Heydar Ali about the kurdish situation in Armenia

Heydar Ali is the Caucasus Representative of the People's Congress of Kurdistan (Kongra-Gel) said in a interview to the journalist and photographer Onnik Krikorian that:

The state of the local Kurdish community is very bad but we are not differentiating between Armenian and Kurd by saying this because Armenians are also living in a very miserable situation. However, I would like to mention education. There is nothing in the law that obstructs the education of the Kurds in Armenia but in practice there are many obstacles.

Kurds in the Aragatsotn region of Armenia, photo by Onnik Krikorian

Heydar Ali continues later on in the interview:

In Armenia, the language of the Kurds is Kurmanji [a dialect of Kurdish] but there is now an attempt to call it the "Yezidi language" and to deny the fact that the Yezidi are Kurds. In fact, the Yezidi religion is the original faith practiced by the Kurds before most were converted to Islam -- just as Armenians were pagan before most converted to Christianity and some adopted Islam.

Kurds of Armenia, photo by Onnik Krikorian

In Armenia, the language of the Kurds is Kurmanji but there is now an attempt to call it the "Yezidi language"and to deny the fact that the Yezidi are Kurds. In fact, the Yezidi religion is the original faith practiced by the Kurds before most were converted to Islam - just as Armenians were pagan before most converted to Christianity and some adopted Islam.

My two colleagues in this room are Yezidi and are involved with the Kurdistan Committee. There are few Moslem Kurds left in Armenia. When 10,000 people went on to the streets of Yerevan in support of Abdullah Öcalan, they were Yezidi and not Moslem Kurds.
Unfortunately, there are also Kurds in Armenia that are also joining the sects such as the Jehovah Witnesses.

Video of supporters of Öcalan in Yerevan