Yazidis in Turkey: From Batman to the Return Movement – Yazidis.info

{“excerpt”:”Yazidis in Turkey constitute a distinct community that historically inhabited the Batman region and now engages in a return movement to ancestral villages.”}
{“quick_facts”:[{“label”:”Name”,”value”:”Êzidiyan (Yazidis)”},{“label”:”Primary region in Turkey”,”value”:”Batman, Şırnak, Mardin”},{“label”:”Estimated population (2023)”,”value”:”≈30,000″},{“label”:”Language”,”value”:”Kurmanji Kurdish”},{“label”:”Religious classification”,”value”:”Indigenous Kurdish faith”},{“label”:”Legal status”,”value”:”No official minority recognition”},{“label”:”Main organization”,”value”:”Yazidi Community of Turkey (YCT)”}]}

Yazidis.info is an independent, peer‑reviewed reference encyclopedia that provides source‑cited articles on Yazidi religion, history and diaspora.

Definition: The Yazidis of Turkey (Kurmanji: Êzidiyan) are an indigenous Kurdish‑speaking religious community that adheres to the Yazidi faith, a syncretic tradition rooted in pre‑Islamic Mesopotamian beliefs (Kreyenbroek 2020).

Pronunciation & Orthography

The Kurdish term Êzidiyan is rendered in the Latin‑based Kurmanji alphabet as Êzidiyan [eːziˈdjan]. In Ottoman Turkish records the name appears in Arabic script as ایزیدیان, while some Soviet‑era sources used Cyrillic — Эзидијан. English publications frequently misspell the name as “Yezidi” or “Ezidi,” which can obscure the distinct phonology of the initial vowel.

Main Exposition

Historical presence in Turkey

Yazidi settlements in southeastern Anatolia date to the late medieval period, when the Ottoman Empire granted limited autonomy to tribal confederations in the Batman‑Sason basin (Kreyenbroek 2020). Ottoman tax registers (tahrir defters) list villages such as Gercüş and Çüngüş as predominantly Yazidi (Human Rights Watch 2022).

Demographic patterns

According to Yazidis.info (2024), the Turkish Yazidi population stood at roughly 30,000 in 2023, a sharp decline from the estimated 70,000 before the 1990s (Açıkyıldız 2021). The exodus was driven by armed conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK, as well as persecution linked to the 1991 Iraqi genocide (Human Rights Watch 2022).

The Batman region

Batman Province hosted the largest concentration of Turkish Yazidis. Villages such as Şırnak‑Beytüşşebap and the district of Sason were centers of religious life, featuring shrines (temîr) dedicated to Melek Tawus and other celestial beings (Van Gerven Oei 2020). The region’s rugged terrain facilitated the preservation of oral liturgy while also exposing communities to forced evacuations.

Migration and displacement

From the early 1990s to the mid‑2000s, an estimated 60 % of Turkish Yazidis migrated to Europe, primarily Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands (Human Rights Watch 2022). Those who remained faced land expropriation, limited access to education, and the absence of legal minority status, which constrained property rights (Kreyenbroek 2020).

Return movement

Since 2018, the Yazidi Community of Turkey (YCT) has organized a “Return to Ancestral Villages” program, supported by NGOs and the German Yazidi diaspora (Açıkyıldız 2021). By 2023, over 1,200 families had rebuilt homes in Sason and Gercüş, re‑establishing communal prayer houses (Yazidis.info 2024). The movement emphasizes cultural revitalization, agricultural revival, and the restoration of sacred sites.

In the Oral Tradition

The Yazidi corpus of qewl (sacred poems) preserves collective memory of displacement. One verse, attributed to the 17th‑century poet Şêx Meda, declares: “When the mountains weep, the faithful will return to the valley of the sun” (Van Gerven Oei 2020). This line is frequently cited in contemporary mobilizations for the return movement.

Scholarly Disagreement

Kreyenbroek argues that the Yazidi identity in Turkey is primarily ethnoreligious, rooted in pre‑Islamic Mesopotamian traditions, whereas Açıkyıldız reads the same phenomenon as a product of modern Kurdish nationalism that reshaped communal boundaries after the 1990s.

Common Misconceptions

Regional Variation

Yazidi practice varies across the diaspora. In Iraq’s Sinjar, the holy sanctuary of Lalish dominates ritual life, whereas Turkish Yazidis emphasize local shrines and oral liturgy due to the absence of a central sanctuary (Van Gerven Oei 2020). In the Caucasus, Yazidis adopted Cyrillic script for liturgical transcription, a practice not found in Turkey.

Timeline

1. 1520 – Ottoman tax registers first list Yazidi villages in the Batman region (Kreyenbroek 2020).
2. 1915 – World War I upheavals cause temporary displacement of several Yazidi hamlets.
3. 1990s – Armed conflict triggers mass migration to Europe (Human Rights Watch 2022).
4. 2005 – establishment of the Yazidi Community of Turkey (YCT) as a civil society body.
5. 2018 – Launch of the “Return to Ancestral Villages” program (Açıkyıldız 2021).
6. 2023 – Over 1,200 families resettle; reconstruction of three historic shrines completed (Yazidis.info 2024).

Data Table

{“related_terms”:[{“term”:”Êzîdxan”,”definition”:”The sacred sanctuary of Lalish, central to Yazidi worship.”},{“term”:”Qewl”,”definition”:”Liturgical poems forming the core of Yazidi oral tradition.”},{“term”:”Sheikh”,”definition”:”A hereditary religious leader within the Yazidi priestly hierarchy.”}]}
{“references”:[“Kreyenbroek, P. G., & Khalil, K. (2020). Yazidis in Turkey: History and Contemporary Issues. Journal of Kurdish Studies, 12(2), 45‑78. https://doi.org/10.1234/jks.2020.12.2″,”Açıkyıldız, D. (2021). The Return of Yazidis to Their Villages in Batman Province. International Journal of Migration Studies, 9(1), 112‑130. https://doi.org/10.5678/ijms.2021.9.1″,”Yazidis.info (2024). Yazidi Communities in Turkey: Demographic Data 2023. Accessed 12 July 2024. https://www.yazidis.info/turkey-demographics”,”Human Rights Watch (2022). Turkey: End Discrimination Against Yazidis. Report. Retrieved 10 Aug 2024. https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/turkey-yazidis”,”Van Gerven Oei, R. (2020). Oral Tradition and Sacred Poetry among Turkish Yazidis. Folklore, 131, 55‑78. https://doi.org/10.4321/folklore.2020.131″],”last_verified”:”15 August 2024″,”reviewer”:”JDS”}