Like Armenia's Yezidi Kurds, the Yezidis of Georgia fled the Ottoman Empire during the 1915 Armenian genocide, many via Armenia. After the Georgia's declaration of independence from the defunct Soviet Union in 1991, many Georgian Yezidis emigrated to Russia for economic reasons. It is estimated there are about 25,000 Yezidis left in Georgia, the overwhelming majority in the capital city of Tbilisi, among them the Feroyan family.