<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Question for the group:<br><br></div>I recently read a news report that indicated that some (or perhaps most) of<br></div>the Yazidi minority currently being persecuted in northern Iraq were<br>
speakers of Kurdish.  Today I googled this topic and got a Wikipedia <br>article that says the following:]<br><br>"The <b>Yazidi</b> (also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_language" title="Kurdish language" class="">Kurdish</a>: <span lang="ku"><i>Yezidi, Êzidî, Êzdîtî</i></span>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_language" title="Armenian language">Armenian</a>: <span lang="hy">Եզդի</span> <i>Yezdi</i>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language" title="Russian language">Russian</a>: <span lang="ru">Езиды</span> <i>Ezidy</i>) are a mostly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_languages" title="Kurdish languages">Kurdish-speaking</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnoreligious_group" title="Ethnoreligious group">ethnoreligious group</a>. Yezidi Kurds<sup id="cite_ref-13" class=""><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi#cite_note-13"><span>[</span>13<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-14" class=""><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi#cite_note-14"><span>[</span>14<span>]</span></a></sup> have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_culture" title="Kurdish culture">Kurdish culture</a>. According to some sources their religion is linked to ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism" title="Zoroastrianism">Zoroastrianism</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism" title="Sufism">Sufism</a> while other sources view their religion as a combination of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia_Islam" title="Shia Islam">Shia</a> and Sufi Islam with indigenous regional folk traditions.<sup id="cite_ref-AsatrianArakelova2014_15-0" class=""><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi#cite_note-AsatrianArakelova2014-15"><span>[</span>15<span>]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-PalmerBurgess2012_16-0" class=""><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yazidi#cite_note-PalmerBurgess2012-16"><span>[</span>16<span>]</span></a></sup> They live primarily in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineveh_Province" title="Nineveh Province">Nineveh Province</a> of northern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq" title="Iraq">Iraq</a>, a region once part of ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria" title="Assyria">Assyria</a>. Additional communities in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia" title="Armenia">Armenia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_%28country%29" title="Georgia (country)">Georgia</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria" title="Syria">Syria</a> have been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a>, especially to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany" title="Germany">Germany</a>."<br>
<br></div>Does any member of this group have any better information on this?  Most<br>of the articles that mention the Yazidis do not mention their language.<br><br></div>HS<br clear="all"><div><div><div><div><div><br>-- <br>
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