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Categories & Keywords

Category:Travel and Places
Subcategory:Middle East
Subcategory Detail:Armenia
Keywords:Armenia, Kurd, Kurdish, Leutheuser, Rob Leutheuser, Robert Leutheuser, Yezidi
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Dimensions3872 x 2592
Original file size3.91 MB
Image typeJPEG
Sheikh Usoyan - Djamshlu, Aragat Region, Armenia (2008)

Sheikh Usoyan - Djamshlu, Aragat Region, Armenia (2008)

On the eastern slope of Armenia's Mount Aragat there are Yezedi Kurdish villages. Djamshlu is one of a trio along a secondary road, and Wazir Usoyan its Yezedi Sheikh. He is a poor man in a poor village who graciously invited me into his fly-buzzed home. The Yezedi Kurds fled neighboring Turkey (Ottoman Empire at the time) during the Armenian genocide of 1915, the Yezedis fearing the same persecution because they were not Muslims. The Russians/Soviets/Armenians left them largely to their own, to both their benefit and detriment.