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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). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶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. 
 
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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. 
 
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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. 
 
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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). 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶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