Armenia hosts the world’s largest Yazidi temple and a growing network of shrines and community halls that serve the country’s 31,000‑strong Yazidi minority. This article surveys the major structures, their history, architecture, and cultural significance.
The forced Arabization policies of Iraq’s Ba’ath regime created a legacy of contested land ownership that exploded after 2003. Post‑invasion return, legal gaps, and ongoing seizures continue to fuel disputes, especially in Kurdish‑majority areas such as Kirkuk and Yazidi homelands.
Yazidi Mîrs serve as both religious heads and political representatives, linking the Supreme Yazidi Spiritual Council with diaspora communities throughout Europe. Through official visits, self‑help networks, and collaboration with NGOs, they coordinate humanitarian aid, dispute resolution, and cultural preservation for displaced Yazidis.
The absence of effective administrative authority—known as a governance vacuum—has profoundly shaped Yazidi return migration and resettlement after the 2014‑2017 conflict. Drawing on IOM displacement reports and the Clingendael analysis of Nineveh Plains, this article explains how institutional gaps affect decisions, settlement choices, and long‑term community recovery.
During the Ottoman period (16th–19th c.) Yazidis erected a distinctive network of shrines, mausoleums and later mosque‑type structures that combined indigenous ritual needs with imperial patronage. This article surveys their forms, functions, and the scholarly debates surrounding them.
Yazidi writing has evolved from early Arabic‑script transcriptions to modern Latin and Cyrillic orthographies, culminating in a Unicode proposal in the 2010s. This article traces the historical milestones, scholarly debates, and regional variations that shaped the scriptic landscape of the Yazidi community.
The Ottoman, Safavid, and European colonial powers pursued a series of policies aimed at converting the Yazidi minority from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. These efforts combined military conscription, legal pressure, and missionary activity, often framed as attempts to tame ‘heretical’ communities.
Yazidi festivals are celebrated differently across regions. In Sinjar, communal rituals revolve around sacred sites like Lalish, while Sheikhan emphasizes local shrines and the Jama Festival. The diaspora adapts these rites to new contexts, preserving core elements through virtual gatherings and community centers.
The Yazidi calendar is a lunisolar system that runs parallel to the Gregorian year. This article explains the principles behind its conversion, outlines the computational steps, and provides practical tools for scholars who need precise Gregorian equivalents for Yazidi dates.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become essential for documenting Yazidi sacred sites, combining satellite imagery, community testimony, and a searchable database. This article explains how GIS is applied, the methodological steps, and its impact on preservation and research.