, as well as those of Russia, have revealed principally new trends—the adoption of Orthodox Christianity and tran- sition to various Neo-Protestant groups, the latter being non-traditional for the region.

PREHISTORY Official attestations of the Yezidis’ conversion to Christianity go back to the 17th century, when Pope Grigory XV established the sacred congrega- tion (1622) for the so called Propaganda Fide, aimed at conversion of pri- marily heathens, as well as protestants of northern Europe and ancient Christian communities of the Orient. John Guest (1987: 49 ff.) accurately brings numerous archive references on the subject.2 For example, one of the missions’ reports says about “two of the Ye- zidis chiefs” who “had met the Protestant chaplain of the English commu- nity in Aleppo. They told him that for forty years the Yezidis had asked God to show them the right road to the salvation and that strong urges and inner light had convinced them they should embrace Christianity.

2 Guest (1987: 50), by the way, mentions inter alia an interesting example of a reverse case, when in the 50-60s of the 17th century, after the death of the Metropolitan of Sinjar, a whole Nestorian congregation joint the Yezidi community and thus, actually adopted Ye- zidism.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 355

The Chaplain had received them kindly and was now giving them guid- ance” (ibid: 51). The missionary Père Justinien wrote: “Everyone—the two sheikhs, the black-roben priests and the tribesmen, dressed in white cloth cut round at the neck—desired to learn about Christianity”. Plans were made to hold a mass… in the ruined basilica of St. Simeon Stylist and there was talk of convening delegates from all the Yezidis in Persia and to send envoys to the Pope… When I saw their eagerness to draw to the bosom of the church, their tears and the affection, I thought I was seeing a dream rather than reality”. Not all of the documents are so enthusiastic. Very soon, the mission- aries of the Holy Congregation came to the conclusion that separate cases of proselytism would hardly result in mass conversion. By the end of the 17th century, the Yezidism was already a well-shaped doctrine whose fol- lowers had though syncretic but already completely crystallised, specific mentality and a distinct identity. The following report by Père Jeab-Bap- tiste and the heads of the Carmelite and Franciscan missions in Aleppo says that, “having learned by experience that there was little chance of achieving anything with the devil-worshipping Yezidis, they had decided to stop trying to convert them” (ibid.: 53). As for Armenia, there is at least one interesting moment that should be mentioned in this context. When, in the beginning of the 20th century (1909), the Yezidi religious leader Mir Ismail travelled to Armenia from Sinjar expressing his gratitude to the country that gave shelter to his peo- ple, he paid a special visit to Holy Ejmiacin. Having emphasized his re- spect to the Armenian Apostolic Church, he addressed to the Armenian Catholicos Gevorg Surenyan with the following words: “I would ask you that if a Yezidi comes to you, consider him an Armenian and do not dis- tinguish between the Armenians and Yezidis. I wish to leave a covenant to the Yezidis [here], so that they would always serve the Armenian Church, as if they were home, in the house of God, and the house of prophet. I ask God that this house would stay firm for both the Armenians and Yezidis”. This words are not only mentioned in the Armenian sources (see, e.g., Ka- naneanc‘, s.a.: 17-18), but they have also become an essential part of the Yezidi local oral tradition; Yezidis often cite the mentioned words as a special marker of the Armenian-Yezidi friendship and unity.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 356 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

Yet, for their almost two-century history in Armenia and Georgia, Ye- zidis have never in fact been object of Christian preaching. There are at least two significant reasons for this. First, a considerable time-span of the Yezidi history in the South Caucasus coincided with the Soviet period when any kind of religious propaganda was prohibited. Second, histori- cally, both the Armenian Apostolic Church and Georgian have been approached as kind of “national” institutions, oriented predominantly to their own flock, i.e. to the ethnic Armenians and Geor- gians correspondingly. One of the reasons of the Neo-Protestant missions’ success is that they make accent on their supra-ethnic, supra-national character. They are not associated with any particular ethnic group or state, while the clichés about the national character of Armenian and Georgian Churches, like “the Armenian Church is for Armenians, and the Georgian Church is for Georgians only” are very strong. Indeed, the whole long history of the Armenian Church even outside Armenia proves that it has always focused on the spiritual needs of the Armenian Diaspora and never aimed at converting non-Christians or Christians of other confes- sions. Thus, the Yezidis in the both countries, having always been well in- tegrated, remained a closed endogamous ethno-religious community, followers of the Sharfadin, their syncretic faith3.

MODERN PERIOD The situation started changing rapidly in the late 80s, when Church re- gained its high status what resulted in the rebirth of religious life in the Soviet Union. The severe political and economic crisis, local conflicts and multiple difficulties in all the spheres of life, which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, in their turn, resulted in a rapid raise of religious con- sciousness of the society. This situation was skillfully used by numerous missionaries of various religious sects and groups, which, though having been non-traditional for the region, actually, covered the whole ex-Soviet territory; neo-protestant confessions, primarily Jehovah’s Witnesses4 and Charismatics Pentecostals having been among them.

3 Among the latest publication on the Yezidis and their religion, see Asatrian/Arake- lova 2014. 4 In Russia, Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned as extremist organisation in April 2017.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 357

From this point on, we have observed totally different situations in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. First, there are still no cases of Yezidis’ con- version to Armenian Apostolic Christianity. At the same time, a rather big number of Yezidis join the above mentioned groups, most of them, to Je- hova’s Witnesses. Since the converted Yezidis are not so willing to openly reveal their new faith, there is no exact statistics. However, they are growing in number, and currently Armenia seems to be one of the main centres of the Jehova’s Witnesses’ prolific propaganda. It is enough to mention that in one of the Yezidi villages (the village of Sadunc‘ (former Amr-e Taza and previously Karvan-sara) of the Aragatsotn province of Armenia, all the residents are currently members of the Jehova’s Wit- nesses. Every year Armenia holds Jehova’s Witnesses international con- gresses, organised particularly for the Yezidis, with numerous Yezidi guests from different countries (mainly Russia and Georgia) (see, e.g., Seyedehnasim 2018). In Georgia, apart from a similar process, we see obvious trend of Ye- zidis’ conversion to Orthodox Christianity. Most of the Orthodox Chris- tians here are baptised in ; and only some, in . The Orthodox neophytes openly speak about the adoption of Christianity, as well as about changes in their mentality and life-style; they are always ready to share their path to the new faith and personal experience. There is already a field for certain generalisa- tions, although most of what we have at the present stage can be rather approached as separate case studies. The situation in Russia is, in many aspects, similar to that in Georgia. Only one point should be mentioned here as a preliminary remark: the Yezidis living in Russia’s big cities more often adopt Orthodox Christian- ity, while those living in provinces, where sectarians are very active and it is easier for them to work with the compact dwelling communities, often belong to non-traditional denomination, first of all, Jehova’s Witnesses. Why do the Yezidis who adopt Christianity, are ready to share their experience, while sectarians try to avoid talking about it? There are two important components of this issue: the attitude of the Yezidi community and family members, and the attitude of the society. The latter plays a significant role and should be particularly taken into consideration in an attempt to answer the above question. Christianity, be it the Armenian

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 358 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

Apostolic Church, the Georgian or Russian Orthodox Churches, have a very high status correspondingly in Armenia, Georgia, and Russia, while sectarianism is approached extremely negatively—as a symbol of na- tional disintegration and a result of the so called foreign influence in an attempts to weaken the nations whose identities have for centuries been based on their faiths. So, the unwillingness of the Yezidis who join non- traditional religious movements and organisations, to go on contact should be, most probably, explained by this argument. As for the attitude of the Yezidi community and family members, it varies. Below is the official opinion of a Yezidi sheikhs and one of the community’s leaders and activists from Armenia. In his interview on the problem, Hasan Tamoyan (Hasane Mamud), an authoritative sheikh from Yerevan, a well-known intellectual and the founder and director of the Yezidi radio programme, expresses his high concern about the situation. However, he specially emphasises that, although he approaches the phe- nomenon itself as dangerous trend for the Yezidism, he does not con- demn the proselytes: “People need spiritual guidance. If they neglected their religious tradition, or just became less religious, it would be an ab- solutely different situation. But they need faith, they want to believe. The situation means that they do not acquire appropriate guidance from their spiritual masters, the sheikhs. Years ago, it was problematic to find infor- mation on Yezidism, to read the Yezidi qawl-o-beyt (sacred texts). Sheikhs were the only bearers of the sacred knowledge. Now everything is accessi- ble, but people are no longer interested in this knowledge. The Yezidi faith has become kind of inertia. Sheikhs themselves seldom if ever know the oral tradition by heart, although they are supposed to have a profound knowledge of their faith, in order to provide spiritual guidance. Therefore, people are looking for it in other religious traditions. If such a mass con- version took place in Iraq, I could find an explanation in constant wars, persecutions, ISIS brutal actions... But here in Armenia, where all the con- ditions are created to preserve our language, culture, our identity, where there is no threat to the Yezidis’ life, such a process should be explained only with some inner problems, I would say, with the spiritual crisis in the community. Even Sheikhs do not properly know our traditions, even Sheikhs give non-Yezidi names to their children, and ignore our religious rules and customs. There are cases when Sheikhs themselves convert.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 359

How can we blame our laymen? This is our own fault, that of spiritual leaders, first of all,”—concludes sheikh Hasan. There is a group of young activists who travel to the Yezidi communi- ties all over Armenia, trying to work with proselytes and convince them to return to the faith of their fathers. However, their activity can hardly be characterised as successful. Unlike Jehova’s Witnesses’ propagandists, these young people are not particularly trained for religious disputes, they know almost nothing about Yezidism, and their main argument is that “this is our traditional faith, and if we stop being Yezidis, the Yezidism will completely disappear sooner or later”. Actually, the same thought—that Yezidism may totally disappear as specific ethno-religious phenome- non—was articulated by Sheikh Hasan as well. He sees no positive per- spective and thinks that if the Yezidis lose the main pillar of their identity, the religion of Sharfadin, they will be sooner or later assimilated in the re- gion and elsewhere.5 Aziz Tamoyan (Azize Amar), the formal leader of the Yezidi commu- nity of Armenia, also characterises conversion as negative phenomenon. Yet, he does not blame people either, since they do not know the essence of their own faith, Sharfadin, and have a very vague idea even about the fundamentals of the Yezidi religion. Aziz Tamoyan is among those who meet the proselytes, trying to convince them to return to Yezidism. Ac- cording to his words, his propaganda works in certain cases. Unlike Sheikh Hasan, Aziz Tamoyan is sure that this is a temporary situation, that many will return to the community, Ezdikhana, and the community will for sure accept them in case they did not marry a non-Yezidi. He also emphasizes that generally the community treat the proselytes with con- tempt. As for their families, there are multiple cases when family mem- bers support the proselytes and later get under their influence and also convert. Aziz Tamoyan is sure that spread of sectarianism in Armenia and among the Yezidis is one of the “political projects” controlled from abroad. He adds that the missionaries work more successfully particularly with socially vulnerable layers in the more isolated Yezidi communities, far from urban centres. The mentioned above village of Sadunc‘ perfectly fits this statement.

5 Author’s interview with Sheikh Hasan Tamoyan (March, 2016).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 360 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

YEZIDIS AND THE CHRISTIAN All our respondents are Yezidis from Georgia who adopted Orthodox Christianity either in Georgia or Russia and who currently live in these countries. Most of them adopted the new faith as a result of their own in- terest to Christianity, which emerged under different circumstances. Some felt kind of enthusiasm under the influence of Christian feasts, which are widely celebrated in Georgia and Russia. Some just start at- tending church services. Some were influenced by their friends—other Orthodox Christians—Georgians, Russians, etc., or by converted Yezidis. Answering the question how it happened, apart from telling personal stories, they emphasise that they were looking for the sense of life and could not find it unless God revealed Himself to them. Most of them state that, in fact, everything was new for them in Christianity, despite the fact they live among Christians and had a general idea of the doctrine. Here is one of the stories told by Viktor (41 years old, from Tbilisi). “When I was 16, I started seriously thinking about the sense of my life, and God revealed Himself to me. In 1994, May 14, I was going to my aunt by metro. A girl was sitting in the wagon, carrying a lit candle covered with a lamp. When we were going out of the subway, the candle went out be- cause of the wind gust. The girl looked obviously upset, and I was sur- prised. I couldn’t help but asking her about the candle. She said that the Georgian Patriarch was in Jerusalem and brought the Holy Fire to Geor- gia, and she was carrying it home so that the grace of the fire would enter her home as well. She suggested that we would go back to the church and light the candle once more. I was more than surprised but agreed and we went together. After the church, on our way back, in the subway the can- dle went out again. This time I felt kind of enthusiasm and suggested Nana (the name of the girl) returning to the church. On the way I was asking question about God and faith. Nana introduced me to one of the parishioner, and he answered all my questions in detail. Our Lord opened my heart, and I accepted everything I heard, and I felt that Orthodoxy is my path, it is so dear to me. We were already approaching Nana’s home, when the candle went out again, although there was no wind at all. This time I was upset, but Nana told me that, if I wish, I can come to the church for Saturday and Sunday services. I did, and since then I have never missed Sunday services. Later, when once I shared this story with

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 361 one Christian, he said the fire went out because it came on in my heart. At that moment I remembered the word of our Holy fathers who say that if God brings someone to the temple, He lights the fire of faith in him. This fire is in each heart, but mine came to me from Jerusalem. In 2005, I vis- ited the Holy Land, and Jerusalem... Before, I had not been able to find sense in my life, but since I adopted Christianity, I feel only joy”. One of the most crucial questions was what attracted the neophytes in Christianity. The most typical answers sound as following: “We can com- municate with God”, “One can hear and see God, one can feel and taste Him”, “This is a living faith”, “This is the faith of saints”, “We have living communication with God”. The attitude in the families of those who adopted Orthodox Christian- ity varies, but it is rather positive than negative. In many cases, in the families where the initial attitude to the issue was absolutely negative, family members, having observed deep transformations in their family kin’s nature, change their attitude and even adopt Christianity themselves so that there are already the whole Yezidi families converted to Orthodox Christianity. They have both a big circle of friends among Orthodox Chris- tians, and are in good relations with the Yezidi friends. In response to the question “Why did you choose Orthodox Christi- anity?”, the typical answers are: “I did not choose it. Orthodox Christianity chose me”, “It is Christ’s mercy, Christ revealed Him to me”. A precious material for the analysis is the attitude to Yezidism among the converted to Christianity. What do they think about the Yezidi reli- gion now? Here we come to an interesting point. Most of the converted Yezidis are from the cast of the mirids, the laymen. Many of them had a very vague idea of their traditional faith: they read something on various Yezidi sites, heard something from their grandparents. Yezidism was ra- ther an inertia-tradition for them, than a spiritual ideology. So they started to analyse its ideology only when they abandoned it, and thus al- ready tried to understand it from the Christian point of view, as a heresy. So, they came to the conclusion that the Yezidism is a big fallacy in which the whole nation has remained for centuries. Now they, as Orthodox Christians, are rather concerned with the Yezidis themselves, than with Yezidism, and consider it their duty to testify of Christ among his relatives and other Yezidis.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 362 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

For example, one of the respondents says: “I read on a Yezidi site that the Yezidis worship the Fallen Angel who fell away from God, but later repented, and God forgave him. However, if the Fallen Angel would have repented, there would have been no evil in this world. So, it turns that the Yezidis do worship devil”. Among those converted to Orthodox Christianity, there are already Orthodox monks. One of them, monk Maday (Serafim Maamdi), a Yezidi who was born in Georgia and grew up in Moscow, where his family moved to and where he was later baptised in the Russian Orthodox Church. He met father Daniel Sysoev, an outstanding figure in modern Russian Orthodoxy, who was famous with his preaching among Muslims and who was murdered in 2009. Daniel Sysoev’s figure is extremely popu- lar in Russia and not only, many consider his death as martyrdom and ex- pect he will be canonised as martyr sooner or later.6 Anyway, Serafim Maamdi was greatly influenced by farther Daniel; he joint his missionary courses and prepared himself for preaching among Kurds. He later en- tered Theological Faculty of the University of Athens and is now a monk in the mount of Athos. Monk Maday gives the following explanation to the situation: “Neo-Protestant missions started working among both the Muslim Kurds and the Yezidis in the early 80s of the last century. Their missions particularly flourished after the disintegration of the Soviet Un- ion. So, today’s sectarian communities having shaped of the Yezidis of Armenia, Georgia and Russia, are the result of the last 35-40-year work of Western missionaries. As for the Orthodox Christianity, we can observe an amazing fact: in the modern history nobody specially dealt with the mission among the Yezidis… Only today we can see that Orthodox mis- sion somehow activates its work among the Yezidis”. Speaking about the inner motivation of their conversion, the neo- phytes explain that one can find in Christianity what he cannot find in Yezidism, and, first of all, it is a concrete example to follow, Christ Him- self, while Yezidism offers no role model. Besides, in Yezidism, they stress, a person have formal rules and prescriptions, but see neither spiritual path, nor spiritual growth. Monk Maday, who knows in person numerous

6 See Hieromonk Job Gumerov, “Can one Consider the Death of Father Daniel Sysoev to be a Martyrdom?”, Orthodox Christianity, http://orthochristian.com/32949.html.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 363 converted Yezidis, both in Georgia and Russia, say that most of them pre- viously did not know much about Christianity: “The motivation here has nothing to do with knowledge, and it is seldom if ever a person studies Christian dogmas before he comes to Church”. He refers to the words of holy fathers that, “those coming to God are involved in the calling of God’s grace, which attracts people to the Creator”.7 Despite the fact that the story of the Orthodox tradition among the Yezidis is pretty short, it is already marked with such a specific element as martyrdom, fixed by the Church tradition.8 Anna Mraz Kaloyan was born on the 18th of December 1987 to the Ye- zidi parents. The family lived in South Russia, in the village of Bazkovska- ya, Sholokhovskiy area, Rostov region. In Autumn 2012, she was baptised to Orthodox Christianity. The of baptism was conducted by the Archpriest Valery Kharitonov, the Rector of the parish, in the Candlemas Church of Bazkovskaya village. Anna became an active parishioner and, despite constant threats from her relatives, tried to spend almost all her time in the church. Anna’s parents, relatives and the whole Yezidi com- munity of the area had been trying to convince the young woman to re- nounce Christ and return to Yezidism. However, all those efforts, includ- ing persecution and beating, did not bring any result. In the period of the of 2012, Anna often confessed and took the Holy Communion. She was preparing herself for Christmas (the Orthodox Church celebrates it on January 7) and even sewed a new dress. But in the night of the 4th of January 2013, Anna was beaten to death by her own parents with iron armature. Her father first broke her legs so that she could not escaped, and then continued to beat her, demanding that Anna would deny Christ. Yet, the young woman refused to do it till the very end. “The Life of the New-Martyr” (see fn. 8) puts it in the following way: “Thus, in the day, when the Holy Church celebrates the Day of Memory of the Great Martyr St. Anastasia the Pharmakolytria, Anna Kalo- yan endured a martyr’s end from her parents for the sake of Christ”.

7 Author’s interviews and correspondence with Monk Maday. 8 See “Zhitie svyatoy novomuchenicy Anny Kurdskoy”, in the report of the “Shakh- tinskaya Diocese: Five Years of Service” (Shaxtinskaya eparxiya: pyat’ let sluzheniya, 2016: 92-93).

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access 364 V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365

Anna’s father admitted the charge and was sentenced to 7 years of im- prisonment. The martyr was buried in the Yezidi cemetery near the Verkhnetokinskiy bowery, but separately from the Yezidi burials. Her grave is now revered by the Orthodox Christians. She is approached as a new-martyr, i.e. the martyr of the post-Soviet era, although she has not yet been officially canonised by the Church. For Orthodox Christians of vari- ous ethnic background (South Russia is a very variegated region), Anna is a bright example of martyrdom, a woman who had been converted to Christianity from a religion they had hardly heard of before (the Yezidi communities of South Russia are comparatively new and emerged in the 80-90s of the last century as a result of economic migration from Armenia and Georgia). Another factor, which is emphasised in this particular case, is that Anna had accepted Christianity only three months before her mar- tyrdom, and she was ready to die for Christ. The common opinion among the Orthodox Yezidis and Kurds about the case can be put as follows: “We, Orthodox Kurds/Yezidis are very happy we have our own saint, our martyr who prays for us before God”. One can easily draw obvious parallels, through the whole history of Chris- tianity, with the lives of Christian saints, who were persecuted or mur- dered for their faith by their own relatives. This new martyr is a modern role model for neophytes, and her martyrdom is approached as an in- spiring example of the true Christian life and faith. No wonder, this case has become a new milestone in the formation of the new identity.

IDENTITY ISSUE A significant element of the described phenomenon is the self-identifica- tion of the newly shaped groups. We have two principally different ap- proaches to the identity issue here. This controversy is rooted in the problem of the proper Yezidi identity. For example, the Yezidis of Arme- nia (as well as most of those living elsewhere in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and European countries) consider themselves a separate people, what is re- flected in the popular formula “My religion is Sharfadin, and my nation is Yezidi”. They have a strong feeling of their own, Yezidi identity, and any attempt to identify them with Kurds cause resentment and indignation among them. In order to emphasise their distinct identity, they even call their language Ezdiki (versus Kurmanji, although this is the same lan-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access V. Arakelova / Iran and the Caucasus 22 (2018) 353-365 365 guage in fact). So, most of those converted from this group continue con- sider themselves Yezidis (in terms of their ethnicity) who have just changed their religion. There is no exact name given to this new identity among such Yezidis so far, but it will obviously emerge. The situation is specific in Georgia, where many Yezidis consider themselves the so called Yezidi Kurds. Proselytes from this group, bap- tised both in the Russian or Georgian Churches, start calling themselves Orthodox Kurds. The problem of the Yezidi identity remains among the topical issues of the field, and we will focus on it separately in one of our forthcoming publications in the framework of the current project. Anyway, we presently witness an extremely interesting process of transformations in the Yezidi community, connected with quite a new phenomenon—a voluntary conversion to Christianity, what had never before been typical of this ethno-religious group (versus, e.g., forced con- version to Islam, which often occurred in the Yezidi history) and, as a re- sult, shaping of a new complex identity or, rather, identities. The phe- nomenon will definitely spread and thus require further scrutiny.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Arakelova, V. (2010), “Ethno-religious Communities: To the Problem of Identity markers”, Iran and the Caucasus, 14.1: 1-19. Asatrian, G. / V. Arakelova (2014), The People of the Peacock Angel: Yezidis and their Spirit World, Durham, 2014. Guest, J. (1987), Yezidis: A Study in Survival, New York. Kanayanc‘, S. (s.a.), “Ezdinerǝ ev hayerǝ”, Taraz, 1: 17-18. Seyedehnasim, F. (2018), “Yezidy Armenii v sekte Svideteley Iegovy”, Region i mir, 4: 111-115.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 02:28:42PM via free access