On September 14 of this year, it became known that the executive director of the Public Radio of Armenia, Mr. Garegin Khumaryan, decided to dismiss the co-founder of the Yazidi radio program, Honored Journalist of the Republic of Armenia, senior editor of the Yazidi program Hasan Tamoyan, who has been working since October 1, 2010. Thus, the only program in the world in the Yazidi language will be closed and virtually eliminated.

The president of the National Union of Yazidis, Khdrom Ajoyan, made a comment on this issue: "We already have reliable information that instead of former employees, G. Khumaryan decided to hire people far from the Yazidi culture, which once again confirms the fears that the Yazidi program will eventually be forcibly closed.

We have questions for Mr. Garegin Khumaryan, who does the director of the Public Radio of Armenia consult with, who checks the knowledge of potential employees of the Yazidi language, religion, history, life of the Yazidis, what is the most necessary and important in order to become an employee of the program?" The continued existence of the Yazidi program is impossible to imagine without the honored journalist of the Republic of Armenia Hasan Tamoyan, accordingly, we demand to restore the former employees of the program and its broadcast (75 minutes). I would like to add that I have already applied to the RA authorities, hoping that the issue will be resolved in the near future and our request will be satisfied, " said Khdr Ajoyan.

In this regard, the executive director of the Public Radio of Armenia Garegin Khumaryan reports the following:

The editorial office of programs for Yazidis and, in general, the department for broadcasting programs for foreign countries and national minorities has survived the pivotal reforms launched at Public Radio in 2019.

In the course of these reforms:

1. The volume of radio broadcasts in the native language for Yazidis has doubled (at the moment, the duration of broadcasts has been temporarily reduced due to changes in the editorial staff);

2. A Yazidi-language news website has been launched;

3. A 24-hour Internet radio station dedicated to Yazidi folk music has been created;

4. A video magazine dedicated to the history and culture of the Yazidis has been created;

5. The salary of editorial staff has been significantly increased.

I would like to emphasize that before the reforms began in April 2019, Public Radio produced only a 30-minute radio program in the Yazidi language. And at present, the volume and nature of media services provided to Yazidis by Public Radio in their native language have nothing to do with the previous situation, which, unfortunately, has not changed for decades.

The current volume of media content produced for the Yazidis is not the final destination at all, it is planned to expand work in this direction.

However, in 2020-2021, the reform process reached a certain point when it became clear that with the existing personnel solutions, it is impossible to do more to bring the reforms to the final result. To move forward, we need fresh forces with a fundamentally different level of technological training, network thinking and approaches that are more in tune with the information environment of the 21st century.

Currently, these people are replacing the former employees. And I am sure that everything will work out for us.

Yes, in the course of these changes, the company had to say goodbye to two of its employees, whom we will most likely meet in court.

I reject the attempts to label and insult young specialists who are practicing in the editorial office of the Public Radio Company for Yazidis, contained in Khdra Ajoyan's Facebook post.

I support my colleagues, I urge them not to succumb to provocations.

I doubt the competence of the head of a public organization acting on behalf of all the Yezidis of our country, and I consider it ridiculous to try to present a simple personnel issue in the light of ethnicity.

Our future employees of the Yazidi editorial office, of course, are also Yazidis.

I consider these and other fruitless attempts to put pressure on Public Radio absolutely unacceptable," Garegin Khumaryan said.