Armenian Yazidis Blame Erdoğan for Genocide of Iraqi Kin

Iraqi Yazidis, fleeing from persecution by Islamic State militants in their home region of Sinjar, walk toward the Syrian border

YEREVAN—Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on Tuesday, the Chairman of the Yazidi Union of Armenia, Aziz Tamoyan, said Yazidis in Iraq are facing a genocide, voicing deep dismay at the lack of interest shown by world leaders toward the plight of his co-ethnics and the possibility of their extermination.

Another Armenian Yazidi leader Bro Hasanyan traced the predicament of his co-ethnics in Iraq to the actions of Turkey and former prime minister and newly elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose efforts in aiding and abetting Islamic State fighters led to their presence and power in Iraq.

“A genocide is being carried out against the Yazidis in the 21st century and the President of Turkey Erdoğan, former President of Iraq Talabani, and the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Barzani are responsible for it,” Hasanyan said.

Meanwhile, on the same day as the press conference, the government in Stepanakert announced that Artsakh is ready to welcome Yazidis fleeing persecution in Iraq.

Davit Babayan, the spokesman for Artsakh President Bako Sahakian, referred to the Yazidis as “brotherly” people facing genocide at the hands of radical Sunni insurgents, RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) reported.

“The Armenian people cannot be indifferent to what is now being done to the Yazidi people,” Babayan told Azatutyun.am. “The Yazidis are the only people who have become an integral part of the Armenian people.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is therefore willing to take in Yazidi refugees, he said. “Artsakh has many socioeconomic problems,” he said. “But if there are such applications we, as a state committed to democratic and humanitarian norms, will try to help those people as much as we can.”