Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Archives
    • By Issue
    • By Article
    • By PDF (2008-14)
    • By PDF (1985-97)
    • All Articles
  • Sections
    • Current Research
    • Findings & Footnotes
    • On/File
  • Google Search
You are here: Home / Archive / New self-image emerging among Yezidis in the Caucasus

New self-image emerging among Yezidis in the Caucasus

November 1, 2013 by Richard Cimino

Print-friendly

Despite being ethnic Kurds, a growing number of young Yezidis in the Caucasus now emphasize a specific Yezidi identity instead of the Kurdish one, reports Allan Kaval in Rûdaw (October 14), an independent online newspaper, based in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Kaval recently traveled to Georgia and Armenia for researching developments within Yezidism, an ancient, syncretic religion found among Kurds, primarily in Iraq, but also with smaller numbers in the Caucasus and in Syria, and more recently showing a growing diaspora in Germany.

Of course, there are Yezidis who continue to identify with Kurdish nationalism. But a segment of the Yezidis from the Caucasus do no longer want to be perceived as Kurds—to the extent of insisting to be referred to as a “Yezidi folk group” and not a Kurdish one, at a recent cultural event in Georgian capital Tbilissi.

A movement called Ezdiki has thus appeared among Yezidis in Armenia and Georgia, as well as among diaspora Yezidis, aspiring to create a Yezidi ethnic identity as a substitute for the Kurdish one. A few advocate for a Yezidi country, Ezidistan, on online social networks, according to Kaval.

(Rûdaw – http://rudaw.net/english)

Print-friendly

Filed Under: Archive

Also in this issue

  • On/File: November 2013
  • Findings & Footnotes: November 2013
  • Newly mobile Chinese embrace secular religiosity
  • Nationalism emerges among Egypt’s Christians and Muslims as alternative to Islamism
  • Nigerian dynamic reverberates throughout global Christianity
  • New forms of religiosity take root in Turkey
  • Current Research: November 2013
  • Witchcraft appealing to new generation of teenage girls
  • Unpaid, bi-vocational clergy gaining traction among mainline Protestants
  • `None’ uprising leading to new approaches, innovations in seminaries
  • Scholars, evangelical leaders agree on link between religious politics, ‘nones’

Search the Site

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Download the first issue of RELIGION WATCH (1980)

Click on the image for downloading

© 2016-2020 Richard Cimino / Religioscope
·News Pro Theme · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress