From the first day of its operation, the new Temple became a place where Ziyaret will naturally contribute to the revival and development of the entire Yazidi people. Based on this postulate, the leadership of the Cultural Center of the Caucasus Yezidis decided to begin active work to promote the interests of the Yazidi community and prepare the ground for joint projects.

The head of the "Cultural Centre of the Yazidis of the Caucasus" Yuri Smoev held a series of meetings with prominent representatives of the Yazidi community of Armenia . At the meeting with the head of the "Yazidi center for human rights of NGOs" with Sashik Sultanyan and his assistant Isabel Broyan-the issue of education of Yazidi youth, ways of development of education and employment of youth was discussed. Sashik Sultanyan also spoke in detail about the activities of his organization, its goals and prospects for further cooperation. Sashik Sultanyan noted that "Yazidi center for human rights" is working on the problems of preserving the identity of the Yazidi people. Unfortunately, in places where there is no compact residence of the Yazidi Diaspora, young people lose their language, culture and traditions. Sashik Sultanyan also touched upon the issue of discrimination of national minorities. According to him, Yazidi children do not receive education at the proper level. Yazidi girls do not attend school after grade 6-7, although full secondary education is achieved at grade 12. It was also noted that in the Yazidi villages children are taught in their native language, the teachers of these schools do not have proper Yazidi education. Children are taught Cyrillic, while the whole civilized world reads and writes in Latin. All of the Yazidi Diaspora, which lives in Europe and Russia reading and writing in the Latin alphabet. There is a vicious circle for Yazidi children, getting an education in Cyrillic they are not where they can not apply their knowledge. According to Sashik Sultanyan, it would not be bad if the training was carried out in Latin (Yazidi writing was conducted in Latin letters). The organization is going to initiate a project to create new textbooks in Latin with colour pictures for Yazidi schools in the villages. These books will be more educational and understandable for children. Isabel Broyan expressed regret that, in higher education institutions (institutes) there are no quotas for training representatives of national minorities (Yazidis). And those representatives of the Yazidi youth who entered the institutes after graduating from higher education, cant find a job. This circumstance also leads to the flow of immigration of the Yazidi population from Armenia.

Iuri Smoev

Translated by David Babaev